When to quit?

[jtevanMT]

If you don’t enjoy hunting then quit. If you enjoy hunting and the pursuit then keep doing it and learn different areas and tactics that lead to better success or enjoyment. Personally, I hate hunting from a stand. I much prefer still hunting or spot and stalk (whitetail, mule deer, elk or bear). Of course, I am also a Western hunter with lots of public land to chase animals. Might not be as easy to spot and stalk or still hunt in other states.

 

[PMcGee]

It works. I dont TRUST it. For me, that's important.

The archery season is over for all intents and purposes. It ends Friday. If I want to kill something with a bow, I have to pay for it.

I get a short window after Christmas where I might get a sit or two in. Like a 10 day season but the focus is already on October 25 for the most part.

You can hunt with your bow in rifle season just have to wear orange.


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[Jpsmith1]

You can hunt with your bow in rifle season just have to wear orange.


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Given my history as described in this thread, why would I do something to additionally limit my opportunities or abilities to take game?

I'm aware that I can hunt with a bow in gun season. I can also use a gun which is a lot more effective.

 

[PMcGee]

Well the only way you’re going to get better killing animals with your bow is killing animals with your bow. Leave the rifle at home if you truly want to get better with your bow.


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[fatlander]

Given my history as described in this thread, why would I do something to additionally limit my opportunities or abilities to take game?

I'm aware that I can hunt with a bow in gun season. I can also use a gun which is a lot more effective.

If you learn how to consistently kill deer with a bow, especially during rifle season, you’ll be deadlier than CWD with a rifle in your hand.

Bow hunting is a game of inches. Rifle hunting is game of hundreds of yards. I believe it was Fred Bear who said, “Most rifle hunts end where a bow hunt begins.”


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[fatlander]

the focus is already on October 25 for the most part.

FWIW I think October is a really tough time to kill whitetails compared to November, and even December/January if you can leave them alone and you’ve got quality food sources.

During October, there’s still a medley of food sources, making it hard to pin down where they’re going every day. A bumper crop of mast makes that much much harder. During October it’s also hot, and they’ve got their winter clothes on. Deer in general don’t move much before last night, mature bucks even less so. Hunting in the mornings before October 25 is about pointless in my experience, deer are generally already back to bed. Unless you really know what you’re doing and hunt fronts accordingly, hunting before October 25 does more harm than good in my overwhelming experience.

Halloween to Thanksgiving is the time to get after it. Late season with unpressured deer, cold temps, and quality food can make for good afternoon sits.


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[Jpsmith1]

FWIW I think October is a really tough time to kill whitetails compared to November, and even December/January if you can leave them alone and you’ve got quality food sources.

During October, there’s still a medley of food sources, making it hard to pin down where they’re going every day. A bumper crop of mast makes that much much harder. During October it’s also hot, and they’ve got their winter clothes on. Deer in general don’t move much before last night, mature bucks even less so. Hunting in the mornings before October 25 is about pointless in my experience, deer are generally already back to bed. Unless you really know what you’re doing and hunt fronts accordingly, hunting before October 25 does more harm than good in my overwhelming experience.

Halloween to Thanksgiving is the time to get after it. Late season with unpressured deer, cold temps, and quality food can make for good afternoon sits.


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I meant October of 2025, our season starts first Saturday of October.

For does, I've had the most success the first weeks of October, before the young bucks start hassling them, when they're still coming out of cover and hitting acorns. Anecdotally here. I am not logging my sightings with detailed records or anything.

Once mid-later October hits, everything goes to rat$hi!t for me until some love starved buck wanders by. For several years running prior to this year, I take the last week of October and into November off work to hunt and put as many hours as physically possible in a stand but sightings are generally sparse during that time period for me.

I think pressure is much higher on the property I'm hunting during the gun season. I'm trying to figure out how to play off of that pressure and catch one running away.

 

[fatlander]

I meant October of 2025, our season starts first Saturday of October.

For does, I've had the most success the first weeks of October, before the young bucks start hassling them, when they're still coming out of cover and hitting acorns. Anecdotally here. I am not logging my sightings with detailed records or anything.

Once mid-later October hits, everything goes to rat$hi!t for me until some love starved buck wanders by. For several years running prior to this year, I take the last week of October and into November off work to hunt and put as many hours as physically possible in a stand but sightings are generally sparse during that time period for me.

I think pressure is much higher on the property I'm hunting during the gun season. I'm trying to figure out how to play off of that pressure and catch one running away.

I know you meant October of 2025. It’s just coincidence that my experience of hunting before October 25th of any given year is tough. I can go way off to the side somewhere to shoot does with regularity before October 25, but I don’t even bother trying to hunt mature bucks until Halloween.

It’s hard for most of us to accept this, but the guy in the mirror is why you’re not seeing deer. And he’s definitely the reason deer sightings go down with every subsequent hunt in a specific area. We’ll often use the excuse “I’ve got to get in there before someone else does” or “there’s so much pressure” to hunt somewhere we shouldn’t given the conditions. The real reason you’re not seeing deer is you. You’re either hunting the same spots too much with bad entry/exit/wind, and/or you’re hunting places everyone else hunts too.


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[bowkill]

Anecdotally here. I am not logging my sightings with detailed records or anything.

Maybe you should be logging your sightings with detailed records. You've already admitted that you didn't realized the success you've actually had until someone pointed it out. Maybe if you actually put it down on paper, you would gain some confidence and help to get out of your own way!
Also, you've said several times that your not a trophy hunter and complained about lack of opportunities, but then you said you had several does that came by with no mention of trying to get a shot! You can't have it both ways. Either you're a meat hunter looking for opportunities or your a trophy hunter holding out for the big one! Shoot enough of those does and the chance at a buck will come!

 

[Jpsmith1]

I know you meant October of 2025. It’s just coincidence that my experience of hunting before October 25th of any given year is tough. I can go way off to the side somewhere to shoot does with regularity before October 25, but I don’t even bother trying to hunt mature bucks until Halloween.

It’s hard for most of us to accept this, but the guy in the mirror is why you’re not seeing deer. And he’s definitely the reason deer sightings go down with every subsequent hunt in a specific area. We’ll often use the excuse “I’ve got to get in there before someone else does” or “there’s so much pressure” to hunt somewhere we shouldn’t given the conditions. The real reason you’re not seeing deer is you. You’re either hunting the same spots too much with bad entry/exit/wind, and/or you’re hunting places everyone else hunts too.


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It isn't difficult for me at all to accept that I am the problem. I have been working to correct that and, in some ways have made progress. I have taken probably 3 major and a dozen more minor things that I need to work on in the off season and next bow season out of this conversation.

Maybe you should be logging your sightings with detailed records. You've already admitted that you didn't realized the success you've actually had until someone pointed it out. Maybe if you actually put it down on paper, you would gain some confidence and help to get out of your own way!
Also, you've said several times that your not a trophy hunter and complained about lack of opportunities, but then you said you had several does that came by with no mention of trying to get a shot! You can't have it both ways. Either you're a meat hunter looking for opportunities or your a trophy hunter holding out for the big one! Shoot enough of those does and the chance at a buck will come!

Maybe I do need to do that.

I'm not a "trophy" hunter in the sense that I don't care about any arbitrary standard of a trophy (inches of antler or number of points or whatever else) but I have been targeting a buck which is why I have passed on does.

The law says it has to have 3 point on one side. That's a far higher standard than I personally hold. A spike would be fine. A forked horn would be awesome. It's often painful to let them walk when I'd love to shoot one but the law says I can't.

So, maybe I AM a trophy hunter, just in a different way than most people think of it.

On Saturday, 3 does ran in and, before offering anything resembling an opportunity, scattered. I might have had trouble taking a shot with a rifle they were there and gone so fast. Later, 2 does, a mother and yearling came through alert and moving but not running i might have had a chance but I was waiting for what might have been following and wasn't.

Getting a buck, outsmarting, outwitting and ultimately killing a buck, ANY BUCK, BY MYSELF, has been a near all consuming effort for a while now.

 

[adamm88]

I have a note in my iphone of sits, years ago i did every sit, i missed a few years when lift was too busy, last year i did just deer sittings, THis year i did every sit, i try to put wind direction but 1/2 the time the direction either is different in the hills than predicted or switches 1/2 way through. I do go back when i get in a slump and read where i saw deer in past years.

Were i hunt in pa i dont see crap until October 20th time frame, and then i see deer.......I hunt the edges of state land that boarder ag so if there is corn that isnt cut that is close it screws my area up too.

 

[dr.mooseknuckles]

On Saturday, 3 does ran in and, before offering anything resembling an opportunity, scattered. I might have had trouble taking a shot with a rifle they were there and gone so fast. Later, 2 does, a mother and yearling came through alert and moving but not running i might have had a chance but I was waiting for what might have been following and wasn't.

Getting a buck, outsmarting, outwitting and ultimately killing a buck, ANY BUCK, BY MYSELF, has been a near all consuming effort for a while now.

After reading through 12 pages, I'd say that you just suck and have a defeatist attitude. You probably just smell bad too.

Kidding aside, you may want to re-evaluate everything you're doing from stand location and position, wind and thermals in those locations. Are you hunting private or public land? Public is challenging enough as it is. Are you hunting near thick cover or out in the open in the "pretty woods". Are your buck pictures at night, or during the day? Hard to kill Mr. Big at night legally. You gotta find where he's active in the day.

A dead doe often makes good bait, but would be more challenging to drop her right there when you're bow hunting. I have yet to kill a "trophy buck" with my bow and encounters that I've had make me think that a mature doe is the hardest thing to kill in the woods with a bow. Start stacking up the does as practice and you'll be less likely to miss when you get an opportunity with a bow.

I have no idea how many deer I've killed in the 28 years I've been hunting. Started shooting deer at age 9. I've lost count at 75 deer, think I'm around 100. Granted they've mostly been rifle and mostly on private. I'd say a good 80-90% of those deer have been does.

Travel to a different state. The adventure and exploration aspect may be more fun than actually hunting. You can DIY it too.

Good luck! I've been getting my butt kicked this season on Public in SC. Hurricane really messed up some of my spots and I've not had the scouting time in the last 6 weeks to get back on track.

 

[bowkill]

It isn't difficult for me at all to accept that I am the problem. I have been working to correct that and, in some ways have made progress. I have taken probably 3 major and a dozen more minor things that I need to work on in the off season and next bow season out of this conversation.

Maybe I do need to do that.

I'm not a "trophy" hunter in the sense that I don't care about any arbitrary standard of a trophy (inches of antler or number of points or whatever else) but I have been targeting a buck which is why I have passed on does.

The law says it has to have 3 point on one side. That's a far higher standard than I personally hold. A spike would be fine. A forked horn would be awesome. It's often painful to let them walk when I'd love to shoot one but the law says I can't.

So, maybe I AM a trophy hunter, just in a different way than most people think of it.

On Saturday, 3 does ran in and, before offering anything resembling an opportunity, scattered. I might have had trouble taking a shot with a rifle they were there and gone so fast. Later, 2 does, a mother and yearling came through alert and moving but not running i might have had a chance but I was waiting for what might have been following and wasn't.

Getting a buck, outsmarting, outwitting and ultimately killing a buck, ANY BUCK, BY MYSELF, has been a near all consuming effort for a while now.

I don't really understand what the difference is if you are fine with any buck and not worried about it being a "trophy". According to your logic, you would be way happier with a small spike buck rather than a large, adult doe. I don't understand why that makes such a difference to you. Do you think that you're accomplishing something more by shooting a stupid, young buck that you could probably walk right up to rather than shooting a wise, old, experienced doe that won't let you get away with anything? Do your buddies give you more credit because you shot some little dinker buck rather than shooting some fat, old doe? I'm just not really understanding why a buck, any buck, makes it so much more of an accomplishment.

 

[Jpsmith1]

I don't really understand what the difference is if you are fine with any buck and not worried about it being a "trophy". According to your logic, you would be way happier with a small spike buck rather than a large, adult doe. I don't understand why that makes such a difference to you. Do you think that you're accomplishing something more by shooting a stupid, young buck that you could probably walk right up to rather than shooting a wise, old, experienced doe that won't let you get away with anything? Do your buddies give you more credit because you shot some little dinker buck rather than shooting some fat, old doe? I'm just not really understanding why a buck, any buck, makes it so much more of an accomplishment.

I never claimed it was logical. Getting a buck has been something I've targeted for so long that it's become this completely irrational thing.

Ive even managed to minimize the one that I did shoot because someone else "did the work"

 

[Miguy]

Never

 

[Rob960]

JP, I see where you are coming from. I hunt Lehigh County and for many years I was getting Doe but never a buck. Changed location and started getting Buck. Missed last year due to being extremely anemic due to two GI bleeds. Got them fixed and then 10 weeks of iron infusions which took me right to the start of firearms. Didn't go out as I was still physically recovering. Amped up for this year but then I get thoughts to not due to the fact I am still not where I was at physically previous to the bleeds. But I figure, you know what, I always enjoyed being in the woods so have at it.

I say don't give up. Figure out what changes to make, pay attention to how your h7 t goes this year and if you need to adjust. Come back with your observations and get feedback.