My "unorthodox hunting" theory

[Snake]

OK, this is going to be a weird question, but something that has really been rattling around in my head for a couple of years. And it was brought to a head this year.

To set the stage, we've killed exactly 108 bucks off our property over 37 years. Ranking the bucks highest to lowest by rack score, every hunter who regularly hunts the property is represented all over the list. With one exception - the Top 10. They are all my kills. Now I would love to pat myself on the back and think, "Dang, I'm the MAN! I'm a great hunter!" However, the problem is that I'm not. In fact, the older I get the more I've turned into the laziest hunter in the group. I fidget in stand, I read books in stand, I send and read text messages, and I'm usually so bored after a few hours I'm out of my stand by 9 AM. I do not even come close to putting in the most hunting hours.

Now some might say, Well, because of what you do for a living and all your research on habitat/deer movement patterns, you understand how/when deer will move through." There is some truth to that, but more about that later. Someone could say, "You run the cameras so you have the most knowledge about how deer are using the property that year." True also, but before each hunt, I go over with all the hunters each of the "shooter" bucks and where they're being photographed and what I believe their travel patterns are. So every hunter knows where every shooter buck frequents. But here's the part that has produced my theory in question. What started about 10 or so years ago as a joke, has turned into a tradition, and that is, no matter how many hunters are in camp, I always choose the stand I'm going to hunt last. Before each hunt, all the hunters gather together and start choosing stands. No matter how much I'm pressured to choose early, I always wait until everybody else has chosen their stand, and then I choose mine. Quite often (almost always) other hunters have chosen the stands I had as my top priority stands. This forces me to choose something I didn't have on my list, so I often choose a truly unorthodox stand for the conditions. And that's where things started getting weird. Ever since I started choosing last, and often choosing unorthodox locations, the big bucks started piling up. Some of the kills are just "crazy wrong" for the timing and situation.

So that's where this "unorthodox hunting" theory started to develop in my head. Why am I killing the best buck on the property almost every year - and very quickly, usually in the first week of MZ - when I'm always choosing stands I didn't really want to hunt or have any confidence in? Could it be something to do with the fact I'm NOT hunting the obvious hotspots?

Has anyone experienced something similar? Does anyone actually use this as a type of hunting strategy? I could be totally wrong, and I could just be the luckiest hunter in the world, but luck doesn't keep coming around year after year after year. There is a pattern here and I'm trying to figure it out.

Could be God is blessing you for your unselfishness !! Never and I mean never count God out of an conclusion ! I know I know but I'm serious brother. It's happened to me as well brother . You definitely put more time into this property than anyone...right ? So it's deserving you benefit even though your giving up the best stands. Think on it brother .

 

[megalomaniac]

I hunt outside the box when I'm a guest on other properties. I'll hunt from roads, within sight of camp, in a little half acre block of woods pinched between a creek and a major 4 land highway, etc.

I usually don't kill anything, so perhaps my strategy doesn't work doing that.

On the other hand, both my bucks over 180 inches were killed doing just that. Both were the largest bucks ever taken on those 2 properties (and probably still are).

On my TN farms, I also hunt rather unorthodoxically. But its just the opposite. I hunt the most obvious areas where there are the most deer. And I've had three 4.5yo bucks in range so far just this year.

But the difference is pressure. The other properties as a guest are hunted hard all season long, while my own farms are left untouched until the rut.

 

[Bushape]

OK, this is going to be a weird question, but something that has really been rattling around in my head for a couple of years. And it was brought to a head this year.

To set the stage, we've killed exactly 108 bucks off our property over 37 years. Ranking the bucks highest to lowest by rack score, every hunter who regularly hunts the property is represented all over the list. With one exception - the Top 10. They are all my kills. Now I would love to pat myself on the back and think, "Dang, I'm the MAN! I'm a great hunter!" However, the problem is that I'm not. In fact, the older I get the more I've turned into the laziest hunter in the group. I fidget in stand, I read books in stand, I send and read text messages, and I'm usually so bored after a few hours I'm out of my stand by 9 AM. I do not even come close to putting in the most hunting hours.

Now some might say, Well, because of what you do for a living and all your research on habitat/deer movement patterns, you understand how/when deer will move through." There is some truth to that, but more about that later. Someone could say, "You run the cameras so you have the most knowledge about how deer are using the property that year." True also, but before each hunt, I go over with all the hunters each of the "shooter" bucks and where they're being photographed and what I believe their travel patterns are. So every hunter knows where every shooter buck frequents. But here's the part that has produced my theory in question. What started about 10 or so years ago as a joke, has turned into a tradition, and that is, no matter how many hunters are in camp, I always choose the stand I'm going to hunt last. Before each hunt, all the hunters gather together and start choosing stands. No matter how much I'm pressured to choose early, I always wait until everybody else has chosen their stand, and then I choose mine. Quite often (almost always) other hunters have chosen the stands I had as my top priority stands. This forces me to choose something I didn't have on my list, so I often choose a truly unorthodox stand for the conditions. And that's where things started getting weird. Ever since I started choosing last, and often choosing unorthodox locations, the big bucks started piling up. Some of the kills are just "crazy wrong" for the timing and situation.

So that's where this "unorthodox hunting" theory started to develop in my head. Why am I killing the best buck on the property almost every year - and very quickly, usually in the first week of MZ - when I'm always choosing stands I didn't really want to hunt or have any confidence in? Could it be something to do with the fact I'm NOT hunting the obvious hotspots?

Has anyone experienced something similar? Does anyone actually use this as a type of hunting strategy? I could be totally wrong, and I could just be the luckiest hunter in the world, but luck doesn't keep coming around year after year after year. There is a pattern here and I'm trying to figure it out.

Not trying to be insulting but I find it hard to believe that your data doesn't suggest some rhyme or reason as to why you are experiencing this.
How deep into the season were you when these 10 bucks were killed? How many times had those stands been hunted prior? Were these ladder stands? Shooting houses? I'd really like to know what variables your data can be used to rule out, as in none of the bucks were killed with a S wind, or none killed in dry years, etc. I always appreciate your posts.

 

[hbg1]

When you say unorthodox, what way do you mean this? That could take many shapes; not a travel route, a location close to a road or camp site, or marginal wind direction just to name a few.

I have a only a few trees I hunt multiple times even on property I've lived on. I scout and hunt, it doesn't matter how many years I have had access on the farm I'm hunting, I constantly scout. This method often puts me in strange places.

I will say this, most of my really big deer if they are alone; I am almost always in a situation with a marginal wind for that spot. I've just learned over the years how to move 20 or so yards to skirt my scent just past the deer. Most of the big deer are traveling with the wind blowing across the front of their face in these scenarios which puts me on the verge of being smelled but I'm always on the downwind side of the travel route by a hair. For this reason I like about a 4-5 mph wind that's fairly steady. And this is the main reason I always pack in and pack out my climbing set up. I will sometimes hunt the same area quite a few times until I kill the deer that's using that area but many times I can see every tree I've sat in and sometimes they are just 30-50 yards depending upon the wind that day.

So I would say in most cases I'm in an unorthodox location for wind directions in many cases.

Do you think this holds true for properties with minimal hunting pressure?

 

[Omega]

There are many areas where hunting is not allowed, and of course when it's off season that deer are less skittish of us, sometimes letting us get close to them, within reason. But as soon as you pay more attention to them, they bound off. I don't have any scientific data to back this up, but when I was going through a course, they taught us sentry takedown, and one of the things they cautioned against was not staring at your target, but to use your peripheral vision because animals (we are one) have a sense that they are being watched/hunted. Ever have the hair on the back of your neck stand on end? That is our unconscious mind warning us to something it picked up on that our conscious mind did not. Maybe deer you have been taking were because you were not "actively" hunting?

 

[Tn_Va_Hunter]

Seriously. Your scent is a known to them. You're all over the place. But you have a pattern and a job to do. So what I think I'm seeing here is, your buddies need do take baths and walk to their spot in their crocks. A

 

[UTGrad]

Maybe the one defining hot spots and low probability spots is wrong when defining such stands lol