What has made you a better hunter?

I was one of those proponents of cells cams. They've helped me out quite a bit on public these past 5-6 seasons (or so I thought). I usually have about 40 sits every year because I can make my own schedule. Well this year saw a job change and I only got 5 sits all year and killed only one deer. And guess what, the cell cams did NOTHING to help me. I realized the reason I was always on the deer in previous seasons was cuz I was constantly in the woods observing, scouting and shifting with the deer. Now I will still run the cams next season, but I have down graded them in my list of priorities thats for sure. Very interesting lesson for me.
 
i've had deer come in straight upwind to me, and stand in the wet leaves where i'd recycled iced tea, sniffing and looking around. had one young buck bed down like he was waiting, scared him off when i climbed down.
 
1. Hunting high
2. stop relying on tricks so much - such as scent control, scent products, etc. and rely on scouting and woodsmanship more
3. Sitting longer
4. During the heat of the rut - Paying less attention deer sign and more attention to terrain features
 
DMD said:
4. During the heat of the rut - Paying less attention deer sign and more attention to terrain features
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This is a biggy. All of our stands are pre-positioned before the season. They are place along favorable terrain features. Now often, the exact place we choose is a location that has displayed a lot of buck sign in previous years, but there is no telling which areas will have the best buck sign in a given year. But the buck sign has appeared there in the past because it is a favorable terrain feature for buck movement! During the rut-month of November, we are going to hunt those locations buck sign or not, although I will admit I will lean towards those stands near hot buck sign. The biggest caveat is food sources that year. We find one set of terrain features will be hot in a good acorn year, but another set in an acorn-failure year. So whether or not there are acorns that year will determine how we set up our stands and which will get hunted most.
 
1. Being picky with what I shoot. I've got friends that complain about not having any big deer but shoot the first decent deer they see because of the "if I didn't shoot him the neighbor would" theory. I've never gave into that theory. I'm not going to shoot a deer just because I'm scared the neighbor will. I'm only going to shoot it if I'm going to be happy with it. If the neighbor will be happy with it but it isn't up to my standard then I'm going to be fine if the neighbor shoots it. Sticking to my standards has given me a chance to watch more deer and learn their behaviors. More often than not I end up not killing a buck during the season but it's not for a lack of sightings. I usually get one or 2 chances at a deer I'm after and sometimes it just doesn't work out. I'm fine with it.

2. Paying more attention to how I access or leave a stand location before or after a hunt. Use Terrain/ wind to your advantage. My goal at the end of a hunt is for the deer to have not idea that I've been there. I absolutely HATE bumping deer walking to or from the stand. A lot of times all it takes is one nanny doe seeing you climb up or down your stand and she's going to be looking for you everytime she comes through from that point on.

3. Paying attention to the wind. Not just while you are on stand but also as you are accessing your stand location. A lot of times I will walk way out of the way to get to my stand depending on what way the wind is blowing. Unless it's the middle of the rut there will also be days that I absolutely will not hunt a stand based on wind. I've learned it's more about the quality of sits than it is the quantity of sits.
 
Bass1090 said:
Curious as to what one or five things you think has made you a better hunter.

For me-
1. Hunting high. At 56 I have been hunting a little lower though
2. Minimal movement, when I do move around I try to do it slow and try to have a back drop
3. Hunting edges- edge of a thicket, edge of a creek, edge of a field/wood line, edge of a road bed or firebreak, etc
4. Watching deer behavior. I used to be brown it's down and I don't have a problem with anyone that does that, to each his/her own. But for me personally, when I stopped killing as many I started having opportunities to kill more.
5. All day sits when possible
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Patience
 

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