how do you guys do it?
ive been shooting a bow an arrow of some sort since i was about 5 years old. started with a little yellow longbow and suction cup arrows. the last couple years ive gotten back into it. went out and bought a parker legend ep compound and the whole get up. im not the greatest shot in the world but at 40yds im confident i can make a good kill shot on a deer. ive been laid off since the beghinning of september this year. been out trying my luck since mid-late september and today i think im calling it quits. at least for this year. saw 2 deer i could have taken a shot at and didnt. one was a doe that looked to be this years fawn. the other was a nice buck buck that was about 40yds away but there was a bit of brush in the way and i was comfortable with the shot. that was in early october. about 2 weeks ago now i moved my treestand and the second day in it i saw a small herd of deer(probly 4-6 deer) about 125 yards off. waited a few days and moved my stand over some. this is now up on top a pretty goodsized hill. it was about 25 degrees here this morning when i started trekking up to my stand. being a good walk i only put on a layer of thermal bottems and pants and 2 thermal tops and carried my coveralls and jacket in a backpack. i get on top of the hill by my stand and im sweating pretty good.. and i was not rushing in the slightest. I started climbing the tree (it was a decent sized hickery) the bark wasnt flaking to bad at all so i went on up. i didnt realize hickery bark was so damn hard. the teeth on my climbing treestand were only sinking in mabye 1/4 inch. i goot up about 15 ft and said ---- this and got down. if i wouldnt have been sweating i would have just sat down under a pine tree but with my hair soaked i figured no way so i came home. how do you deal limiting yourself to a 40yd shot max? if id have had a rifle or shotgun id have taken a shot at the buck. jusst seems like you limit yourself so much archery hunting at least for me it almost makes it all but impossible. though all add this is all on heavily hunted state land so the deer are spooky as hell to begin with. sorry for the rant. but this is so frustraiting to me. thanks for listening.
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I don't think of it as limiting. I like the challenge of trying to get close. Thats what its all about for me. This is the worst year I've ever had due to all the corn still in and the weather. but I wouldn't give up bow huntin for a gun. Guns just to easy. 0 -
everyone says this is about the worst year they can remeber as well. every hunter ive stopped and talked to has had very poor luck. i think the deer are mabye just now beginning to move around. up untill the frosts killed al the greenery off for the winter there was so much feed in the forests the deer could get all the food they needed in their bedding areas. the amount of acorns this year is unbelievable. 0 -
Well I guess it makes me feel better that i'm not alone. [:D] 1 of my spots I hunt still have several hundred acres of corn standing and we've had rain after rain after rain. So yeah no need for them to get up and go anywhere really. 0 -
I've been praying to the farmer gods to cut their crop fields on our property. All you can see in the field is corn, corn, and more corn haha. I have seen 3 different bucks only one was a real definate shooter and about 6 doe this year. Not what I expected for this year... 0 -
im geting to the point where im thinking of just taking a shot at any deer i see. theres no requirment for size here in CT does are fair game. there are big bucks here i have seen them in the past. just not anything this year. im done hunting and fishing in this state after this year anyway as the state has doubled all liscences and fees across the board. so ill be damned if ill give them any more money then they already take in taxes. Ill have to go out of state now.[V] 0 -
This has been one of the weirdest I can remember. Crops still in the field in Dec. The river bottom I hunt has flooded all but one of my stands twice. But, somehow I have managed to shoot 3 with a bow and one with a gun.
One of the places I hunt has winter wheat. My buddy spent over 20 hours their the weekend before Thanksgiving and finally shot the only deer he had seen on Sun. morning. There is just too much food out there for them to eat that they don't even care about fresh greens.
For years I used bow hunting for scouting for our firearm season. This year I have been on the does pretty good though.
Keep at it. If nothing else it beats watching tv.0 -
not really for me any more. ive been sitting in my tree stand so fricking long i swear my a$$ is going to get bedsores. i find myself looking at the time and thinking. good its 3:00 2 more hours and its dark and i get to go home. im thinking of just quitting and taking my dogs for walks instead. 0 -
its been like this all year though. theres this place ive been catfishing at since i was a little kid(im now 27). usually in early-mid april up untill mid may im catching them like crazy. fill up a 5 cal bucket in one night. this past spring i think i caught a total of mabe 10 fish. caught 1 trout. im not a wolrd class fisherman by any means but ive never had such foul luck in everything i do outside. 0 -
Don't give up. I shot (rifle) at my 1st elk at age 16 and missed. I didn't even take the safety off for the next 6 years. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by elkoholic
Don't give up. I shot (rifle) at my 1st elk at age 16 and missed. I didn't even take the safety off for the next 6 years.
+1 man. It will come together for ya, perserverance always pays off..............eventually[:)] my uncle went 13 years without even seeing an elk yet kept goin hes been in the middle of the elk every year for the last 6.
Dont get down man it will work out for ya ten fold...............eventually[:)]0 -
im not giving up totally. i dont think. im just sick of it. been hunting in this state all told for probly 10 years. never got anything in this state. seen more deer this year then ever befor and only could have gotten a shot at 2 of em. connecticut sucks. 0 -
Josh, if you want to hunt an area where the deer population is dense, try southeast Ohio. Assuming you are willing to travel, and pay the non-resident tag fee.
The deer are thick as thieves! One of the nearby towns is named Deersville, if that tells you anything.[:D]
I didn't tag out this year because I was being waaay to picky, and the bruiser I was hunting snookered me 3 times. I passed on at least 15 shots at some really nice bucks, but that big ole boy was the one I wanted.
Each year in that area I will see between 30-50 bucks, in a 5 day period.
Once we tag out, we turn to coyotes, since they are pretty thick too. So if you ever decide to make the trip, remember to throw a rifle in with your gear. There is plenty of state owned areas to hunt, so access is not an issue.
Just a thought, and maybe rekindle your interest.0 -
rifle hunting im definatly not giving up on. i just dont sem to be able to get close enough for bow hunting. and connecticut is a shotgun only state unless you own 10 acres of your own property. and land here is bloody expensive. my best friends parents bought a 1 acre wooded lot to build a house on and paid 32 grand for it. 0 -
Don't feel bad, Josh. I've bowhunted elk for 8 out of 10 years, spot and stalk mostly. Frustratingly, I've yet to take a bull. But it's been a great ride that in no way I'd give up. You get to see more than your game in the woods - other critters, their behaviors, and the scenery. The worst was connecting with a decent bull and then losing him to a single lung shot due to poor penetration. That was my low point, but I stuck with it. Seeing game up close, calling to it, having to better learn the habits of your game to get close is all part of the archery experience. It can be frustrating not to harvest, but there are alot of perks along the way. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Fly Doctor
Seeing game up close, calling to it, having to better learn the habits of your game to get close is all part of the archery experience. It can be frustrating not to harvest, but there are alot of perks along the way.
Couldn't have said it any better.0 -
ive never tried a spot and stalk. the woods are so thick here im not even sure its possible. ive stillhunted befor and gotten fairly close to deer. but they ususlly still see/hear me coming and my shot window is just a few seconds. this area im hunting it is weird too. havent seen much of any game animals. first place i set up where i saw the small doe, the second day there just after first light a couple turkeys passed through then an occasional squirrel but thats it. had a redtailed hawk come through once and the grey squirrels went nuts over that with their calling. a couple other areas ive tried ive walked in and sat down for a few hours and not seen or heard anything. not a squirrel not a chipmunk, not even a bird of any sort. its like the woods are dead.
im just gonna wait untill we get some snow on the ground. hopefully that happens befor the season ends. it snows and the deer will probly move around a bit more.0 -
quote:Originally posted by joshmb1982
its like the woods are dead.
I've heard a bunch of people say that this year. Sure is strange.
Not sure how much this applies to your situation but this story might help:
When I went through my big dry spell for elk I was freaking out. I almost quit going. The elk were there. When it snowed there tracks were everywhere but I was never in the right place at the right time. My approach was to do it just like my father taught me...sit on the big meadows and wait. All day every day if you had to. And this works if you have the time but I never did. I'd have 3-4 days at most then back to school. I eventually focused on 2 basic principles that over the years have resulted in a significantly higher kill rate than the average guy.
Principle 1: There is no single thing you can do to significantly increase your odds of success but there are many many little tiny things that you can do and each one increases the odds just a little. Enough of these over a long enough period of time equals more animals hanging in camp.
Principle 2: You have to maximize your shot opportunities by learning to take the 1st shot that you know you can make. You can't wait for the perfect textbook shot.
Once I started thinking like this I shot 5 elk, including 2 bulls, over a 6 year period. The significant part of this is that I only had 5 shot opportunities and only fired 6 rounds!!! I had to shoot one of the cows twice and both shots hit the heart.
Realize that my experience is almost exclusively rifle hunting but as I transition to archery these principles will be coming with me.
Do not give up. You will be a much better hunter when you come out the other end of this drought.0
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