triple_duece
Ragin Cajun.
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No shooters known in your area. . . What do you do?
- Thread starter hickslawns
- Start date
Clearly you have missed the point of this thread. Maybe I've missed my mark in what I was attempting. I was actually agreeing with your statement 95%. Hunt hard, hunt smart.
"I" have a plan. I'm not looking for sympathy. I certainly don't need compassion. If I eat a tag I don't care. If I shoot one I'll be thankful. I repeatedly said this was intended to create thought and hopefully assist someone who is sitting around scratching their head right now. Inspiration if you will. Get some ideas. Get inspired. Hit the woods.
Disregard my post. I'll refrain from now on. I thought with several lurkers recently joining and thanking the forum members for their input. . . Maybe more posts like this would help a guy or gal reading in the shadows. I guess that isn't what this forum is about anymore.
I agree with Phil on this one. He clearly "touched base" in agreement with Jesse's original statement. I read it as Jesse became a lil touchy. None of this is my point at all right now....My point is: Are we going to form ANOTHER "Lynch Mob" and run another member out? Don't like Phils post? Scroll on past.
I am not trying to take a side here.....Basicly saying WTF guys? There are 50 positives here or 50 negatives. Up to you how you see it. Just my .02 worth.
I am not trying to take a side here.....Basicly saying WTF guys? There are 50 positives here or 50 negatives. Up to you how you see it. Just my .02 worth.
Yeah this got weird. Clearly it the OP was misinterpreted by a couple people. In their defense, when I reread it, it seems a little out of touch IF you interpret it that way, compared to the guy who has a week or a few weekends to hunt, or a public land only hunter. Clearly not how it was intended. Tone is tough to assign without non verbal communication. There are some threads on here each year that feel this way. Lots of people laid into @BlueSpruceOutfitters last year for one before he connected on a nice buck. Thought he was complaining about the 100s of acres of private land he had to hunt. Circumstances are different for everyone and sometimes our circumstances can allow us to believe others are shadow boasting, especially when they say they aren’t.
BlueSpruceOutfitters
Junior Member
Hey. Didn't hurt my feelings none! Lol. I wish I had feelings still. Just deep seated alcohol problems. Anyways. Lol. I was thinking the same thing and as my buddy says, I always go into full blown panic mode by the first week of November. Then by the second I watch tons of mature deer run around. [emoji1787] I also don't have very many, if any, shooters on cam this year. The acorns and corn on the neighboring properties are willing out movement but, we have the does, and the bucks will come. At this point, I just really enjoy being in the woods seeing deer run around. Killing is a bonus. I'd drawn on a lot of deer this year just for fun an practice, and as funny as it sounds, it's all the fun without the mess. Good luck all your fellas! I'm sure you'll put one down soon!
Big_Holla
Senior Member
Damnit....start using emoticons and emoji's.....they help interpret your feelings!! 
Excellent points. Circumstances ARE different for everyone.
For a public land hunter, my plan would change. I would still find pinch points/funnels. Trail camera pictures probably wouldn't come into play. My strategies would vary a bit. Although the heavily pressured private grounds are similar: Hunt the other hunters. Find travel corridors in which the deer skirt other hunters.
@Cogz - I believe in person this doesn't happen. Keyboard interpretation changes things. If this were a podcast with half a dozen hunters being asked "what course of action would you take given these circumstances" it could be insightful and help new hunters. On this hunting forum I guess it doesn't work. Apparently hunting strategy content is looked down upon. I have admitted I have been very fortunate. I've also had shitty years. Both are learning years. Reading on forums helped me to learn a lot. My apologies if this got derailed. That wasn't my intention. It won't happen again. I'll (try to) keep to myself and read the memes and look at the pictures.
HEY-EVERYONEDamnit....start using emoticons and emoji's.....they help interpret your feelings!!
Shoot the mature 120 buck or have someone else take him out. If he is as old as you say, he may be the very reason that you aren't seeing the "shooter" bucks you are looking for. Those old uglies rule the roost due to body size even if they don't have the rack size to go along with their body.
Phil, The only problem I have with 'hunt strategy' discussions is that they use the same vernacular over and over again with no examples or context around what is being said. Also, recognizing what 'strategy' to use on which property/environment is never discussed. How can I hunt pinch points and doe bedding ares when corn is planted right up to the woodline and the deer are bedded out in the middle of the corn and don't move until after sunset? But the woodlot is actually just a mangled stand of tiny hardwoods that is thicker than the bush on a 70s porn star. Normally the deer would bed THERE....but not now.
So..."hunt pinch points and funnels near doe bedding areas." ...this is fine....but it doesn't do anything to help me identify those things and it doesn't give me examples of them on a map or any other media. Deer will sleep anywhere they feel safe. What distinguishes a doe bedding area from a buck bedding area? Without tromping through and seeing what runs out, how can one tell, or even find these things? Those terms are pretty much useless from a practical standpoint, to me.
So..."hunt pinch points and funnels near doe bedding areas." ...this is fine....but it doesn't do anything to help me identify those things and it doesn't give me examples of them on a map or any other media. Deer will sleep anywhere they feel safe. What distinguishes a doe bedding area from a buck bedding area? Without tromping through and seeing what runs out, how can one tell, or even find these things? Those terms are pretty much useless from a practical standpoint, to me.
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Oh blow it out you ass Phillys, you know damn well you started to get all sideways with jesses original response that answered your original question. You asked what someone does when they don't have a shooter in their area and he said.
"What do I do? I hunt smart. I hunt hard. Then I bitch like a Newsom twin when I come up short. Again.."
It was after that you got all snarkey and derailed your own thread.
There is a long standing joke here how bitching, whining, and complaining about not seeing deer eventually pays off into a nice buck. The newsome brothers did this every year but always seemed to kill a ton of good deer. Hence the reference.
As to your original question this is precisely the reason I quit running cams. I got tired of my expectations and enjoyment of hunting being directly tied to what I did and didn't have on cam. It alters a persons perception and IMO causes more harm than good when it comes to my personal enjoyment. I haven't ran cams in about 2 years and have found that I greatly enjoy my hunts now, waiting on the unknown and having the knowledge that anything could show up at any time.
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Some of the best advice I have taken in this year, hunting pressured public ground, came from a John Eberhart podcast. I hate to put this in quotes because this isn't directly what he said, but it's close: "Where would I go if the other hunters were trying to kill me?" Sort of along your point about hunting off other hunters. Go where they won't/don't. It's helped me locate some good bucks on public ground, and because the areas were seldom visited, trail cams were safely used.
This is where I'm at currently and I feel like I back to my old roots once again, hunting the way I used to.
In fact, my TCs are just collecting dust this season.
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I loved that quote from him. @Isaacorps and I actually talked about that over beers on Monday. It's a great way to get your mind in the game and think like a buck. It's easy to think like a hungry buck, or a horny one, but calculating all the factors that make for a safe place to lay down takes a different level of thought.
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I own about 10 of them and haven't put one out in a couple years. I once hunted a buck for three years that would have gone over 180. In those years I passed a LOT of damn nice bucks. To include a 156 on opening day right under my stand that was shot a couple weeks later and a BIG 8 that likely would have done 145. Just wasn't fun anymore and took all of the excitement out of hunting. Waiting on a ghost and judging my hunts by if i saw a particular deer or not.