Dry spells, and bad luck.

John Y Cannuck

John Y Cannuck

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My father went more than 20 years hunting, before he shot his first deer. A friend, who is an excellent hunter, with many deer to his credit, once went ten years.
at the same camp, during the same period, I shot deer most every year, sometimes more than one.
Worst dry spell I've had was during the 1970's the so called 'no deer years' when I went around 3 or 4 years.

How about you? Had a dry spell?
Is it luck, perseverance, experience, or skill that gets your game on the table?

For me, I think it's 80% perseverance the rest, maybe experience now, back then, probably luck.
 
Since 1958, I have had 3 dry years, but no dry spells. Pretty fortunate, I guess. :)

I had a friend who suffered through a 5 year drought, though.

Regards, Dave.
 
20 dry years when others are getting game in the same area you have to ask a few questions as to why. I had a couple of dry years when I was a young lad but other than that I have put a tag on something every year for the last four decades. Some years I had to spend much more time than others but persistence eventually yielded success. It also taught me about what I was doing wrong and when I figured that out usually things got better.

A big thumbs up for your dad on trying that long. I doubt I would have that degree of patience.
 
Nothing since 2010 here. This past season, I saw quite a few - either out of range or fleeting. One particularly stupid and frustrating event: I was heading back to my truck, walking along the right side of a cut bean field. The truck is just over a knoll ahead of me, about 150 feet away, where the woods to my right disappear, doubling the size of the aforementioned field. SNORT!!! ...about 10 feet ahead of me and 15 feet into the woods. It is such an obnoxious, insulting noise.
 
Sometimes the eyes your gifted with can make a difference between one hunter or another.
My dad had fur eyes.
My one hunting buddy knows where the fur is going to be even before the fur decided to be there.
I've lernt to slow down.............way down.
Ole pah use to say, "don't look up them trees, they ain't there".
 
Lots of luck and personal circumstances involved in hunting success. My father got a moose every year for decades before we started hunting together and then we had some success before some dry years, but there were a lot of circumstances that contributed to the lack of success. First, the world got warmer and the rut became later .... I had to book my vacation time a year in advance and had no flexibility to change it later, if the weather stayed too warm. We took our best guess at when the rut should be based on my Dad's years of experience, but the weather was too warm the last few years we hunted moose. Second, it was several days of driving up north and back that cut into my allotted vacation time. As for booking a later vacation, my Dad's experiences were that the weather could turn much snowier and iceier very quickly which was dangerous for our non-4x4 and could ice up the river where we used our inflatable boats to access hunting areas. So, we had years where we couldn't time the rut and weather properly.

My non-hunting friends always asked why a mutual friend could get a deer every year and I tried to explain that he lived where he hunted and went out every single weekend rather than picking a couple weeks the year ahead and hoping to time it right. If we flew into a high lake somewhere, the weather didn't matter, but that was too expensive to do every year.
 
I've gotten blanked a couple years over the past 40 years... usually because I was being picky.

I know a pretty good hunter, who hunts hard and hunts with a group of experienced hunters, but he managed to go almost 20 years without being the one to pull the trigger... he finally shot a moose 10 years ago, and since then he has shot most of the moose and deer the group has gotten... he shot eight of nine deer last fall, including two really dandy bucks and also got a 50" bull. He is doing what he always did, hasn't changed anything, but the pendulum swung big time for him personally.
 
this year 70 to 80 degrees on second week of deer in our wmu,same as first week, deer just were'nt moving,got one only because a quad spooked it, 3 weeks later temp dropped deer all over the place,. its the weather.
 
Took me 4 years to shoot my first deer (a big doe being chased by beagles) this year I hunted on my own on a new property. Put apples out the Friday before rifle season lots of camera action. Was at the right spot at the right time (luck?) Got my first buck on the Tuesday (12 pointer) let's see if I get a dry spell next year as I plan on letting a friend shoot first next year.
 
My neighbor and hunting buddy at the camp gets his deer every year without fail, about the most determined hunter I have seen with an impressive track record.

3 years ago he broke a large mirror in his house that had an image of a buck on it. I told him "7 years till you shoot another" as a joke.

Last year he never saw a tail.

This year he saw only one in the last week, fired and missed.
 
There were a lot of dry spells when I was younger, mostly because my brothers and I hunted on our own and we didn't know what we were doing and had no one to show us. Things have improved to the point where I might get skunked some seasons ( like last ) but the drought never lasts more than one season. My biggest dry spell has been trying to get a bull tag in Ontario's fubar moose lottery.
 
Took 4 years to shoot my first deer and 6 for my first buck. Been close to missing out but have managed a deer every year since. Many have been at the 11th hour so I guess I've been very lucky. Been skunked entirely on moose though and had some years where the only bears coming in need mom with them but it's all time in the bush.
 
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