Frustrated

mikeystew

mikeystew

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Beautiful BC
My first season hunting... Everyone else at the local club has their 2 on ice already, and I'm still getting skunked. I hunt near home like everyone else here as were on an island so ive been able to spend 3 hours a day or so for the past month looking for my deer. What blows is I got real sick for a week at the start of the rut and couldn't muster the energy to get out for a few days, and that was the sweeps week when everybody else bagged their deer.
I'm just getting sick of spending so much time in the woods without seeing anything. I know it's called hunting, not killing... But I'm starting to get the feeling I'm doing something wrong.
Top it all off, I get back tonight from another full day in the bush with nothing, to find a big buck in my front yard giving me the eye... Talk about discouraging.
End rant.
 
Give yourself credit for making the effort. It will be all the more rewarding when preparation meets opportunity. I know your frustation. I didn't see a single deer during our muzzle season, except back here at home.
 
Keep at it, the more time you spend out there the more you'll learn. You may be making small mistakes that gives you away that you simply aren't aware of. I have a couple of friends that hunted 3 seasons before getting thier first. I got my first on my second day hunting (luck). That was 2 years ago, I got skunked last year, and haven't got anything this year yet. But I keep observing and learning. I've found a few mistakes that I was making, such as driving partway down the laneway to my stand, then when I started walking, I was walking up wind from the bedding areas, walking in late in the morning, leaving before legal light ended, etc. Some of these things seemed minor at the time but I can see now how I was alerting the deer to my presence too many times. Keep at 'er and maybe hunt with someone more experienced who can help you fine tune your technique or maybe change locations, don't lose heart, your time will come.
 
sawatzky said:
Keep at it, the more time you spend out there the more you'll learn. You may be making small mistakes that gives you away that you simply aren't aware of. I have a couple of friends that hunted 3 seasons before getting thier first. I got my first on my second day hunting (luck). That was 2 years ago, I got skunked last year, and haven't got anything this year yet. But I keep observing and learning. I've found a few mistakes that I was making, such as driving partway down the laneway to my stand, then when I started walking, I was walking up wind from the bedding areas, walking in late in the morning, leaving before legal light ended, etc. Some of these things seemed minor at the time but I can see now how I was alerting the deer to my presence too many times. Keep at 'er and maybe hunt with someone more experienced who can help you fine tune your technique or maybe change locations, don't lose heart, your time will come.
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All these little things ring true... If you're not seeing anything then try another area. Don't get stuck on the same areas that 'should' hold animals, or that have old sign or sparse sign. These faults have limited my own chances in the past. Cover some ground, commit when you see enough sign to convince you that there's been something in the area in the last 24 hours - consider the first time through the area as the scouting trip. Note how the wind blows through at that particular time of day, the natural features of the area, where the animals would bed down if they was in the area... Hunt the mornings and the evenings. Hunt right until the last shootable light...

All these little things will add up to a more successful hunting experience, and the joy is knowing that you hunted an area well. Lastly, the most important thing: relax, have fun and enjoy your day outside... Success will come eventually, and the wait just makes it sweeter!

PS: pm me if you're on Vancouver Island...
 
All good points... What grinds my gears is our island Is absolutely saturated with deer. Most of it is off limits to hunting though, except on private land which I have access to about 80 acres of. It's not like anyone else here really has to even work for it. Literally two weeks into the season and about 6 people I know who hunt the private lands already have 2 deer each. And I see doe's and fawn now and then, and because it's full rut right now I figure I'd see a buck in the area at some point. We can only shoot bucks. But so far nothing... I still have about a month left in the season so it's not game over yet, but man, seeing bucks in my yard and on the roads all the time, but not in the bush that everyone tells me is where that get theirs every year... Frustrating.
 
Dude... let me explani frustration.... you see my avatar?... that is this year's deer... I took two weeks off to WORK to get it... I love being in my stands... getting one with nature... braving the elements... coming back to camp and having a big breakfast... instead, I shot him opening day an hour into the season..... and now I am sitting in the house doing zip (at least I get to do upland tommorow).... I envy you...
 
Don't worry, it can be just as frustrating on the bigger island, i see more deer in my yard when i leave to go hunting than i do when i'm hunting. Are you guys shotgun only over there?
 
I was in my 30s before I shot a white tail deer. Bought a tag every year but never seen even a doe let alone a buck.Slowly I figured out why I never seen any deer and got so I could almost get a buck every year. Then I moved to Quebec and it's a whole new ball game again.I have only seen one buck in 4 hunting seasons so far but lots of does.Takes time I have found.
 
Wind...pay attention to it, always. That's a mistake I see many new hunters make. A deer (or any other big game animal for that matter) can be forgiving about sights and sounds but when the smell you the gig is up.
 
swervinmervin said:
Don't worry, it can be just as frustrating on the bigger island, i see more deer in my yard when i leave to go hunting than i do when i'm hunting. Are you guys shotgun only over there?
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Yup, I have a Stevens 350 with iron sights but I'm going to scope it. It shoots really good, but like has been said before sundown seems to be primetime, and the irons are a bit blurry that time of day.
It's the deer in the yard that are the most annoying right? I have to fence the garden because they eat everything... I saw two bucks and several does, fawn... Just tonight looking out in the backyard. I can't shoot those deer. That's the annoying part. They are everywhere I can't shoot them, and never where I can.
 
Why not just drive down a few grid roads and take your pick if stalk or stand hunting doesn't work. Hell I could have gotten 2 today on the way to town if the season was on.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH crap, you live in BC, jeez sorry bout that, never mind.

Well, better luck next year





Yes, I am that prick:stirthepot2:
 
hillmanr2 said:
Why not just drive down a few grid roads and take your pick if stalk or stand hunting doesn't work. Hell I could have gotten 2 today on the way to town if the season was on.

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH crap, you live in BC, jeez sorry bout that, never mind.

Well, better luck next year





Yes, I am that prick:stirthepot2:
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You said it... Real classy. And the season ain't over here yet. Enjoy your cold snowy winter.
 
mikeystew said:
You said it... Real classy. And the season ain't over here yet. Enjoy your cold snowy winter.
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Laugh2

I will enjoy my already overfilled freezer full of moose, some elk, feral bacon and pork and soon to be, yet more deer sasuage.


It was somewhat prickish but holy cow muffin, don't let the rain wash the fun out of the hunt, I am pulling for ya;)
 
This is your first year hunting and you're pissed cause you're spending "too" much time in the woods without seeing anything? Really? You need to change your attitude or you won't be hunting very long.
 
mikeystew said:
I'm just getting sick of spending so much time in the woods without seeing anything. I know it's called hunting, not killing... But I'm starting to get the feeling I'm doing something wrong.
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Well, I can't say you are doing anything wrong, but I can say you have the wrong attitude. If you believe that the whole point of hunting is to just kill something, you have missed the point entirely. That would be like thinking your funeral was the whole point of your life.

Go hunting. Enjoy it. Relish it. Listen to it. Watch it. Smell it. Meditate on it while you are out there. If you do that, instead of spending the whole time frustrated because nothing has died yet, maybe, just maybe, you will actually start to enjoy it. Maybe if you start to enjoy it, you will be successful at it.
 
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