Bad bad season, or, Sometimes I Hate Hunting

B

Brian Pfleuger

Moderator Emeritus
Opening day of shotgun season in NY.....

I sit in a stand for near on three hours... it's pretty uncomfortable, really need a cushion on this wooden seat.... anyway, three hours, not one sighting of a deer. Get down, go have breakfast, which in hind-sight, is the only good thing about the whole season....

Back out to the woods we go.... to my "hotspot". 2 1/2 hours later, no deer. Not even a sighting. My dad shoots though, so I go help him. Missed. Dang. Oh well, back to the woods.

My uncle sits in that aforementioned stand with the uncomfortable seat. 1 hour. Bang. 8-point. BIG 8-point. Ah great.... flash-back to last year when, in the same stand, after I sat there ALL of opening day, except for lunch, in the pouring rain, my cousin sits there the next day for.... an hour, and shoots a big 6-point.

Oh well, somebody's got to have the luck, right? My next chance, Thanksgiving, will be better.

Thanksgiving morning.
My uncle says that I should take the "good" stand, the uncomfortable one that they shoot all the deer from, and he goes to the "leftover" stand, the one no one chooses unless it's the only one available.... a hour after sunrise, he shoots another deer. Ok, so, it's not very big... but I haven't even seen one from the "good" stand.... this is getting old. Another couple of hours pass. I've been there 3 1/2 hours now, not a single deer in sight.... oh well, have to go to Thanksgiving dinner. My uncle gets his deer down to camp and takes over in the "good" stand. Before I even leave camp, not 45 minutes later. Bang! 7-point.

Aaaaargh!!!!

So, here we are yesterday. I truly wanted to take the rest of the season off, I'm pretty frustrated. I've seen 3 deer, could have only shot one miniature doe. My uncle wants me to go out again. Ok, fine. What a great day. It's 25 degrees, 15 mile per hour winds and I have a sore throat but, fine, we'll go hunting. Mind you, this is 30 miles from camp, a place "infested" with deer and we know where go. So, I'm freezing, sitting in a pop-up waiting for the last 15 minutes of daylight which is when these deer ALWAYS come through here, glad to be in a pop-up because the deer would have CERTAINLY seen me shivering otherwise. Indeed, they do come through. A little early even, it's still like 45 minutes before dark. It's a baby though. Little bitty thing. I'm going to wait for a buck..... I should know better. Fast forward a half hour.... several deer are in the area now, curious about this blind that's suddenly in the middle of the woods, but walking within 10 yards of it. Big doe, small doe babies... no horns, at all. Alrighty, well, last thing before dark I'm going to take whatever I can get.... everything has cleared out except 2, a nice doe and a baby. Mrs. Nice Doe is kind enough to stop and stand broadside at about 40 yards. I'm sitting on a small chair, forward arm resting on my knee, pistol grip stock, rock solid, not even a quiver. Piece of proverbial cake..... BOOM!

Hey, at least I got a deer this year.... right? Wrong. 2nd time in my ENTIRE life. Wounded. Two tiny spots of blood and then nothing. What an ideal exclamation point on what has to be the worst deer season of my life.

Sometimes I hate this game.:(
 
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thats how it goes sometimes but you have to enjoy it wether you get anything or not atleast I do, just curious what type of gun your using?
 
Tough luck man. At least it's a real story and not one of those I've shot 47 thousand deer out to 1200 yards all DRT and never missed.

I missd a 325 elk bedded down from 125 yards last year.I didn't even touch him or would have seen something in the snow.
Must have been divine intervention, couldn't have been my nerves. I wasn't even cold.
 
Didn't happen to me but......

My neighbor has lost about 15 lbs of the hams off the last two deer he shot to coyotes. The latest was a doe shot at his father-in-laws. He gut the deer, turned her on her belly to drain, and left to drop his equipment off at the house. They found her in 15-20 minutes and had dragged her 10 yards from where he left her. Gut pile untouched.
 
Peetzakilla, I don`t want to make light of your 'bad luck' situation cause I`ve been in your shoe`s. Everyone around me shooting deer but me.

A bit of something to think about.

Due to health reason`s this was the first bow season I`ve not been able to hunt in some 30 yrs. This years shotgun season was very special to me as I finally had the energy to get out and hunt.

I passed on deer I should have taken and didn`t get shots on a couple veeeeery nice bucks. Ended up shooting a couple does.

The biggest enjoyment was getting out there. Not the deer I killed. The comradery and enjoyment of watching my brother shoot his deer was priceless.

Sometimes you gotta just enjoy being there.

Cheer up your times coming
 
The biggest enjoyment was getting out there. Not the deer I killed. The comradery and enjoyment of watching my brother shoot his deer was priceless.

Sometimes you gotta just enjoy being there.

Cheer up your times coming
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MMmmm, yes indeed. Normally I would completely agree. There's more frustration though. This same uncle, the one who shot the 7 and 8 points..... he's been hunting for about 4 years, almost exclusively in the same places I hunt and almost exclusively with me in woods. 4 years.....

He's shot a 3-point, 4-point, 5-point, 6-point, (2) 7-points and an 8-point. All with a gun, plus a couple of small ones with the bow. You know how many bucks I've shot with a gun in the last 18 years? One. Yes, one. That was a 4-point, and it was last year.
 
Dont give up it happen. Sometimes I go for a spell, then this year I got two. Just right spot right time. One time I went seven years without getting a buck, I was waiting on the back of my truck for a freind to show up. A eight pointer walks right out on the logging road and stops. I go in the truck get the gun load up and dead deer. Then my freind pulls up and almost runs over it with his truck.
 

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Same thing just happened to me Peet... I was out there four days in a row before daylight... sat that all day long... Left my boy there one hour on the fourth morn so I could get coveralls from the car... boom... he sees/shoots an 8 point that was there with a doe.... Dragging that deer outta the woods that morn... was the only buck that I seen all season this yr. ... bright side.... It was a big deer and the meat still landed in my freezer.:D
 
Hey Pizza Dude, I agree with the Trooper even though I don't have to work and can hunt whenever. It's been raining here for about a week and a half and I'd need an AmTrack to get to my stand. It'll stop raining, someday, I guess, then I'll swim to the stand, freeze my butt off and probably kill nothing. Then again it's called hunting and not killing, for many good reasons......However I still know your pain.......
 
on the bright side, at least u saw deer. this year in canada (at least my part) it was real slow. pretty much anything went this year. the "big one" on our place this year was about a 130-140 class buck. I blame the coyotes and harsh winter last year. And we did loose a couple deer too. had blood trails that just disappeared. the only wounded one we found, I had to jump on and slit its throat.
hope next year goes good for ya
 
me too!

So far I've got the worst season going I've had since 1988. I've gotten one shot (bow) which was a miss at an "amped" doe. Everything seems tilted against opportunities to hunt, holidays, family visits and commitment, the #$%^7890_+ ......JOB, and RAIN on every set of days off, and I was on the "red shirt" list early in bow season w/ a knee and foot injury.

I keep telling myself its in the hunt and the going......but its hard when you're cold and tired and burned out and haven't seen a ding-dong deer in a week or more.

MOst guys think the best of our season is yet to come......I'll keep you guys posted.

What AM I doing on the computer when I want to try and hunt tomorrow AM before night shift????????????
 
My season has been good, bad and ugly.

I've seen deer on virtually every outing but most have been does and small bucks. I did shoot a really nice 8-point but I also killed a smaller 8-point that was wounded by somebody else several days before and wasn't fit to eat. I tried not to judge the other hunter too harshly since it will happen to most of us eventually.

It must have been instant karma because I shot a doe and lost her a few weeks later. I've been deer hunting since I was 12 and I've killed around 30. This is the first one I've ever lost and I'm sick about it. I found a blood trail and followed it for over four hours through thickets that a rabbit wouldn't go through. While I was on the trail, my dog got us both sprayed by a skunk. I eventually lost the trail after the blood petered out to one drop smaller than a match head every 5-6 feet.

I look at it like this: I've spent many relaxing hours in the woods, I've spent time with people I like and I've collected some meat for the freezer. Not too bad after all.
 
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If I hated to hunt, I wouldn't do it. I learned a long time ago that rifle hunting in my home state can be frustrating. You get a few outings, and unless you take that week off, you are at the mercy of those few days. Bow hunting for me has elimiated being subject to luck, and enabled me to be the guy that gets his buck, because I put in the time to succeed. I also enjoy going out (this year over and over) without succeeding. I make a point of finding and building effective comfortable stands. I passed on numerous deer because of their size, and decided early on to get my does and concentrate on getting Old Golden. I finally got him, but certainly not without dissapointment and alot of waste of time and gas. I've had success every year I've bow hunted, and the number of bucks I see went up dramatically. I've learned how to make my time spent be used more effectively. Spending time in the forrest definitely has helped me, but instant gratification with a quick kill almost never happens for a worthwhile buck. Fogged glasses, dropped arrows, broken antlers, cold fingers and every other problem you can imagine have effected me. Power too you and hope you find the ideal situation for you. I went out 25 times to get the buck you saw in my post last week. Most days spent hunted, I spent 5 hours in the stand.
 
I went out 25 times to get the buck you saw in my post last week.
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If I go an average of 10 times a year between gun and bow, which is low, and average 3 hours each, which is low.... I've been out 180 times for 540 hours and not SEEN a deer the size of that one, or even close.
 
I can certainly identify with the lack of bucks. North Carolina was a challenge for me when I lived there. I've heard about the lack of bucks in New York.

If you're interested, there are a number of good states to visit to find decent bucks. Public hunting can be challenging, but I did get a pretty decent buck out of a Kentucky hunt, and he was the 150 class with 1 week of hunting set aside.

Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio are just a few of the states with fantastic hunting. The two above me (Nebraska and South Dakota) are much underated, and probably pretty cheap to find a guided hunt compared to the more popular states, of which Kanasas is now.

I would have definitely been in trouble with a week long hunt in Kansas this year.
 
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I've heard about the lack of bucks in New York.
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See, that's part of the frustration. It's like a curse. My uncle doesn't suffer from any lack of bucks, hunting the same times and places, he's killed 5 racked bucks in 4 years counting bow, and 7 total. I've killed 0 "racked" bucks and 2 minis, a spike and a 4 point.
 
here we go

Slept in this AM. High post front winds. Now its clear and breezy. Boss man called, my leave slip is approved, I can hunt this afternoon. Not the wind I want for the deer I'm after, I'll have to hunt a second choice place.

I'll bowhunt, trying to catch deer moving from cover to hardwoods to feed on mast. gotta go..........
 
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