April 2008 Updates page 13
17 April
Those that hunt bow, muzzleloader and modern firearms provide themselves with much flexibility of when to hunt and open up lands with the gun the archery hunter would find the range of observation just too great.
He shows some of the ground he hunted.
Whenever we get such a review as this from Association hunters it brings a great deal of satisfaction and the burden of additional pressure to insure we never let down hunter expectations. An obligation we take seriously in every aspect of the Association.
Thank you Jamie for an excellent account of how the potential for great success is within each hunt.
Wisdom
A long time and very successful trophy whitetail deer hunter made the comment that hunters are on a 24 hour cycle, but trophy deer are not. His comment we share here with his concurrence was related to the topic how often does anyone see a shooter buck. His point being that rarely will the same trophy deer make a pass through the same spot in sequential days. The day he sees a trophy buck on a farm but does not get a shot he watches the buck in connection with the weather, terrain and rut conditions at hand. Waits until he is sure the buck has long gone out of that area, adjusts his stand as he deems right and leaves the farm not finishing the hunt that day or coming back the next. He scouts/hunts another farm (developing other spots) letting that deer continue on his path. That hunter will then return to the trophy deer farm the third day, letting the woods settle, and then continues to hunt day to day in succession until that buck is seen again. He then repeats and adjusts as the eyes-on, shot opportunity or not, adjust stand location and leaves or continues the hunt as appears right. He believes hunters do more harm (leaving scent behind) by hunting the same spot over sequential days than can accurately be seen by the hunter.
Why should anyone follow this anonymous hunter's advice? Because he is in his 60's, long ago maturing into the non-competitive and effective whitetail hunter we all aspire to be, and has more top 20% bucks than most others. His pictures, most just of his harvested deer, are on this website more than a couple of times.
