Next Step Outdoors

By Aaron Olsen

Don’t trip over the same stick twice. Or three times. Or four.

Making mistakes is a great way to learn if you actually reflect on what you did and then correct the action to produce a more favorable outcome. An even better way to grow is to learn from OTHER PEOPLE’S mistakes. Here are 3 hunting lessons you can learn from me:

1. Be Ready – I blew one of my best shot opportunities because of my lack of preparation. No. I don’t mean trimming shooting lanes, practicing my form, or other offseason work. I’m talking about IN THE MOMENT, game time, put or shut up – type of preparation.Last October 1st, I was sitting on the edge of a sugar beet field that butted up to a thick swamp. It was the perfect ambush spot to intercept deer still on their early season patterns of bedding to feeding. As does began to funnel into the field at a distance, I remained sitting and relaxed because they were 150 yards away. They fed towards me as more does entered the field. They were still 100 yards away so I remained seated. I laid down some awesome footage with my new Canon Vixia XA30 and because I was not planning on shooting a doe and blowing up my honey-hole, I continued to enjoy the scenery and stayed relaxed. It wasn’t until two bucks hopped the fence from the neighboring property 60 yards from me that I snapped back to reality. All of the sudden there were 9 does and 2 bucks all within 60 yards from me. I managed to carefully stand up without alerting the nearby deer as they continued to feed towards me. 11 deer = 22 eyeballs. Even though I was able to stand up undetected, a mature doe spotted me as I slowly reached for my bow. You can probably guess the rest. A loud snort sent the other deer running and they disappeared along with any possible shot opportunities at the bucks. They did come back to tease me at 200 yards after I sabotaged my surefire plan and I continued to get some great footage. From that sit on, most of my “sits” turned into “stands”. If there was any chance a deer could be near me I was standing up and If there was a deer within 75 yards, I was holding my bow. I refused to blow another opportunity. (I still managed to blow other chances but at least I was ready to shoot when those opportunities plundered.)
2. Stay Mobile – 80% of the 2.5+ year old bucks I encountered this season were on the very first sit in a particular stand or piece of the property. Naturally, after those encounters, I continued to go in after those deer. Usually, the first couple sits were productive and then I would see less and less deer or they would be moving through later and later.Even with a strict scent regiment and a good entrance/exit route, it is impossible to frequent a specific location without leaving evidence of your presence. Remember, we are up against full-time deer and we are only part-time hunters. We can try to fool a deer’s senses but are rarely 100% successful in doing so. Next year, I plan on being more mobile so I can have more of these “first time sits”. My arsenal will contain a pop-up blind, climber stand, and my Hawk Helium “Hang N’ Hunt” set up. If you are lucky enough to have a lot of private land, you can get away with hanging multiple stands across your property to avoid over pressuring a specific spot OR, if you plan on hunting a lot of public land, the mobile options may be your best bet.
3. Be Disciplined – There is a reason some people are able to harvest mature bucks year after year while the rest of us are lucky to encounter one. A few of the many promises I make each year are that I will have all of my stand setups prepped way earlier than the year before, I won’t check my trail cams as frequently during season, and I won’t hunt stands when the wind is wrong. Still, I find myself hanging stands and clearing shooting lanes a week before the season opener. Instead of only checking the trail cameras that are near where I am already disturbing the woods going to and from my stands, I check ALL of them. Even the hard to get to locations near thick cover. Then after a couple good encounters at one specific stand site, I continue to go back again and again regardless of wind direction because I only have a few more sits this trip and I want to be in the best spot.To know and not to do is not to know. I know what I should be doing but every year I go against what I know is right. Hunt smarter not harder and your odds will be much higher of getting a chance at one of your hit list bucks.