brnsvllyjohn
Active member
How many days are you willing to hunt a spot that looks great but you can't find a buck in? I am getting better at being patient but I could probably still improve.
I will use a hunt from last year in the California Sierras as an example. I had made 2 trips during archery season and one really good looking hillside was getting a lot of my attention. All I ever saw was a couple of does and a couple of bears. I had a buddy in camp off and on and my son was only going to be able to hunt late Saturday and then all day Sunday of closing weekend. We had no time on Saturday to hunt much so I took my son to this great look out just to show him the area. We sat down and he was on my spotting scope and I was on my 10x50 Swarovski binoculars. After about 30 minutes he said he had horns at 1/2 mile. I found them in the binos and eventually 1 bedded buck turned into 3. The next morning he went in in the dark and he got between the bucks and the timber and waited over 3 hours before he had a 4 point walk past him. He connected. I was a 1/2 mile away watching it all morning with my binoculars. A very interesting morning for me. When I told the other guy who had hunted with me earlier where the bucks were he just kept asking why he never saw them or why I hadn't spotted them on an earlier hunt. Can't answer that but I may be more patient in the future when an area looks right and stay with it a little longer.
My son crawled for about 2 hours without his boots and he didn't think about taking water either. The only good I did was once the buck was hit I was able to watch it bed so no tracking was needed although my son said the blood trail was incredible and he wouldn't have had an issue tracking it. Telling my son to wait an hour before going in on the buck was a difficult argument but it all worked out.
I will use a hunt from last year in the California Sierras as an example. I had made 2 trips during archery season and one really good looking hillside was getting a lot of my attention. All I ever saw was a couple of does and a couple of bears. I had a buddy in camp off and on and my son was only going to be able to hunt late Saturday and then all day Sunday of closing weekend. We had no time on Saturday to hunt much so I took my son to this great look out just to show him the area. We sat down and he was on my spotting scope and I was on my 10x50 Swarovski binoculars. After about 30 minutes he said he had horns at 1/2 mile. I found them in the binos and eventually 1 bedded buck turned into 3. The next morning he went in in the dark and he got between the bucks and the timber and waited over 3 hours before he had a 4 point walk past him. He connected. I was a 1/2 mile away watching it all morning with my binoculars. A very interesting morning for me. When I told the other guy who had hunted with me earlier where the bucks were he just kept asking why he never saw them or why I hadn't spotted them on an earlier hunt. Can't answer that but I may be more patient in the future when an area looks right and stay with it a little longer.
My son crawled for about 2 hours without his boots and he didn't think about taking water either. The only good I did was once the buck was hit I was able to watch it bed so no tracking was needed although my son said the blood trail was incredible and he wouldn't have had an issue tracking it. Telling my son to wait an hour before going in on the buck was a difficult argument but it all worked out.
Congrats on the success!! many times being patient pays big dividends.
