I've had my treestand--a climber that I camoflage very well--hidden in the woods for a a month now. I hope some azzwhole hasn't found it and cut the lock off it or valdalized it. My treestand is left in the woods probably 90% of the nights during deer season and I've yet to have it stolen. But, my paranoia has never went away. To this day, my heart rate increases as I walk up to where my stand is supposed to be. I've ruined my morning hunts on several occasions because I couldn't find my stand!
I hate it when I forget which ammo my rifle--usually a 7.62x39 AR--is sighted for. I thought I had it sighted for GA's 125gr Nosler Ballistic Tips, but I was making sure my gear is ready last night, during which time I couldn't find any Nos BTs! Dammit I hate that! So, I'll be leaving work this afternoon in a panic to get to the hunt-club before dark so that I can verify or re-sight my rifle for 125gr Remington SP in the green-and-yellow box. I hope there's nobody there where I do my sighting-in.
I've decided to change my strategy this year; something I should have done long ago...a change in strategy is what I should have already done, not necessarily a change to what I've decided to do. I've almost always hunted in areas with a long and wide field of view. It’s a lot less boring that way. I see a great many does, but with the exception of two years ago when I saw a monster during bow season, I never see mature bucks. I don’t want to shoot a doe, and I don’t want a puny buck, so, if I don’t change my tactics, I don’t really have a reason to go hunting except to be outside…I know, that’s enough, but…
I now believe the mature bucks--at least at the club--very rarely venture into the open during the day, and I’m nearly positive that they do this when the high-pressure of gun season arrives. I hunted the power line last season, some days for every daylight hour but 2-3 around lunchtime and I never saw a buck at all. However, the sumac trees at the foot of the very tree I occupied would be rubbed during the night! Encouraged by the sign of buck activity, I vainly stayed in that spot.
For a change, I was scouting the very thick pine and blackberry thickets this fall when I found a place that was a little more open than the rest of the thicket; I can see about 50 yards in most any direction after I improved the area by pulling the dead limbs off the bottom of the trees’ canopy--you know, how a pine tree will have several dead limbs near the bottom. I took a piece of rope with me, tied a stick on one end, threw it up over the dead limbs, and then used the rope to pull them down. I must say the technique worked like a charm. I plan to use the technique to gather drier-than-on-the-ground firewood on my next camping excursion.
Where was I?...Oh yea...During this year’s bow season, I only saw one deer while in this thicket, but it was a bigger-than-average deer of undetermined sex--it was very late in the day, but the size suggests strongly it was a buck. It was at the very edge of my visibility and of course, I took no shot. Seeing a big deer is always exciting, but the rest of the time was intensely boring. I already trying to talk myself out of this new strategy and move my tree stand to a more open area.