What made the difference for your hunting success?

[str8sh2ter]

Daddy Bear,Well stated .Very informative.thanks

[-Achilles-]

"IMO, main difference between guys who take deer all the time and those that do not is simply opportunity not as much skill as we all would like to think"...I agree completely...You can learn all the required skills but if your not in a good spot to hunt then the skills do you no good.Hunting and fishing are games of luck by nature anyway.You have no control over what the deer will do...All you can do is control YOUR actions and the rest is up to the hunting Gods.

[BMN]

Nothing, absolutely nothing, replaces experience. Spend as much time in the woods as you can.

[the not so straight arrow]

ounce i learned to keep it simple. i love my hunting toys. scents, calls, camo, broadheads, and boots are all great and ill probably always love never stop "playing" around with them but really they arent neccisary. ounce i learned to keep it simple and just hunt without relieing on a bunch of gadgets and such to help me out i really came to learn more about my quarry and ultimatly about myself as a hunter. simplicity really is what started putting game in the bag for me.
-cory

[Stone Knife]

Knowing my area well and the habits of the deer there is what makes the difference for me, some of my stands have been in the same place for years, while I move a few to make minor adjustments in travel patterns. I like to spend the hours in the stands just to see what the deer do, I like to have the stands in place long before the season is underway. Hunt the wind and don't hunt the same stand two times or days in a row even if it means hanging back in a different stand just to observe the deer that day.

[DeerSpotter]

Know your deer, they are creatures of habit, especially after snow.  And like stone knife says
" travel patterns " they're very predictable, I think the best piece of equipment that you have is your attitude about your abilities to track and harvest.  When you step into the woods think like a deer. " don't try to get lucky " every time you can't, ability, ability, ability.  From scouting to tracking harvesting, ability


Carl

[LoneWolf73]

1. Getting in the woods often.
2. Getting an idea where deer are.
3. Luck(right place/right time.)
4. Confidence in shot.
5. Good follow up.

[Mechslasher]

location, location, location!

[Jayrod]

Make sure your scent free always and check the wind also went making that special shot concentrate like burning a hole on the spot you want to hit on that animal

[vermonster13]

Learning to go slow, sit still and move my eyes before anything else.

[Lost Arra]

I like to get in the woods all year round and watch deer as much as possible.

In the winter after the season or in the spring I'll sit on a stool or even in a treestand. Sometimes I'll take a bow to shoot at coyotes. With the deer I'll sometimes draw my bow to see how much movement I can get away with. The more I'm around the deer, especially up close, the less likely I'll get too excited when I am hunting. I think E. Don Thomas recommended this kind of "scouting" in a magazine article.

But Wingnut nailed it: you've got to be in an area with deer.    

[mark land]

For me the biggest thing was actually shooting animals.  The target shooting and practicing has never been a problem for me, it is the actual shot on an animal that screws me up and I usually do something stupid and miss, like short drawing or snap shooting, even though I shoot great when practicing or stump shooting.  So find some animals to shoot and shoot alot, whether small game, hogs, fish, whatever, just shoot some real stuff!  Mark

[J-dog]

Patience

[Day Dreamer]

Gotta put the time in. Can't harvest a animal on the couch. Also practice, practice and more practice, form must be second nature as you shoot.

[BD]

Spring scouting. Get topos of your areas if you don't aready have them. Try to find funnels even if they are subtle (fingers of dry ground surrounded by swamps, saddles, points jutting out into heavy cover or swamps, locatioins where multiple habitats come together to create a lot of edge such as old cuttings with mature hardwoods, swamps, thickets, benches, sharp cuts that force deer to walk in a certain spot for the easiest route of travel, oak ridges with acorns, etc.). Sit a little longer in the morning and arrive a little earlier in the evening (especially during the rut) and don't hunt stands if the wind is not right.