Many times hunters are faced with the same challenging question, with seemingly no answer: why aren’t my hunts being productive? This is a legitimate question. The problem is, many times we cannot find the answer, or maybe are unwilling to see it. Below are some blunt answers I have come to realize through years of hunting (and learning the hard way) that can, and will make hunts more productive. However, there is one crucial caveat – IF you can be honest with yourself. Many times this is a tough pill to swallow, especially for me, but if you are up to the challenge, read on. I’m confident you will see the benefits that honesty and hard work provide. If not, then just continue with the same old approach, but be forewarned, you can expect the same old results.
Why Hunts Aren’t Productive
Reason #1 – Griping
Ok we’ve all been there, our hunting season has been poor (your buddy is killing it) and you just can’t help but gripe about it. If your hunting land is all you’ve got, and the deer herd is down (this could be due to outside hunting pressure, disease, your bad hunting habits, etc.) you may have a hard time seeing deer. Most hunter’s natural inclination is to complain and whine. They talk about this or that, about the neighbors, and attach blame to anything they possibly can. Now some of these reasons may be correct, however, whether they are true or not really does not matter. You see, most hunters stop here. They are content to complain, whine, and moan, and be unsuccessful as a result. This is simply a no win response, and a big reason why many hunters are not productive as they could be. Successful hunters focus on what they can control, and do something, not focus on what they can’t control.The fact is we all can do something to improve our situation, and need to in order to have more productive sits.
We must resist the urge we’ve all felt to wallow in self pity, think about how “other hunters have it better,” or get green-eyed jealous of the success of others. If you say “there is nothing I can do,” you’re not thinking hard enough. The list could be long: change stand locations, find new property, change your entry/exit routes, employ a new strategy you just learned about, etc. To make your hunts more productive, though one thing is for sure: you have to stop passing blame and start looking for possible solutions. Those that do this allow the chance for success. Literally one fresh idea, one action, can take a season from terrible to terrific. You’ve got to stop griping, and start doing to get more productive sits. (Our Deer IQ Journal and podcast can help with this – download your Free copy HERE).
Reason #2: Getting in a Rut
The rut is only good if it’s the whitetail that are in the “rut.” The rut I’m talking about is an easy one to get into: hunting the same spots over and over. If I don’t see the sign or deer I want within two hunts at a location, I know it’s time for me to move on. I need to know I have a good chance of seeing or getting something I’m after on each sit. Maybe it’s a personal thing, but I think it makes good sense to avoid being stuck hunting in a poor area because it’s easy (I’m being lazy), or just because I don’t have other spots. If this is you, start looking and find areas with better sign to hunt. Venture off on some new public land, knock on some doors, get creative, but don’t let yourself get caught in the rut of hunting the same old spots and the same old stands out of a sense of nostalgia. You can always circle back to the old tried and true spots later and see if they have heated up with fresh sign, but if its not there currently, avoid the urge to hunt it. Always be willing to try, scout, explore new areas. It will take more effort, but realize that’s what it may take to have productive hunts. Ask yourself, “would I rather hunt a couple times and bag that big buck, or hunt most the season and not see much at all?” You have to be able to let go of the past, and take the risk of the new. Get out of the rut, and make effort, it’s the cost of having more productive hunts.
Reason #3: Going with Your Gut
Going with your gut in hunting is one of the worst things you can do. It relegates your chance of success to luck, when it could be based on hard facts or data, which I call INTEL. A gut feeling might be all a hunter has if they do no scouting at all and blindly walk into the woods. However, this is not going to lead to productive hunts consistently over time. The main goal should be to put the odds in your favor as much as possible, and going off intel about your deer is the best way to do this. It does not mean for certain that you will have success, but it drastically increases the odds, especially over time. When I speak of intel I mean sightings, fresh poop, tracks, trail cam pictures, active rubs, scrapes, and any other observable data you have to tell you where the deer you are after are active. This is crucial, and all I go off. I need to KNOW, not FEEL that an area is good, and the only way is with intel.
A Prime Example
The 2018 season in Ohio was a tough for me. Trail cam pictures and scouting did not show more than a couple potential shooter bucks on my main property. One big 7 point fell to a neighbor’s arrow early in October. As season progressed, another potential shooter was found poached across the road. The only remaining buck I would have taken was a nice 9 that I only had two trail cam pictures of – one in September, and one in late October. He was simply not frequenting the property. Meanwhile on my other property, I had a close encounter with a nice 8 point the weekend prior, and had several recent trail camera pictures of him and another wandering 10 point. The problem was I was pressuring this spot quite a bit. With just 2 days left in my rut hunt, my “gut feelings” told me to hunt the property with little sign, to give the hot spot a rest and also due to the allure of a fresh rut spot to hunt (I had success in past years here and this was very tempting). This was a hard decision at the time, but looking back really should not have been. On one hand I had a property with no shooters showing consistently, and neighbors telling me the same, and on the other hand had a property that had current intel of activity. So what did I do? You bet, I resisted my “gut feeling” to hunt the first property and went with the intel. The rest is history, as the next night I arrowed the nice 8 point intel told me was frequenting the area. To have more productive sits, don’t go with your gut, go with intel.
Reason #4: Hunting Too Hard
Some people think that just hunting more, hunting harder is the key. This usually translates into hunting the same stand, or same location over and over. Wearing out spots is never good, however hunting frequently in different locations that you have good intel for can be. A key example of this principal is my 2018 season. In arguably one of the most challenging states to hunt good bucks (Michigan), I had three shots on very good bucks before I was three weeks into the season, all on public land.
One of the bucks I encountered was October 5th, a near miss on a very nice split G2 – 8 point that would have gone about 130 inches. The second was a slightly smaller 8 point I took on a different piece of public ground, and the third was my biggest public buck in Michigan (27 years hunting at the time) a 4+ year old mature buck scoring 132 inches. ALL of these shots were taken in the first sit at these locations, only after I had substantial intel telling me to hunt there, and none of the locations were hunted hard (pressured). They were hardly hunted, not hunted hard.
In the first case (the miss), I had observed a group of bucks coming out of some overlooked CRP just before season started. On October 4th I decided to do a non-intrusive hunt/scout that proved to be a great observation sit. I was able to confirm from a distance that the bucks indeed were still bedding in this clump of CRP, and also get some vital info: they liked to exit the CRP to feed with the wind at their backs (I believe due to the fact they could see in front, and smell anything behind them in the CRP). This proved critical. The next night the wind was the same, so I pushed across the field to a point I had seen them pass the day before, and set up. Within an hour, because of direct and valuable intel, I had a shot at this awesome buck. The fact that I misjudged the distance is a sad one, but does not negate the fact that hard intel told me where and when to hunt, and allowed a very productive sit. Intel is king, and if you do not have it, you should resist the urge to hunt and do more scouting until you know exactly where you should. This is the biggest factor to making each hunt a productive one, and cannot be emphasized enough. The more you talk to highly and consistently successful hunters, the more you’ll realize this crucial and often overlooked fact. They scout, scout, scout, get intel, then hunt and kill. It’s a vital key to making their hunts very productive, and it’s key for making yours productive too.
HIGH IQ Takeaways and Challenges:
- Pick one of these above reasons that hurt hunt productivity that resonated & determine an action you can take to change this habit.
- Download the Deer IQ Journal that steps you through our podcast & curriculum “to be a greater hunter” HERE.
- Follow the podcast and start using your journal with our best educational content to help make you a greater hunter HERE.
