Next season will be my 32nd chasing whitetail, and lately my thoughts have turned to my hunting journey and lessons I’ve learned through the years. One of those biggest lessons, or more accurately described as a “paradigm shift,” occurred when I discovered what I call the “hunt harder myth.” Understanding it has completely changed the way I see whitetail hunting.
When I was young, I was taught that the key to success is to work hard. So it stands to reason that if you aren’t having success, or want more, that you need to work harder. This simple philosophy works on many things and definitely translates into success. For example, if you want more wood in the woodpile, you need to work harder chopping. Or, if you want to be a better basketball player, you need to shoot and practice more – work harder. However, in some things in life this principle just doesn’t apply, and in fact, the exact opposite is needed for more success. Whitetail hunting is one of those things.
Deer Hunting – Hard Work Defined:
To start this conversation we need to define “hard work” or the idea of “hunting harder” when it comes to whitetail deer. I’ll be referring to it as putting more time in the woods, namely by sitting in a treestand or blind. This is what many people think, and therefore do. If you’re not having success, it means you need to get in the stand more. You often hear people with this mentality saying “you can’t kill them on the couch,” or something similar. The problem is, this actually hurts your chances of success most the time.
Why Hunting Harder Doesn’t Work:
If this is your operating method you’re not alone. Many hunters practice this, and have success from time to time. However, when you’re a predator invading a whitetail’s domain, the more time spent there means more pressure added. This just isn’t chopping wood or shooting hoops. More time equals more human scent, human sound, human sightings by the deer you’re after, and this means less encounters. Research done by DNR Biologist Clint McCoy on collared bucks at Auburn University showed that if a stand location is hunted just one time, bucks do not return to normal travel patterns there for five days. My experience shows this is true, and oftentimes much worse in heavily pressured states and on public land. Hard work sitting a stand simply does not make more success.
2017 could have been a great year deer hunting for me, but it wasn’t. I had many good locations in Michigan on public land that had produced past years, and two great private land locations in Ohio. In fact, several big bucks were showing up in both of my hunting locations in the buckeye state. I hunted as smart as I could, changing locations and relying on the freshest scouting and deer sign to guide my hunts. In fact, I had three great encounters with these different Ohio bucks.
The problem was, each time I had an encounter, something went wrong and blew the opportunity. These unfortunate events, and honestly a couple rookie mistakes, educated each buck with each encounter and dwindled my chances. As the season progressed, these close calls added up until I had thoroughly educated each buck. Although a little luck could have easily turned any one of the close calls in my favor, I never even got the opportunity launch an arrow that year. You just can’t make mistakes on good bucks and expect to get second chances.
Hunt Less – The Paradox:
With whitetail hunting, therefore, this leaves us with the “less is more” paradox. And it’s simply true. We all know that the first time in a hunting location is usually the best, and data doesn’t lie. The collared buck study by Clint McCoy showed this, as well as my experience (and I’m sure yours if you think about it). In my last five seasons, 9 out of 11 or 81% of my kills (8 of them bucks) have been first sits. In reality, less truly means more when it comes to time on stand whitetail hunting. Instead of wearing out a stand in an attempt to bag a good buck, you should be analyzing all your stand options and trying to figure the exact best times to hunt them.
The problem is that many people just don’t have many spots to hunt, and they just can’t sit at home during the fall. I get it. On top of that, within a certain property there may be only a couple places you can hunt in a low-impact manner, which makes for burning out a spot quickly. If that’s the case, go with the lowest impact stands and make observations to help you hone in on when to make that higher-impact strategic hunt. Another solution is to just have more options. With more options, private or public, you can make better decisions on where and when to hunt and will not wear out any particular one. This allows you to spend more time in the woods and get more hunts of potential first sit quality. Realize though that it’s not just about being in the woods, and sometimes not being there is your best path to success.
What Pro Deer Hunters Do:
Don’t get me wrong, you indeed cannot kill them on the couch. You do need to work hard for success. It just looks different than most people think. The secret is that it’s the time and hard work put into preparation, not time on stand, that produces. Gear prep, entry and exit prep, land prep, and scouting by all means and all times of year is the key. If you look at big buck slayers who get it done on mature bucks year after year, their hours hunting pales in comparison to their hours of prep work. Their actual hunt time is minimal. Gathering data (glassing, boots on the ground, trail camera intel) is essential and is the secret ingredient needed for making fact-based hunting decisions with high yield results.
Although I don’t consider myself a “pro,” a good example of this is the buck I shot in my backyard in 2020. My quarter-acre food plot camera was getting pictures of deer all summer and into the fall. A few of these were bucks, but none of them were over 2.5 years old (my goal is a 3.5 year old) and most of them were taken at night. As the season progressed I just wasn’t seeing a buck I would shoot show up in daylight, so I hunted my other locations on state land and followed the hottest sign best I could.
In late October, my backyard foodplot camera snapped a picture of a mature ten point with long brow tines that definitely got my attention. However, I still didn’t hunt or obsess over him because this too was a late-night appearance, making him virtually unshootable. It wasn’t until November 7th, when a picture was taken of him at daybreak, that I decided to hunt him immediately and persistently until I had an encounter. The next morning, as luck would have it, I had that encounter and was able to successfully get off a good shot from my ground blind. I’m convinced it was keeping my presence to a bare minimum, and only hunting when intel strongly suggested I should, that led to my success. If I had been hunting it hard all year, I highly doubt I would have had such an opportunity as I most likely would have adversely pressured the food plot and drove him from the comforts of my backyard.
From my experience, less is indeed more when it comes to whitetail hunting, and a myth that definitely needs busting.
HIGH IQ TAKEAWAYS AND CHALLENGES:
- Deer IQ is all about hunting smarter, but it takes effort. To start, think about and write down one thing you can do in your approach to hunting that helps you move away from the “hunt harder” mentality and closer to one of being precise, tactical, and smart.
- Copy this link, and share on your social media or with a friend you think would benefit from it.
- Download our FREE Journal HERE that goes with our podcast, and begin your journey with fellow hunting fanatics to be a greater deer hunter!
