atlasman

Are your hunts all planned out and set in stone (with variables of wind, weather, etc) being the only thing that may change your plan...........or do you sort of hunt "on the fly" sometimes??

I do both..........but I am "on the fly" A LOT.......I'm sure that hurts me sometimes but it also helps sometimes as well. I hunt with other guys most of the time (rarely alone)..........and when I do it's hard to have a plan, especially if you are hitting the BIG woods. A lot of times I will use the knowledge I have built up over the last 20 years of hunting these woods and just hunt by "feel". Basically, what I mean is I don't know where I am gonna sit (specifically) until I get in the woods. I know what AREA I am headed to, but that is about it.

Sometimes I will be sitting in my yard having lunch and thinking about the afternoon hunt when my phone will ring and it will be two buddies asking me to go to a new spot (or an old one)........and I just toss the Summit in the truck and go.

I have had tons of success hunting "on the fly" and I actually feel REALLY good about my ability to quickly analyze an area and find a good spot to sit in. This kind of hunting is not for everyone and I'm sure it's not the most productive but it's very enjoyable for me and the usual suspects of my close hunting group...........we have a blast.

I do my share of planned out hunts where I do everything by the book and it's great when that works out too..........but I just tend to hunt more often by "feel"........it's hard to explain I guess.


So are you a "By the book"...........or "Hunt on the run" kind of guy??

GMMAT

Ditto

Ditto, again. I've found that .....if nothing else.....I learn about where to set up the NEXT time in the woods.

When I got away from planning EVERY aspect of EVERY hunt.....and employed this tactic.....I became more successful. A friend of mine told me that deer hunting wasn't rocket science.....and that I'm (we're) smarter than they are. USE THOSE ABILITIES and trust yourself. BE the ultimate predator.

Atlas....this is a good post. We DO have similar views, sometimes.

GMMAT

I also wanted to ask you.......

"Feel" works both ways. Do you ever pick a spot.....climb....and then begin to second-guess your assessment? In almost 50 hunts, last season......I did that maybe 3 times. I saw deer each time....but the position or situation didn't feel "right" on those occasions. I can't explain it.

RDHunter

I'll start off with alot of pre - season scouting though out the year , always looking for tell tail signs of the prey I'm after.
In the area that I hunt most , I got to know the lay of the land and I know where most the deer bed , graze and travel.
When it comes time to put my stands up , I'll pick out spots where I've seen the most deer in the fall and find a good tree to hang my stands in.
I also look for spots to place my Double bull T5 and start putting dead fall and limbs in that area so the deer get use to it , now keep in mind I don't leave my blind out , I always take it with me I just leave the outter shell of limbs there.
On any given day that I go out , I'll check the wind and if it's favorable for me to sit in one of my stands I'll do so other wise I use my blind.
So to really answer your qustion on if I'm " by the book " or " hunt on the run " I would have to say that I always keep my options open.

mauser06

basically i hunt on the fly as you put it. if im fellin good about a certain spot ill be there. if i have dreams about a certain spot(and i have) ill be there. im wierd..noone will believe me but theres been alot of times ive dreamed something and it happened..so if i dream about it im there! lol

all depends on how i feel that day...some days i dont feel like walkin a mile with a stand on my back after work so ill hunt a spot that isnt so far away...

i will honestly admit to not paying attention to wind and just hunting. wind here is generally never consistant...but neither are the deer. sometimes...i can hunt the same stands and have deer come from different directions every time. and my small woodlots are pretty impossible to get a stand "down wind" and hope the deer go that direction. before i started my scent control i got winded...more than ALOT..daily lol. now i keep my clothes clean and use DDW and just hunt..alot of my deer come from upwind..even when the wind was different that day before and i saw the SAME deer they came from a different direction the next day...wierd...so i dont pay attention to wind..and here theres no way to check the wind without getting really close to the stand...terrain here controls the wind...you can never tell what its doing in your spot till your there. my ridge top spots are TERRIBLE. one day its north, the next its west, the next is SE...and changes 1000 times while on stand...

so i hunt whatever stand im feelin good about that particular day...

bigcountryok

About 30% planned 70% hunt on the fly. I find that I stress out before the hunt more when I hunt on the fly (just the fact of not knowing) , but I have more fun and success once I get there. I think there are too many variables to do a fully planned hunt. Plus plans very rarely stay in tact and that just stresses me out. (yes I'm they type that runs on a schedule in my daily life)
As I hunt with my 15yr old son more and more, I've learned just to have fun and hunt on the fly. Makes for a better trip all around.

JNTURK

100% on the fly.....too much land and it being all public i cannot just say that is where i am going because of pressure and there could just be another hunter there......i know the lay of the land i hunt and generally where the deer might be and then go there and see whats around....mostly still hunting or spot and stalk

GR8atta2d

100% Planned..just sometimes the plan is to hunt on the fly.

John/Alaska

I generally don't plan much ahead except to know when the seasons are and to get my gear together and tags in hand. Mood, weather and the critter that I'm after usually tells me what I'm going to do and probably where. For caribou it will depend on which herd and ifthey aremoving through and where. That dictatesthe area. For moose I just go usually to areas I've hunted before and occasionally peaking into new ones. Sheep are another story as I like toget packed up the day or two before. I normally don't decide on a trip like thatuntil a few days before. I do plan the location, route, etc as I might be gone for a while. Weather plays a big part there.

Most of my huntig is solo so I don't have to coordinate with others and the fact that I can hunt just out the door advanced planning isn't necessary in most cases. The exception is when I run one of the rivers with my SIL then it takes a couple of days to get ready. But mostly once I have my gear together for the season whether its packing up the 4 or 6 whlr or snogo or truck it is just a matter of grabbing food jaming it ina pack, slipping on my boots and going.

livinfortherut

As far as preplanning I do that with big trips (out of state) well in advance. I take a few trips to northern wisconsin every year that are planned out about a week or two in advance. And hunting around home is when I get a chance I go. No matter the wind I have stands setup for them all. But things around home are not completly fly by night I scout almost every day in some form from March til the end of season.

Jeff