davidmil

.... AND.. more often than not, some yahoo just plain gets lucky. He happens to be in the right place at the right time. The deer is just nosing along in his world and someone happens to be in a position to stick an arrow in him. How many macho deer have we read where the guy was on his first hunt, or looked out back and there stands a deer. It happens all the time and many of them are our biggest bow kills on record. I guess what I'm saying is we're not as smart as we like to believe at times. Many times it's just the way things happen and it wasn't some super duper skill that caused it. We outsmart outselves just about as often as we outsmart the deer.

GregH

I am the Buck Guru an old indian term for "He who outsmarts bucks" [:-]

racewayking

I hunt an area that was once rich in Algonquin Indian coulture on the far southern reach of their holdings. The coined a term to describe my type and it is a slang term used to this day.

"dollucitum orbay liltonca"

English traslation "Dances With Deer"

GMMAT

Agreed.

Now THAT is deer hunting gospel! I've often thought of how the planets HAVE to align for us to kill a deer.......a certain deer.....a TARGETED/previously identified deer. We have to choose the right place that gives us the greatest odds. We have to pick the right time. We choose the weather (to set up where we do). We pick the time of day.......and base all these decisions on our instincts and what we've learned about their behavior. If we "outsmart" them......it's before we enter their "house".

But then it comes down to luck. What's the chances that buck takes THAT trail at THAT time of day.........during that time of year....during that weather occurrence? THEN....he has to come into your effective range. The odds of ALL this happening (especially on a specific animal) are staggering IMO.

Agreed.

killadoe

They always outsmart me, the only time I kill is when i get lucky...

Vabowman

I agree with Jeff, yes I do. I believe we outsmart some, but most of the time it's ambush and they are unaware obviously, but there are times when they know they are being hunted and you still catch them off guard and get him. Most of the time they out smart us, it is a true testment to our abilities as hunters when we get so fortunate to out wit them. It doesn't happen too often when dealing with big mature bucks. I would say that the majority of quality bucks I have killed have made a mistake unknowingly of course, and I was in the right spot at the right time when he made thefatal mistake. Great question by the way!

NEW61375

I just hope to be there the day one makes a mistake. Yeah I outsmart them sometimes, they outsmart me a lot more and there are certainly many times whenI didn't even know they were outsmarting me.

At first i didn't like the chess analogy but the more I think about it it works. I have this one guy at my work I play chess with, he is very good, we have great games but in the end he almost alwaysseems to outsmart me. Sure I occasinally catch him in a trap and scrape out a win.So it's kind of the same as hunting deer except for the end result. I catch one off guard occasionally or outsmart themand unfortunately for them that is the end of the game, they don't get to come back and try again tomorrow. We as hunters are lucky in that when we get outsmarted(which is often) it doesn't cost us much, just a bruised ego and were back at it the next day.

dukemichaels

Since I am home for another few minutes I must elaborate on why the chess analogy is silly.

The whitetail is not playing a game versus us. The whitetail is trying to survive.. to live another day.

If it was like chess.. he would be trying to play against you.. he/she ain't! Whitetails going nocturnal cause you don't.. whitetails running away.. cause thats how he/she keeps away from you.. you are trying to kill him. It ain't no game to the whitetail!

If you think its like chess with a whitetail.. you must be prepared to play against yourself. Cause thats the only one whos playing with you.

NEW61375

I follow you Duke, I thoughtthe analogy worked for mein that we are in their world so to speak and even though we "outsmart" them occasionally they outsmart us or survive us on a much more consistent basis. Kind of like the guy I play chess with, I beat him occasionally but the chess board is his world/his element and he survives my feeble attempts at outsmarting him much more often than not. Kind of comparing being in the woods with a whitetailto trying to beat this guy in his world(the chess board).For me that's whatI meant withthe comparison tochess, it'saboutgoing againstan opponent / prey(in regards to hunting) that hasan advantage in the sense that we are coming into theirelement andtrying to outsmart them. I definitely don't think of hunting as a game or a "sport" for the record and I would bet whitetails don't either.

BowHuntingFool

I think they start getting nervous when the hear your wake up alarm go off in the morning!!!