Rack-attack

Or.......your buddy is REAL bad in the woods.

Maybe their are experienced hunters in that area that have seen 100 deer and 30 bucks in two years.

skeeter 7MM

It goes hand and hand. The sayings of " It is good to be lucky" and " Lucky to be Good" , apply to hunting and fishing sports. I think however if your skill, dedication and preparation are high, than your odds are much higher to be " Lucky" . To say it is all skill would be foolish, there is rarely anything in hunting that is 100% for sure. You may have him patterned to a T, but I would hazard to say many guys have had that deer not show up everyday at the same time...this where the luck and skill mix to blend a successful experience. I' ll take both, but a double dose of Luck would always be welcomed by any hunter. We can all work on our skills, with luck you either got it or don' t.

Taxman003

Right you are Rack-Attack!

I' m not saying that we don' t do any scouting of the area (but it is 500 miles from my home). Also, there may well be other guys that see more deer than I. However, at this point of my career, I would say that my experiences have been more about being in the right place at the right time. Saying that however, I am relying heavily on the advice of seasoned hunters so the saga of luck vs. skill continues............[8D]

mauser06

you guys all make perfect sense....and i agree....and i do all my scouting and homework because i love it just that much....most people like the kid telling the school im a lucky hunter dont scout at all....dont know jack about deer..they sit in the woods and wait....thats their form of hunting.....they rely on pure luck and he will say it all day that he has bad luck...sure you can have bad luck but you can helo yourself if you learn more and work harder...but hey......i have my way of hunting....you all have yours....and he has his.......but i do my homework from everything from scouting to shooting at the range....and i also small game hunt the same area just to walk through it snooping around...i find many things a normal walk through wouldnt shown me....i love it......i cant wait for fall.....less then 3 months!!

formula1

This is my position on it:

Skill is working hard to pattern your deer, find the foods sources, rutting activity, sign, etc., even to the point of finding a specific deer( though I don' t take it that far). Then it' s making the educated guess of possible ambush locations based on terrain, hunting pressure, food, hot does, etc. Now that you' ve ID' d those spots....

Luck is timing it right and being at the right place at the right time when that bruiser finally shows up. You increase your odds with skill, but timing and some good luck do have their place in hunting. Over time, though greenhorns succeed, the skilled hunter will tilt the odds in his favor.

But bad luck has it' s place in the experience, too!

I wonder how many bucks I' ve missed because I turned my head and he walked behind me; or I had to work at the last minute and couldn' t be there; or I chose one stand to sit in and the buck went to the other one; or the buck decided to bed down on the path I walked in on and I spooked him to a greenhorn road hunter; Or a buck that stands behing the tree until dark, then walks under me!

Isn' t deer hunting a wonderful experience. good or bad?

formula1

Where did my comments go? Oh well, here we go again:

The skill part of hunting is disecting your hunting property, searching and finding the patterns, food sources, big bucks you want to hunt, etc. Once you' ve put the odds in your favor by getting out there and doing the work then....

The luck of the game takes over. Being at your stand on the right day and time, and then hopefully all goes well. Sure, a greenhorn hunter kills a nice trophy every once in a while, but in the long run, the effort of the skilled hunter pays off. That' s my view and I' m sticking to it.

formula1

I give up!!

In short. with your hunting skills, you make your own luck.

C. Davis

You can learn what the deer is likely to do, but you cannot dictate when he will do it. And one thing I haven' t seen mentioned here is time on the stand.

After you have done everything you know how to do to put yourself in the best spot, and you pictured in your mind what might happen at your stand, I would say that a lot of smart hunters don' t give it time to happen.

This is especially true on opening day. How many hunters do you know get out before daylight on opening day, and roll back into camp at 9:30 or 10:00 because they expected to see a herd of deer at sun up? Heck, it seems like I see most of my deer between 8:00 and 10:30. I call it the " hot time." My rule on opening day is go prepared to sit all day. Don' t leave until you shoot what you have planned to shoot. Whether it be a doe for meat, or whatever has been making the biggest tracks around your stand. If you catch that buck trying to sneak back to his comfort zone at noon, I wouldn' t call it luck.

When you work hard in the off season, and put the time on the stand, I really don' t call it luck.

Now, the luck comes in to play when you are trying to get a good nights sleep before the alarm goes off at 4:00 a.m. in November.

C. Davis

wimp

Isolated success is luck. Continued, consistant success is skill/effort. Granted luck can come into play during any hunt at any time, but consistancy over years means you are more than just lucky.

Chubber

As Sun Tzu once said, " Fortune favors the bold"

Chubber