Hunting is a Grind

By Greg Tubbs | PUBLISHED October 12th 2021

Whitetail hunting can be a grind. Especially when you are just okay at it. To be honest with you. It’s been four years since I’ve filled a buck tag here in my home state. Work and home life affect what I choose to do, and I feel guilty for leaving home when I know my wife could really use my help or she wants to do something instead of staying home. Okayest Hunter tip: Get better at planning getaways with your wife and family. You need to bank some points for when you start grinding in the Whitetail woods.

Opportunity

Every year we get a couple of doe tags along with our buck tag. When the opportunity presents itself. I shoot does. I don’t feel the need to shoot a young buck if I have already taken two does. Killing a doe isn’t difficult if you know how the deer are traveling on the property. Put yourself between food and bedding, and you can succeed! Do a little scouting and find the heavily used trails. You will have encounters with does and young bucks. Get too close and play the wind wrong, and you will clear out the bedding.

Being Okay with being okay.

When you are hunting bedding. More than likely, you will spook deer out of their bed. There’s almost always more than one nose and two eyes in a bedding area. Deer will tare out of there and try to circle around to figure out what you are. If they haven’t gotten a visual. Don’t take this as a loss. You just learned something. The hard way. Don’t get upset and leave. Take this opportunity to get to know the area. Make a note of what the wind is doing that particular day. This, a lot of times, will be the reason why those deer are in that spot. Now you can figure out where to set up to catch them coming out of that bedroom in the future. Maybe next time you accidentally drop a climbing stick, and it goes crashing to the ground. It happens. Being silent in a bubble isn’t always easy. I’ve had this happen. The deer waited to get up at dark and busted me getting down on opening day this year. Lesson learned: be quieter and get in a bit closer.

Scout more. Hunt less.

We all get hung up on “I just want to hunt.” No matter what kind of property you are hunting/scouting, during the season can keep you in the game better than sitting in the same spot every outing. The best mobile hunters will tell you this every time.

This will help you find out where other hunters are and what the deer are doing to avoid the pressure. Recently I noticed a few things happening in my home stretch of the public. Trails into certain areas have been widened. Fewer deer tracks have been showing up on these trails. Trail cameras are popping up all over where I never used to see them. Marking tape and cat-eye tacks are everywhere. New trails are marked for someone to find their way in and out of places. The pressure is on!

What do you do?

Last season I decided to give up on an area because of the increased pressure and lack of sightings. It was more convenient to switch to a less pressured property. This year. I will use this to my advantage. Commitment to sticking it out isn’t easy! Patients is key, here! Being vigilant will help a hunter succeed in this environment. Now I just have to stick with it and find good deer sign.