Getting Discouraged

[Seahawk12]

An old hunting partner of mine who has retired from hunting due to health problems could always tell when I was getting discouraged.
He would look me in the eye and ask "Do you hear that? I hear deer! They're laughing at you."
He was fun like that. And no. I didn't cause the health problems.
Hunting big game animals is a challenge. They are survivors. The reason that the success rate for hunting is low is due to the tactics of the animals more so than the tactics of the hunters.
The best advice I could give you is to commit as much time as possible learning a large area.
Don't just know the clearcut. Know every path into it. Know the timber for a mile in every direction around it. Know the different ways around that hill or over that ridge with the knowledge that the weather is going to cause them to seek different areas within their home range.
I hunted an area a few years ago that I had not put enough time into. I knew where there was good food and water sources with good trails and sign. I set up a blind and hunted it for several days. Finally, I still hunted up the ridge above the area and found several well used beds. Looking down from those bedding areas I realised that they had great sight lines on everything going on below them. They had been watching me waiting for them down by those food sources and probably laughing at me.
Had i commited the time in the off season I would have known that my tactics weren't going to work in that spot and I would have gone in with a better plan.
So again. Rather than changing the place you hunt (unless there are overwhelming numbers of hunters) consider learning the place incredibly well.
Best of luck to you.

[jsnmac]

Don't get discouraged. Obviously the goal of hunting is the harvest of game. Therefore we hunt to fill our freezer and when we are not successful its disappointing. If you want to fill your freezer then go to Costco, there is a 100 percent success rate there. If you want to enjoy a nice and peaceful day in the woods, then get out and hunt.
Too often the measure of success we use for hunting is harvesting. Did you see any wildlife at all? Did you enjoy being outside in the wild? That's a successful hunt.
It took me three years to fill a tag. Just keep at it and enjoy the outdoors.

[ctwiggs1]

I've so been there.  Still there with elk.

Honestly it's a constant learning game.  I've killed two deer in the last two years now (hoping to fill my 2nd deer tag in early December, making that 3 deer in 2 years).  My buddy tagged a bear this year at our camp and will likely get both of his deer as well, and we're filling the freezer with tons of turkey between spring and fall. I can't remember the last time I scouted for bear or elk and didn't see big elk.  Honestly my biggest issue now is trying to figure out how to find the time to dedicate to the multiple hunts I want to do.  I dedicated time to deer and turkey this year, and guess what?  I tagged deer and turkey.  I didn't dedicate any real time to elk this year, and I didn't kill an elk.

If I could offer two pieces of advice:

1) Learn the animals.  Learn what makes them tick.  It'll narrow down where you want to scout and spend your time.  After that, SCOUT.  This is a tough state to learn how to hunt in.  Ask a ton of questions on this forum - people love to help.  Check out the WDFW Hunting Prospects and Harvest Reports.  That'll help you find out where others are successful and where the animals aren't. 

2) Invest TIME more than anything.  I don't know your strategy, but I can tell you I know a lot of guys who buy a $40 tag, leave Friday after work and hunt until Sunday around lunch time for the opener and that is it.  They kill an animal about once a decade on average.  I don't think it's a coincidence that the guys who are on here filling tags/freezers/ regularly are the ones who are dedicating a lot of time to their hunts.  It's not just another hobby to them - it's what they look forward to every season.

Keep your chin up.  If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.  And remember, a bad day in the woods is generally still better than your typical day in the office! 

Curtis

[Rustang662k]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I know that there is a lot of wisdom and experience behind it.


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[elkboy]

Hey Rustang-  Another thing to do is knock on some farm doors.  The major valleys on the west side do have farms of various kinds, and probably not all of the owners are pro-deer. 

As another posted, later in October can be better for blacktail, as they begin to pre-rut.  I have grunted them in at this time using a mule deer grunt call (the Primo's one is pretty good).  Also, the first storms of the fall can knock the broadleaf foliage down, opening up sight lines. 

The books by Louis Terkla and Boyd Iverson are gold for the serious blacktail hunter.  I highly recommend them. 
https://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Black-Tailed-Deer-Oregon-Perspective/dp/1878175181
https://www.amazon.com/Blacktail-Trophy-Tactics-Boyd-Iverson/dp/0963040502/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508172968&sr=1-2&keywords=boyd+blacktail

I had a lot of "non-successes" in my early years of hunting, which were on the west side of WA after blacktail deer.  I used the disappointment to motivate me to learn even more about deer, become a better marksman/woodsman, and generally improve as a hunter.  Keep after it.  I promise you that hunting blacktails is a multiple-year endeavor, and that it is ultimately worth it. 

Good luck to you! 

[JDHasty]

I usually tell people who tell me they haven't seen any blacktail:  Well they have seen you. 

Actually probably smelled or heard you, and identified you and they can and will sneak off w/o you knowing they were there.  The other thing is a blacktail can be standing right there looking through foliage at a guy and unless he knows what to look for he can't see it. 

It can seem counter intuitive when hunting in an area in which you cannot see fifty yards in any direction that your binocular is your friend, but believe me your binocular is your friend.  Your sniffer is not going to allow you to identify and pretty much locate a deer, your ears may be a bit better, I heard a buck moving past my stand Sunday morning (I checked the tracks after I quit the stand around noon), so your eyes are pretty much all you have going for you and a binocular makes the difference quite often between seeing a BT deer and not seeing it.   

[Igottanewknee]

Hunt hard the last weekend of October (and the 30th and 31st if you can get those days off).... the bucks will be moving, looking for love, and your chances will improve greatly!!
Good luck!

[fishsticks]

Good info, thanks for sharing!

[Alchase]

Have you noticed the same people come home with deer every year?
It is because they have figured out how to use the masses of people and deer instincts to their benefit.
You can be in the best deer area ever, and if you are not paying attention or taking precautions, you will never see a thing except by sheer chance.
I learned years ago, if you go where others do not, the deer will be there.
That does not necessarily mean seven miles in. That could be just a small transition zone that deer use when spooked. Believe me there are hundreds of these areas on a given mountain, you just need to find them.

[ctwiggs1]

Have you noticed the same people come home with deer every year?
It is because they have figured out how to use the masses of people and deer instincts to their benefit.
You can be in the best deer area ever, and if you are not paying attention or taking precautions, you will never see a thing except by sheer chance.
I learned years ago, if you go where others do not, the deer will be there.
That does not necessarily mean seven miles in. That could be just a small transition zone that deer use when spooked. Believe me there are hundreds of these areas on a given mountain, you just need to find them.

I've said it a thousand times - you get away from 90% of the hunters by walking a mile off the road.

[Alchase]

A few years ago, we were sitting in camp a watching a bowl up the mountain above us when we noticed a beautiful 4x4  muley bedded at the base of a tree. No way we could make it up the mountain before dark, so we just watched.
After about 10 minutes, two hunters walked down a trail within 15 feet up hill of the buck, talking the whole time. The buck waited until they were past him, and he snuck out the behind them with his nose up and head back.
They never saw him.

[boneaddict]

And you can be the best hunter in the world, but you aren’t going to kill anything if there isn’t anything to kill.    The herd in Methow Valley specifically, and maybe Okanogan county for the most part is in the worst shape I’ve ever seen it.   That’s a good 40 years of paying attention.   It wasn’t too long ago, the skeptics were accusing us that we were just doomsdayers, or the Sky is falling types.  The doe killers were happily filling their freezers.   Now you must pay the piper.

[Tiger1358]

Have you noticed the same people come home with deer every year?
It is because they have figured out how to use the masses of people and deer instincts to their benefit.
You can be in the best deer area ever, and if you are not paying attention or taking precautions, you will never see a thing except by sheer chance.
I learned years ago, if you go where others do not, the deer will be there.
That does not necessarily mean seven miles in. That could be just a small transition zone that deer use when spooked. Believe me there are hundreds of these areas on a given mountain, you just need to find them.

 

[Cervid]

And you can be the best hunter in the world, but you aren’t going to kill anything if there isn’t anything to kill.    The herd in Methow Valley specifically, and maybe Okanogan county for the most part is in the worst shape I’ve ever seen it.   That’s a good 40 years of paying attention.   It wasn’t too long ago, the skeptics were accusing us that we were just doomsdayers, or the Sky is falling types.  The doe killers were happily filling their freezers.   Now you must pay the piper.

I saw more coyote sign than deer sign in Pearrygin. Couldn't believe how much. Heard them almost every night too. I might be going back this weekend with an electronic call to shoot as may as I can.

[brew]

being patient is the key but i know it sucks when rifle hunting because of the limited amount of time you have to hunt them.  I've rifle hunted western wa for more years than a lot of members on this site have been alive and have only killed one buck on opening weekend--mostly because i tend to avoid it because of the cluster "f" it normally is.  the vast majority of the blacktail bucks i have killed during modern season have been the last 4-5 days of October and the final 4 days or so of late season the middle of November. We've had opportunites on smaller bucks earlier in the season but have passed holding out for a bigger deer.  Take this past Saturday for example--We have a Vail permit and a couple guys in our hunting party took does in the archery season.  i didn't want to head that far back in on opening morning so 3 of us left my house at 630.  we went to a closer area and legal light was 655---at 700 we saw a spike just off the road but decided to let it walk.  hunted an area until 945 and saw no other deer.  drove/hunted our way deep and right about noon rolled up on a nuclear clear cut (you know the kind that was logged last year with no trees growing in it over a foot tall).  saw a big doe about 200 yards out and watched her for 15 minutes then she bedded down in the only clump of fireweed within 75 yards of her.  about that time 3 other deer came walking over the hill.  one was a spike and we decided to pass on that as well.  those 3 deer walked up to within arms lenght of where the first doe bedded and laid down.  about that time another truck came rumbling down the road behind us and saw us standing out in the road.  they asked us if we had seen anything and we told them that there was 3 does and a spike bedded down in a patch of fireweed and i pointed out where they were.  the gal in the truck said she had a doe tag and told them there were 3 does and a spike bedded down in this patch that if they continued up the road they would be about 90 yards from them.  i pointed out the clump they were beeded and they slowly went up the road.  expecting them at any minute to jump out and open fire...they pulled up to that area and sat in their truck for a munite then drove on.. we couldn't belive it.  sat there for another 10 minutes then drove up there and were able to pick the bedded deer out with our binos still sitting there.  couldn't understand whey they didn't shoot...drove on and continued the hunt as we didn't want to shoot this early in the season.  ran into those hunters about two hours later and asked them why they didn't shoot.  they laughed it off and told us they didn't see any deer there.  tried to convince them that i wasn't B.S. ing them and the deer where still there after they drove by...don't really know if they believed us or not...Moral of the story is to use your binocs and when you are convinced there are no deer around glass the area again.  i've seen a lot of deer that are bedded down after a group of hunters have gone by...you would have not thought that a group of deer would be wondering around one of these clear cuts at noon but they do...i've never seen a mature buck do this but there are plenty of hunters don't hold for them.