Steve Bartylla
5 year old buck +
I've seen so many factors that go into why things change from year to year that I don't even know where to begin. Sometimes, it's us and we don't even know it. darn near every hunter thinks they hunt smart. I know I always believed I did and continue to strive to. Still, I learned this past spring that the access I had for one of my stands allowed dang near every deer I was hunting to watch me walk in and climb the tree. That's obviously not smart hunting. In fact, it only took me doing it a couple times and the daylight pics of the two bucks using that area stopped and one of them left all together. I have no doubt that I, you know, "Mr. Professional How-Too Deer Hunting Expert" single handedly drove them to stop using it during daylight and even pushed the better of the two out of that area. At the time, I assumed their "patterns" just changed...Until I put the pieces together last spring and realized it was no doubt all me. I moved the stand site, altered access and just killed the biggest buck of my life there last sat afternoon...5.5, 173 5/8th, feeding a full hr before dark on the 2nd day of IL firearm season...And that's after hunting that stand several times before.
My point is that we can all often benefit from looking deeper in the mirror. Often times, we believe we are doing everything right, when, in that specific situation, we are really the problem. I know that applies to me more often than I'd care to admit, at least.
Another big one is what is going on with the properties around us. Several properties I manage, nearby farmers rotating crops has a big impact on what happens on the place I manage. On the stupid big properties I've managed, that doesn't matter nearly as much. On the 80-400 acre pieces, it's often a very big difference maker. Heck, I've had something as simple as a neighbors wife getting preggers have a big impact. She wasn't doing well (thankfully, everything worked out fine). So, her, her husband, their buddies that would mess around with them out in the woods, they pretty much stayed out of the woods that season. So, they weren't driving their deer over to my little piece. Just that caused a significant hiccup in mature buck sightings on that place. It was still a good year, but not the "great" yrs the owners had grown accustom to experiencing. If I hadn't been sharing intel with that specific neighbor, I'd have never had a clue why.
My point is that most all of us here try so darn hard to control everything we can, and I am supremely confident that helps a ton (at least when we're doing it "right"). Still, there are sooooooooooooooo many factors and sooooooooooo many variables that impact what we are trying to achieve that we're never going to understand "why" in an awful lot of cases. Worse yet, it often way too easy to jump to faulty conclusions on the true cause. Still, we keep trying to find those answers, eliminate the problems and we're better off in the long run.
I see all of this as being just like playing poker. You consistently try to make moves that up the odds and play the odds and you win far more in the long run than if you don't. Sure, you'll have the yrs where your pocket Ace, King doesn't hold up against the jack wagon that stayed n with 10, 3, but I'm still betting (or slow playing) the Ace, King every time. In the long run, I'm going to win a lot more...but sure not every time.
My point is that we can all often benefit from looking deeper in the mirror. Often times, we believe we are doing everything right, when, in that specific situation, we are really the problem. I know that applies to me more often than I'd care to admit, at least.
Another big one is what is going on with the properties around us. Several properties I manage, nearby farmers rotating crops has a big impact on what happens on the place I manage. On the stupid big properties I've managed, that doesn't matter nearly as much. On the 80-400 acre pieces, it's often a very big difference maker. Heck, I've had something as simple as a neighbors wife getting preggers have a big impact. She wasn't doing well (thankfully, everything worked out fine). So, her, her husband, their buddies that would mess around with them out in the woods, they pretty much stayed out of the woods that season. So, they weren't driving their deer over to my little piece. Just that caused a significant hiccup in mature buck sightings on that place. It was still a good year, but not the "great" yrs the owners had grown accustom to experiencing. If I hadn't been sharing intel with that specific neighbor, I'd have never had a clue why.
My point is that most all of us here try so darn hard to control everything we can, and I am supremely confident that helps a ton (at least when we're doing it "right"). Still, there are sooooooooooooooo many factors and sooooooooooo many variables that impact what we are trying to achieve that we're never going to understand "why" in an awful lot of cases. Worse yet, it often way too easy to jump to faulty conclusions on the true cause. Still, we keep trying to find those answers, eliminate the problems and we're better off in the long run.
I see all of this as being just like playing poker. You consistently try to make moves that up the odds and play the odds and you win far more in the long run than if you don't. Sure, you'll have the yrs where your pocket Ace, King doesn't hold up against the jack wagon that stayed n with 10, 3, but I'm still betting (or slow playing) the Ace, King every time. In the long run, I'm going to win a lot more...but sure not every time.
