lol. my bad. thought I did.
No idea how to give up
- Thread starter Shazbutt-Steve
- Start date
I hunted hard on lots of hunts before I started hunting smart and killing. now the hard generally don't come till after the kill.
GASoline71
Member
I live in Western WA, and harvest a deer about every year or 2. If you're just out walking in the woods hoping to find game. You're hunting the wrong areas. You have to do your homework, and have to hunt where the deer are. WDFW has a lot of hrvest and habitat info on their website. Winter kill, predation, hunting pressure (how many hunters and hunter days in a given GMU), how many animals are harvested (broken down from antlerless up and beyond 6 point bucks). You just gotta put in the time do do a little research and then go where the animals are. Not saying this makes it EZPZ Lemon Squeezy, but it sure as hell ups your odds!
I'd never give up hunting... It's in my blood and I'm continuing that tradition with my Stepson and Grandson.
Gary
I'd never give up hunting... It's in my blood and I'm continuing that tradition with my Stepson and Grandson.
Gary
Shazbutt-Steve
Member
Exactly! But I never will. My dad still goes grouse hunting in Pennsylvania. He doesn't take his shotgun anymore. Never sees a bird, or if he's lucky he see's one. He claims he goes for the dogs but I think he goes because he's not ready to die and his only other "hobby", woodworking, makes him feel claustrophobic after a while. He backed himself in a corner with an obligation to hunt. And I followed his footsteps. It could be worse. I know people addicted to the same drugs their parents did and that's their life.
Shazbutt-Steve
Member
I don't know what an OP is but I'm definitely not hunting smart. I have no idea how to make it smarter besides taking info down of the deer I see on summer hikes and laying down apples once a week in August, clearing runways and setting up a shooting spot I can hike to when opening day comes. I really don't want to go this route. I need to find someone with an orchard and a need to ex out a few deer but I've got a feeling most of those people charge for such an opportunity. I'm headed to Idaho for the last week. I'll find places to glass, I'll get in before sun up and stay put and move when there's nothing and try to use pressure if I can. I'll give it 3 days and if there's zero deer I'll head back to the coast and go where I saw those does and hope an early rut has got a young buck wandering.
Shazbutt-Steve
Member
I bought a point this year and will put in for a tag next year.
Shazbutt-Steve
Member
I'll keep at it. Went to a couple RMEF meetings. There's not much for glassing on the coast. I sat in 4 clearcuts for a whole day each for 4 days. that's two weekends I waisted and saw nothing. I went from Willamina to Tillamook to Zig Zag to Manzanita and last weekend Detroit. I saw deer in the thick stuff at dawn and in the afternoon. I saw deer cross the road at sun down and in mid morning. I never saw deer in the open. Last weekend I saw one decent buck big enough to be a whitetail. I was driving. He literally came up onto the road and turned around and went right back to where he came from in a flash. Didn't even look in my direction. I walked over there. It was a cliff. 70% grade at best. He came all the way up there and bailed right back down and was gone. There was no pursuing and the closet road in that direction was on the other side of the canyon. I was just happy to see there were deer up there but that was the only deer I saw for 3 days. I'd hire a guide if I could afford it but I'd want to pick a different location than where he/she takes people so I could see how they figure out the area.
Shazbutt-Steve
Member
I'd have to research. Got a DUI when I was young over 20 years ago. Canada is strict and doesn't let that stuff go. But yes. I plan on flying in for a Sitka hunt in a couple of years because the meat can fit in one cooler. I'd treat it like a sight seeing tour and carry a riffle just incase.
Shazbutt-Steve
Member
I've never got a reply from any of the outfitters I emailed. I want to choose the location in the unit. Not specifically but just out of their comfort zone. I want to see this outfitter break down the hunt. I want to tent camp and care for my own meals and I want to learn. They seem to cater. It appears to be set up in a place they know well with breakfast cooked and dinner made by them and a big tent with a wood stove and that's why it's $5000 bucks. That's cool but not what I want. I'll get it.... Or I won't A lot of me thinks it's not experience and technique that creates success but finding common areas and never going anywhere else once there's success. Utilizing that area again and again. There's probably one or two people that go anywhere and have success. My hat goes off to them. I know two that are always successful every year where-ever, but they often drive a lot and hike but will shoot from the road from the truck with no conviction and that's an upper hand. And I feel like I'd give up a part of me I could never get back if I did that. I may need to change my moral compass but for now it's still intact.Unfortunately, Shazzbut, you are lending more insight into the darkness of depression.
Perhaps you should book a hunt with a highly successful elk outfitter, achieve hunt success, fill your freezer, and once again smile.
'Wish for better days ahead.
ashersdad
Well-known member
Western Oregon can be really tough, especially if that's not what you grew up hunting. I didn't grow up here so I hunt Eastern Oregon and out of state. One thing that has really helped me was to get to know a few areas in state or out of state really well that I know I can get a tag for on a pretty regular basis. Here in Oregon I put in for an elk unit where you can draw a spike tag with your second choice. If I draw my first choice(any bull), I go hunt that area. If I draw the spike tag, I'll hunt it if I don't have an elk tag for any other state. This year I had a Wyoming elk tag so I didn't go on the Oregon spike hunt. But, I know the areas well enough that usually getting an elk in 5 days is not a problem. I do pretty much the same thing with deer and antelope. I put in for hard to draw tags in other states but have a few areas either in state or out of state that I can draw on a pretty consistent basis and know the area well enough to have a pretty decent chance of filling my tag. I guess my point is, if you have areas that you get to know really well and have confidence you can realistically fill a tag on a regular basis, I think you'll be happier knowing the freezer is going to get filled every year. And definitely don't change your moral compass. Never worth doing that.
As asherdad said, hunting western Oregon is tough. Personally I love it but I have been doing it for better than 50 years so maybe I have learned a thing or two to make it a little easier. I'd say put in for eastern Oregon tags. You might find it a little less frustrating. Also I have never hunted northwestern Oregon but I have spent a lot of time working in the Willamette NF and I have seen plenty of Blue Grouse. Just go high and hike the edges of clear cuts. You don't need a dog because they usually sit tight on the ground or in a tree until you are right on them. They are a blast. Taste great too.
EsotericPA
New member
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2019
- Messages
- 11
deer_shooter
Well-known member
There are a lot of hunts you can do that are higher odds that what you are experiencing. Definitely put in for Wyoming antelope and look at the easy draw mule deer general tags to for a good combo hunt. Colorado has some decent deer hunting in low point units. If you haven't started buying Colorado deer points you should. I'd also start researching Montana deer hunts also.
Shazbutt-Steve
Member
I am familiar with a lot of coastal units in Oregon. Some of them I can hunt without a GPS I know them so well. The deer I see in a summer mushroom hunt are never there when I have a bow or rifle. I can't glass of coarse. It's freaking frustrating but I can get to many of these places if I leave work early on a week day and that seems worth it until I'm seeing nothing halfway through the season and sending emails to deer farms asking how much they'd sell me a whole deer for (which none of them will by the way and no food bank has responded, at this point I think donations either never happen or are round filed and made to look like they happen). I put in for eastern Oregon so I have 2 points so far for deer. I put in for a general season tag in Idaho but have not chose any good places or times to go leaving me even more frustrated since it's not cheap. I was awarded a cow tag in Idaho last year. I saw elk on private at night and never in the day. There was an unbelievable amount of people up there both hunting and logging. It was insane. Going back there is a 12 hour drive. I get a week to get it done. So far the lesson has been stay near home and figure it out since I waste tons of time attempting to learn a place in another time zone and most of that time is driving. I asked to be laid off of work during Sept-November but it's not happening and I'm supposed to feel grateful to have a week to go hunt but I feel pressured and under the gun. I sleep very little, take beer but forget to drink it, and eat less than normal trying to figure it out all the while hearing the clock tick. This is the most frustrating thing I've done to myself. I get all of these tags and in August I'm in a delusional world of what to do with all this meat I'm going to get. By October 31st I'm exhausted, in need of a shave and spending even more money throwing in on a cow or pig with friends that never got into hunting and wonder why I never get anything.
I've got four days to get a cow elk. It starts Saturday for me. It's in Eastern Or. I'm driving up there Friday night and backpacking in where ever I have access. I should be able to see up there. We will see what happens. Thanks for your suggestions. I've got one point in Wyoming for antelope right now. I'll probably get one more next year and try for some units with good access. I was reluctant about deer, but I might as well start buying points for them too. I'll probably skip Idaho next year. It's a catch 22 because I'm choosing a place to hunt even further away from where I've been and I've never been there. Any logical man would quit. Golfing in the sand sucks. If that's all you do year after year you drop it and pick up bowling. You don't get a membership at a club twice as far as the last place you played just to get stuck in the woods or in a creek instead of the sand....
Shazbutt-Steve
Member
So I'm up to 2 points on Antelope and 1 pt each for elk and deer. I feel like in 2022 I'll put in for pronghorn and the following year I'll put in for deer.
Irrelevant
Well-known member
There is almost zero reason to have antelope points if you want to hunt antelope. Success rates even on 100% success 0 point units are still incredibly high.
Shazbutt-Steve
Member
I bought tags and went. I wasn't going to buy a tag this year but I made friends with some Idaho residents and we'll go the last week of this month. I was so pissed off in my last Oregon hunt this year I left and went home early (last Saturday). I had a strong desire to give my Idaho tag to someone that could use it but upon further review it's only legal to transfer a tag to your kids. So I'm going.
Shazbutt-Steve
Member
Are you sure? I looked on their website and the eastern units are non accessible public closed in by private so it's pay to trespass, and the middle state units take 3 or more points. What did I get wrong?
Shazbutt-Steve
Member
I've been thinking about some type of Alaska trip. Seems like it's hard to figure out logistics. I'll probably fly. Got a DUI when I was a kid in 1996 and Canada is super strict.
