Failing Seven Out of Ten Times Puts You in Cooperstown
Put Yourself Into Position to be Successful
You may have heard the title of this article before. It’s an oft repeated adage which demonstrates that hitting a baseball at the professional level is a hard thing to do. Those who are considered to be the best ever only bat roughly .300, meaning they did not get a hit 70% of their career. This idea also applies to hunting, and to be honest, I don’t think most people are killing a deer three out of ten times they head out to the woods. I’d rather not know that actual number.
What I do want to remember is that there are so many factors outside of our control when it comes to hunting. I recently hunted on nearby public land when I was reminded all too well of this fact. I had a rare evening to hunt and after confirming the daylight presence of my target deer, headed out to a scrape area on the outskirts of a swamp. I settled into my tree saddle with a few hours of daylight left.
Within half an hour, I heard definitively bipedal footsteps coming down the hillside toward my spot. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who wanted to hunt this spot. I gave this other hunter a quick whistle and short wave and thankfully, he saw me from 100 yards away. He returned my wave and graciously moved to a different area. I was thankful for the consideration because I’ve had guys set up 75 yards away from me knowing full well I was there. It was early enough in the afternoon and he didn’t head in the direction from which I thought the deer would come, so I was not overly worried.
Then I heard the pheasant hunters on the ridge above me roughly 300 yards away. I wasn’t concerned with them moving in my direction since they were pushing through an overgrown field, but wow did they make a ton of noise. Between the dogs barking, hunters shouting and shotguns blasting away, I had to convince myself that any deer in the swamp were probably used to this type of activity and would wait until last light to move toward the apple orchard scrapes.
That turned out to be the script they followed. Being in such tight quarters and hardly any visibility, any little snap of a twig or rambunctious squirrel had me reaching for my bow. My range finder was pointless as any shot window I had was easily inside of 20 yards. With 20 minutes before end of legal shooting time (which is basically dark down in a swamp apple orchard), I heard the steps of a deer. When he was 15 yards away, I finally caught a glimpse of antlers heading toward the scrape. I grabbed my bow, ready for the quick encounter.
As he stepped into the scrape, it did not take me long to count his points. Hunting this particular area of Pennsylvania means we have antler restrictions. A buck must have three one-inch points on one side of its antlers, not including the brow tine. This little four point was far from legal. I settled down and waited for him to look away to hang my bow back up. He was the only buck to come through that evening.
While I obviously hoped for a bigger buck, I counted this hunt as a win. I followed my process. I knew where the deer were bedding, where they were going, found a good staging area with food and buck sign, and had confirmed it was being used by target deer. I set up quietly and with good wind. I had put myself in position for success, and had a buck come in just as I had planned.
Unfortunately, it was not a buck I was after. Sometimes that happens and luck is not on our side. But I took it as a confidence builder, and I encourage you to do the same. I know that if I execute enough times this season, luck will eventually be on my side. That’s the name of the game – put yourself in position to succeed and eventually you will…especially as the rut approaches!