At the risk of losing fans in Maryland and Ohio, I have a confession to make: I am a big Pittsburgh Steelers football fan. I’m also a big fan of the Steelers’ head coach, Mike Tomlin. His approach to maintaining high standards is something I’ve always tried to emulate. For those unaware, this will be the first time since 2004 that a quarterback not named Ben Roethlisberger will be under center for Pittsburgh. When recently asked about the QB situation, Tomlin responded that he is ‘excited about being uncomfortable’ as the team figures out who their new offensive leader will be.
Man, I with I could say I brought that sentiment to everything in my life. Being uncomfortable with the unknown is truly where growth happens. I know that it’s cliché, but a phrase become cliché because it’s true and thus gets said so many times. In every aspect of life, I can choose complacency or discovery. Hunting is no different. I can go to the same spots and strategies over and over, or I can venture into something unknown. For a Basic Hunter, I commend to you of striking out into the unknown. It’s harder and it’s got more problems but sometimes you find a whole new way of achieving success. There are a few ways to more easily overcome the problems inherent with the unknown.
Preparations A Through G Were A Complete Failure
Apropos of the subheading of this article, having a good Plan A is important to hunting or scouting. What is EQUALLY as important are having a good Plans B, C, D, etc. When Plan A is no longer a good option, having a good plan B will help you avoid sticking with a Plan A that has turned sour. The heart and soul of the idea of hunting the best spot is to do enough homework ahead of time to minimize the chance that your plan goes awry, but there are absolutely times when it will happen. Better to accept it and be prepared than be surprised and whine about it later.
I can think of a time when I first started archery hunting. I was feeling confident as I walked in to a public land spot and got set up an hour before shooting light. As the light turned from black to gray, I was excited to hear steps walking down the trail. My excitement turned quickly to frustration as I saw another hunter set up a hundred yards away from me. I had put all of my eggs into that basket, and had no where else to go. I went from a hunter to a guy who took his bow for a walk in the woods. I’m less disgusted with the other hunter setting up that close to me and more disgusted with me not making a move to improve my situation.
Guidelines Instead of Rules
After learning that lesson the hard way, I now try to have at least three different options whenever I go do some hunting or scouting. Admittedly, I don’t spend as much time preparing plans B or C as I do plan A. For example, when I make a plan to go hunt, I consider as much as I possibly can. I look up what time shooting light begins or ends, how long it will take for me to hang my stand (based on pre-set or hang and hunt), how long it will take for me to get to the spot based on wind direction or whether deer can see me, how long it will take to drive to the spot, and then add fifteen minutes to be safe. And that’s just one factor of the timing of the hunt.
Plans B and C don’t get that kind of attention. I rely on my fundamental knowledge and hunting skills to make the best of a plan B. Plan B means Plan A has been toasted and any detailed plan I would have made for Plan B wouldn’t apply anyway. What Plan B gives me is an immediate option to consider when Plan A goes south. In the example of the other hunter moving in on my spot, I now have an immediate alternative to my current situation beyond pouting about my bad luck.
Default Aggressive
Growing up, hunting meant sitting on a bale of straw in the same half-dozen places year after year. As I wrote in another article, I took that same approach to my archery hunting, and I have dubbed it my Sit, Hope In Tree strategy. I cringe at the missed learning opportunities of that approach. It’s not that being passive or cautious are poor strategies. They can be the right way to go if you have a dynamite spot that produces year over year, or if you’re being ultra conservative trying to connect with a cagey old deer.
A Basic Hunter will usually not find themselves in either of those situations. Our time is limited, and being as efficient as possible is the name of the game. We might only get a handful of times out in the woods, so we cannot afford to be cautious. That’s why we must be Default Aggressive. I am borrowing this term from former Navy Seal Jocko Willink, who used it in ways you would logically applicable ways to a Navy Seal platoon. The basic idea is that when all things are equal and people have the option to either wait and see what happens or press the issue of a situation, people generally will wait and see. It is a low-risk, low-reward option, but it is also safe.
As a Basic Hunter, I’m advocating that other Basic Hunters do the opposite of playing it safe. When all things are equal, push further into the spot. Try that new hunting tactic. Scout that new terrain. It will be new, you will probably make mistakes and you will definitely bump some deer. More importantly, however, you will give yourself a better chance at success and if you have the right attitude, you will always learn something from being aggressive. I’m not saying to be stupid about your fundamentals; I’m saying that when you aren’t sure what to do next and both the aggressive and safe route seem equally plausible, take the aggressive path.
I’ll summarize the point I’m trying to make with a recent scouting trip I took. It’s an area inside a hunt zone near a major metropolitan area. There are a few reasons I am interested in this area. First, their archery season comes in two weeks earlier than the rest of the state. Second, I know I have a work trip to that area that will leave me with the possibility of hunting that area on the first evening. Third, they always have copious amounts of extra doe tags, which matches my goals. Finally, if I ever did take an out-of-state hunting trip, I could use this as a test of my long distance scouting mettle.
In the heat of a June day, I had about six hours to scout. Using the hunting spot funnel, I marked up two different properties I wanted to check out on my maps. One was the only public land spot within 50 miles and the other was a possible permission property. I planned out my trip, got my cameras, chains, locks and batteries ready, and brought plenty of water. I felt confident in my preparation for this new venture.
Unfortunately, that’s where the confidence ended. My first stop of the morning was to the farm on which I wanted to gain permission. I had just missed the farmer, who went out to complete some chores. One of his hands told me he’d be back in a couple of hours. I left my permission slip with my name and number and told the farm hand I’d be back.
The farm is one of the last holdouts from selling off to a development company, which means it’s surrounded by suburban neighborhoods. My theory was that the deer hid during the day in the wood lots of the ‘burbs, fed on the azaleas and gardens, and then headed for the lone ag field in the area on this farm. My suspicions were confirmed by the electric fence that surrounded the entire farm. Combined with the three ladder stands I could see just from the road, I could tell the property was well covered with hunters.
I set off for the public land spot a few miles away. My biggest concern with this area was the competition I would face from other hunters and outdoorsfolk. Even though it was June, the first parking lot had two trucks parked there with dog kennels and one with a horse trailer on the back of it. I immediately scratched off any potential spot that was close to the trails. That left two areas I wanted to check out.
The first was a southern-facing ridge that looked like it had a nice transition of hardwood benches that came up off of a large, swampy drainage creek. This was the only bright spot of the day. I found multiple scrapes, old acorns, and a few rubs. Since I was primarily targeting does in this area, I set up a camera to soak for the summer. One of the best feelings about this was that in my e-scouting on OnX, I had placed a pin almost right on top of where I hung my camera. It was about the only upper in a day of downers.
I went back to the farm a few hours later, only to find absolutely no one around. I left another note with my name and number but had basically written that spot off completely. This is where I had a choice to make. I had one more spot on my list to check. I was hot, sweaty, tired, and discouraged. The A/C of my truck was divine. Preparations A through G had almost all been failures. I wanted to badly to just go home.
But I decided to be aggressive. I wanted to know for sure about this last spot. I didn’t want to wonder ‘what’s over there?’ I took the drive back to the public land, hiked up the mosquito-infested ridge in thick cover. While I did kick up a bedded doe, I just could not figure out how I would be able to access that ridge without alerting all of the deer to my presence on my way up. Private land backed up the other side of the ridge. I did not hang any cameras up there. Dud.
But, at least I knew. I learned many things, even if the day didn’t go as planned. I walked away from that day with one potential spot and many others that I would not waste my time on like I had done so many times before. I knew for certain those spots wouldn’t work, and I spent a few hours aggressively discovering that rather than wondering or carefully working my way in. Besides, sometimes those crazy aggressive and well-planned out moves pay off, as I’ll describe in more detail next week.