I appreciate the words of wisdom and stories in this thread. Myself I have a 2 year old boy who is my world, but I find it very difficult to do day trips on the weekends when it is my only time to spend with him except for evenings. He's still to young to take out all day, and it truly tugs at my heart when I am coming in on 6-7 hours of sitting with no results.
That said I got out for a weekend a couple of weeks ago and totally blew a stalk on some whitetails that I was convinced was a sure thing..... as I tried to get up to them I had such tunnel vision I didn't see the 20 others bedded between us.... Life lessons.
I grew up spoiled and never thought hunting was this difficult. My father didn't hunt any big game besides moose and there was never a season as a kid that we didn't tag out at least one moose with marginal effort....and of course once again this season as every other one I can remember for 30 years, my father drove into his spot, got out, set up his chair and in 30 minutes had a bull on the ground....lol
I just took up hunting again a few seasons ago after a lengthy layoff and everytime I'm out there it seems the learning curve is as steep as always.
What has been really frustrating for me is the days I go in to check my cameras, you would think the deer have me GPS tracked, they'll be there 5 minutes before I walk in, 5 minutes after I leave and all day when I'm not in my blind..... dancing and laughing
I guess perseverance is the real ticket. I tend to fish a lot and I think this upcoming year I will curtail my fishing and just scout every chance I have. I figure if I get 30 days in the field before hunting season I should have some of these patterns figured out.
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