I hadn’t been in my stand for long before irritation began setting in. The situation was terrible, one that no hunter in his right mind would ask for – and it was getting worse. Here I was, sitting in my climber stand, swaying back and forth in the 30 mph wind gusts that tore at my jacket. Waves of rain came and went, chilling me to the bone as I hunkered down in my stand. Although I had anticipated an uncomfortable sit, I hadn’t expected to face the miserable conditions in which I found myself. My mind became increasingly pessimistic as the seconds ticked by, and, despite the rut just beginning to commence, I began to wish I was elsewhere.
It had been my impression that I was the only idiot in the woods stupid enough to be active, so it was to my mild astonishment when several does walked into the draw in which I was hunting. As I scrutinized their behavior, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they seemed relatively relaxed – instead of skittish actions, they behaved as if the wind and the rain were absent. But as the elements continued to beat down upon me, my will to persist slowly drained. In my mind, the chances of bagging a buck were incredibly slim to none; as a result, I wanted the hunt to end.
As I threw a glance over at the does, a pulse of new life shot through my body. A mature 10 point had just walked into the draw, his dogged approach upon the very trail that led right in front of my tree. For a second, I sat stunned. The conditions were horrible – 30 mph wind gusts ripped through the trees, amplified by sporadic surges of rain. Why in the world would any buck travel through such terrible weather? I didn’t care about the answer – he was coming, and fast.
I quickly stood up and grabbed my bow, adrenaline beginning to pour through my body. The buck steadily continued, never even glancing my way. As I drew the string and rested the pins on his moving body, I attempted to stop him with a “Mah!”, but the wind swept away the sound. I rapidly decided to forget about stopping him, since he was now just 10 yards away from me. As soon as my top pin found its destination address, I touched the release, and watched as the arrow zipped through his vitals.
It’s a common principle in the deer hunting world that you can’t bag a big buck if you aren’t out hunting him. Big, mature bucks don’t often wander into back yards and present coach potatoes with a shot opportunity – they tend to be elusive, even during the rut. Yet, despite this fact, it seems that many hunters talk themselves out of many days of hunting, with excuses ranging from weather conditions to time conflictions. While some of these complications may actually pose a legitimate issue to hunting on a given day, let’s be completely honest for a second – not all of them do.
Let’s face it – we all like to hunt on the perfect days, when everything is just right; the temperature, the wind speed and direction, the clear skies, and so forth. But how often do those perfect days come by? Not very often. Most days possess at least one of the promising conditions, but rarely do they contain them all. Consequentially, it becomes very easy to persuade oneself that the hunt will not be worth it. Instead of wasting our time in a tree, we may as well do something else, right?
Wrong.
Some of the biggest bucks I’ve ever had the opportunity to harvest came along in the most unlikely situations. Few times have I harvested a mature buck in the perfect conditions – most often, something was left to be desired, yet I was still successful. Had I decided against hunting on the days that didn’t seem worth it, many of my trophy bucks would never have been harvested.
Don’t get me wrong – I am in no way saying that hunting on the bad days will produce better results than the good days, or that you will always be successful on the bad days. Quite the contrary; most of the time, the bad days will produce nothing. But if you count out the unfavorable days, you count out possible opportunities at your trophy buck. Had I decided to stay out of the 30 mph wind gusts and rain that day, I would have completely missed the buck that, against all odds, walked right into my setup. Most hunters would have thought twice about hunting in those conditions, myself certainly included; but remember this – you will not harvest your trophy buck if you do not put in the effort to do so.
Think logically. Is it likely that you will bag that big buck if you’re leaning back on your coach watching Netflix? No, it is not. So get out and hunt anyway, regardless of the adverse situation. Always remember that, despite unfavorable conditions, success can be right around the corner – and the only way to find out is to get out and hunt.