Do you hunt with or have hunted with someone that always seems to get a nice one each season?

We hunt with someone in our hunting group that is that guy. For years I always laughed when other members of our group would say, man he has a horseshoe up his ass. I think I heard it the most this year and it has got me thinking…
Now, not to say other members of our group don’t get a nice trophy or the biggest buck here and there. The thing that is different with our horseshoe friend is he consistently connects. Doesn’t matter if it’s with a bow or gun, public or private land, he always makes it happen and usually it’s a dandy.

He has multiple 160”+ public land Whitetails, with a few closing in 190”. We have been hunting together for close to 20 years and I never really noticed it as much as I did this year. Looking back over the years, I can’t really say he does anything special or cutting edge, but is an above average hunter from a skills standpoint.

He is very good and reading sign, terrain and understanding movement. The biggest thing that I think is driving his success is his positivity. He is very happy and cracking jokes constantly. If someone else shoots an animal and needs help, he is on the way to help them right away. He puts up stands for other people running late or will even scout areas for other hunters a head of time.

So, do you have you hunt with or have hunted with someone like this? What have you attributed to their success?

Thanks,
Matt

My best friend is like that. He wants to kill so bad he almost wills it to happen. Sometimes pisses me off because I “know” the effort will be wasted, but then [bleep] just happens for him. He’s a great hunter.

When I was much younger, one of the local guys always killed a pretty big mule deer buck every year, when most killed small to average bucks in the same local mountains.

Turned out his "secret" was to wait until the rut got going, then hike into areas where he knew lots of does lived--after enough snow fell to make sneaking up on a rut-dazed buck easier. (Earlier in the season those bucks lived much higher on the same mountains.)

But aside from knowing the seasonal patterns of local deer, he didn't pull the trigger on a smaller buck.

I think the hunter has an advantage over the shooter.

Yep.

I know a guy like this that kills some monster whitetails consistently. When I asked him for advice on what he does to make him successful he told me " you don't kill a big one by shooting a little one". He also said you'll never kill one sitting on your couch. He is patient and devotes a large amount of time to being in the woods. He makes his own luck. I've learned allot from him.

It's been my experience that luck really is when opportunity and preparation intersect.

my dad knew a guy in PENN who tagged a good sized buck almost every year and a black bear every few years. He was an older gentleman and always hunted by himself. When he was hanging out in the bars in the evening, guys would approach him and want to hunt with him. He would give them a blank stare and change the subject.

Every person I know who kills big bucks and bulls regularly does so on purpose. They are all methodical in their approach and they all have a couple things in common. They all say the proverbial “you’ll never kill a big one if you kill a little one” and they ALL know how to glass, they are proficient with their rifles, and they are where they are supposed to be before it even thinks about getting daylight, and they stay out until it’s too dark to see.

He said " He worked harder than a homely girl on her honeymoon night."

^ ^ ^ pretty much the essence of success ^ ^ ^ right there


JMHO- my personal motto regarding hunting methods is
to hunt your own hunt, and let me hunt mine. I've yet to
carry a deer to a taxidermist, even some of the "nice " ones
If a person wants to hunt for large antlered animals, that's
golden with me. My "trophies " are full freezer bags, and
the memories I made experiencing my time in the woods.
I don't fret over what the guy minutes or hours away from
me is doing while hunting, and expect the same courtesy
from others

Good Luck- Have Fun

I’m not a gun writer and I hope you guys don’t think I’m a know it all. I started having much more success when I started making a “plan”. I look at the weather and habitat-environment conditions and think if I was an game animal, where would I go? Hunting pressure, rut activity, crop land conditions, wind speed and directions all have a big impact on where game is going to be. When you have a “plan”, it is much easier to stay positive, expect to be successful and be ready when the moment of truth happens.

Get off you ass and go where the game is, or is going to go, not where the " hunting" is unless you are using the unwashed as unwitting drivers

Patience, grasshopper! I'm gonna try that latter sometime .......

its better to be lucky than good, but the better you are the "luckier" one is likly to be

+1 on full freezers and having fun…..

Spend 60 to 90 days a year "afield".

Sometimes one gets lucky!

ya!

GWB

I have a friend who’s killed a nice buck every year for a long time. I also know a number of guys who’ve never killed a good one. They shoot the first legal buck they see every year. If that’s how you operate, the odds are you’ll never get a good one.

I know "lucky" guys who are always the ones to win the guns at the charity raffles or who always get the coveted door prizes at the banquets. I can't win a thing. But in my experience the ones who succeed in the field are the ones who have put in the work (staying fit, scouting, planting food plots, etc.), and/or understand the "how's, when's and why's" of hunting that put them in the position to get "lucky".

Luck trumps skill any day, at least that's my motto.

Making your mind up to kill mature animals is everything but you also have to hunt where there are mature animals.

Luck plays a big part but the above makes the odds better.

You have to make your mind up that you want mature animals and don't shoot the first average buck that comes along.

The more hours in the woods the better your odds.

I go in 30-45 minutes before daylight and sit until 20 or 30 minutes after legal shooting light. Legal light here is 30 minutes after sunset so I am in about an hour after sunset.

ALL DAY SITS.

I start the all day deal from around Halloween until the end of our firearms season. I believe it is 5 of my last 6 bucks have been killed from 10:30sh through 2:30/3:30.

May eat tag soup this year if I don't get a crack at a good one in alternative season that starts somewhere around Christmas day until Jan 4. No biggie though as the 2 I passed opening morning will just be bigger next year as long as the survived this firearms season.

My brother once told my son that he’s as “lucky as a dawg with two dicks” lol

Yep. I've always joked that I'd rather be lucky than good; it seems that quite often, I'm neither!

I've also heard: "the harder you hunt, the luckier you get"

The guy I've been deer hunting with for the past 15 years is the luckiest [bleep] on the planet during deer season. We hunt the same plot of ground, sit in the same blinds.

I can count about half a dozen times where we've been out, maybe 150-200 yards apart. Pow! He's got a dead deer 40 yards from the blind... then I proceed to not see jack monkey fugnuts in range for the entire rest of the week.

He puts in maybe 10% of the time I do hunting the same places at the same times and gets 3x the deer I do. Fuggin voodoo magic or some [bleep]. 🤷‍♂️

Life long friend who just kills big animals every year has always had problems with his feet.

He Has to walk/stalk much slower than the rest of us.
His movement is very minimal.

That is our conclusion over seeing decades of his personal success.

There isn’t much that a rock solid positive mental attitude & helpful spirit doesn’t multiply.

Edited to add that being ready to get & stay cold doesn’t hurt either.

i have always done well the last 25 some years but i am 68 years old now , i learned all the things needed to kill bigger bucks ,my son has been killing nice bucks since 14 or 15 years old because of what i know or learned . now my 10 year old grandson is my new apprentice i wished someone could have showed me how and why of hunting bigger bucks. the biggest secret is don`t shoot little bucks ever or even a doe and be patience , you don`t get a bigger buck every year but when you do its always special . make your luck and be safe ,Pete53

Nicely said, Pete53!

I’ve heard the harder you work the luckier you get - same idea.

I tend to find it very interesting these days that so many "successful" whitetail hunters are, among other things, hunting only on private land, and "scouting" has become putting up more game cameras, instead of looking for large tracks, antler rubs, etc. Oh, and of course planting "food plots."

Boy that is well said POC!

I see your point. I was just trying to say the guys who put in the leg work outside of the season, hunt the more difficult places to access, and strive to understand the needs, movements, and behavior of game are typically more "lucky" than those who just show up opening day and hunt from a golf cart.

In some states there is very little public land available for hunting, so having access to private land is the best option.

My godfather is a true horse shoe SOB when it comes to hunting…not a seems lucky cause he out works everyone type, but just a bit luckier than everyone else. I grew up hunting his land in NW LA as a kid. At that time we counted it as a great hunt if you even saw a deer and anything with antlers was a big deal. Then one year he shot what was at the time pretty much only the stuff of legends around there… an “8 point.” None of us had ever seen one on the hoof. And he got it by…smoking a cigarette in a ladder stand which he proceeded to crumple up in his hand before shooting the deer. It’s been a while but I’m pretty sure there was another “are you kidding me” aspect to the story that I’m forgetting.

Especially if you don't want to be surrounded by an orange army.

How much fun could be had with this discussion.

Quien Sabe!

BTW.......

I'm guilty of all the above except planting food plots,

and I do luv game cams.




















Viewing the pix adds another dimension to "being afield'

I had the pleasure of being there 10 days in November. Only had to use my generator to cool down one night. The other nights I slept with my camper windows and screen door openl

Some game cam pix from November......



Full disclosure: I took this buck on 11/19/2021. I had seen it only on game cam during the last two seasons, at night. Most of our bucks are nocturnal and one very seldom sees a buck during "daylight". I happened to be in the right place in the right time and woke up from a nap just as he crossed in front of me.







It's not often we see elk on low fenced cattle ranches here in the Texas hill country. If I lay an eyeball on her, she will be meat in the freezer.

ya!

GWB

PS: If a critter is there, and you ain't, it don't matter how lucky or good you are, you ain't gonna make meat!

Swag: Yeah - I have a friend that has at least 7 "lucky horseshoes" up his ass.
I befriended him about 23 years ago when he retired from a Utah law enforcement agency and moved to SW Montana.
He had never shot an Antelope before and pestered me to take him along on a Powder River area Hunt I used to do every year that I got drawn.
I thought well he won't get drawn first year - but he did!
He also broke his ankle just before season and "he" was restricted to Hunting from my VarmintMobile.
I got an okay 14" Buck and we then had some three days of trying to get him close to "shootable" Buck.
ON day three, late in the afternoon, he finally cranked off a shot (from the truck) at an outstanding Buck Antelope at 250 yards and promptly shot the penis clean off of that Buck.
I chased that Buck for MILES and finally killed it for him just at the end of shooting hours - it's horns were 16" long and near Boone & Crockett! Then I had to clean the Buck and tote it on my back (no easy feat!) in the dark back to where my "lucky friend" was waiting in the rig.
I have never killed such a dandy Antelope as he did first year, and from the truck! And I have been Hunting them since 1969.
It gets worse - he had never killed a big Bull Elk and asked for a recommendation for one of Montanas limited entry "trophy" Elk areas.
I had been putting in for years in the Missouri Breaks and had never been drawn for that Bull Rifle tag.
First year he puts in he gets drawn - and after much hardship on the Hunt he kills a dandy 7x7 Bull Elk - as I helped him (no tag for me!).
Next he gets the hots for a Mt. Goat and sure enough first year he puts in he gets drawn and puts the arm on me for scouting and for the Hunt - we got him a dandy 9 3/4" Billy high up in the Tobacco Root Mountains.
It gets worse - he had never shot a Moose and puts in for a VERY difficult draw area adjoining his home property here in SW Montana - I have been putting in for 24 years now and never been drawn!
Of course first year he is drawn and we get him a nice 44" Bull.
It gets worse - now he is on a quest to get a Montana Bighorn Sheep - second year applying he is drawn successfully in the hardest area (I believe) in Montana to get a Bighorn Ram tag - the Missouri Breaks
I could NOT go along on that Hunt with him but on the second day he mortifies a Boone & Crockett "all time records book" qualifying Ram!
I was thinking of "terminating" (with extreme prejudice!) him but held off.
I have been putting in for 24 years now to get tags for Bighorn, Moose and Mt. Goat and have yet to be drawn for any of them!
Yeah horseshoe luck does NOT begin to describe accurately my "friend"!
Last year his wife laid down the law to him - it was pussy forever and move her back to her homeland (Thailand) or divorce - so he sold all his guns and sold all his trophy mounts (I bid on the Bighorn Ram mount up to $3,000.00!) but it sold for much more than that.
He was Mormon and NOT a gambling man but I am sure if he would have ever bought a LOTTO ticket he would have won.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Yeah my BIL is like that. He kills a big buck just about every year. Not in the same spot and usually later in the season

I know all of that, partly due to having hunted whitetails in 15 states all across the U.S.--plus three Canadian provinces, alont Coues deer in Arizona and Mexico.

I was primarily commenting on how whitetail hunting has changed in the past half-century. When I started hunting big game, a little longer ago than that, the basic whitetail hunting article involved still-hunting, whether on public or private land. Can even remember some about New England hunting where most local landowners allowed hunting, so didn't post their land.

A lot of it was about "reading" sign to locate a buck, especially a larger buck--including the size of tracks, evidence left from antler-rubs, etc. That's what a lot of the classic deer-hunting books were about back then, along with how to move through the woods to find and shoot a buck. Nowadays finding and killing a whitetail buck is more often than not dependent on private land, game-cams, food plots, and high stands.

I understand all this, partly due to hunting in highly populated countries Europe a few times, where similar methods have been use for a long time--though not quite as technological. But many central European countries also allow night-shooting to some degree, though they generally outlaw artificial lights. Some states in the U.S. also allow longer hunting hours than the traditional half-hour before sunrise and half-hour after sunset.

I didn't say any of this is good or bad. Instead I stated I found it interesting.

He should be a PowerBall ticket.