where i live you can drive by private land(on which you have no hope of hunting) and literally see herds of nice bucks and bulls. i have always believed that any buck or bull, taken legally, on an unguided hunt on public land is as good a trophy as anything in b&c. try it and you'll see what the word "hunting" really means.

Thanks for the perspective. One of the down sides of hunting media (be it TV, online, or print) is it sends the message that hunters usually kill something, when the fact is just the opposite. When was the last time you saw the headline "Ten hours in a tree-stand for zippo"? It took me four years to get my first deer and seven to get my first elk. In the long run, that was far better for my hunting spirit than had I lucked into them the first year I tried.

Good point Dave! I hunted hard for eight days this year for elk and while there was plenty of elk around, it was always "close, but no cigar". On the ninth day it all fell into place and my friend and I had our elk down by eight AM.
In a related matter, last year a friend of mine got his first trophy elk, a real doozy, after decades of trying. A few months later he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Perhaps that elk was a last gift from that which controls these things.

Mr. Petzal,

I want to thank you for giving my morale a considerable pick-up. It's been a long few seasons for me down here. This puts it in perspective.

One thing I've noticed with elk is that those who hire a private guide do a lot better than those who just go on out to a piece of public land. Knowing where and when an elk is apt to be somewhere helps, so does having someone point it out to you. Oh the stories those guides tell.

Love tales of heavy deer. Good for your friend.

I am right next door in New Brunswick and yes, the deer can get very large in these parts, 239 on the hoof is a monster....but for some reason those big deer do not sport a huge rack..case in point; there is a rack in out camp shot by one of our senior members in 1978, the deer weighed about 220 dressed and it has great main beams but the tines look like an after thought. One of my buddies shot a big buck 5 years ago (that we unfortunately didn't find till the week after) and he was an easy 250-260 on the hoof and although we didn't have him scored, he is 150, maybe 160.

That said, in relation to your friends luck, I hunt hard and have had my chances but so far am 0 for 19 in deer season so let's hope the hunting gods will soon take pity on me.

I think I just hit my dry spell after 4 straight years of bulls in Colorado. Three out of the last four hunts have been woulda-shoulda-coulda years. I feel blessed that I have been able to hunt all those years however. The sun shines on every old dog's butt sooner or later.

Just starting now, hopefully I'll get mine someday

I've been hunting the same kind of area (apparently) as DP. In 11 years, 1 deer. This is the first year I didn't feel a bit cheated though. I must have mellowed some.

Carney,
Just hoping to make it through the year again without knee surgery on the other one.

I'm sixty years old now. I shot thirteen elk in thirteen years, over sixty deer, with a moose and antelope thrown in before I moved to Canada in 1989. Didn't take up moose hunting for a couple of years and shot five by 1996. Haven't shot one since. Big deal. I still went out and spent up to two weeks in the bush alone every year till the season before my son died three years ago. Done big game hunting now but not because of the dry run but because I just can't use up that much meat. And I find I now enjoy bird hunting more. Anyway, it's all about getting out there not shooting stuff. Expect to have a good time with your friends and/or Mother Nature and you'll never come home busted.

Perhaps my dad and clinchknot's came from the same brood stock. I think Dad enjoyed seeing others, especially his kids, get their animals more than he did shooting them himself. And he always wanted to hear the story about the trip. Glad there's a lot of time in an eternity because we are going to have quite a lengthy sit-down when we get together again.

Wood rat, you're not coming home empty-handed. Thanks for sharing what you did bring home. And look at the bright side: you didn't have to get all messy gutting one out and dealing with the butchering, etc. Don't worry, it'll happen for you.

We had a hunting cabin that sat on 160 acres in prime deer hunting country in Michigan...not that far from Alpina, Michigan. We hunted Ruffs, and woodcock on the property as well. A successful deer hunt for my dad, was to make a short walk not far from the cabin, and come back, and shuffle the deck of cards hoping his hunting partners would soon return, and hands of Gin Rummy could be delt out. A successful hunt was one that you had to buy dinner at the Grove Restraunt in Alpina the last nite because you cleaned up at Gin Rummy No messy hands having to clean deer.

Good post, Dave! I killed a deer a year for five years, but it's been a long 4+ seasons since my last one. Changing habitat, development and a missed opportunity or two, and frustration has set in. I haven't even been seeing deer the last couple years. But I am confident the payoff will come at some point.

Dave, it's all about luck. And luck is when opportunity meets preparedness.

I ponder that hunter/success ratio quite interestingly as well, Dave. While in the deer woods, I am content to watch the snow fall and not shoot a thing and still feel it has been a memorable hunt. While sometimes it's nice to bag a deer home for the freezer, too!

I too am in a long dry run. The only venison I get to eat is that that is given to me from others successful hunts.

In Arizona, just getting drawn to hunt is a major step toward success. With a number of years of not drawing ANY hunt tags, this year I really lucked out. I drew a spring gobbler, an archery bull elk, a buck mule deer, and sandhill cranes. Filled all tags except the deer tag, and wouldn't you know it, the only buck I saw was a whitetail! My bull elk was the biggest I've ever taken with bow or rifle, and that includes many years of hunting Colorado and Oregon which is as close to a sure thing as hunting for elk gets.

Yup after years of no tags or poor hunts, this year has been one for the memory book!

A HUNTER never knows what may happen in the next 10 seconds That is one of the reasons that keep me coming back for more. I will post this if the #$*&^%$#^ website ever works properly

Dave, I spent 6-7 years during the 1980's and a couple during the 90's hunting just east of you in New Brunswick. As you correctly point out, time spent is absolutely crucial in that country. I was fortunate in being in a position to be able to hunt dawn until dark every day for the entire hunting seasons and that made the difference. That country is known by many of us as harboring some few colossal bucks. Through a combination of luck, time, persistence and sheer stubbornness I have eight of them hanging on my wall. My best missed 170 by one inch due to lack of a brow tine, and that was killed during the last hour of the last day of the 1983 season. You must be dedicated to the point of insanity to hunt that country, willing to go day after freezing day seeing nothing, but being crazy certainly paid off for me. It also helped that the country was much wilder when I first started hunting there, so I had vastly greater undisturbed stretches of country to hunt than exists now, due to the ruination perpetrated by the GD paper companies.

I am sorry to change the subject but I am pissed. Bob Costas attacked the second amendment last night on Sunday Night Football and I think it was totally inappropriate. I called and asked for his firing and anyone who owns a gun should do the same.

NBC Sports 1-212-664-444

Oh and I hunted for close to ten years before I got my first buck. Of course I was learning it on my own as there were no deer hunters in my family and I made every mistake possible... plus there were just not a lot of deer in middle Tennessee in the late 70's and early 80's. Now I usually get two or three a year. These are the best of times for deer hunting in my area. The "golden age" as it were.

I'm with you Dave. Prior to this year I've taken 2 deer, one a buck, both with a rifle, in something like 12 years of hunting. I've been archery hunting for 10 of those years. This year either the gods or the law of averages are smiling on me and I had taken a buck and a doe during archery, and just took a second doe with a rifle over the weekend, more than doubling my lifetime totals. Either things are turning around, or I won't see another deer for 18 years.

scratchgolf72: I too live in such a "target rich" environment and that is one of the reasons I have spent a lot of my life hunting elsewhere. The range here is over browsed and is in bad shape because we have had too many deer for too many years, and so few of them get the nutrition to grow big. In addition there is also too much hunting pressure, and so few bucks get to grow old. It sounds to me as though that may be exactly your problem. It's the same problem in many other places as we all know. I would rather hunt where I seldom see another hunter and will willingly pay the price of seeing far fewer deer, but when I do see one he might be a dandy. Many years ago I grew bored with shooting undernourished dinks.

just sounds like deer camp to me dave. our camp is in new york northwest of the catskills. the owner shot two nice bucks back to back two years in a row. this year he came up empty. my buddy shot a buck this year. took him eighteen years since his first. me i am yet to get a buck. its frustrating when you pay $140 to hunt out of state and get nothing but when you are with great buddies from college, eat good food, and after the hunt is over that day, everyone is by the firepit with cocktails in hand, who cares! deer camp is something i look forward to EVERY year and the second its over, we start counting the days for the following year.

Harold;
It's seems, to me, a fellow should start with a rifle, and after becoming a real deer hunter, graduate to the bow.

And someone was surprised at Bob Costos attacking the 2nd Ammendment? lol! Within hours of a murder that has been committed by a well-known, highly visible deranged individual, the liberals, and the leftist media are all over it emphasizing the need for gun control. Better wise up America. I told you many times what was happening, and many on this thread deny it.

This makes me feel so much better! I've been "teaching myself to hunt" for four years, by just going out there and trying every year. No one in my family hunted, and so my pestering as a child fell on deaf ears. A few years ago, in my forties, I decided I just needed to get out there and try. I usually hunt evening and/or mornings on most of the deer season days, and then I hunt every day of elk season, every year.

I actually ran across a legal buck last year, and took a shot and missed, I was so jittery and shaky, and kicked myself for days over that. And this year I saw elk on 9 out of 11 days, but never could get a clean view of a legal bull. So, I'm 0 and 4 with the large game, and this year I was feeling pretty incompetent, I have to say. I did notice, though, that I slowly stopped getting all jittery when I saw elk, after seeing them so many times this year.

But one of my older, wiser neighbors told me that even SEEING as many elk as I was seeing is progress, and that I shouldn't get too down about coming up empty every year, and that coastal rainforest elk, hunted solo, like I'm doing, is one of the hardest things to do in the world of hunting.

So, I'll be back out there again next year, and every year after that until I can't anymore. Thanks for the encouraging words.

I always say its not the size of the kill its the experiance of the hunt