Up Your Aspiration

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

In hunting there is a relationship between what you aim for and what you get. Those who set their sights for bigger deer generally harvest bigger deer. Those were willing to settle for less get less.
-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Learning How to Fail

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

All of us fail at one time or another. Successful hunters fail off. What separates them from the rest is they learn more and faster from that failure than everyone else does.

When you fail and you will, decide what you can learn from it so you won’t make the same mistakes twice. Hunters who blamed others for their failure will never learn from failure, because they’ve never done it.

Knowledge is the positive upside to failure.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

A Little Extra Effort Changes Everything

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

As humans we tend to think the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill. Hunters are no different. We’re always on the lookout for that secret special location.

The fact is, there are literally millions of perfect locations throughout North America. 10% more effort right here and right now might be exactly what you need to harvest that buck of a lifetime.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Let Sleeping Bucks Lie

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

Avoid big buck bedding areas at all costs. A buck chooses his bedding site for security purposes. If disturbed in his bed, a buck will never bed in that spot again, at least not this season.

Unless a food source dries up, a buck will remain in the same area as long as he is not disturbed during day light bedding hours.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Hunting with Doubt

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

Hunters don’t like doubt, they’ll do anything to avoid.

If you need assurance that you’re in the right place and doing everything right, you’re giving up quite a bit to get it.

On the other hand, if you can get in the habit of seeking uncertainty, you develop a great instinct on the where’s and how’s of hunting trophy whitetails.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Buck Fever

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

It’s called buck fever, but in reality it’s simple fear of failure.

We see a big buck and immediately our conscious mind begins to categorize everything that could possibly go wrong. We are filled with doubt. We think about shots we’ve missed in the past. Our mind replays those misses and we miss again.

The most effective way to fight buck fever is to spend hours practicing on the range. Practice builds both confidence and muscle memory.

When a shop presents itself, don’t think about shots you missed. Focus your thoughts on the shots you have made. You’ll be amazed at the results.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

True or False

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

True or false? The most important thing to do is to scout. You tell me how many times you have been scouting and I can predict your next seasons results. You need to scout more. This is true.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Busted

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

It’s extremely difficult to repair a hunting situation once we’ve been busted.

It’s a lot easier to find a new buck to hunt.

A hunter should have several blocks located in pattern prior to the beginning of season. If you get busted, you can quickly set up on another deer.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Lunch Is for Wimps

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

Everyone knows dawn and dusk are the periods of greatest whitetail activity. It is also when we find the greatest number of hunters afield. Typically, we hunt in the morning, break for lunch, and then hunt again in the late afternoon.

What a lot of hunters don’t know is that a deer cannot go all day without feeding. While everyone else was eating lunch I stay in the stand. It’s proven to be a great strategy. 30% of the bucks I’ve killed were between 11:00AM and 1:00 PM.

If you want to dramatically improve your success ratio on big bucks, stay in the stand.

Lunch is for wimps.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

When Strategy Drowns a Hunt

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

I always enter the field with a game plan. I plan the hunt and hunt plan. But sometimes following a rigid game plan has cost me a buck.

My son and I have planned a two-man push on Thanksgiving morning. We passed five does on the way in to make the push. The rut was winding down and there had to be a buck on the does.

I decided to stick with the plan and to come back and hunt the doe group later in the day.

An hour later we heard a shot and another hunter had killed a big buck off the does.

The lesson was learned. Don’t be too rigid in your strategy that you overlook an opportunity right in front of you.

-Jim

Treestand Height

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

The optimum height for a treestand is 20 feet. This keeps our feet about 18 feet above ground-level, which is the distance necessary to prevent the thermals from drifting are scent down to the deer.

Unfortunately, not all terrain allows for stands of this height, but whenever possible 20 feet of elevation should be our goal.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Forcing the Issue

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

Most hunters climb into the same stand day after day. They do this regardless of whether a buck has busted them are not. Whitetail bucks have a short memory, but they can certainly remember which tree they saw you in for the remainder of the hunting season.

You’d be better off moving your stand, even if it’s just 50 yards, than staying in the same stand and trying to force the issue.

Better yet, is to have a secondary buck and location to hunt.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

A Bit Lazy

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

Most hunters are a bit lazy. They are content to sit and watch a primary food source, let’s say an alfalfa or soybean field, night after night and year after year. Even though a lot of big bucks are killed in crop fields, they don’t tend to produce consistent success.

The hunter would be far better off to place a stand 100 or 200 yards away from the food source and hunt in the transition zone.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

The One That Got Away

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

The thrill of killing a buck out of a tree pales in comparison to the thrill of following a track and taking a buck face-to-face, on his own terms. It is a joy that is unbelievable.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/

Tracking

Photo courtesy of Apple Creek Whitetails

 

 

The thrill of killing a buck out of a tree pales in comparison to the thrill of following a track and taking a buck face-to-face, on his own terms. It is a joy that is unbelievable.

-Jim

http://jimcollyer.com/