I was reminiscing my deer as i was looking at the mounts. To my surprise, i realized that it's been 13 long years since i have taken a deer with traditional equipment. Good thing i don't live off the animals i get with my bow, i would starve to death. 8^)) With target panic limiting my effective shooting distance, it's very tough to get a shot off. Anyone else on a streak?

Could be worse. I did plenty of scouting but never went hunting this fall. Life happens. There's still some time left but the work thats piled up against my door like a snowdrift needs to be shoveled.

2x what mangonboat said.

I went eight years without hunting because the U.S. Army wouldn't let me come home during archery season. I spent half of them years overseas. But after I got out of the military, I made up for it.

After 20 years of not taking any deer, I finally put one in the freezer last week.

Even processed it all myself. Been a long time for that too.

It wasn't because I couldn't take one. It was simply because I didn't want to due to self imposed restrictions.

This year I decided to go ahead, and get some deer meat. :-)

Rick

Sorry about your blank stretch, but at least you can hunt. Honestly, I can't remember the last year I didn't kill a deer with my bow. Maybe late 80's. I guess I just get lucky. I do pass up a few every year.

It's been about four years I think, but I really couldn't care much either way. The kids didn't have room this year in their freezer(s), and we really don't either, and actually we don't need it nor do we care much for it. Late season starts Monday and I'll likely go out few days, and just as likely not get my hands bloody. That said, don't ever mistake the notion that just because guys don't shower the net with dead deer photos, that they can't kill deer. As my dad would have said, "you need to act like you already did it before".

You guys who love venison will have to take up the slack for us that don't. :)

I've been hunting approx. 45 or so years. I've taken quite a few deer over the years, so not too worried about not getting a deer. I like to stump shoot back to where i set up to hunt. I just couldn't believe how time flies. I to have restrictions on how i hunt. If a person doesn't, wouldn't be much out there to hunt.

Been years since I took a deer with a bow. I live at the edge of their range in North America so the populations are low. You might get one opportunity a year for a shot.

In the units I hunt we can only take one deer a year, rifle or bow, and I can only take a buck.

I have far less time to hunt as well compared to when I lived on the 200 acres where I began deer hunting in 1990, when populations were much higher.

Retiring in a couple of years so will have much more time to devote to bowhunting.

I never tire of being out there and always have hope!

CAN'T REMEMBER THE LAST TIME I DIDN'T GET A DEER, OUR FAMILY GREW UP ON VENISON, WE HAVE ONE DAUGHTER WHO WILL NOT EAT STORE BOUGHT HAMBURGER BUT SHE WILL EAT DEER BURGER. WE , MY BOYS AND I ALL TAKE CARE OF OUR DEER MEAT FROM THE FIELD TO THE FREEZER . WE ALL THANK THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS FOR THE ANIMALS WE TAKE BY HUNTING, TO US IT IS A WAY OF LIFE JUST AS IT WAS FOR OUR ANCESTORS WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE US, THAT'S JUST WHO WE ARE. VERY VERY THANKFUL FOR THIS WONDERFUL LIFE THAT WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN!

Been seven years since I bow killed a deer. Still hunting this year and if I don’t get one, it’ll be eight seasons. Taking care of a dying family member, getting past the loss, selling our longtime home to move farther into the woods, as said, life piles up sometimes. But I’m getting back at it now, I don’t hunt to feed others and I particularly like venison. If I didn’t like it I wouldn’t kill it nor would I try. I’m leaving Monday for a couple days to try and end a much too long slump.

It has been quite a while for me, too… Bad career decision! LOL

It has been quite a while for me, too… Bad career decision! LOL

I usually get one every year this year I tagged out all 3 tags 2 with a bow and 1st one ever with a pistol

being a care giver the last 6 years -I just can't take the time

just short stumping trips with the dog also with alpha-gal I couldn't eat the meat anyway so no need to kill

2016 was my last. There isn't anyplace close enough to home worth hunting. I live on a couple of wooded acres and if I enough time in the early season I stand a fair chance at a shot.

Once the leaves are down the deer are only on my place at night. I haven't seen a deer on my place during shooting hours since the middle of November. Even my cameras didn't see them. But...a whole bunch of deer come here to party every night and I have the pictures to prove it. LOL

Last year I never bought a tag and didn't even bother sitting in the yard. This year I got the bug again and sat the yard but the state isn't getting any more of my money until they put forth a little something.

I am still a full-time bow hunter at the age of 82. Never lost the drive. Killed a good 5x5 bull elk here in Colorado solo hunting, and then a nice WT doe with the recurve in Nebraska. Can't wait until next year. Wait, that is only 6 days away. I better go sharpen up a few broadheads. :)

My wife has to have it. Some years we run close to the end of season. I set out for six deer every year. Sometimes I get there and sometimes I don't. I will take a few does with a rifle. Then I hunt how I want again, with the bow.

I try to shoot two 3D's a week year around then during hunting season shoot 12 arrows from my roof at a backyard 3D, then go hunting. Did not see a legal buck all season I was down with a bad cold the best week of the season. Only got one shot, missed the crease and destroyed the shoulder meat. Starting Monday, three weeks left, calling for rain every day next week. If it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all.

Yikes, this thread made me think. Work and family have really limited my hunting time the last few years. Not sure when, but no gray hair!

Do you want ideas to help/cure your target panic? Now is the perfect time of year. If interested pm me. We need to reprogram your brain for proper responses.

2011...the last year I had any property to hunt. At least I went out on a high note after 57 years of good hunting!

Haven't shot a deer in a few years. Took a bear in 2017 in the U.P. of Michigan.

Just don't have it in me much anymore. My wife had cancer until she died and I was taking care of her pretty much. The 5 years I was her caregiver really took most everything out of me which is nothing to what it did her of course. I did take off for a week to hunt the bear in 2017. Waited 8 years for the tag and she insisted that I go.

These holiday mornings are a tough one. Sat with my Chris at the cemetary this morning and we had a visit.

Grandkids are shooting them all now. lol

Jeff, Hakuna Matata....you've still got Frisky beat!

mangonboat 3X

Can't remember the last year I haven't taken deer with my bow.

Heck I love deer. I will admit I like a good steak better but I still love it. The good thing about killing deer even if you don't like to eat it is there is always someone that will. I use to have several phone numbers of patients that would take one if I got one. Sometimes they would meet me at my truck to get it. I just like hunting them and killing them. Watch ole Warren Womack or Robert Carter or Chris Spikes. I know they probably give some away. Lots of people actually need it. If I wasn't successful I would probably not hunt. Like hitting golf balls and not playing golf. LOL

Smoked venison kielbasa is awesome. I got most of my buck made into smoked kielbasa. Plus, I got two small roasts and the back straps cut into steaks. This New Years my wife is cooking up some smoked venison kielbasa and some haluska. :)

Inner tenders cooked in low heat with a bed of onions with butter. Leave it pink in the middle. There's no cut of beef I would trade for.

Its been a month since my last deer. took 3 this year so far including my best buck. Now that the holidays are done i’ll get back out. Always have somebody wanting one.

yep, 08 was the last buck I've killed and 2010 last deer. After killing 29 whitetails, 3 bull elk, and a black bear. I know when the animal would very likely be dead from my arrow and that's enough for me. I'll still hunt because I love the pursuit, just love it.

the season is not done yet for me , but unless some miracle happens this will be my third season going empty handed. There was a stretch when I had one every year for six years in a row . It makes you realize you're not as good as you thought you were.

I need to get some made into kielbasa. Imma go out tomorrow

It’s been 4 years since the last one I killed.

I was in the grocery store with the wife the other day, while she was looking at the meat I was just kinda browsing. I looked down at a beef roast and the price tag.......what?...I musta read that wrong...got a closer look...HOLY COW !!...92.00.!!!!

92.00 !!!...I'm a big eater, I coulda put half that sucker away myself on a good sitting.

Then I got to looking around some more...5 lb of ground beef...18.00 something.

We don't buy ground burger....when we need meat, I go shopping when the season comes in.

If I had to travel very far, the price of gas would make venison pretty expensive. But I dont, and at 6.90 a piece for doe tags...it's the best on sale deal out there.

Agree with shademt. Honestly can't remember the ast time we bought beef. Or the last time the freezer wasn't full by the end of deer season.

I broke a 4 year streak of not taking a deer with a bow this year

I have taken deer every year for 41 years with a bow. This year was no different I took 4 deer with a bow -1 in doe season. I have relatives that don't hunt but rely on it to supplement their food.I always give one to them. My daughter who has a new baby didn't get to hunt much so I gave one to her also.

I have had a $683 food bill so far this year and ate deer every day. I went my first 13 years without filling a deer tag, after that I figured out that I was being too selective. This year I only took one to top off the freezer.

I eat deer often. We never buy beef either. Some chicken and a little pork. Most of what we eat I catch or forage. Heck even our Christmas desert was elderberry pie and a side was rice and morels I’d dried. Can’t get better than real food imo. Can’t imagine not taking some deer to fill the freezer. I’m full now but thinking bout winter bow. Tough season but awesome when you succeed. The deer taste best when shot with styk bows as well just a FYI for those unaware

Bluesman…well said. I wonder how many people who are used to taking 4-6 deer a year would continue bowhunting if they ended having to hunt public land in Northeastern Ontario without access to a doe tag and limited to one deer a season. I know people who hunt the UP in Michigan who face similar challenges.

Some of the responses from a few well known guys really surprised me.Makes me realize how much I appreciate our liberal bag limits in the South.

4nolz…a friend I hunted with in Northern Ontario moved to Ohio and hunts in Kentucky.

He told me the difference in deer numbers is staggering…sees deer all the time and has lots of opportunities. He doesn’t employ different tactics. Just knows he’ll see deer up close every day due to dense populations.

Yep if we had those huge deer we'd only need 1 a year and I'd learn to duck hunt

It's a good example what I've said before "all deer hunting and all politics are local"

For those of you that think everybody that fills multiple tags, has a deer haven to hunt in, I invite you to spend some time in some of the state forest here in PA...then get back with me with your results. While some state forest hold good deer numbers, some do not, and it is all about the food available.

I sit without seeing a deer far more often than not.

Some of our state forest have multiple deer management tags available, the Bald Eagle SF is a good example .

what hunters fail to realize is it is not because there is a deer behind every tree, it is because it simply cannot support a large deer population per square mile.

At one time PA was a one tag state..one and done. And I always filled it, and on public land...

But it never effected my passion for bowhunting...Frankly I'll hunt anywhere and anything with a bow. And I'd gladly sit everyday for two weeks not seeing a thing. I don't need to see deer every day to put meat in my freezer, I just need that one chance.

Rick was it one of those does? Pics or it didnt happen LOL

Had smoked venison kielbasa and some haluska for new years. It's my favorite.

haven't killed (nor even drew back hoping for a shot) in 6 years. only went once this season...a bad year all around, but i'm still waking up on the right side of the sod & hoping for better things this coming year. how did the line go in that movie, "Shawshank Redemption" ? "get busy living, or get busy dying..."

Hang in there Pondscum

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