The calendar has officially flipped to August, which means anybody that hunts whitetails with stick and string is starting to get fired up with anticipation for the upcoming fall, as we are only a few weeks away from chasing the next buck that will fill your freezer and may end up above your mantle in the living room. Depending on how you’ve spent time during this COVID-19 summer to be forgotten, you might be completely prepared for the upcoming fall with spots picked out, stands hung, a list of target bucks, and food plots planted. On the other hand, you might’ve been busier than ever due to COVID-19 and you still haven’t started prepping for the 2020 hunting season. No matter what boat you are in, this is the time of year to establish some REALISTIC and ACHIEVABLE goals for the upcoming hunting season. I should add, if your goals this year are predicated around making other hunters happy or jealous, this isn’t the article for you.
Every year a couple months before the season, I like to look at all of the variables and challenges I’m facing heading into the hunting season, and make a few goals for the upcoming fall that are realistic and achievable with the cards I’m dealt. With all of the media and information that is now at our fingertips, I think it’s too easy these days to fall into the trap of setting unrealistic goals for the upcoming season. I’d also like to add that goals don’t always have to include killing deer. Yes, it’s a good goal to try to fill your freezer on an annual basis, but not everybody is in the same boat you are. For instance, if you have just gained access to or bought a new piece of property, maybe your goal that year is to not kill a buck, but to educate yourself on the new property. Where’s the primary bedding? What’s the deer movement like in early season compared to the rut? Do I need to establish new habitat to hold deer on the property because they seem to be bedding and moving more on the neighbors? Where are my access points so I'm not bumping deer getting to my stand? Spending a fall answering questions like that can make you much more prepared to establish more specific goals the following season.
A good friend of mine, Robby Enslen, gained access to a small piece of property in Northern Michigan last year. He set the REALISTIC goal of educating himself on the deer movement on the property and killing a buck of any size on the property last year. Short story is that he was successful.
Too many of us watch all of these videos on YouTube and other media outlets and set extremely lofty goals to match what you are seeing happening on farms in Iowa and Kansas, or match our goals to guys that spend 6-7 days a week of hunting season in the field chasing mature bucks all over the country. In reality, most of us have higher priorities such as jobs, families, and other daily responsibilities. Hunting 5-7 times a week just isn’t possible. Outside of other priorities, the majority of whitetail hunters out there are either hunting public land, have access to a small piece of private property, or share permission on a farm with multiple other people. We all face our own variety of challenges, and I think a big step in facing those challenges is setting realistic goals for the coming season. You can watch “The Hunting Public” for hours on end, but if this coming season is your first season hunting public property, it’s too lofty to set a goal of killing a mature buck your first year on public land. Not saying that it won’t happen, but a more realistic goal like maybe putting your eyes on a mature buck, or shooting a 2 year old buck, will probably add some happiness and success to your upcoming season. Let’s say you’re a Michigan hunter that has hunted over bait your entire life, but last year you struggled to see deer because baiting is now illegal. Well maybe a good goal for you this year is to find a public land spot that has a lot of good deer sign and try to become a better public land hunter and sharpen your skills as a woodsman.
I could go on and on with examples of realistic goals you could set for the upcoming deer season, but like I said before, everybody has their own unique challenges they have to deal with every hunting season, and it’s only fair to yourself to look at those challenges and set goals that you would be happy to achieve while trying to overcome the challenges you face. I’ve made the mistake myself of setting unrealistic goals, and all it usually leads to is unhappiness and frustration as deer season comes and goes so quickly as it always does. One of the best parts of hunting is the comradery and the story telling, and the best stories are usually the stories of success. Well if you’re trying to kill a 4.5 year old buck on a 10 acre piece of property in an area that might not even hold a 4.5 year old buck, chances are you won’t be sharing any success stories this upcoming fall. For my guys in Michigan, having a goal to kill a 5 year old+ buck on a new piece of property is like a first year sales associate setting a goal to become CEO by end of his/her first year on the job, it’s just not going to happen.
With less than two months remaining until we are climbing treestands, this is the perfect time to sit down and look at the cards you’ve been dealt for this upcoming season and establish realistic goals that will make this season a success. Every year we are dealt a different hand, so establishing the same goals year after year doesn’t make sense either. Remember, establish goals that will make YOU happy, not the guy next door who has a 400 acre lease somewhere with multiple monster bucks running around. Too often do I see one hunter trashing another hunter’s success; we all have unique challenges we need to overcome in order to be successful, the quicker we realize that, the more success stories and high-fives we can share with each other. I don’t about you, but with all of the negativity in the world right now, we could all use a few success stories from the whitetail woods.