The hunting trip that didn't go as planned

[Alan]

I once scouted for weeks, had the perfect spot picked out, knew the patterns. Opening morning came and there was another truck already parked at my trailhead. Someone else had the same idea. I ended up hiking three miles further in, saw nothing and came home empty-handed....sometimes hunting is less about skill and more about luck and timing.

 

[Black commando]

Nature doesn’t care about plans.

 

[Shotfired]

All that scouting, only to meet someone else’s truck...

 

[Gonadz]

Something just like that happened to me on public land last year. I’d spent three weekends scouting, only to show up on opening morning and find someone else already camped right in my spot. So I hiked two ridges over, found some fresh sign there, but never actually saw a legal buck. That’s just how public land hunting goes sometimes being flexible often beats out all your careful preparation

 

[Loneranger04]

I used to hunt public land a lot and if you’re hunting rifle season then you’d better plan on company. After having bullets flying by me I decided to try a different season and took up black powder hunting. Back then you couldn’t use optics and it was very challenging. Took a lot of deer and found it to be much more enjoyable than rifle or bow hunting. And the added bonus was much less pressure on public land.