Still new at hunting

[Jagermeister]

A friend was showing me some pictures this evening that are off his game cam in his "backyard". (This is a distance east of Kamloops)
So here it is, swing time in the rut but what do the pictures reveal? Five or 6 bucks hanging around all at the same time, night time of course. There's a monster 4X5 who's bases look to be baseball bat diameter. The others are not throwbacks either. Comes daylight, and these qu eer deer vaporize like farts in a breeze, not to be seen in the light of day. I guess they have been playing circle the hunters since early September so it will have to be a cagey hunter that will bag one of them.

[Tripitaka]

There are 3 key lessons that I picked up some years after I started hunting that instantly changed my success rate and 1 more that changed me as a hunter:

1) Trappers have a saying "set on sign" and I figured that just made total sense. So, I quit hunting everywhere and switched to scouting everywhere, all year. Stuck everything into a GPS (now there is onX which makes it REAL easy) and transferred it into Google Earth. Then is all started to make sense. I started hunting the areas that had patterns to the things I was seeing.
2) Scent control is pointless in 95% of situations. Learn about wind and thermals (especially thermals, how they switch, terrain interference etc) and hunt INTO the wind. Know what the wind is doing all the time.
3) The only things that move quickly in the bush are predators and their prey. Slow down...right down...then slow down some more. Sit for a while. Have a nap.

The one thing that changed me as a hunter was embracing the notion that whatever you harvest is something that happens occasionally while you are busy hunting. If your reason to hunt is to harvest an animal then your success and failure will be based on whether or not you harvest an animal on every trip. Switch things up, get some new metrics; I started out by measuring my success on new things I learnt then added how many different animals I saw and then by how many I could get close to. Now (thanks @proguide66, your 'why do you shoot spikes?' video was the kick in the ass I needed) I measure success by how many shootable animals I let walk each season in the confidence that I can find a better one. Things progress faster when you find good areas and I was fortunate to be able to just decide to move to the Kootenays so good hunting was on my doorstep. You may have to work harder to find your 'good areas' but start by finding where others hunters don't go. Randy Newberg has a great saying "If you want to be more successful than other hunters, you have to be willing to go where they won't and to do the things they won't do."

I agree with @twoSeven0, having a mentor who understands hunting is like turbocharging your education but there is a massive amount of info online that is a great asset if you don't. You can't go wrong with proguide66/howtohunt/blacktail hunter for coastal deer and guys like Randy and Corey Jacobsen for elk and general hunting knowledge. Both Randy and Corey have great material on e-scouting. Whitetail hunting is a bit more tricky as much of the material is based out of the eastern USA and they have, in my view, a different landscape than we have in a lot of BC (but not all).

Finally, appreciate that lot's of people *want* a mentor but aren't committed to being mentored. A mentor wants someone who is willing to bust their ass to be successful. Again, that is where @twoSeven0 is going with the suggestion to stick around and build relationships. Folks will help those that will go above and beyond to help themselves.

Good luck!

[Ajsawden]

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly but in reverse order.

The Ugly - No one, and I mean NO ONE, wants to give you their spots. If i've spent 50 days scouting to find where i'm going to focus my hunting this year, the last thing I need is more people hunting in that area.

The Bad - Any answers people are going to give you will be a spot they themselves are probably not willing to spend a ton of time in. I often refer to these as "scapegoat" areas. They're areas that are fairly common knowledge to many, perhaps generalized, and while likely extremely busy, still yield animals.

The Good - Most places are what you make of it. Just because someone else didn't see deer somewhere the one time they were there, doesn't mean there isn't deer there. The biggest blacktail i've been involved in was taken in a "scapegoat" spot. We were hunting a timber patch adjacent one of the busiest mainlines around (because we couldnt get to my usual spot). Two hours into our hike, and only 180m from the road, a beauty 4x4 blacktail appears out of the mist.

I don't have any suggestions for you for specific locations. I have more questions than answers. In 5 years have you... passed on any animals? Seen any bucks? Seen any does? Hunted the same areas repeatedly? Changed areas frequently?

Wherever you end up. Find a nice trail with current activity that runs between a timber patch and some christmas trees, get in before dark and sit on the downwind side of the trail and watch it all day. Deer will walk past you.

[warnniklz]

Still pondering this... I have a not secret spot that you could probably have a deer in 15 minutes... but what fun is that?