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Wednesday, October 15, 2025 at 7:27 PM

Patience, focus on experience make better season

OPINION

Whitetail season is a mixture of excitement and dread for someone like me.

Much like eating a gas-station burrito, you can’t ignore the fact that things can go very wrong at any given moment.

In fact, that’s an apt description of my season in 2024.

Let’s take an objective look at how last year went.

I missed two deer at very reasonable distances with my bow—one of which was the biggest buck I’ve ever seen on the hoof.

I also shot and was unable to recover a whopping three deer, which haunts to this day.

It’s an unfortunate reality that most bowhunters will face at some point in their lives, but three in one season is an absolute catastrophe.

One of those three was a nice eightpointer I shot on the last day of the season.

After I was unable to find a blood trail, I called a deer tracker and waited seven hours before he arrived.

We stumbled through the brush, headlamps scanning the ground while the tracker’s dog overturned leaves and glued his nose to the ground.

We tracked the buck for over a mile before it was clear that the coyotes had also found him and were continually pushing him from bed to bed until he eventually disappeared onto private land.

Nearly 15 hours since I took the shot, I handed the tracker $300, left without a deer and spent the hourlong drive trying to figure out what had happened—not just in the moment, but for my season in general.

I made plenty of mistakes, but a good chunk of my misfortune was just bad luck.

The only question left to ask myself on that drive home was, “What do I do now?”

I’m one of many people who regularly attend Midway Church, and Pastor John Theisen has recently been preaching on the Book of Ecclesiastes, which is chock full of hard-earned wisdom.

One verse that stands out to me is Ecclesiastes 4:6: “Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and striving after the wind.”

And it’s not just the Bible. Marcus Aurelius said, “You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

Or, there’s Shakespeare: “There is no good or bad, only thinking makes it so.'

They’re all saying the same thing: Give up control, not the hunt.

As hunters and people, there’s no better decision than choosing to give up on the things you can’t control.

When I first started hunting, I remember threatening to quit the sport about once a week.

Whenever I’d sit in the woods for hours without a deer in sight, I’d blame myself, the deer, the moon phases, barometric pressure, my bow, other hunters, cold fronts, warm fronts, storms, lack of storms and those dang squirrels that sound like a 12-point buck every time.

It took me far too long to realize that it doesn’t matter.

All that matters is what you’re going to do about it.

If the 2024 season had happened to me in 2016, I probably wouldn’t be hunting anymore, but I’ve been able to scrounge up enough hardearned wisdom to know that I can work on my shooting technique.

I can be more patient when a shot opportunity presents itself.

I can pass on shots that aren’t a sure thing.

And, most importantly, I can forget about the rest because there’s not a darn thing I can do about it.

Now that whitetail season has officially started, I’d recommend giving up control.

You tagged the buck of a lifetime? Great. You stared at an armadillo for three hours?

Great.

Hunt hard, make ethical choices and enjoy the mystery of whatever is going to happen next.

Let’s take another objective look at my 2024 season.

I came home with two does and a small buck for the freezer.

I learned that coyotes have a rut and are more likely to find a downed deer during the daytime when it’s underway.

I watched a dog pick up a scent nearly a mile from where I took a shot.

I saw three bobcats, countless turkeys, wild pigs and a bald eagle.

I watched more episodes of “Seinfeld” with my fellow hunters at deer camp than I’d like to admit.

Maybe 2024 wasn’t so bad. When you think of past and future mishaps as simply another chance to earn some wisdom in the woods, it’s almost like there’s a 100% chance of success.

When you look at it that way, the outlook for our 2025 season is nothing but happy hunting.

Steve Schwartz is a writer and photographer based in Aubrey. His work has been featured by MeatEater, Field & Stream, Popular Science, Game & Fish, The Fly Fish Journal, American Angler and many more. You can reach him at [email protected].


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