With the season winding down,

what are you going to do differently next year?

I'm going to try to find a more portable set up, branch out into different areas (new lease, public land, or something), and get started earlier on my routine maintenance of existing areas.

What about you?

hunt other areas that i found too late this season.

Go more often.

Scout long and hard immediately after the season ends on several pieces of public ground. I diversified my hunting locations this season much more than in previous years, by using a combination of a couple private permissions and public lands. I saw more deer than I've seen in years, killed my first racked buck, and just missed out on a shot at one bigger than him. All due to more time invested in scouting and opening up myself to more land to hunt. Last year, I only scouted in the month or so leading up to the season, but I'm planning to do some serious walking to find core areas and solid deer sign, and also make myself more familiar with a couple other spots. I can definitely say that hard work and time invested has made the difference for me in 2017-18, and I hope to continue that mindset into 2018-19's deer season.

Not much really. I’d like to say I will be in better physical shape, but history says I won’t.

Focus more on hunting quality time around the rut. This is the first year I purposely backed off an area until I thought the timing was right. Had the stand up weeks before and not a single hunt. Go in for the first time and big boy steps out like I wrote it like a play. Good lesson learned that patience does pay off in the right situation.

Interesting question with some interesting answers. Y'all would be surprised at the people who are having no luck just keep on doing the same thing with the same results. I wouldn't totally abandon it as a failure, you could have just hit an odd, freaky year or you just having a run of bad luck. Id come back to it 2-3 times over the next couple of years just to test it. After all, y'all did what you did for what you thought was a good reason at the time.

Me, I hunted a new piece of property. Had 2 food plots that were only separated by about an acre hillside that I only bush hogged. So basically one field. I WAY underestimated how many deer would be eating in these plot(s). ALL will have to be planted next season and then some. I am also not pleased with my morning hunting that will be addressed somehow also.

I didn't kill a deer this year. Overall, I would say I had a good season. I did see and pass on several different occasions 3 bucks that probably the 3 largest I've let walk.

Get my soil tested for my plots. Lime my fields. Investigate other things to plant.
Neighbor asked for some help, had to go by 2 of his fields, they were fabulous. Told me that's what he did cause he never had good results from his fields.

Hopefully by next season, we will be moving out of Montgomery so maybe look at some different land to hunt depending on where we live. Duck hunt again.

Dr. B

Diversify my hunting locations.
Spent way too much time within 200 yards of food plot that actually grew stuff. My one stand not in that area is in a dead tree, so I was too chicken to climb it, and too lazy to move it.
For all practical purposes i was hunting about 25% of the actual property.

Scout in 2 weeks. Scout again in March looking for sheds. Mark things down on the map. Put stands in places. Hunt those places. and move.

DON'T OVERHUNT. I absolutely killed that same ~200 yards from The start of gun season until Middle of January when I started thinking about why I hadn't seen anything.

Always look for new spots and use my climber more.

Hunt longer per sit.

Shoot older deer.

shoot more deer.

Get an additional tube of linament, get a louder alarm clock, get a bigger bottle of Aleve and more corn!!!!!

I'm losing my best piece of land, so I'll be learning Tuskegee NF.

I think this is the key to killing BIG bucks IMO. I also hope to have a few cellular game cameras to help in the process.

Trying out turkey hunting for first time. We've got quite an abundance of turkey at our land.

Scout more during the season and stay on fresh sign. Really worked well for me this year

Hey, buddy!

Set up more stands/climbers for differing wind directions. Scout ALL of my land immediately after the season and look for a couple of places to plant a plot.

Continue to develop more stands in the woods off plots. This year I made a real effort to stay off the plots and hunt the woods. I admit it, I am a lazy hunter, and have spent many years in a box in an office chair, but am finding the woods can be the place to be.Was pleased with what I saw this year and it was a good feeling figuring out what should be a good spot, modifying it to make it better and then seeing deer using it.Two years ago I started thinning out the mid-story crap from two Oak flats in what I though should be great travel corridors. From the stand I have about 150-200 yards of visibility in one and the other only 100 yards or so in most places.But from a deer perspective it looks thick as heck.Saw a bunch of deer in both these spots. Also want to develop some more spots on the north end of the place. I only really hunt less than 50% of the property and have a new 8 acre clear-cut on the north end which should really help the hunting in that portion of the property.

Start back bow hunting to get a crack at em before they figure out what's going on or move off the property.

I was on a stand on my land the other day and had 5 big boss gobblers come in the patch for about 45 minutes. First turkeys I have seen in there for over 6 years. I think one of them had a 12" beard, every step he was combing his beard with his toes.

I'm going scout earlier in the year. Work on building a relationship with the neighbors that I lost a big buck on

Sell my stuff and quit.

I'm starting Nursing school in the fall it's starting to hit me that I won't be able to hunt much next season......

Already figured it out and will continue next doing the same thing next season but will focus on getting rid of the coons and coyotes during the off season

This i year i spent fourteen days a lot of time trying to learn more about Barber W.M.A.Meet some good Hunters on the trails, shared a lot of info ,gained a lot too , Ill be looking forward to next year, made some changes to the way i hunt,Hope it all works.

Winner

Let me know if you ever make it up this way Doc. Maybe we can try to get you on a canvasback.

I had the same idea as dirkdaddy ... but the neighbors had other plans. I don't know if they were hunting or just piddling but they stole my cameras at some point, so I plan to go with some cellular cams next year too for keeping tabs on deer and piddlers.

I had one of those corn thieving bastages come by me the other day and his beard was so long he had a Jake carrying the other end.

You mean I gotta move for that to happen?

Dr. B

Over, got about 6 more weeks of cold/cool good deer hunting weather and the deer seem to always start moving good about the middle of Feb. Got me a ton of corn yesterday figure that will last untill turkey season starts.

I am going to spend more time scouting and learning my Illinois property in the off-season and spend less time worrying about the lack of deer in my area of Alabama. Also thinking seriously about not wasting my money on an Alabama hunting license since I can hunt my own property without one anyway.

Chuck says you need to do your part to support the state wildlife efforts by buying a license, bigt.

Several good ideas worth incorporating into my off-season regimen. Bigt we're not seeing the deer like we used to either. The last 2 years I went to the midwest to offset that, but I'm hoping to find somewhere in state or at least closer with good numbers/size. I know it won't be easy, but I'll be looking.

I hear ya. I have looked for somewhere within an hour of my house for years. I was generally in two clubs for years trying to find better deer populations within that hour drive. I never did hence why I took my first hunt to the Midwest. Good luck on your search!

Thanks. Here's to a deer herd comeback in SW Bama (I hunt Clarke/Baldwin).

Try and find another place to hunt, going to this 12hr schedule at work and I'm spending too much time on my 120ac than I'd like.

I want to get permission to hunt some more, smaller parcels. I also want to go on an out of state hunt DIY for something I've never hunted.

In reality, I will be a new dad next season so I'll probably just hang out with my kid.

Spend more time in the woods! If I see something that's good, if I don't that's ok too!

I'm gonna keep doing the same thing I am doing. Been working pretty darn good so far. I am still searching for some private land close to the house in Baldwin county that is actually worth a crap so the woman and youngan can see a deer when they go with me. Some of the land I hunt has changed so I will be walking a million miles around it before green up. I have one spot I have been putting a camera up for a couple of years and always got the mature deer on camera there, but I have never hunted it. I purposely left it alone this year, except before the season started I cut a good trail to a tree to climb. There will be a loc on in that tree in the next few weeks and when bow season opens and have the right wind, I'll kill something there next season. In all actuality, there's really too many things to list. I know I won't get to it all, but hopefully I can do enough to have a good season next fall.

Yep. I'll have a 5-6 month old about the time bow season kicks up. I figure I won't be hitting it as hard early season as I did this year....But....by the time the rut Fires up the wife should be able to handle things by herself

stay out of the woods so much early season. planning to hunt opening weekend of bow season and then fishing till mid november

I graduated nursing school in 2014 you will still be able to hunt.

Hunt Kentucky more. And burn off about 80 acres at home. Oh and lock up all my stand and cameras I have to replace thats probably the most important thing I do different just lock up my gear in the woods. So I have a place to sit.

My plan for next season is to hunt less and not stress over it. I’d like to pick up a small lease and keep very little pressure on it