If you’re sitting over a wallow all day and in snow, you need to keep your body warm.
Canadian again, they know snow. Goose down insulation.
Add in a pair of Gore-Tex over pants, thermals and your laughing.
Forget about the camo gear when you’re trying to stay warm. Waste of time.
Went out this arvo and sat over a water hole that had some good sign around it.
Sat there for almost 3 hours scanning back n forwards all hopefully like.
Watched some birds, saw some Skippys and was almost out of light when I had a look over my shoulder and there up on the hill behind me was a bloody sambar doe.
I tried to get up and turn around slowly and stealthy like, which I suck at after sitting still in the cold for 3 hours (bad back and legs) so I spooked her off before I could take a shot.
Best deer hunt for me so far, im happy as a pig in proverbial to have just seen one after only a few trips out. im a long way from the high country so they so easy to come across out here.
There is always next time, atleast you know that they are out there.
I was out this weekend too… Oh dear, no deer 
I was in high country, running around hills looking for Sambar. So to one-up you @GUN-DMC - in incompetence that is… On the way back, one of the crew (who just happens to do this daily) went - oooo think that’s one. Looked through the scope, yep, there’s one.
Me: where?
Dude: You’re looking at it.
Me: Where!
This is easily within a time span of send at least a couple of shots down range.
I am looking like a knob at it, without actually seeing it. Suddenly I see face pop up, honk and off it goes. Maximum, I am being generous here, maybe 50 meters.
Thought it was funny. For one, I was looking at it and couldn’t see it, makes you question all this camouflage bs people go for. These things are black and brown and you just can’t see them, they blend so well. Two, my incompetence has no bounds! I knew exactly what to look for, but I guess this is more experience than anything else (looking for ridges across the back). I knew what to look for, I just wasn’t doing what I knew how to do.
And then I was thinking and I am still 99% convinced that this is fact, deer hunting is like lottery. 1% skill, 99% luck, because there’s only one of you and a tone of forest.
I would have said 10% skill & 90% luck. Luck and the amount of time put in play a huge part.
This is pretty much it. More time out, more chances and experience. Nothing else to it. But yeah, 90% is about the lowest luck I’d say. There’s only one of you and a shit load of forest.
Think I’ll write a bigger post on some observations.
You want to becareful out there @Oldbloke , looks like the local deer are starting to arm themselves, but you might be safe as one of the deer left theirs behind.
Typical rub
.
I dont have a pic but pulled this off the net. They have a dent at one end and matching point (nipple) at the other.
Nah Mate they are Olives take a handful and stuff em in ya mouth. 
I’m not even a deer hunter’s breakfast but this sounds very familiar to angling success.
There’s a common saying that 90% of fish are caught by 10% of anglers. This 10% of anglers put in the hours to learn about their target species, rather than just “looking for fish”. It can take a huge number of hours and fruitless trips to work out a particular species in a particular area but once you have them sussed, you go from the 90% of anglers who catch SFA to the 10% of anglers who can reliably go out and land their target species almost at will. Of course, if you just persist in going out and “just looking for fish”, you will remain in the 90% of anglers who catch SFA. If you can glean and compile info from each failed outing, you will eventually suss the species and the area out.
Just my 2 bob’s worth…
Totally agree that camo is over rated and critters can be very hard to see.
I have a dog that is black and tan. I often whistle him up because i think he has strayed too far (he moves very quietly through the bush), only to find he is standing in a shadow about 10m away. If he is still and you are not looking very carefully (ie: just scanning, trying to cover ground), you just can’t see him!
Also, with more experience, you automatically pick up tell tale signs of what you are looking for. Experience is the difference between intellectually knowing what you should be looking for and automatically seeing what is actually there.
I think you have summed it up pretty well there G. 
" It can take a huge number of hours and fruitless trips to work out a particular species in a particular area" And that is the issue for most hunters. Finding the time with competing priorities such as family, work, other interests etc.
Yep… and that’s the case with 90% of anglers as well…
Such a common theme across a variety of activities. Success is gained through knowledge, which is gained through experience, which is gained through dedication and failure; which few people are willing to persist through in order to gain that experience and knowledge…
