To move or not to move
One of the biggest things I want to know when I go hunting somewhere new is how long successful people take to move to their next option. In other words, at what point does it make more sense to move on rather than keep grinding it out? Because the distance from smart to stubborn isn’t far. So, should I expect to be on Plan C by day 3?
“It depends” is the expected response because it does.
As an Alaskan, we don’t really have the opportunity to move between plans on the same hunt. If you’ve flown out, you’re at that lake. If you’ve anchored your boat and hiked up a mountain, that’s your mountain. The only variables are within that hunting ecosystem. That doesn’t mean I always get my first choice of spots, and it doesn’t mean there isn’t pressure. Still, universal hunting fundamentals such as patience apply, as do an understanding of variables. In a way, limited options can be beneficial because it should necessitate a deeper focus on hunting Plan A the way it should be hunted rather than looking for excuses to move on.
Consider the variables
Weather
It’s not just about the right time or the right place. Variables such as weather play a critical role in this. My wife and I spent the 2020 Wyoming mule deer opener on a pocket of public land where we had seen a few masher bucks that summer. The weather was hot, and the only things moving were a few other orange vests. Right place. Wrong time. A few days later, the morning of a light snow, we returned, and both took our first-ever mule deer bucks. They weren’t the magnums we had seen during the summer, but after seeing nothing but other hunters on the opener, I was amazed to see nothing but deer appear out of the woodless prairie glazed in snow. Thanks to the weather, it was the right place and time. So, Plan A worked, but only after returning to it after Plan B and C failed. Given the realization that the key was the weather, maybe Plan B and C would have worked too.
