Luck versus Skill

[DoDahDaze]

After reading some of the posts about everyone's harvest this year it got me wondering . How would you rate your success in getting a deer. Is it more luck or more skill?

I personnaly think it's 90% luck and 10% skill. Being at the right place at the right time, looking in the right direction etc. makes me think it's more about being lucky than being a skilled hunter. What do you think?

 

[Timbo]

I say 99% luck and 1% skill

 

[Meriwether Mike]

"Luck" is when preperation meets opportunity. Those who are consistently successful prepare and then increase their opportunitys by hunting properly. I however, also believe that some folks have set on a horseshoe as well.

 

[sgsjr]

I think just sitting in a stand and waiting is about 95% luck and the skill is when you pull the trigger. Now get on the ground and still hunt them up, thats 95% skill and 5% luck.

 

[QuakerBoy]

I say it's more 50/50.....

your skill will help you be in the right place at the right time more often.

however....I'd rather be lucky than good any day....whatever it takes to get the deer

 

[Hunting Teacher]

Luck
I spend all year finding the perfect "buck" stand, go during the rut, sit all day long for three days and don't get a shot at a nice one. I take my daughter out and sit in the pines when it's 73 degrees in the morning and has been full moon all night. She sleeps on the floor and gets up just in time to shoot a really nice eight that comes right to us and stands there saying 'Shoot me."
Being in the woods is planned, the rest is luck!
Teach

 

[mpowell]

"Luck" is when preparation meets opportunity.

i agree. i think you can go a long way in "creating" your own luck, in a sense.

through scouting, planting food plots, trail cams, and strategizing on stand locations, you take the visible sign and make it work to your advantage.

i would label my hunting success as "being in the right place at the right time" based on sign, patterns, and intuition--more than i would out and out "luck".

 

[Handgunner]

I work at what I do... I think it, eat it, sleep it, breath it, feel it, etc... PREPARE and then when chance smiles upon you; you are able to make it happen!

Don't believe I'd of told that, brother!!!

Back to the question,

I believe it's 50/50, maybe a tad more in favor of luck.

Even the luckiest man in the world ain't gonna see a deer if he's sitting where the deer ain't!

Skill involves finding where the deer are, and setting up accordingly. Luck involves being there at the right time. So I'd say that without both, you wouldn't have many successful hunters.

As Mike said "Luck is when preperation meets opportunity". Dang skippy!

As for me? I'll take what I can get at this point. They say even a blind pig finds an acorns every now and then.

I'm still looking for my acorn!

 

[Hunterrs]

I think luck has alot to do with it. However, if you and your gear is not ready, all the luck in the world won't help you.

 

[livetohunt]

I think during the rut, luck plays a much bigger role than at other times. Overall, I would say 70% skill -- 30% luck. The best hunters I know, always take the biggest bucks, so luck definetly isn't everything.

 

[HT2]

Ddd......

Good Question.......

IMO......

I'd say it's probably 75% Luck (Right Place at the Right Time).......25% Skill (preparedness).

 

[Gone Fishin]

This is funny cause I was thinking about this just this weekend. I think there are other factors to getting a deer to within shooting distance. Here are some factors I came up with in no particular order.

1) Deer density
2) Hunting pressure in your area
3) Weather
4) Prepareness - How well did you do scouting
5) Skill - stand placement, hunting the wind, ability to remain motionless on the stand, using what you learned from your preseason scouting
6) Time in woods (you can't kill a 12pt while watching your TV)
7) Luck
8) Type of woods you have to hunt - food, cover, water, etc
9) nerves and shooting

I think all of the above play a part in deer killed, or seen. I think the skill portions play a more important roll in archery hunting, than someone sitting in a shooting house over looking a green field.

Is it luck that a first time hunter kills a huge buck, or is it because he is hunting in a place or method that is different than any other hunters and that is why the big boy lives there.

The "I'd rather be lucky than good." saying hasn't been around for a million years because it doesn't make since.

 

[coon dawg]

I don't believe in luck..............

as unlucky as I am............if it were all luck, I wouldn't kill a deer a year.

 

[DoDahDaze]

One of the reasons I posted this question was I was sitting in my stand this past Saturday looking over my food plot and studying the tree line that surrounds it. For some reason I just happened to look over my shoulder behind me, where there is a dense pine growth and saw a 4 pointer not 30 yards away slowing moving through the growth. He wasn't a shooter since it was Hancock County but for whatever reason if I didn't turn around at that moment, (no noise or anything that would get your attention) I would have never seen him, that's what got me thinking whether it was luck or skill that makes a kill.

 

[stumpman]

theres a lot of luck involved i know several people that have never hunted before and killed monsters on there first hunt with borrowed camo and gun and stand and someone posted about there daughter shooting a nice one that wasnt luck that was trusting daddy to wake you up at the right time to shoot no luck there just trust.

 

[Cward]

After reading some of the posts about everyone's harvest this year it got me wondering . How would you rate your success in getting a deer. Is it more luck or more skill?

I personnaly think it's 90% luck and 10% skill. Being at the right place at the right time, looking in the right direction etc. makes me think it's more about being lucky than being a skilled hunter. What do you think?

I agree 100%!!!!!!!!

 

[Jeff Phillips]

I think it's about 70% skill and 30% luck.

Sure there are folks who get lucky and a biggun walks out after little preparation and the only skill involved is pulling the trigger.

Over the years I have taken more mature bucks than any of the folks I have hunted with, on the same land. I spend more time scouting, identifying food sources, finding travel patterns, and actually hunting than they do.

There is a lot of work and skill that goes into CONSISTANTLY being in the right place at the right time!

 

[GeauxLSU]

DDD,
It depends on the person, for me, it's apparently mostly luck and I've got none. But I've also been around people that move around in their stand like they are either break dancing or hadn't gotten rid of some bad chilli from the night before. Either way, all the luck in the world isn't going to overcome complete ineptitude.
On your point about seeing that 4 pointer, I completely agree. I think in many situations, the vast majority of deer see the hunter BEFORE the hunter sees them and they then 'never existed'.
Overall for me, I'd say it's probably 70% (no) luck and 30% skill.
Lot of variables in there though...
Hunt/fish safely,
Phil

 

[stumpman]

The more time you spend in the woods the luckier your going to be if your hunting buddies stay till 8 and you till 10 or 11 then chances are your going to be luckier than they are.

 

[early riser]

I went for an X-Ray the other day and the doctors were absolutely stunned...

They found that I had three horse shoes up my rump, four rabbit's feet in my lungs, and enough 4-leaf clovers to in my Gut to start an "Early Riser" food plot!

Andy, don't put a whole lot of faith and belief in what some Dr's may tell ya. We had a Dr. put in writing on one of my wifes medical reports that he had inspected her galbladder and it appeared to be fine. : The problem with that statement "in writing" is that my wife had her galbladder surgically removed some 10+ years ago. SHE DOESN'T HAVE ONE : :speechles SERIOUSLY!

I could go on further telling you some things I have recently learned about some Dr's, but this is not the post .

early riser