What do you rank as most important?

[vipertech]

#1  LUCK
#2  LUCK
#3 More LUCK

I've had plenty of times when I've done everything "right" and still hear the story about some dude who never practices with his gear, walks 100 feet onto public land, no scent control plan whatsoever, starts smoking cigarettes and winds up popping a huge buck that walked right up to him. 

But seriously if you implement the ideas already posted, you should be making your own luck.  Count me in with the crowd that can't put a specific order on the importance of each.

[Scot]

This has been a really enjoyable thread! I am in agreement with most everyone.I think most of us make particular assumptions coming from our degree of competence and experience.There are things that many of us would consider to be automatic as it relates to how we go about things or how we process circumstances that we encounter while hunting.
The aspects of success are so inter woven and may differ depending upon what we are looking to accomplish.Are we looking to kill just any deer or a mature buck? What part of the season are we hunting?
From a basic point of view with no other considerations I would rank these as my top five.
1)Amount of time spent hunting.You can do a lot of things wrong and still be successful if are able to devote significant amounts of time to it.
2)Being in a productive area.There have to be deer there and ideally you have done the leg work to make sure you are in area's that carry a reasonable amount of deer.
3)Preseason scouting,or all year scouting.The more that you are able to do the more that shoud translate into future success.
4)comfort and competence with your weapon of choice,the weapon is tuned to do what it needs to do and the hunter is extremely comfortable with it.
5)Identifying and working on your weaknesses,what common mistakes do you make,and what are you going to do about it? Things like taking the shortest way in to a stand but not the most favorable way in to a stand.There are countless other examples.

One of the greatest things about deer hunting is that we are constantly challenged by it,we can always improve our skills and knowledge.There is such satisfaction when we contribute greatly to our own success.

[JPH]

Nice post by the new guy!

Welcome Scot. Looking forward to hearing more from you.

[Scot]

Thank you JPH. Like most of you I couldn't imagine my life with out whitetail hunting!

[dadof3upatree]

location, location, location!

[Sam Menard]

ORIGINAL: Nubs

What do you rank as most important to your hunting success?

[ol][*]Knowledge: academic and practical.  Learn everything you can about your quarry, your capabilities, the area that you hunt, and your equipment.
[*]Experience:  successes and failures add to your knowlege
[*]Location, location, location:  put your knowlege and experience to work and find that secret spot;  not just the needle in the haystack but the tip of the needle.[/ol]
Sam
 

[drdaven]

I have got THE BIGGEST factor, that I have not yet read on here.


TIME


Without it, you haven't got any one of the others.

[simon miller]

Know what the deer are doing and when. These two can take. You a long way.

[boxcallkid]

#1 Scouting,Scouting, Scouting!

All other aspects aside, this is my top priorty!
I know for appx. everyday I deer hunt I'll avg. 5 days of scouting.
Because I activly hunt many other species of critters I'm outdoors year round. Now that I'm older and wiser I've narrowed the actual time frame that I actually hunt Mr. mossyhorns. Every year I take a 2 week vacation and hunt the last week of Oct. and the first week of Nov. I don't care what the moon phase is, I don't care what the weather is. During this time frame I'll always have serious action and some seasons will see up to 50 different bucks.

[scotman]

The most important part is wind direction and scent control. If the deer can smell you then the rest will not matter. I take my hunting clothes and put pine cones ,dirt and leaves in a non-scent plastic garbage bag a month before season. Then a few days before opener I let them hang outside weather permitting.

Camouflage I would put that at the bottom of the list. You can wear a red and black plaid shirt and harvest a deer. Deer hunting legends did it for years before camouflage was invented. Anything that breaks up your pattern is good enough.