It’s Time for an Attitude Adjustment

A new deer season brings news hopes, dreams and anticipations, and these summer months are good for sculpting all three in our minds. And although most of us focus on the tangible — that new compound bow, those upgraded tree stands; that new deer lease — one of the most important improvements we should be making is all mental.

It’s called attitude.

You see, success in the deer woods often hinges more on attitude than gear or even woodsmanship. Most any hunter can spend a few hours scouting a potential spot and pinpoint at least a few good stand sites. The key to success is having a short memory when the sun rises on opening day.

Ask any consistently successful big-woods hunter and he’ll tell you endless stories about how they have routinely sat — dark to dark — for days on end without seeing a single deer. These guys prevail because they adopt that never-say-die attitude and stick with it until the bitter end. Invariably, they wind up driving home with big bucks in the back of their pickup trucks.

The proper deer hunting mindset requires that a hunter set his watch to deer time. Stop worrying about the work you left behind at the office; how badly the yard needs to be mowed and racked; and how you’re going to get all those honey-do items done by the time the weekend’s over. If you don’t already know how to multi-task, take a crash course after the sun goes down.

Once you’re at deer camp, this is your time to hunt. Long days in the deer woods will be physically taxing, but they certainly beat five days behind a steering wheel, factory machine or computer screen.

Keep that mental edge by packing plenty of water and high-energy snacks like raisins, nuts, fruit and granola bars. You’ll stay more alert and be less tired at the end of the day. Avoid high-fat foods and junk food like chips, chocolate and sugared soft drinks. Especially avoid excessive amounts of caffeine. Coffee, soda pop and Red Bull® might wake you up temporarily, but the effect won’t last and will actually make you more tired later in the day. It might be bland and boring, but nothing beats water for keep you alert and hydrated during long tree-stand vigils.

You have several things going for you as a serious deer hunter: You want to succeed so badly that you’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish the goal. This attitude is absolutely necessary no matter what type of land you’re hunting — private or public — but it also means devising a game plan and sticking with it no matter what happens over the course of your time afield.

 

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Pursuit Channel is Top Landing Spot for Deer Hunters

Nielsen analytics for the recently completed first quarter of 2018 illustrate a winning performance for Pursuit Channel during primetime and on weekends. The report confirmed that Pursuit content, which is created by one of the world’s most notable lineups in outdoor broadcasting, outpaced expectations as a perpetual viewership machine, one capable of incrementally growing audiences during notoriously weak periods of outdoor television usage.

With its top programming, Pursuit Channel maintained a very solid 0.05 CVG AA%* throughout the quarter during weekday primetime (8 p.m. to 11 p.m.).

Weekend primetime (8 p.m. to 11 p.m.) schedules helped spike America’s favorite outdoor network  to a 0.07 CVG AA% during the same period.

“High-quality outdoor entertainment, plus a big, expanding universe and Nielsen analytics continue to collectively run out in front as one of the very best values across the entire spectrum of outdoor media,” said Pursuit CEO Rusty Faulk. “Day in and day out, week after week, this network provides the best-in-class bang for the buck.”

“Pursuit knocked it out of the park with a 0.08 CVG AA% to end the weekend daytime category (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) of the quarter,” said Greg Sugg of Moose Media. “But that our weekends are also so well received is really no surprise. Education, conservation and down-home fun makes us the weekend go-to destination for millions of family oriented hunters, fishers and shooters.”

*Coverage AA%: Percentage of households viewing a program or daypart within its coverage area.

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