From my perspective, I've always felt that there are actually three kinds of luck: pure luck (we Okies also refer to it as "blind-staggering"--the type we have no influence over), good luck (the kind we want and have an influence over), and bad luck (the type we hate and have an influence over). So, how does all this luck stuff fit in here?

The Lucky One
There's no use wasting our time talking about pure luck because of the sheer nature of the beast--we have no control over it and it does as it pleases. Next, bad luck deserves very little discussion here also, because even though we can bring it upon ourselves, we hate it, don't want it and we try to avoid it at all costs. I've found that bad luck sucks and about the only good thing that I can say about it is that it's a really good teacher. Finally, to the real meat of the matter, good luck; the kind of luck we have a bit of a hand in, and strongly desire to have come our way.

Since we can't 100-percent guarantee ourselves our trophy goal, what might be the best way to help ourselves to a little bit of good luck? As far as the "consistent-harvest-of-mature-whitetail-bucks-by-bow" is concerned, what might sway the odds of good luck in our favor? How does hitting them with the element of surprise sound? The word "surprise" hints of the unknown, happenstance and a gamble, right? Combine all these ingredients together often enough and you're sure to come up a winner occasionally, right? And after all, isn't "occasionally" the best anyone can hope for in this game? Remember the old adage phrase, "even a blind sow finds an acorn once-in-awhile?" Or, the other one that goes, "I'll take luck over skill anytime." I don't know how many times I've heard people say behind my back, "he's either a poacher, or the luckiest s.o.b. in the world." Well, I'm certainly not the former, but definitely the latter. Let me try to show you how I've learned to steer good luck my way in the whitetail woods.

The Element Of Surprise
The best way that I've found to influence the intangibles in my favor is to combine good, solid hunting tactics with a complete surprise attack. As I stated earlier, most of my big bucks were harvested the first time I hunted a spot. I have a couple of different approaches to this twist.

From one approach, I carry a stand strapped to my backpack as I still-hunt into an area. Many times, these junkets end up as simple mini-scouting trips without ever having hung the stand and hunted from it. Sometimes I hang the stand and hunt from it the same day; such an approach has led to the demise of many good bucks.

From the other approach, I hang the stand and quickly exit the area, planning on hunting the area at a later date. Many times I've come back to such a location after weeks, or even months, and killed a big buck on my first hunt there. One thing is for certain; the deer are not going to nail me to any one spot repetitively.