The Realities of Travel Hunting for Whitetails

It doesn’t take long to browse YouTube before you find that there’s an unlimited amount of hunting content. For better or worse, you don’t have to be a pro to upload your hunting adventures. You can watch everything from seasoned hunters, likethe Element crew, chase big bucks across the country to weekend warriors shooting their first GoPro hunts.

Regardless of content quality, that endless stream of hunting media has conditioned hunters to have unrealistic expectations about travel hunting, especially on public land. Twenty-minute highlight reels make it seem like travel hunting is as easy as buying your tags and hitting the road. But, if you’ve travel hunted any distance, you know this is hardly the case.

The Element crew earns a living byshooting big buckson the road (not literally, of course), so I spoke with Tyler Jones to help highlight some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding travel hunting whitetails on public land. He even highlighted some of his own struggles this past season while he hunted North Dakota, a new state for him.

“I’d never hunted North Dakota before,” Tyler said. “It’s a long way from Texas, but tags aren’t too expensive, and there’s a ton of public land. I picked a landlocked spot that looked great on the map, and I took a kayak and inflatable raft to float the river. It just looked like a great spot to kill a deer, and I was confident in it.”

Tyler’s statement felt all too familiar, something most public land hunters can relate to:e-scoutinga spot that promises to fulfill big buck dreams. Unfortunately, it didn’t play out that way.

“Everything you can imagine went wrong,” he said. “When we got to the river, I realized the kayak wouldn’t hold me and my cameraman because the water levels were so low. Once we arrived at the spot, we were eaten alive by mosquitos, and a group of does busted us at prime time. I was over-zealous on this new trip, and it whipped my tail.”

Misconceptions

Tyler’s troubles didn’t just stop with the North Dakota trip, though. While he had some close encounters throughout the early season, he didn’t kill a buck until November 2. Again, Tyler earns a living making hunting content. It’s his job. So he probably hunts more in October than most people hunt in an entire season. Most folks are lucky to have 15 sits in a season. For reference, Tyler not shooting a buck until November 2 almost equates toa weekend warriorgoing two full deer seasons without killing a deer. But most hunters don’t consider this fact when they compare their success (or lack thereof) to influencers or media hunters.

Hunting can feel like a solo endeavor a lot of the time. However, Tyler credited the Element crew’s teamwork to their success.

“Most people hunt by themselves, so they only have their intel informing them,” he said. “We typically hunt together, so we have an exponentially greater chance because we can share info, whereas one hunter might go to an area and think they'rehunting a desertbecause they don’t see anything. The trick is to go with one or two buddies whose skills you trust and help each other.”

Travel Hunting is Downright Tough

There’s an obvious physical demand that comes with travel hunting, even for whitetails. Sure, it’s no backcountry hunt, but it still requiresa solid level of physical fitnessand awareness, and that includes good sleep.

“A lot of people underestimate good sleep,” Tyler said. “If you don’t get good sleep, you’re wasting your time and money. When we’re on the road, most of us are typically in bed by eight o’clock. If you’re tired and groggy in the morning, you’re more likely to sleep in, get to your spots late, or just make poor decisions in general. It’s also a lot harder to be optimistic when you’re running on fumes. If you can swing it, sleep in a hotel.”

Aside from a good night’s sleep, Tyler emphasized optimism as a driving force behind their success. He stressed that optimism, or the lack thereof, can dictate the outcome of your hunt.

“If you’re not optimistic, you probably won’t spend a ton of timeglassing or checking out a spotthat’s far from the road,” he said. “All these little decisions add up when you’re hunting, and when you’re not optimistic, you won’t put in the effort.”

Tyler acknowledged that most of the time travel hunting is work; fun, but still work. We also talked about the psychological/mental demands of travel hunting. Like a lot of hunters, Tyler has a family, so fall traveling means he typically misses some family sporting events. Most hunters don’t have to worry about travel hunting the entire fall, but even guilt from seven-day trips away from your kids can start to eat at you, especially if you’restruggling to find success.

Manage Your Expectations

I asked Tyler his main advice for hunters considering a travel hunt in the near future, and I appreciated his blunt response.

“I think you should expect to eat your tag if you’re travel hunting to a new state, depending on your expectations” he said. “There’s only so much you can learn about an area in five to seven days. Sometimes it takes us two to three years of hunting an area to somewhat understand it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful either. What’sthe smallest buck you’ll shoot? Are you okay with eating a $500 tag? These are all questions everyone has to consider.”

This might seem to contradict Tyler’s statement about optimism, but it’s more about setting appropriate expectations and accepting the outcome after you’ve given an earnest effort. Tyler admitted that failure happens to everyone at some point, but stressed that it’s how you deal with failure that determines whether or not you experience success onyour first or fifth travel hunts.

“Hunters have to understand that most people fail when they do this (travel hunt),” he said. “When I fail, I ask myself, ‘Why?’ And I try to learn from those mistakes. You have to see those failures as learning opportunities. If you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing, then you’ll learn all the time.”

Rather than shirking away from failure, Tyler sees it as imminent. He doesn’t look for it around every corner but deals with it head-on when it comes. Painful as failures are, Tyler told me he sees them as part of divine sovereignty that’s shaped who he is as a hunter and person. If you can be optimistic in the midst of failure, you should have no issue withtravel hunting.

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