I can go many outings without even seeing a deer, despite the use of thermals.I didn’t realise this was a thing. I thought there were that many that you could take your pick???
I’ve been stalking for only a year and have never not seen a shootable deer in Dorset/somerset/exmoor… I’ve only had 1 failed hunt and that was due to visibility not lack of deer “I still enjoyed it though”.
Perhaps we are doing our job in commercial forestry to well!!