Arbitrary Hunting Goals

[cgasner1]

Anything I would have as a goal would be very "arbitrary" and likely change about once a week. My last goal, one that has persisted for over 40 years, will be met this August when I get to sit atop the MacKenzie Mountains and try to drink in what true "wildness" really is. If I get a sheep or caribou, great. If not, I will find a lot of other reasons to revel in being there.

If there is a goal in a traditional sense, it would be to hunt pronghorn for 30 days straight. Learn all I can, observe their crazy behavior, appreciate them for the amazing critter they are, close it out by shooting a mature buck on the last hour of Day 30, and eat half a backstrap on the grill that night.

Other than that, it is just spending as many remaining days afield that I possibly can with people who mean a lot to me.

This is why I have some of the “goals” I do is to try and have a different experience. I’ve done a fair amount of traveling to hunt and I feel very fortunate for that. I also have almost zero interest in doing the same hunt twice. It’s about the journey getting there.

 

[np307]

I have a couple of specific areas of public that I'd like to kill a deer or turkey on. I dont care much for turkey slams and what that's done to the turkey world but I would like to spend some time down in the swamps and kill a public land Osceola. I'd like to kill a respectable antelope. I'd like to see my boy take to hunting and fishing, still a couple years off for that.

 

[thusby]

My first goal: hunt at least one western state, every year, for a decade.
That turned into some amazing experiences and I’ve been admittedly lazy since I’ve achieved it.

My focus has changed a lot over the last 5 years and now I’m more happy to canoe a swamp with a shotgun, troll for salmon with someone whose never been, or trap beaver.

 

[kansasdad]

Get a fine antelope within sight of the dugout cabin used by my dad/grandparents in the 30's. I'd probably use the Winchester .243 he purchased right after miraculously surviving his time in Korea.

Points have been just out of reach, will most likely have to get lucky in the random draw, or perhaps pull the old special draw magic.

An impossible dream would be to take a Cape Buffalo in my dad's favorite hunting block in Kenya. Big game hunting is no longer possible in Kenya, and that land has mostly been turned into small shambas (subsistence farms).

 

[Hamms12oz]

Yearly Montana goal (best I've done was 4 species in a single year):
Turkey
Bear
Pronghorn
Elk
Deer
Wolf

Long term goal is to harvest a mule deer in each state, so I try to squeeze in a tag or 2 for out of state hunts each year.

 

[Bambistew]

Id like to shoot a few more animals/species with my muzzle loader. Like a brown bear, moose and a sheep.

I had a goal of shooting 12 rams, almost there.

 

[Schaaf]

One goal of mine is to stay in decent enough shape that I never have a desire to go hunt Africa.

 

[idahohuntr]

I have no goals re: animal size, species, numbers. My emphasis is on spending quality time in quality places with quality people.

I am trying to maximize hunts in particular with my 2 boys (3 and 5) and my dad (71). The neat thing...keeping a 5 year old and a 70 year old happy on a hunt has a lot of overlap...preferences for terrain, weather, naps, snacks are all nearly identical

 

[BirdManMike]

I guess if I had one, my goal would be to take a boomer sage grouse with a wild-trapped prairie falcon.

 

[Robert N]

I’d like 10 days in the field this year…maybe tag my first Bow-Deer. A couple does would do just fine.

 

[Boarmaster]

At my age the goal is just living long enough to get to the next season. I’ll figure the rest out when I get there.

 

[Ought Six]

Probably a little conceited, but an arbitrary goal I probably wouldn’t admit to is to get my daughters into hunting and passionate about it, and ultimately have them become more successful and better hunters than my nephews or buddy’s sons. If my oldest can whack a bull with a bow her first year of legal age, that would be pretty cool! We’re off to a good start so far.

 

[atlas]

Twenty bulls would be cool.

 

[2rocky]

My slam was an elk in every one of the 11 Western states. Now i'm wondering if I REALLY want to try to kill an elk in Alaska...

One thing if you are goal oriented is to have something else on the horizon to look towards when you do achieve a goal. I do admit I felt lost when I finally killed a personal best Rocky Mountain bull I felt deserved a shoulder mount. In fact, my goal of a bull elk in every state became LESS important at that point.

I'm finding that my elk hunting experiences to this point have exceeded what the average person who doesn't live in elk country generally expects and achieves. It now becomes the opportunity/expectation of helping first time elk hunters as they pursue their goals.

I guess sometime goals look better from afar, and when you get close to them, they loose their luster to some degree. Hence the need to keep creating new goals in the future.

“Two sure ways to fail- Think and never do or do and never think.”

— Zig Ziglar

 

[TheBenHoyle]

From the start, I wanted to kill a deer with a bow I made myself. I started using a compound bow thinking it would be a good weapon to learn how to hunt deer with. I've had some success. Next step is to hunt with my dad's old recurve. And to start making a bow of my own. I'm pretty sure I can get there.

I would like to shoot a Rio, Osceola and a Merriams. I already have a few Easterns.

Other than that, I would love to shoot a mouflon an axis, and elk and a caribou. No real rhyme or reason, just animals that I would like to hunt.

 

[CPAjeff]

I've got a few:

Dall Sheep in the NWT
Mountain Goat
Sitka in SE Alaska
Bear in SE Alaska
Elk in the Thorofare
Turkey slam
Woodcock and grouse in the North Woods
Ptarmigan/Grayling Combo in Alaska
Quail in AZ

Pending a few draw odds, I should be able to knock the vast majority of these off the list in the next few years. The "Dall Sheep in the NWT" fund isn't growing as fast as I'd like, but it's still growing.

 

[SagebrushSlayer]

I have a variety of random goals:

Draw/hunt Big 3 in ID in the same unit. Sheep has been the one I’m concentrating on first, since 2013. Moose would be second, goat last.

Shoot a 4 pt Mule deer in as a many OTC units south of the Clearwater river as I can. Long way to go

Hunt as many units in WY for antelope bucks as I can. Shoot a mature 5 point and 6 point elk (300”+) with rifle and bow in WY. Hunt mature mule deer in each region in WY, with a typical and non typical mature buck in each region. Hunt WT in WY in each region that I can.

Get my wife/daughters on any of the above species, that would be bigger than anything I may shoot.

 

[corndog1]

I have a goal to rattle in a mature white tail and to keep after the ducks

 

[VikingsGuy]

I tend to be strangely goal-oriented about things that don’t need goals attached. Hunting hasn’t escaped my neurotic tendency. For a while, I’ve had this desire to take an elk, a deer, and an antelope in each of the eight Interior Mountain West states (MT, WY, CO, NM, AZ, UT, ID, NV). I’m not too hung up on a male of each species, but bucks and bulls are cool, of course. The AZ antelope is gonna be hard with only 17 points currently. A guy can hope, though.

At 46 years old, I’m not really close. Only in MT have I tagged all three. NM has offered up elk/antelope. CO and AZ each an elk. WY an antelope. NV, UT and ID… nada.

Anyone else with some arbitrary hunting goals? Who has completed my IMW Slam?

When I was in my twenties and thirties I had this tendency to live life like a checklist - things to get done, goals to be met. As a result I got a lot done, but even the fun things ended up feeling like work or just getting sh*t done - it reduced the joy associated with the activities and added its own layer of stress to an already stressful career. Into my later forties and fifties I have tried to stop making lists and start just enjoying each moment. It has added joy and reduced stress. I still have to remind myself the relax from time to time, but I wished I had understood this earlier in life.

 

[Treeshark]

I guess sometime goals look better from afar, and when you get close to them, they loose their luster to some degree.

I was thinking of this as well- it’s sometimes referred to as “arrival fallacy.”

One thing I think can be helpful is to focus less on the specific goal and more on just enjoying the process.

Edit: @VikingsGuy, same thought at the same time. Well said.