Hunting Journal

[RidgeRoamingRichard]

My Grandad has always been an avid hunter. He lives in Texas, but has hunted out West as well as back East, and loves pretty much everything about hunting. Unfortunately for me, my family lived a long ways away and we never got to hunting together. Now that I am expressing more and more interest in it, I can tell it kills my Grandad that he can't share in the fun with me. Because I couldn't get him to the woods, I brought the woods to him. I brought my phone along on all my hunts and made sure to take pictures on each outing. I also recorded all my tracks on OnX and made sure they were dated. After the season, I went back through my logs and wrote up a description of each hunt, then labeled the pictures to correspond with the descriptions. It was a labor of love and ended up being over 20 pages, but it was a really cool way to recap the season, remember what I learned, and to quantify just how much hunting I did.

Does anyone else do this? How do you share hunting with those who can no longer physically do it?

 

[TheBenHoyle]

I keep a semi-live hunt log here on Hunt Talk. And I share the stories verbally with my mom and dad as well as my wife and kids as soon as I can after the hunt. I carry a note book with me, but I never take it out of my backpack while I'm hunting to write anything.

 

[HuntingHusband]

I have an uncle that is more like a second father to me than an uncle. He’s now in his 80’s and hasn’t been able to hunt for years. So, daily phone calls recounting every detail of the day is now the norm. And lots of pictures!

I also come at this from a different point of view. My father kept a detailed journal starting in the 1970’s up until he passed away in 2015. He had filled 3 books with hand written stories.

After he passed I took on the task of typing them up and with the help and patience of Hunting Wife, scanned in decades of photos. After lots of tears and beer there was over 400 pages of history of his and by default a lot of our family’s hunting experiences. I had it printed and bound for the entire family and was one of the most rewarding but difficult things I’ve ever done.

I encourage everyone to document your experiences, not only the kills, but the misses and what you felt. Even if you have family that doesn’t hunt it gives them a glimpse into ‘you’. Keep it up!

 

[Matt Dworak]

This is pretty much the whole reason I keep my blog...

 

[RidgeRoamingRichard]

I have an uncle that is more like a second father to me than an uncle. He’s now in his 80’s and hasn’t been able to hunt for years. So, daily phone calls recounting every detail of the day is now the norm. And lots of pictures!

I also come at this from a different point of view. My father kept a detailed journal starting in the 1970’s up until he passed away in 2015. He had filled 3 books with hand written stories.

After he passed I took on the task of typing them up and with the help and patience of Hunting Wife, scanned in decades of photos. After lots of tears and beer there was over 400 pages of history of his and by default a lot of our family’s hunting experiences. I had it printed and bound for the entire family and was one of the most rewarding but difficult things I’ve ever done.

I encourage everyone to document your experiences, not only the kills, but the misses and what you felt. Even if you have family that doesn’t hunt it gives them a glimpse into ‘you’. Keep it up!

If i only documented the kills, it would be a short book!

 

[BRaska]

I wrote stuff down for years not so much story just my thoughts on hunts. I don't know why if anyone read it they wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of it, not a lot of details but I've just always done it.

 

[Harrier]

I keep handwritten journals of my adventures, hunting and otherwise. If I’m bored in a blind waiting for something to show up, documenting the hunt helps pass the time. I used some of the collection to write a memoir (unpublished) a couple of years ago. I take lots of photos too. I’ve reserved a web address for a page & blog, but haven’t launched it yet.

 

[RidgeRoamingRichard]

I keep handwritten journals of my adventures, hunting and otherwise. If I’m bored in a blind waiting for something to show up, documenting the hunt helps pass the time. I used some of the collection to write a memoir (unpublished) a couple of years ago. I take lots of photos too. I’ve reserved a web address for a page & blog, but haven’t launched it yet.

Let me know when you do!

 

[geetar]

I started a notebook of my journey of hunting bighorn sheep in the unlimited units of Montana. From research, to scouting, to hunting I plan to record it all and pass it on to an aspiring unlimited sheep hunter one day after I punch my tag.

 

[RidgeRoamingRichard]

I started a notebook of my journey of hunting bighorn sheep in the unlimited units of Montana. From research, to scouting, to hunting I plan to record it all and pass it on to an aspiring unlimited sheep hunter one day after I punch my tag.

Please do. I dream of a sheep hunt but don't know where to start.

 

[rmyoung1]

My grandfather kept a detailed hunting journal for nearly twenty years with notes, pictures and some pretty detailed write-ups of his hunts, mostly in pursuit of ruffed grouse in his native West Virginia. My dad moved to Montana in 1983 and kept a hunting journal for a few years when my brothers and I were getting our start in hunting in the early-mid 90s. Before my grandfather died, he gave his journals to me. It's one of my most cherished possessions, and I've been scanning each page and building a book at blurb.com to give my dad. It's been a pretty neat experience.

I began to journal about my own hunting experiences in 2009. I use blurb.com for that journal, as well. I printed the first "volume" when it hit around 165 pages. It's a large coffee-table book size, and I like the way it turned out. I printed enough copies to give each of my boys one when they get older. I will print the second "volume" this year as I'm nearing that 165-page mark again. It's been a huge labor of love, and the journal impacts my hunt preparation more than I could have ever imagined before I started. I spend a lot of time pondering what I want the thing to say when I hang up the hunting boots one day.