Quitters

[TOGIE]

Oct 2017

I bet that good old fashioned diversified sexual tension from the old MH bags was really getting in your head huh?

 

[MThuntr]

My personal favorite excuse while holding my fly rod in one hand, a beer in the other, and a little Debbie in my pocket midday during September archery. "It's to hot elk won't be moving"

The engineer down the hall asked me what I was up to this weekend and I was doing some fishing at a high elevation lake. He and his son knocked down 2 bulls on Sunday and Monday (one was a heavy 6 with 19" 3rds). Monday it was pushing 75 degrees where he was and I was enjoying the sunshine with a beer on the brewery's patio

 

[bowhuntmontana]

I'll admit that sometimes I am a quitter. Several years ago I drew a decent elk tag in Montana. Went hard the first day, passing on a smaller bull. By the end of that day I became acutely aware that I was not in good enough shape to hunt the way I wanted to. Tag went unfilled. I made a commitment that my fitness would never be the reason I couldn't complete a hunt again, and so far that's worked out.

I will say that I strongly dislike camping, hiking, and hunting in the rain and have canceled or cut short a few planned outings. Just depends on the circumstances.

Also work, wife, and kids have altered my plans many times.

 

[MThuntr]

It doesn't look like much but it was well below zero for a lot of the 2020 season. Stuck it out in my tipi. HOWEVER, that was one of the last times I stuck it out in a tent. Never being able to truly get dry or thaw food. That year I spent my birthday drinking a frozen Coors. I do have a better setup now but being frozen and wet will cut most trips short now.

 

[EYJONAS!]

Oct 2017

@EYJONAS! told me the snow was “ankle deep at 9,000 feet”
Probably was where he went. 15 miles away it was a different story, I would learn.
I planned to spend 3 or 4 nights in a spot where I thought migrating rams may be.

I thought I could pound out the 9 trail miles and couple off trail miles in about 6 hours.

I started in the dark and before long was post holing. I nearly made the end of the trail by nightfall, exhausted, dehydrated, cramping and freezing cold in a blizzard. Mid thigh snow most of the way. I couldn’t even do it now. I was in excellent shape that year by that point in the season. Set my tent up on a flat spot I made in the trail.

Tried to reach the alpine the next day and ended up over my waist and exhausted from the day before.
Went back to camp, made a fire, ate some food, drank water and rested. Packed out the next day. Thank God it was all downhill.
The morning after the first night, I was convinced I was hallucinating, hearing a wolf howl close outside my tent. The track confirms that it actually happened, so at least I wasn’t going crazy.

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[EYJONAS!]

 

[atlas]

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And you didn't stab and slash it?

 

[Rzrbck918]

I bet that good old fashioned diversified sexual tension from the old MH bags was really getting in your head huh?

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If that runup to a Devil's Threeway is doing it for you, you have been in the tent too long.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Grizzly Bears seem to be a big one. Just last weekend my hunting partner of 13 years bailed on me at 9:30pm the night before our hunt because his new wife decided she doesn't want him hunting bear country anymore. It takes a lot of self-control on my part to not tell him to grow a set and lay out some ground rules. I can't think of a time he's bailed on a hunt, and we've spent plenty of night out in griz country together, so I know it's coming from his wife.

Pussy! But what do I k ow I'm divorced.

 

[Redmt]

I quit chasing it when I could no longer catch it.

 

[rogerthat]

I always have to quit at some point. Most of the time it’s because the season closes. Sucks being a quitter.

 

[The Hedgehog]

Also work, wife, and kids have altered my plans many times.

A friend's son drew a sheep and goat permit last year. His wife was due in late September with their first child, and he told me his son was just going to have to just get it over with and shoot the first one he could.
I asked him "why, he could always have another kid." He said, "I know - that's what I told him too."

 

[The Hedgehog]

I always have to quit at some point. Most of the time it’s because the season closes. Sucks being a quitter.

Did you buy a muzzleloader yet?

 

[rogerthat]

Did you buy a muzzleloader yet?

Yup and a sled and the whole week off

 

[The Hedgehog]

Yup and a sled and the whole week off

Quitters never win and winners never quit.

 

[Gellar]

I had a Kodiak goat tag as a resident, they announced the draw results in January or February. Sometime that spring I decided I’d better go back and finish college in the fall. Normally I was skipping class to hunt, not skipping hunts for class. Look where that got me.

 

[The Hedgehog]

I drew NM late rifle mule deer in unit 2B in 1997. At the time it was $5 permit, then had to buy license later. I also had drawn AZ and WY antelope permits. I ended up not buying the license and not going, couldn't fit it in and didn't care enough about it then. Back when they were easier to draw I drew a number of WY regional (H) mule deer permits, always scouted and hunted early, but usually quit it after the first week (when the bucks ungrouped) and started hunting other things. I ate 2 or 3 of those permits.

 

[rogerthat]

I drew NM late rifle mule deer in unit 2B in 1997. At the time it was $5 permit, then had to buy license later. I also had drawn AZ and WY antelope permits. I ended up not buying the license and not going, couldn't fit it in and didn't care enough about it then.

Damn! Those were different times. I had a Montana moose tag in 2001 when I was in college. Couldn’t get myself to stop bowhunting elk. Got my bull elk at the end of archery that year. Of course the moose rut was winding down by then. Shot the only bullwinkle I kept seeing two days before thanksgiving so I wouldn’t disappoint my mom and miss thanksgiving. If I could go back I should have hunted to the bitter end. Damn quitter.

 

[Rzrbck918]

I drew NM late rifle mule deer in unit 2B in 1997. At the time it was $5 permit, then had to buy license later. I also had drawn AZ and WY antelope permits. I ended up not buying the license and not going, couldn't fit it in and didn't care enough about it then. Back when they were easier to draw I drew a number of WY regional (H) mule deer permits, always scouted and hunted early, but usually quit it after the first week (when the bucks ungrouped) and started hunting other things. I ate 2 or 3 of those permits.

At least it wasnt 2C.

 

[BRI]

Within the last few years, by the time the season ends here in Montana, I'm pretty fed up with the lack of animals and poor public land hunting here and I say I'm gonna quit.