Over the last 5-10 years, my joy in hunting big game has been largely non-existent. I've had a few fun hunts, but I wasn't really into it. I got a bird dog, and that consumed a lot of time along with running a small business, family health, etc. I've just kind of lost the joy of big game hunting. I feel myself getting softer on killing things, and root for squirrels, possums and skunks, etc. Roosevelt once said something to the effect that the hunter tends to put down the rifle and pick up the camera as they mature - that the killing just becomes too much. I've heard the same sentiment from one of the hardest SOB's god ever made. I think there's some truth to that. but I also think that each person's hunting is an adventure on it's own - that everyone has to come to the place where you recognize that killing things is part of you are, and that's ok - even if you have a soft side that roots for the underdog, or for the coyote to outrun the pursuer.
I've been doing a lot of exploration of new chunks of isolated state land close to me. It's been an interesting few months (Not much snow here in the northern lower), and ticks are out, so make sure your clothes are sprayed & the dogs are covered. What I've found, along with new covers that I likely wouldn't have even guessed exist - is a new joy in the scouting of game. I've got a 2nd week tag for turkeys and while there are a gang of about 5-6 Toms that use our property it kinda feels like cheating, so...
In the last two months we've been finding tons of grouse, lots of new deer hunting spots with minimal human presence detected and we were impolitely escorted off a piece of state land by a very unhappy and protective coyote. There's a joy of being outdoors looking for wildlife that hasn't been there (except for upland) for quite a while. The exploration, pouring over maps & data points, comparing forest overlays, even placing cameras on some public land. I've been fortunate enough to get selected for an enhanced hunter ed school in early May, which I'm eager to do and learn to shoot better, and most importantly - to be a better hunter overall.
Maybe it's being in closer proximity to accessible lands (rural versus urban) but the fire feels like it's back. Maybe it's changing perspectives or removing myself from situations where hunting felt more like gate-keeping, or like there was an air of exclusivity around it - the elite hunter model that seems to have infiltrated all things hunting related. Maybe it's just finally letting go of all that shit and enjoying myself in the moment, not caring what anyone else thought of how I did what I was doing, or why I was doing something.
Maybe it's living in the moment, and not getting wrapped around the axle of every triggering thing I see and maybe it's being in proximity to the impending death of a loved one yet again that helps keep my eyes open to all that is still amazing, beautiful, wild and accecssible.
I don't know. I just know that the off season here is getting $*)Q!#@$ ugly, and we should get some focus back on what makes us all part of the hunting community beyond cartridge size and broadhead weight.
I've been doing a lot of exploration of new chunks of isolated state land close to me. It's been an interesting few months (Not much snow here in the northern lower), and ticks are out, so make sure your clothes are sprayed & the dogs are covered. What I've found, along with new covers that I likely wouldn't have even guessed exist - is a new joy in the scouting of game. I've got a 2nd week tag for turkeys and while there are a gang of about 5-6 Toms that use our property it kinda feels like cheating, so...
In the last two months we've been finding tons of grouse, lots of new deer hunting spots with minimal human presence detected and we were impolitely escorted off a piece of state land by a very unhappy and protective coyote. There's a joy of being outdoors looking for wildlife that hasn't been there (except for upland) for quite a while. The exploration, pouring over maps & data points, comparing forest overlays, even placing cameras on some public land. I've been fortunate enough to get selected for an enhanced hunter ed school in early May, which I'm eager to do and learn to shoot better, and most importantly - to be a better hunter overall.
Maybe it's being in closer proximity to accessible lands (rural versus urban) but the fire feels like it's back. Maybe it's changing perspectives or removing myself from situations where hunting felt more like gate-keeping, or like there was an air of exclusivity around it - the elite hunter model that seems to have infiltrated all things hunting related. Maybe it's just finally letting go of all that shit and enjoying myself in the moment, not caring what anyone else thought of how I did what I was doing, or why I was doing something.
Maybe it's living in the moment, and not getting wrapped around the axle of every triggering thing I see and maybe it's being in proximity to the impending death of a loved one yet again that helps keep my eyes open to all that is still amazing, beautiful, wild and accecssible.
I don't know. I just know that the off season here is getting $*)Q!#@$ ugly, and we should get some focus back on what makes us all part of the hunting community beyond cartridge size and broadhead weight.
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