Well-written Reminder About 'Making It' In The Outdoors

[COEngineer]

https://www.outdoorlife.com/opinion/what-successful-hunting-looks-like/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3Y8IoSywtMUy5iCTv8qQSVosWn-s59C69C_FjCyRj1T6b8EdNWIHTc-ZU

I really like the final sentence, "If you’re hunting because you love to hunt, then every time you step into the woods or onto the mountain, you have made it."

 

[44hunter45]

I thought this was gonna have @Greenhorn digiscopes in it....
I wanted to check it out before the admins pulled it.

 

[noharleyyet]

Glad I'm a flatlander from Mother Texas who loves to chase muleys and elk in beautiful Colorado and New Mexico...without the baggage of existential angst.

 

[woods89]

That's a good article.

 

[2rocky]

That is a great piece. Well written and honest. The line about "comparison is the thief of joy" really hit home.

I remember putting together a slide show from a hunt in a brand new area I scouted one day in the summer and via Google Earth. I killed the first legal bull I saw and I was really proud of the way our group went 3/5 in a General area on our own with our own stock where we had never hunted before. I posted the slide show to YT and I was floored at the rude comments from people (that were hunters).

I can't remember the actual moment I decided I wasn't going to maintain my blog any more. Or when the pro staff opportunities stopped appealing to me. I recall my local bowshop got my brand of bow and mentioned I should be a "shop-shooter" which is like JV league prostaff. Suddenly I wasn't as fired up to go to all the big shoots. Or take pictures all the time for articles, or cruise five different forums to look for posts on my "brands". I remember the blog network got bought by an outdoor media company and the pay structure changed. The clothing and pack company that I wrote reviews for got bought by a bigger company and the inside contact I had left for a different job. Suddenly everyone was on Facebook. Forums and blogs just lost their readership...

Today I do not subscribe to outdoor TV channels, or subscribe to any hunting magazines save my Pope & Young journal. Bows have tripled in cost. I still shoot a 2012 model with 5 fixed pins. I just didn't evolve with the times. When you take away the bombardment of "everyone else is using this and killing that" it doesn't matter any more.

I'm so old I remember when the only "good looking female hunting personality" was a Buffalo Bills Cheerleader who I shared a bale with at the final round World Archery Festival in the Riviera Casino. Now every woman with a bikini and a bow is an IG star.

I've had some really cool hunts and I hope to have more. I'll share them with friends like you all. But I'm not gonna try to differentiate myself from all the folks "giving it away for free" on social media.