Getting into "slapping" distance of big game animals is important to me... I love to observe them at close range... I started bowhunting 38 years ago and took my first black bear that year at arms length... I was hooked then... I'm still hooked now. Some of my favourite memories don't involve a dead animal... being literally stepped over by a rutting bull moose, slapping a button buck in the face when our noses were 12" apart... getting almost trampled by a black bear responding to a calf squawler... none of those animals died, but the memories are just as vivid now as the day they occured.
How Important Is The Kill
- Thread starter ronecol
- Start date
Further to my earlier response; I've never regretted a day spent in the bush without killing something, because I always learn something that helps me kill something later. Maybe a day, maybe a week, maybe the following year.
I love to hunt hungry, and when I do put an animal down I salivate while imagining the butchering, food prep, cooking, and eating.
You can't get that from camping with your buddies and telling stories.
I love to hunt hungry, and when I do put an animal down I salivate while imagining the butchering, food prep, cooking, and eating.
You can't get that from camping with your buddies and telling stories.
cant_rope_the_wind01
CGN Regular
- Location
- West central Alberta
for me its not about killing anything
in my younger years it was
but now for at least the last 7 or 8 years
its about the misty mornings in the fog
the bright sunny sun rises
the silence that only the country and wilderness can provide
its the swoop of a hawk
or far off distance of the call of a loon
or the flock of geese that start out as a spec in the sky and grow into a loud honking swarm of geese
coming to a well set up set of decoys
and just knowing we have done the right tricks to fool such flock of birds
or the look on a coyotes face when he realises its been busted
or sitting on a ridge with a hunting partner watching the fog lift off of a creek or river bottom valley
sometimes its just watching an annoying squirrel on its busy route from one tree to another
yes to dispatch a big mature buck or mature bull elk or moose is icing on the cake
its not the be all end all of a great successful hunt
if I don't kill an animal or birds
no big deal
just the time spent out doors with good friends
and a time to reflect on life and enjoy just being alive
in my younger years it was
but now for at least the last 7 or 8 years
its about the misty mornings in the fog
the bright sunny sun rises
the silence that only the country and wilderness can provide
its the swoop of a hawk
or far off distance of the call of a loon
or the flock of geese that start out as a spec in the sky and grow into a loud honking swarm of geese
coming to a well set up set of decoys
and just knowing we have done the right tricks to fool such flock of birds
or the look on a coyotes face when he realises its been busted
or sitting on a ridge with a hunting partner watching the fog lift off of a creek or river bottom valley
sometimes its just watching an annoying squirrel on its busy route from one tree to another
yes to dispatch a big mature buck or mature bull elk or moose is icing on the cake
its not the be all end all of a great successful hunt
if I don't kill an animal or birds
no big deal
just the time spent out doors with good friends
and a time to reflect on life and enjoy just being alive
I suppose it depends on how you look at it. Most of my hunting is multi-species so its hard to get completely skunked. Its easy to say success doesn't matter when you're successful. I'm seldom in a position where I'm on an expensive trip and its all or nothing on one animal and I either get it or probably will never be back for another try. It would be hard to to pay 30,000 or so for a polar bear hunt and come home with nothing but frost-bite. That's just a made up example, but could the risk of failure be the reason I never tried yet? That would be a bleak plane ride.
For local hunting, if I don't get something today there's usually tomorrow, or next week or the late season or rifle season. Worst case scenario theres always next year. Not having blood on the tailgate today isn't really failure, its just delayed success. Its pretty easy to cheerfully come home with nothing this weekend, shrug and say "That's hunting" if you know you can go back and fill the tag tomorrow. It doesn't require much strength of character or hopeless optimism at all. A failed once in a life-time desert sheep hunt might be another matter.
For local hunting, if I don't get something today there's usually tomorrow, or next week or the late season or rifle season. Worst case scenario theres always next year. Not having blood on the tailgate today isn't really failure, its just delayed success. Its pretty easy to cheerfully come home with nothing this weekend, shrug and say "That's hunting" if you know you can go back and fill the tag tomorrow. It doesn't require much strength of character or hopeless optimism at all. A failed once in a life-time desert sheep hunt might be another matter.
