How important to the hunt is it to NOT be successful?

ronecol

ronecol

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How important to the hunt is it to not be successful?

I think most deer hunts here in Ontario come away with a few deer and enough venison to say the hunt was successful.

What about moose? I think most moose hunts conclude with either one moose (successful hunt) or probably in most cases, no moose (unsuccessful hunt).

So my question is, how important is the latter? Do you feel disappointed? Wasted time effort & $$$? Or is the experience; friends, family, the comradely, the camp, stories, laughs, good food, perked coffee, frosty mornings, several day without a shower / shave, and the great Ontario outdoors still make it all worthwhile?

I'm thinking the successful hunt is not necessarily based on the number of animals killed....what say you?

BTW we did not "catch" ( as my wife would say) a moose this fall.


DSC_2062.jpg


Taken from my watch one morning.

Ron
 
I don't care if I shoot anything or not. I have a personal set of rules that I don't expect anyone to repeat or understand. If I come across a deer, unless it offers me the perfect shot, and I mean perfect, I won't shoot. I don't care about the antlers, I care about the shot. Same goes for birds, unless I 'feel' like I can make the shot, I won't take it. I'm not sure what it is about each bird, some are closer some are farther, but if it doesn't feel good it'll fly away.

I just like being out there, theres no other way for me to describe it. I'm not starving, I have food in the fridge so that's not what it's about. I hunt alone mostly so it's not the social thing. I just like being out in nature, just me and my gun. No cell phones, no traffic, no pressure. I have sat an entire day on the side of a pond watching ducks land all around me, watching them do what ducks do. I've layed on the top of a hill with deer bedded down all around the base oblivious to my presense, never even cocked the rifle.

Then there were other times where I did feel like shooting. I felt disapointed after. I've killed game, I have no problems doing so. True, I do feel remorseful taking a life but that's not it either. It's just when you bring an animal to bag, the hunt is over. Even when you have 7 more critters to put in the bag your no longer hunting, instead your just killing. To me there is a difference. Anybody can sit in a pit and shoot at geese as they hang over you, but to chase them is also different. I suppose in the end, that's how I like to think about what I do, I enjoy the chase.
 
pharaoh2 said:
I don't care if I shoot anything or not. I have a personal set of rules that I don't expect anyone to repeat or understand. If I come across a deer, unless it offers me the perfect shot, and I mean perfect, I won't shoot. I don't care about the antlers, I care about the shot. Same goes for birds, unless I 'feel' like I can make the shot, I won't take it. I'm not sure what it is about each bird, some are closer some are farther, but if it doesn't feel good it'll fly away.

I just like being out there, theres no other way for me to describe it. I'm not starving, I have food in the fridge so that's not what it's about. I hunt alone mostly so it's not the social thing. I just like being out in nature, just me and my gun. No cell phones, no traffic, no pressure. I have sat an entire day on the side of a pond watching ducks land all around me, watching them do what ducks do. I've layed on the top of a hill with deer bedded down all around the base oblivious to my presense, never even cocked the rifle.

Then there were other times where I did feel like shooting. I felt disapointed after. I've killed game, I have no problems doing so. True, I do feel remorseful taking a life but that's not it either. It's just when you bring an animal to bag, the hunt is over. Even when you have 7 more critters to put in the bag your no longer hunting, instead your just killing. To me there is a difference. Anybody can sit in a pit and shoot at geese as they hang over you, but to chase them is also different. I suppose in the end, that's how I like to think about what I do, I enjoy the chase.
Click to expand...

Very well said sir! Couldn't agree with you more.
 
I think hunting is one of the highest forms of communion with nature. Whether the hunt is successful or not, the most important thing is being out outdoors, firearm or bow in hand, breathing the fresh air, senses alert, and participating in the best tradition.
 
Hard to explain what it means to me! Its all about spending time with family for me. Ive hunted exclusively with my grandfather and brothers for 16 years now. It was always a special couple weeks regardless of what was shot. Even though my grandfather passed away in June, and will be painfully missed, we'll be out there Monday morning continuting the fine tradition.
 
A bad day (week) hunting is better than a good day at work. It's the holiday, the fellowship, and just plain being out in the woods that makes a hunt worth every minute or penny. Bringing home the "meat" is totally a bonus.
 
I was out moose hunting a few weeks ago.
Called a nice 3 year old bull in to about 25m. Not sure why but just didn't feel like shooting him. I just watched him until he walked away.

Of course the next weekend I saw nothing.:D


A friend of mine asked me whether I understood the concept of hunting?

Bologna is relatively cheap anyways, right?;)
 
The biggest reason I turned into a "trophy" hunter was fact that, once I shoot, my hunting comes to an end. It usually takes a lot of time and effort bag a deer that has 6+ years of experience evading other hunters. I'm in it for the chase! As far as what determines the success - every day I'm hunting, I've already won. If at the end of the season I have a freezer full of meat and a few new mounts on the wall, that's just a bonus.
 
there is not really any better way to waste time and not feel like you lost anything....

ive sat still and watched a spider spin a pretty complex web about two feet away from me... if i wasnt hunting, it would be a simple squish and move on.


my newest hunt this year is waterfowl.... no canoe, and no dog means i get to sit and watch many ducks fly by me within range, but out of recovery area (water too deep for waders) ... and watch the beavers and songbirds do what they do
 
Some of my most memorable hunts have been when I never fired a shot. To me, the number one criteria for a memorable hunt, is a good hunting partner. Having a good, or better yet a great, hunting partner and spending a week in beautiful country, I was going to say, beautiful mountain country, but that wouldn't be fair to you flat land hunters, where no sign of another hunter was seen, leaves little to be desired.
I liked to go into a new and strange area. In the 1930s much of north central BC was laced with prospectors. In 1979 I was reading a mining report written in 1935 about a remote area. Something in the report caught my eye. It mentioned a creek by name, then said, "Locally and aptly named goat creek." I was planning on going on a mountain trip with a young son, so I showed him this and told him that the goats referred to in 1935 would still be there.
The next year we went and the son got a nice billy goat. It took us two days of tough back packing tavel to get from the trail we left the 4x4 truck on, to the base of the mountain the goats were on. We were following the blazed trails the prospectors had made in the 1930s and blazed trails nearly forty years old are not easy to follow.
With two other good friends and great hunting partners, we made four trips to that spot, over a period of six years. In all that time not one other soul had been near our camping site, or even up the creek to the mountain. Not one other hunter in all that time! After the first trip we were able to get to our camping spot at the foot of the mountain in one day. To glass a remote, non hunted mountain range and see goats, sheep and caribou is something to remember. No guides were working the area because it was too rough to get horses into.
To me that's hunting at it's best, never mind about what was shot, or wasn't shot.
But Ron, are you sure you were in Ontario? That picture you posted is of a lake in the Chilcotin area of west central BC!
 
a bad day of fishing or hunting is better than a good day of work. I don't care if I get anything when I go out. I just love being in the great outdoors, where we were meant to be.
 
H4831 said:
But Ron, are you sure you were in Ontario? That picture you posted is of a lake in the Chilcotin area of west central BC!
Click to expand...

I know what you're thinking Bruce..."that's just too pretty to be Ontario"...right? :)

It's actually a section of the Nemogosenda River, north of Chapleau, Ontario at these coordinates: 48° 9' 25.96" N 82° 58' 3.17" W

It's pretty much the same view and direction as Emily is taking off from here. "CLICK" the photo for video.


Couple more nearby photos HERE and HERE at coordinates: 48° 8' 2.46" N 82° 59' 25.98" W

All three photos have been selected for Google Earth but they're not up yet.

Take care
Ron
 
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