How important to the hunt is it to NOT be successful?
- Thread starter ronecol
- Start date
strider007
CGN frequent flyer
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.
Taken from my watch one morning.
Ron
How could anyone be disappointed after an "unsuccessful hunt" at a place like that? Simply stunning...just being there is a victory on its own...
All said yes the experience is why we hunt but personally I get a bit frustrated if there is no action. I like to see animals and going out repeatedly and not seeing anything gets me down a bit. However, after a brief period of pouting I get more determined to be successful and go back at it. I am very fortunate to live in a part of Canada where your efforts are usually rewarded every season if you put in the time and effort.
For me success is seeing a game animal that presents an opportunity to connect. My doe tag gets filled at the first chance at a good sized dry doe then the my regular tag sits till some good horns come by. Its gone unfilled more than once but having some meat in the freezer makes filling or not filling that second tag a very relaxing and enjoyable hunt even if I don't connect.
Lets face it boys filling a tag is sweeter than not filling it.
For me success is seeing a game animal that presents an opportunity to connect. My doe tag gets filled at the first chance at a good sized dry doe then the my regular tag sits till some good horns come by. Its gone unfilled more than once but having some meat in the freezer makes filling or not filling that second tag a very relaxing and enjoyable hunt even if I don't connect.
Lets face it boys filling a tag is sweeter than not filling it.
Not an easy question to answer....
Family and friends make even the worst hunting great- hands down every time. I'm happy when I come home whether I get an animal or not, regardless of cost and hardship BUT
Somedays I'm 110% serious about my hunting and some days I 'take a gun for a walk'. It depends on how full the freezer is. Considering I have spent most of my life getting paid to hang out in the bush I do appreciate the extra something that being dedicated to a hunt brings to a day outside.
Great line and I get it but thats not really an option for me. In my house its wild meat or vegetarianism.... nothing in between. I don't subcontract my killing, end of story. Not a choice many make, but whatever, I live my life and they live theirs.
Family and friends make even the worst hunting great- hands down every time.
I'm happy when I come home whether I get an animal or not, regardless of cost and hardship BUTSomedays I'm 110% serious about my hunting and some days I 'take a gun for a walk'. It depends on how full the freezer is. Considering I have spent most of my life getting paid to hang out in the bush I do appreciate the extra something that being dedicated to a hunt brings to a day outside.
Great line and I get it but thats not really an option for me. In my house its wild meat or vegetarianism.... nothing in between. I don't subcontract my killing, end of story. Not a choice many make, but whatever, I live my life and they live theirs.
A colleague of mine asked me this week why I hunt. He's vegetarian but, to his credit, he was asking out of sincere curiosity. I realized that I found it very hard to explain. I find it to be one of those "Those who do, can't explain. Those who don't, can't understand" kinds of things- much like scuba diving also is for me.
The way I explained it was this, and it's paraphrased from a book I read perhaps twenty years ago about a couple canoeing across Canada. How much more does one appreciate the food on their table when they had to work to put it there themselves? How much more does one one appreciate the simplicities of a warm house, dry clothes, and a hot cup of whatever, when they've spent all day out in the cold, wind, snow...etc.? And how much better does one sleep that night?
One of the reasons I hunt is to set my wits against nature- where we're all decidedly disadvantaged. I enjoy the "thrill of the hunt". I make no apologies for this. Of course this I could do with a camera. But I also hunt for food, and I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the meat that does come home with me.
With these factors, and more, in mind, and to keep them as sharp a contrast as possible, for me it's vitally important to be "skunked", and "skunked" often.
The way I explained it was this, and it's paraphrased from a book I read perhaps twenty years ago about a couple canoeing across Canada. How much more does one appreciate the food on their table when they had to work to put it there themselves? How much more does one one appreciate the simplicities of a warm house, dry clothes, and a hot cup of whatever, when they've spent all day out in the cold, wind, snow...etc.? And how much better does one sleep that night?
One of the reasons I hunt is to set my wits against nature- where we're all decidedly disadvantaged. I enjoy the "thrill of the hunt". I make no apologies for this. Of course this I could do with a camera. But I also hunt for food, and I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the meat that does come home with me.
With these factors, and more, in mind, and to keep them as sharp a contrast as possible, for me it's vitally important to be "skunked", and "skunked" often.
Everyone should have a non successful hunt! People that go out and get something every outing start to forget when they really started going out there. Some would say that I've had a pretty bad 2010, I didn't get any geese during the late season hunt, my spring turkey season I didn't even see a bird, and could hear very few, my group didn't get and moose tags, so we won't be bear hunting either, no water waterfowl have come into our spread this season, and I've spent a month bow hunting, but deer just stay out of range...... Fishing on the other hand was great this summer.
I use all my free weekends to hunt, I get up when some of my friends are getting home from the bar. But I love it. I would rather have died with a life "spent" sitting in nature watching the season change than wake up hungover with some heffer laying next to me vowing "I'm never going to drink again" and saying that was my life story
I use all my free weekends to hunt, I get up when some of my friends are getting home from the bar. But I love it. I would rather have died with a life "spent" sitting in nature watching the season change than wake up hungover with some heffer laying next to me vowing "I'm never going to drink again" and saying that was my life story
Unsuccessful hunts can mean different things to one who hunts:
1) What went wrong. How do I get it right next time.
2) Waaaah, why me, Waaaaahhhhh !
3) Thank God I'm not at work today
4) Or simply a chance to finally breath.
Whatever, they mean to you one thing is true. If you hunt often enough and try hard enough the unsuccessful days far out number the successful one by a huge margin. So enjoy them. Soon enough we'll all be too old and feeble to to hunt and perhaps all we'll have is the kindness of a friend or family member that will load us in the truck and take us for a ride in the countryside. My bet is we'll remember the stories from the days we got skunked more vividly than the days we pulled the trigger or released that arrow.
Now enough of this drivel and get out there and get skunked. Me included
1) What went wrong. How do I get it right next time.
2) Waaaah, why me, Waaaaahhhhh !
3) Thank God I'm not at work today
4) Or simply a chance to finally breath.
Whatever, they mean to you one thing is true. If you hunt often enough and try hard enough the unsuccessful days far out number the successful one by a huge margin. So enjoy them. Soon enough we'll all be too old and feeble to to hunt and perhaps all we'll have is the kindness of a friend or family member that will load us in the truck and take us for a ride in the countryside. My bet is we'll remember the stories from the days we got skunked more vividly than the days we pulled the trigger or released that arrow.
Now enough of this drivel and get out there and get skunked. Me included
It is always good to make meat but with this:
and this:
it is hard to get upset when game or good shots just aren't there.
Excellent photo!!
Ron
