This years Deer hunt... I lost that Loving feeling...

Jay

Jay

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Hey Guys and Gals;

Well, this year was definitely VERY different than ALL the past years that I have hunted deer...

I just didn't have the "umph" to go get my deer and even considered NOT going out at all!!! I can't explain it, I just didn't know if I wanted to put the time and effort into deer hunting, I was having SO much fun duck hunting and bird hunting with my dog and buddies...

I finally convinced myself to go out and spent a couple hours on 5 little trips to try and get a buck... I didn't have a doe tag... and I am a meat hunter first and foremost...

1st time out, saw 3 does in my "secret" spot from my treestand
2nd time out, saw nothing at a different spot from my treestand
3rd time out, saw nothing at another different spot on the ground
4th time out, saw a deer and got the scoped rifle on it at maybe 250 yards, couldn't be sure of the shot and took off my jacket to lay the rifle on it for a steadier shot and the deer was gone...
5th time out, sat again in my "secret" spot in my treestand, grunted 6 to 12 times VERY lightly and 5 mins later a nice little 7 point buck came sneaking in looking for who grunted...

I shot him at 40 yards with my Savage 12FV in 308 topped with a Accushot 4-16x56 mm scope using a 165 grain Sierra HPBT GameKing bullet... He jumped and kicked his rear legs at the shot and piled up into a tree less than 20 yards away...

Now here is where I realized that SOMETHING has changed... ALL of the previous years that I have hunted deer, I have had a little "jump" in my heart rate at the sighting of a deer... This year, NOTHING, I simply noticed the deer and it wasn't till later that I realized that I didn't get excited...

Don't get me wrong, I love hunting, I just felt different about it this year... I didn't get good pics of the deer, but that's ANOTHER story... Here are the two pics I took at the butchers as I hung him up to skin him for the meat cooler...

Cheers
Jay

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happened to me last year, I really had lost the drive to hunt after my ol man passed away. I'd never hunted a season without him, and I just really didn't want to go out.

I'm sure it's just a passing fad

nice tasty buck you should have there, congrats
 
Last year, i was all excited to go on an elk hunt. We went to a very remote area of BC, spent a day hiking up the mountain, got some elk bugling to us, and then I injured my back.

Even after I had healed, i didn't have any drive to go out hunting. I didn't want to do anyhting.

By this spring, i was back to normal, and hunted in Ontario with Biggred and Daryl, and bears here in BC, and this fall I spent 19 days sheep huting, another 5 days mulie hunitng, and a few more days goat hunting, as well as day trips around here.

This year I am just frustrated by my lack of time, as there is so much else I need to do!

I think that losing interest for a time is normal.

You'll get it back:p
 
I am worn thin right now and could care less if I hunt another day right now... but that will all change as soon as the snow sticks to the ground.
My buddies have away of getting me all wound up again... Chilly is coming out friday so I can see another 4:30 AM morning in the freezing cold on Saturday.
There is a nice ten point still running around here.... hell, I got some steam left.
It will pass Jay......
 
Went for my first deer hunt this year. Got nothing. It was the "wait in hiding" type of hunt, on a farm in Central Saskatchewan.

I have to be honest, I won't do that again. It's not my thing. Next season I am going on a real hunt. Take a couple of weeks off work and join ( or start) a camp in the northern bush.

That, I think, is the kind of hunting I am looking for.
 
I always get excited. The rush is what I look forward to every season.

I must say that I have lost my drive for duck hunting, but when the kids are older and have more time, that will come back.

You gotta love those Sierra 165's hey Jay? Told you they work good on deer.

Congrats on the deer. It's always nice to put venison in the freezer.

James
:D
 
I'm only 16, and if i had the chance i would hunt every day if I could. where me and my dad hunt for whitetails its all bush so you have to hunt hard to find them, i just can't get enough of it.
 
I've had the hunting blues before too. It will go away.
Do you hunt alone? (where was Fran?) If so, I suggest you get some friends to hunt with you. For me, it's a big part of the hunt. It's an annual reunion of old friends.
 
Take a hunting trip out of province and then come back to NB and see how bummed out you are.

Hunting here has become kinda crappy in some ways.

Very few grouse. Bucks only (except for special draw), and there's no bucks left. Moose hunting.......well let it be known that I haven't been drawn a moose tag since 1988 :eek:

I like NB, ALOT, but the hunting here sucks.


SC...........................
 
Supercub;

I totally agree! To be successful in N.B., you HAVE to put your time in... I only have 2 grouse this year, one with the fricken rifle at that!!! You see MANY people on CGN say that they pass on smaller deer, but here in N.B., you just CAN'T do that!!! I have seen hundreds of deer in deer season here in N.B., and I have only shot...

1 9pt buck
1 7pt buck
1 6pt buck
1 3pt buck
several spikes and button bucks, the rest were ALL does when I had the permit to take them... I've NEVER been skunked deer hunting, but this year I almost did because of a lack of "drive"...

JohnnyY,

Frannie had her friend visiting from Toronto the last week of deer season, so she missed out this year... BUT, in her defense, the weather DIDN'T co-operate at all!!! I was hunting in a fricken t-shirt the thursday before I shot my 7pt buck!!! I didn't see ONE sign of the rut in any of the areas I hunted, no rubs, no scrapes and very little deer movement!!!

Cheers and Thanks for the words of encouragement guys!!!
Jay
P.S. Fran and I ate tenderloin from my buck last night and it did make me feel better about taking that deer, he sure is gonna be good eating!!!
 
Glad to see you got your buck Jay. Congrats. Don't dispair over the lack of excitement when you got him. The main thing is you got one, and in only 5 trips! Sounds like you need the excitment of a new game. Moose?

Later
Moe
 
Back when the whole madatory POL/PAL was implimented and the registry was on the way I pretty much took a year off and then bow hunted the following year for the first time. I was so turned off by the new gun laws that I almost accepted hunting as a thing of the past for me. I got so wound up once my PAL arrived and "legalized" the couple of rifles I stashed that I took hunting to a level considered insane by most of my friends. I dusted off the reloading equipment that had been stored since the mid 90's and now am just batty about shooting even.

If you take a year off, you may end up missing it so much that you become a total hunt nut. Beware!!
 
Had the same thing happen to me in the 90's. I went to the former Republic of Yugoslavia, and when I came home, I put every firearm I had away and never touched them again for a number of years. And I mean never touched them, not even to clean them. Can't say why, it just felt like it had to be done. Two friends of mine convinced me to go hunting with them in 2002 and it took alot of convincing. After a day of Half Hearted trying, I put down a Mullie doe and a White-tail buck. Haven't missed a season since.
It's just something that happens to some people, some get over it, and as my wife would say, some stay smart. She's been at me to put them away since the day I dragged them out.
I know others that have gone through this, and all it took was to change their hunting ways. One friend switched to Archery and now you can't keep him at home. Another friend use to do drive by's, but once we got him out of the truck and onto his feet, he discovered a whole new world, and he drives us nuts from end season to start season about when, where, what and with what he plans to hunt.
Best of luck to you
 
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