Feeling The Passion

feeling the passion

A journey out during late bow season in WI, December 2012.

One Saturday morning, before the bank opened, I threw in the Dropped: Project Alaska season 1 DVD to kill some time.

Thoughts flooded my mind on my passion for hunting. I began to clearly think how much I enjoy hunting and I began to feel the yearning to get outside.

Watching, I related to Chris and Casey Keefer’s frustration of not seeing game.

I mainly hunt public land. It’s got heavy hunting pressure. Therefore, when hunting, my goal changes from shooting a deer to just finding sign, to just seeing deer. You see, finding fresh sign feels like success. It provides a lift to keep hunting.

Hunting is sometimes about working backwards, coming back to the drawing board and always adapting to conditions and finding ways to remain positive.

About The Pursuit
To me hunting is seeking, seeking to be successful at finding, shooting and eating game.

And that means hunting is a journey to find game. I’ve determined this is what makes hunting addicting. It’s still a journey whether you fill your tag or go home to prepare tag soup.

In the journey you’ll witness aspects of yourself and make memories with those you hunt with. You’ll experience the elements of nature. Rain and wetness. Sun and heat. Wind and cold. Fear and respect. You’re taking in knowledge and teaching by giving knowledge.

The challenge of hunting is part of the journey that’s addicting. Now, this is something I wonder: Is this how you feel? Is this how hunter’s who have taken slams still feel?

This is a second post on thoughts about hunting.

Exploring Hunting

Hunting. It’s been around for decades.

Hunting’s a way to survive, a hobby, a lifestyle, a way to spend leisure time, to be with people, to eat organic meat.

It’s the pursuing of game and so much more than the previous sentence lays out. I desire to eat what I pursue, and am anxious to cook game meat. After all, my ultimate goal of my hunting adventures to to bring food home. Remember, because it’s called hunting, bringing home game is not always the case.

Hunting’s intriguing to me because it allows me to go into the natural world and gives me a choice of how much technology I want to bring with me. Being in the woods reminds me of a time when the technological advances of today were yet to be discovered.

exploring hunting

Yet, it’s intriguing for another reason; the responsibility of a gun or bow, to load and unload, nock and un-nock, to know I have the chance to take a shot, and what shot is worth taking, or not worth taking.

I hope that when I do have that big buck hanging at my place, my focus on hunting will still be in this raw state and not tied up with bragging over the points it has.

As a sportsman most of my experiences is with fishing, in memories with family, and personal discoveries. I catch more fish than shooting animals. Over the years I have spent more time by the water than in the woods. So, hunting is another way to enjoy the sportsman within me. It provides learning about new gear, and going after critters moving on the land.

There’s so much more to explore, like the responsibility to wisely use an animal. Animals have been given to us and why stewardship and conservation ought to be found in hunting and the sportsman, and why hunting is more than just killing.

It’s good to explore what hunting means to you and how you can talk about it, and how you relate to hunting.

Simple Or Techy, It’s Hunting

Let’s talk technology and hunting. It’s always been a part of hunting. Sometimes, I get an attitude where I don’t need or desire the new technological advances we have to hunt with today. This is not always the best attitude because man always will look to improve hunting techniques and often times looks at new technology to use in the field with him to make him more successful at bringing home his query.

However, knowing the fundamental skills are crucial. Playing the wind is an excellent example of how fundamental skills are necessary even with the advent of the 21st century hunting technology.

Though new technology can make a hunter more effective, the latest technology is not needed to be successful. You still need the basic skills of hunting to go with the latest technology.  And this, my friends, is often what I put my time and energy doing. For if I master the basic skills of hunting, I can do without the latest technology until I can afford the latest technology. The price tags can be ridiculous.

This may put me at a disadvantage at first, but over time I will have honed my skills and sharpened my senses of the woods, and knowing the basic skills of hunting will allow me to appreciate what the technology can add to my arsenal and learn how it improves basic skills.

In a way you do need both. You need the basic fundamental skills so if your techy gear fails, you can still be successful. And gadgets can fail, so I feel it’s harmful to become dependent on technology. Therefore, technology should maximize the fundamental skills you have learned, not replace them.

Thoughts? Jot ’em in the comments…

Your Hobbies Lead To Adventure

I believe my hobbies allow me to look at everything as an adventure. To me adventure is fun, curious, refreshing, freedom, and a way to get outside. Hobbies are a way to break up the normal routine(make the everyday life fun and exciting), gain experience, and can help you enjoy the different seasons throughout the year.

Adventure

Biking and fishing go together. You can save gas and go where a car cannot.

Overlap Hobbies:

You see, you can bike to a fishing spot, may find a new fishing spot while scouting for a hunt, or biking/long-boarding around, and find a new hunting spot by fishing, and vice-versa. Doing multiple hobbies opens up the door for exploration exponentially.

Snowboarding, ice-fishing and hunting require ways to keep warm. Therefore, you may find yourself using your clothing layers and technology from snowboarding to stay warm ice-fishing. This also allows you to kill two birds with one stone since you can wear the same clothes for ice-fishing as you do snowboarding.

Each hobby also has there own tools to adjust gear specific to that hobby. Because of this, you can learn about how to use tools and may find that tools from one hobby will work for a different one. Again, this is a way to overlap your hobbies, and learn things from different hobbies.

Your homework:
Write down your hobbies (the things you like to do, and the things you spend money on for enjoyment). After you’ve written them down, keep that list handy and check back here for a new post on finding adventure through your hobbies.

Being An American Sportsman

Being An American Sportsman

The smell of the lake as I’m getting into the boat is one of the things that causes me to come back for more. The scent of the air after a fresh rain/snow fall is another.

I’m feeling the early morning dew penetrating my shoes as I walk to a shore fishing spot beside a river or beside a lake. What a gift to chose where my next fishing trip will be. And I can fish by boat; backing your trailer into the lake of your choice is a great freedom as an American Sportsman.

American Sportsman Hooking Up

The freedom of hooking your boat up to the vehicle of your choice and heading to the lake you chose is a great freedom as an American sportsman. And so is the freedom to ride or walk to your fishing spot.

It’s a blessing to get away from the normal daily routine to feel free and adventurous. Discovering something new. The ability to make, and even mark your own path as you leave your driveway. Yes, God has blessed our country; you and I experience those blessings of His hand each time we venture to the outdoors.

These are some of the feelings that come to my mind, being an American sportsman. (If I were to go on I suppose there wouldn’t be enough words to describe the richness of how it feels to be in the great outdoors, to be an American sportsman.)

Let us always remember why can enjoy the freedoms we do as American sportsmen. God has blessed and soldiers have served our country.