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.

Tagging Out On Determination

Determination is part of hunting. You’re reading about my hunting experience for the the 2012 WI gun deer season. The season opened November 17 and closed November 25. Although I didn’t get a deer yet this season… I had fun hunting and gained one more year of hunting experience.

Furthermore, each year I hunt, I come to conclusions for my love of hunting and being outdoors. I realize just how deep my passion for hunting resides.

My plan each day was this:

  • get in the woods before light
  • sit until midmorning
  • scout around and still-hunt the afternoon
  • return to a separate spot to sit until dark

 

 

As I walked out of the public deer woods and back to my car each day during the 2012 gun deer season, I asked myself, “Will I get a deer?” Thoughts of frustration entered my mind as I was walking out of the woods without a deer.

Yet, each day I was anxious for the next time I would come back to the deer woods.

And sure enough, the next morning, I’d be just as excited and optimistic of my chances seeing deer as I was the morning of the season opener.

Morning of Day 4 of the 2012 gun deer opener was a foggy one.

It’s exhilarating when you find a prospective spot and see deer sign such as droppings, rubs, trails, and beddings.

During one of my hunts, I confirmed that I enjoy deer hunting for the challenge and that’s what keeps me coming back.

The challenge may be going through thick brush and heavy cover in order to explore a new area. I went through thick cattails because I felt deer were in there, and I found sign leading to this marsh that I had not explored yet.  Always be scouting around, even in season.

Followed this deer trail through the cattails, doing so also led me to a prospective spot I’ll try late season.

When scouting, pay attention to the ground in order to find good deer sign. This may sound obvious, yet it’s worth mentioning ‘cus it’s easy to overlook deer droppings, and finding deer droppings allows you to learn how to age them.

Most importantly, finding good deer sign rejuvenates yourself by giving you a positive feeling that deer are indeed in the area.  Much of hunting is about a positive attitude. This will keep you going no matter how frustrating the hunt seems.

Because I wasn’t seeing deer, I was reminding myself each day that “just being out in the woods gives me a significant chance at tagging a deer”. It’s this attitude that kept me coming back to the woods and scouting around.

For me, it was frustrating to not see any deer even though I found great deer sign. Not seeing deer teaches me a cool cool thing about hunting: you don’t need to get the animal you’re after to have fun. You can take away other things about yourself, and the memories you make with friends and family.

Found a good size deer bed after kicking up deer in a marsh.

You also prove to yourself qualities you may not have thought you had, and even build on the qualities you know you do have. You are improving your hunting skills, and are able to utilize the gear you’ve spent money on.

One of the things I found was a new way to carry my deer seat in the woods that lets me travel lighter, stealthier, and, if a deer presented a shot opportunity while walking to my spot, this newfound way would give me a more comfortable shot.

In the end, I’m able to look ahead to remind myself I still have an archery tag through January 6 and there is a second WI gun deer season in the CWD Units over Christmas. I was able to look for additional spots to sit during these two seasons and there’s still hope to get a deer. It will happen by taking a positive attitude.

Because I work for Sportsman Channel I feel I should be tagging out every year on deer, limiting out on fish each adventure out there. It’s when I start feeling this pressure I remind myself of this simple thought: if I am able to get out in the woods, breathe the fresh air, and enjoy walking in public land, than I am experiencing being an American Sportsman. And this alone is a blessing.

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.