Ok Guys, I know when seasons close the board sometimes get's a little negative. Perhaps through boredom or lack of any hunting situations, we tend to beat our chests, a little to prove our Top Predator Status. I guess I'd like to read some more postive posts to keep the hunting fire burning.
So I ask you what makes the season a success for you?

Me? well don't get me wrong, a boomer buck at the Taxidermy shop being mounted for my den would be great. But it's not that barometer that measures success for me. I like to reflect on the encounters... the situations where you know you could have, but didn't, shoot an arrow. The nice 8 point I passed up because it was only the 2nd week of the season. The extra wide 6 point that was so scared of my decoy he ran towards me (I was on the ground) and stood 6 paces from me looking nervously at that funny "frozen" doe in the field.
Or the other chance encounters, the squirrel that was eye level in the tree beside my stand. As I'm wonderring what do i do if this friggin thing leaps at my camo masked face, he desides to go higher and annonce to the world my presence for the next 1/2 hour.
I love coming home, and as I walk in, my face seems to tell a story,(or lack of) and the family knows by my expression that I have yet another tale to tell over dinner.
Hunting the wiley Whitetail, as you know is not always exciting, somedays pass by, without much excitement. But you never know, the slowest day can turn around in mere seconds to the best day ever.
It's a challenge, it's test of patience and knowledge, somehow it gets into every fiber of your being..and when it does and you've given it your all, it's been a successful season.