Passion? It seem that's all I think about, that and taxidermy. But taxidermy cuts into your hunting time and don't let anyone tell you differently. The only reason I do taxidermy part time is because I take my kids hunting as much as I can. I am probably more passionate about hunting now more than ever. I shed hunt and look for properties alot harder, just bagged 10 more acres
. I think taxidemry has heightened my passion, because now I work with deer and study deer alot more than before. But again I have to stress, I ONLY DO IT PART TIME. I don't know any full timers that hunt near what I do. They mainly save their money for trips that I can't afford
. It's really a give and take, right now I turkey hunt every Sat, work Mon - Fri at my full time job, come home and do taxidermy every evening for 3-5 hrs. Right now I have a deer to finish, African skulls to bleach, an impala to mount, a zebra tosend off to rug,an otter to skin, meet with a guy about a fox, another about way too much work to discuss ( in excess of $30,000), 3 bears to get back with people on, 3 deer that are waiting on me, 2 fish that I really don't want to do, and a partidge in a pear tree. Wait that's not it. Scrap the partridge. But I am pretty busy, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.
By the way I can't say that I ever excelled in hunting, killed alot of deer but nothing I would have mounted. When I was younger I used to fish alot, lost that desire though, but now I have to spend a small fortune getting all that stuff repro'd, pike, bass, smallies, brookies, walleye, salmon, etc. And now I can't stand the smell of fish,for me fishing is just something to do when I can't hunt. I have bass in my pond over 10lbs and hardly ever fish it unless the boys want to go.