After reading all of the posts lately with guys going at it with one another....about hunting strategies
I can't help but realize how different "I" approach hunting than others. I'll use my personal experiences as an example. Many years ago on my families hunting land I started hunting with my soon to be Father-in-Law. The land was new to me and I quickly got the lay of it as well as time in scouting for deer sign. I killed a doe my first year (with a bow) and missed a nice buck that same year with my slug gun. (no I don't want to get into detail other than to say it was a monstrous operator error that caused the mis.[&:]). The next year I killed my biggest deer with a bow, I've never scored it but I'd guess in the low 150's and I'd seen an even bigger deer earlier in the day. My point was I was very excited about the potential the land held for nice deer. To this day it still produces great bucks and I've been lucky or skilled(probably lucky
) enough to kill quite a few.
While I was in "buck heaven" It (the hunt) was lacking something......others. So I talked it over with my Father-in-Law and he was more than receptive to adding hunters. There was plenty of land plus his property backed up the a public portion of the Shawnee National Forest so there was room for plenty. Well as the years rolled on more and more guys showed up to hunt, mostly during the gun season but there were a few who bow hunted as well and we had a time for a while there. Spending time with them talking about the days activities, bragging and telling great lies about why we missed or what have you....it was finally something special.
Never once did I feel like I was loosing on potential big bucks for my self and to be quite honest and absolute slammer was killed from one of my bow stands. It was a deer I had seen before and tried to get setup on. Well gun season rolled around and I put a fellow who I had only met the year before there and told him about the buck and about when it might show his face. Well as luck would have it, it did and this kid put a slug through a 198 2/8 deer! He was literally crying thanking me for letting him hunt. I showed him how to field dress it without ruining the cape and we celebrated through the night.
As with all things, nothing stays the same and as the years went by fewer and fewer people showed up to hunt. People get older, they move, get different jobs, wifes, kids, etc... Before you know it, it was just me and my Father-in-Law again. This as most of you know this didn't last long either as cancer took him from his family at a far too early age of 69 and for the first timeI've found myself hunting alone....I still enjoy it, the hunt, but the experience is lacking once again.
Hunting and especially hunting with friends...to me is what it's all about. Sure I can easily keep the place to my self, plant food plots, put up fences, set up cameras, the whole nine yards......but for what?? To say "look at me, look what I killed" No thanks, I'll trade a wall of big bucks for a forest full of friends, family, laughter and good times over that ANY DAY.
To me there is something special about sharing the hunt, to others it doesn't mean squat and only the "trophy" matters. I say, what good is the trophy if you don't have anyone to enjoy it with you. I guess you can always drive around town with the deer in the back of your truck and go from house to house showing it off, to each his own I guess. To me nothing is more important that the experience and the group dynamic of it all. This is evident across the Midwest during the gun seasons. Here it's more of a "rite of passage" than anything else. Folks come in from all over the state (and then some) to gather for the hunt. It brings friends and family together with a common interest and the memories will last for ever.....I know mine will.
I miss those days, hunting with friends.....
