ORIGINAL: GMMAT
Setting goals and being "goal orientated" is a good thing...to an extent. Striving to be a "trophy deer hunter" is not a bad thing. I don't think you will find too many folks who would turn down the chance to kill a B&C buck if the hunt was freely available to them. However if taken too far it has the potential to turn your experiences sour and remove all the fun out of the pastime that is hunting.
BigJ....I know you wrote that to GR8....but it sure hit home, here in NC
. I need to find "balance" between my competitive (internal) nature and my love of hunting.
I can go into a mountain steam and flyfish for hours on end.....and although catching a 15" rainbow is a thrill......the 6" brown or speck is great. Also just being there in the stream is heavenly (I mean that....it's surreal).
I need to find THAT in my hunting. I push myself too much. I went to the place I hunted when i first started, yesterday.....just to get back to basics. Cool sit. Saw two little bucks fight.....and 7 does. That's just having fun standing in the stream.
Jeff,
I wish I had wrote that.....That's exactly what I was trying to say. Anyone who has ever fly fished in mountain stream knows exactly what you're talking about. I can remember vividly to this day my fly fishing experiences in the Rockies while in college, heavenly is an understatement.
It's that "state of mind" that we should all be in when we strike out to participate in whatever endeavor it is we desire to do for fun and recreation. If hunting trophy deer and the realization that at the end of your season you will have most likely NOT achieved the satisfaction of obtaining your goal is fine, and the "journey" itself is enough to keep your passion and fun sustained then I say "go for it". I suspect there are a fewfolks here who are just like that. I also suspect there are far more who become so infatuated and inundated that they have squeezed out every sap of fun.