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10-03-2021 | 02:06 PM

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Giant Nontypical

Joined: Oct 2013

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Has Your Mindset About Hunting Changed Any?

As I approach my 60th year I find my point of view on hunting has changed drastically.

There was a time when I hunted hard from dawn to dark humping the hills in CO looking for elk and mulies. My whole family would be on the hunt but I rarely saw them since I was always the first one out the tent long before daylight and I was always the last one to come dragging in long after dark with a flashlight in my hand. I'd eat, crash and do it again the next day and would do it until I tagged out or the season ended. Now most of those family members: both grandfathers, father, uncles, some cousins and long time family friends are all dead. I realize now that I was hunting for the wrong reason since I always had to be the one that tagged the biggest animal and usually was. I missed the comradery and the simple joy of being with people I cared about. There was a time on safari in Africa with my father that I insisted that we both have our own PH because Pop hunted too slow for me. I wasn't there when Pop took a really good Kudu.

I wasn't there when he took a very nice Cape Bushbuck, a species I never did take.

I wasn't there when Pop took the biggest Blue Wildebeest I ever saw. I had to hunt elsewhere looking for game.

This really struck home when my father died and I realized there would be no more hunting trips with him. Only then did I understand that the real trophies from a hunting trip are not the horns, heads, antlers and hides. The real trophies are the people you share the trips with. I haven't hunted for any antlers since I buried my father in 2013. I have taken a few bucks as target of opportunities but now I hunt for the memories and for a few does for the meat. I take time to watch the sunrise. I find joy in watching the birds fly and hearing the coyotes howl. I relish the feel of the sun and wind on my face and I wish every season that I could have all those long dead hunters with me in camp just once more.

I would love to hear how some others have changed as well.

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