GMMAT

Do you think .....achieving great success as a whitetail deer hunter.....comes at a "price"?

How much are you willing to pay?

VERY broad topic.....and no wrong answer.

Dr Andy

Hmmm.. Not sure what you mean by that. All hobbies and pastimes have a price, you can't be talking abvout money. Time yes, If you'rer passionate about something you find a way to do it!

txjourneyman

As long as my love for my pastime remains as strong as it is, I will be achieving "great success". Its all in the eyes of the beholder. I don't need,(although I may want), a booner or P&Y deer for me to achieve great success in my eyes. I am not willing to sacrifice much family time. For me it is a question of which is the greater passion. My family is. Thats not to say I won't spend some time away from them. Just not enough for ANYONE to have any regrets. As far as work goes there isn't much of a price to pay. I'm afforded a lot of paid time off.

Double Creek

Without question, the most successful whitetail hunters that I personally know spend a tremendous amount of time in the woods... It consumes them..I am very passionate about the sport, but I have to split my time between work, wife, 2 young boys, etc... These guys will actually base their career around hunting time.... They will take jobs with much less pay so that they can maximize time in the field.. They and their families pay the price IMO. But, to each their own....

I suppose I could easily double my time in the field, but it would be at the expense of my family....

DoctorDeath

Define "great success" ..... does that mean trophy's you have harvested ....meat you have put on the table ...memories you have ...or name recognition ?

dd

GR8atta2d

Any endeavor if not taken in balance, will come at a price.

Every Option. life has to offer will detract from your available intrest. If my life was a car, I got it full loaded.

Wife
Children (3YO and a 18 month old)
Job (not just a "job" buta career, I can't just call off cuz I feel like huntin)
Parents ( Going through some difficulties with health)

Yada yada yada.... So yes If I was just to pursue aparrently (5.5 yo 170" 200# ) deer all year without any regards to anyone but myself and my glory..it would come at a price.

I will Hunt these critters ..I will enjoy every moment of it..I will even hinge on being obessed with the desire. But at any time ..any of the above options (plus many I left out) can step in with a need, and I'll turn the switch off. Until the time is right to turn it on again.

txjourneyman

Exactly. My definition is the sheer pleasure I get out of hunting. If I continue to enjoy myself the way I do I will continue to be a great success. Those of you with a bunch of trophies may not agree with me. That is OK. Its all relative.

Austin/WI

Bowhunting World Extreme just did an article about this. It talked about both the money given up to become a trophy hunter and also the time commitment taking you away from family, friends, etc. Like Dr. said, all pastimes have an opportunity cost, you must give something up to do another activity. I also play hockey, it's a very expensive sport and eats up a ton of time during the week and weekends and game schedules often times make it so I can't leave school to go back home. Hunting does a bit of the same thing at times. It's expensive, we all know that, but any weekend I choose to hunt could've been spent with my wonderful girlfriend instead. That may not sound like that big of a tradeoff for some of you who are married and see their other everyday, but when your other is 5 hours away from you, trust me, it's a huge deal. At this point I don't have any more free time to give up, simply because I've already given all of it up for working, school, hunting, etc.

How much is too much to pay?I've already comtimplated not playing hockey next year so I can hunt more often. I'm also looking at starting a club at school for those interested in the outdoors, that way those of us who are interested in bowhunting can team up and possibly find some properties in out area to hunt, increasing the opportunities for all of us by finding land closer and making it more accessible. I'm trading off part of the time hockey took up and filling part of it with running a school organization and the rest hopefully will go to family time, maybe making me a little richer.

DoctorDeath

Tx I made this responce for this reason .... I have deer hunted for over 30 years ...Ive never kept actual count but I have harvested over 75 deer with my bow ....have a number of nice bucks hagging on my wall and feel that I have a fairly good reputation in my area as being a "good" deer hunter ....however with all that said none of those are what I consider my "greatest" accomplishment in this sport ...my greatest accomplishment was when I introduced this sport to my son and a friend of his20 years ago and got them involved in something that was positive ...and something they havebecome to love ....and now they will pass it on to their children and friends ...now to me THAT is "great success" ay ANYprice

dd

GMMAT

Het GR8 (Bob):

That was more eloquent than I could haveattempted to say the same thing.

The car "analogy" is awesome. I concur. My heart is (also) full.

That was a REALLY good post, buddy.