PABuckbuster12

I'm curious, does anyone else keep a journal of their hunts, scouting, etc?

I keep a journal of all my hunts, scouting days in the field etc. Like date,stand location,temperature, moon phase, precipitation, all my preperation(clothes scentshielding) Equipment, time in stand, etc. Then I try and look back and see patterns and what worked best where. Also use it for what smaller bucks I let walk or seen in the area for future hunts.

Anyone else do this? if so what else do you include that I may have forgotten? Has this helped you become a more knowledgable/smatter hunter?

Steven McBee

yea, i record the wind direction, deer seen and where most of emcame in fromand also what time they came in

PABuckbuster12

I also add wind direction, but I dont write which direction they came just what I saw. This may help, thanks!

MGH_PA

I've never done it, but I'm planning to compile one starting this season. If anything, it would provide for some interesting reading 50 years down the road.

BowHuntingFool

I started keeping a journal this past spring Turkey hunt, nothing to publish, more personal and more for the story of the hunt themselves! I have got a detailed version and then a quick summary of notes! I thought my son would get a kick out of them when he finds them after I'm dead and gone!

NavyDeerHunter

I've kept one for two years and record sunrise/sunset times, moonrise/moonset times, temp, wind speed and direction cloud conditions and which stand i'm hunting. I do very well in the early season, but then have a bad habbit of letting it slide as the year gets past the rut. I need to do better at keeping it going, but also need to do better at using what I have recorded by going back to it for information. So yeah, I do it, but at this point its a useless exercise since I don't take advantage of my own hard work. [>:]
Must improve.

Steven McBee

well, the only reason i do this is because after i sit in a stand a few times and realize the deer are usually coming from whatever direction, it starts developing into a pattern and i walk up in the off season to where most of them came from to see why they came from there and if there is a possible stand site

rimjob_rob

I would like to start doing it. I think doing it on the computer would make it a lot easier for me and probably would be less likely of losing it. I wonder if anyone has a general format to get a guy started.

dukemichaels

I do it. Have kept a journal for nearly 7 or 8 years now.. and have learned a great deal from it.

I do think your missing what I believe to be the most important of daily stat PAbuckbuster.. wind direction.

I draw out a quick map and note the wind direction that day somewhere. Then I draw in where the deer came from and what direction they were heading. It has allowed me to (more than once) take advantage of the same wind on a proceeding hunt.

early in

Yes PABuck, I just started doing that last year. I can't wait to compare results with this year's data. It should be interesting! Here's a typical page that I fill out for each day in the field. I got the idea from someonehere.