Jimmy S

First of all, I will agree with all that say..."There are no bad memories while deer hunting" and I couldn't agree more. What I'm asking here are those memories that were good ones, where you were successful, where you remember what that deer was doing just before you put your tag on him, what time of day, etc....when it seemed everything went right....vs...those bad memories, when you missed, or did something stupid and didn't have the luxury to get a shot off. Those memories that caused you lose sleep, for weeks at a time... To me, those are the ones that last the longest. I can always go through in my mind, exactly what I did right when I finally shot that deer. It's those other memories where I never tagged that maybe I should have. Maybe it was something I did or didn't do or maybe it was something the deer did or didn't do that cost me in that day...It seems I always play those back in my mind saying ..."If only......." Any thoughts?

mtair

good post, i believe that the good memories last longer for me . i usually dont beat myself up to baddly , after a bad shot or such , hey, it happens . the only thing you can do is learn from your mistakes. but the good memories , as sweet as they are last longer , because you linger over them longer .

JimboHunter1

That question made me think... Thank God you can't mount the "Big One" that you missed years back. If that was possible you'd never forget about it!
Like mtair, I think I remember the good experiences more than the bad... but then again, I think of the bad experiences as learning experiences.

jetblast

Men remember the good. Women always remember the bad!

jjt

i always remember the good ones
my first antelope my first 4 point my first bear

there are to many seasons of getting skunked to remember all of them LOL

young_gun

the good memories ussually drown out the bad ones.i love to remember my first animals that i have taken.but sometimes i remember the "what ifs"

James B

The good far outweigh the bad. Your hunting buddies always remember your bad so you just as well forget them. I once was trying to get off a second shot with my muzzle loader. Shoved the bullet in, capped it.NO POWDER. And that would of course be when several of the other guys were there.[&o]

JagMagMan

The good memories out weigh the bad ones by far!
You never forget that first one, or the special ones either!
I don't forget bad experiences though, I try not to make the same mistake twice! For that to happen, I don't neccesarily "kick myself," for the bad, but I file it away for future reference.

rybohunter

the bad ones last the longest for me. Its good and bad cause I don't like reliving the bad times, but it helps me not to make the same mistakes, and makes me work harder.

Quack Addict

I grew up hunting with my brothers and my dad, but mostly with my dad. I am the youngest of 3 boys in the family and my brothers are 8 and 11 years older than me. When I first started hunting, my dad and I would normally end up going together. Now that has been gone for a couple years, I can honestly say that the GOOD memories easily come to mind - I have to strain to think of any bad.

For me, hunting has always been for the experience and not the end result of what comes home in the back of the truck at the end of the weekend. Dad didn't bow hunt, but when I wanted to go and couldn't drive myself, he would gladly take his weekend and spend it sleeping in the back of the truck and hanging out around camp while I was out sitting in a tree. The list goes on and on, this is just one example.

Bad memories? I guess I'm an optimist; anything that could be considered 'bad' by some I tend to think of as a learning experience; lessons learned are good things the way I see it. Hit a branch on a shot and missed? Don't shoot through branches and brush. Got busted by a deer on the stand? Wait until the deer's head is behind a tree before moving or pay better attention to the wind. The only thing that I would consider a bad memory is someone getting injured and thankfully nobody ever got hurt of fell ill.