As I was shooting my bow today in the snow and 30mph wind gusts I began to think as I looked out over the cold, barren woods. I just stood there and watched the leaves swirling and started think about hunting (as usual). My hunting style/mindset these days is much different than those of years past. I've had to work hard to "unlearn" some specific hunting strategies/mindsets that I used/was plagued by in the past. Some things I have tried to unlearn are "hunting harder is better", "I deserve to get a good buck because I work hard", using scents or grunt tubes where I hunt, comparing myself to others, hunting so hard that it is "worse" than work, rushing too and from my hunting spots, having to buy new hunting stuff each year, taking too much time away from my family to pursue a deer, and the list goes on and on. How about you, are you trying to or have you succesfully "unlearned" parts of your hunting game for any reason? I find out that for ME hunting is a mental game. Most of us can shoot and arrow a deer at 20 yards or less (well most but not me this year) so success in the deer woods comes from a certain mentality that we all develop that is unique to our personality tempered by our hunting experiences. Do any of you just walk out into the woods without any expectations? If so, how happy are you at the end of the hunting day?
Some of the things I have tried to unlearn are the same as you Brett. The biggest thing for me is undersatnding that hunting smart pays off more than hunting a lot. There has been times I thought I needed to be out there all the time. I also I'm guilty of thinking I always needed to be buying something new.
If the animal(s) I am hunting show up when and where I expect them then I am happy at the end of my hunting day, whether I shoot one or not.
I'm trying to stop hunting the same areas that produced lots of deer sightings for 15 years but haven't the past few. Thats a hard habit to break for me. I need to spend more time scouting and less time wondering where the deer went.
I'm getting to "that guy", Brett. No pressure at all, this year. I've had a blast. Not once have I sat one out....and thought "I should be hunting". I go when I want to......with whatever weapon I want to take. I've unlearned that hunting is work.
Thanks for the input guys. One of the reasons I posted was that I was supposed to go hunting this afternoon for the first time in 3 weeks. Well my plans fell through due to a change in my wife's schedule. I started to get "that" feeling like I was missing out on some grand event and I started to stress. Then I caught myself and just laughed. I regained my piece of mind and started to work on tomorrow's hopeful hunt.
It took me a long time to learn that taking a big buck myself was alot less important than my son taking his first little buck. It's easy to get caught up in our quest and say " he's to young to hunt, I'll take him next year" I finally got smart and took my 8 year old with me and the small 6 point he shot was by far the most exciting kill of my hunting life. They are never to young to start, and they are our future.
I'm in the same place Brett...catching up on To Do's on leave instead of hunting this week. Got my gun smithing / reloading bench built yesterday - going to close out some projects today that have been open WAY to long. Building lego's with my son. Also gonna start turning some turkey call's here soon - would be great to call a bird in on my own calls. Lets do some scouting this spring.
In the past I was known for sitting the same stands too much. I've now gotten out of that mind set but It's hard to do at times when the area your hunting Isn't all that big and that you don't have other properties to hunt on. I don't just go out hunting for the heck of It. Every time out I have expectations. I may go sit an area I haven't been too In a while just to see what sign Is out there. There's always a purpose for me when I go.
Same here as some of the others, If i dhave 1 flaw that I wish I could get away from is what I call hunting a memory. I killed a big here before so I go and go and go back when I even know the sign is not there and the buck is not there just the memory..
The biggest thing I had to shake off was hunting from the same spot every time out. We had good spots so my Dad would say if you sat there long enough, eventually one would come by. And that worked well when you are going to shoot the 1st buck you get a chance at.
