Is the "journey" (where you hunt, who you hunt with, the gear you use, the tactics you employ, etc) of each season more important to you, or is the end result (filled tags) what you most worry about each season?
It is the journey for me. The end result will always be the same but how you get there, the journey, can be constantly modified and changed.
Journey for sure. If I picked up my bow two weeks before the season and hunted the same stand a few times and killed booners every year, I would not get what I get out of the way I currently hunt.
It’s a little of both for me. I’d be lying if I said that I would be OK if I ended a year without a freezer full of meat. (end result) BUT I have the luxury of being able to “explore a lot of back roads” along my journey, and still feel pretty confident that I will end up at my destination. When it comes to bucks, I’d rather have an action filled year with some close calls, than a boring miserable season, where the only shooter buck I see buck just happens to walk by late & I kill it. I don’t cling to that “it only takes a few seconds to change your season” line. I want more than just a few seconds of my season to be fun.
journey for sure. how you were able to go out, spend time with friends and family doing something we all love is the key. all the time, work and or research that goes into that final moment is what does it for me and i think most hunters. i do however put a little more focus on the getting meat if my freezer is getting low or is empty
When you can look at your mount on the wall.......and KNOW you took him/her in the most desirable way (to YOU), then you can say you're all about the journey. When you don't tell the "rest of the story", for some reason......you have to ask yourself why that is? I'm damned proud of every animal I've ever taken with a bow. I'm proud of the circumstances surrounding the hunt......the "rest of the story". Call me a skeptic....but do I think we always hear the full story surrounding the hunt? I'm quite sure we don't. To each his own.
I don't sacerfice my time with my kids/family to say "I had a nice time in the woods and I enjoyed it" For me, it's about putting a tag on an animal. There are different degrees of success for hunters, for me, I have reach the stage, if I am going to be out there, I want to put a tag on an animal. For me it's the end result. Hunting in a traditional sense was all about the end result. The above is about me, not anyone else.
The end result is what forces me to get up at 4:30 when I would rather sleep in. For me, the journey makes for a good story, but the success lays in a tag on an animal.
if it were'nt for the end result, there would be no need for the Journey It's really hard to seperate them as I think about it
To me this question is a lot like the chicken and the egg debate. While the journey is great, and is what produces the majority fo the fun and memories, the end result is why we all take to the woods each fall. If we only cared about the journey we would have cameras in our hands, not bows. So my answer is that they are both important to me. I want to have an enjoyable season with friends and kill some deer too.
At one time in my life it was about just hunting. Not even a journey... just being out there.. if that makes sense. Somewhere along the lines it became the kill.. and not even just any kill... but a kill I would be happy with. (I've noticed that kill gets bigger every season). If you were to ask me what part of the hunt is my favorite... neither the journey nor the kill was... it's the work in the scouting I LOVE most... 300 hours of scouting for 30 seconds of "I gotcha". Gotta love that. While I LOVE the journey.. it's those 30 seconds or less of kill from all that work that make me return back into the woods each year. For me.. the journey is in the friends I keep and meet along the way of this very personal endeavor.
A succesful hunt is both to me.... 50/50... Right down the middle If it was JUST the journey I would not be hunting. If it was JUST the end result I would not be hunting.
No offense, Justin....but I SO tire of hearing this. It's as bad as me saying...."If it's all about the end result......why in the world are you BOWhunting"?
My entire hunting experience has been a journey. Started with a rifle then shotgun, muzzleloaders, compound bow, now to the recurve. I am moving backwards in terms of killing potential with my weapons, but am moving forward to what feels natural and "right" to me. Not sure what that means in terms of journey or end result. I believe I was once more of an end result kind of guy. I did not have as much time to hunt as I do now so I would be very in tune with the kill. As my life began to change and allow me more time to hunt I became more aware of the big picture surrounding the hunting experience. So it is now about the hard work, the passion, the strategy, the skill, and then the kill.
