What is your hunting tradition/ritual

So with two days to go until the Oklahoma opener it made me realize I have to go pick up some pickled herring. I know, what's that have to do with hunting? It is a long running family tradition. We have started every hunt by chowing down on pickled herring for good luck. I have no idea how it started but it goes back to my great grandpa and it's just how it is. To let you know how serious we get about it.. The year my grandpa passed away deercamp was a little off to say the least and we didn't eat our herring that morning, not one single deer shot that day. The next day we sat that morning, it was a Sunday so we got off the stands around 10am came down to the house for our big breakfast. We told grandma the hunting was not so great and when she figured out we hadn't had our herring she grabbed a jar out of the fridge and we scarfed it down. Back on the stands by noon and by 5pm three uncles, my dad and myself were all tagged out. Probably had a lot to do with the weather but dont tell us that, we know it's the herring.

So what is your tradition or ritual?

 

I hunt alone there are no rituals other than doing the same thing before every single hunt.

 

Yes, I stop at the 24 hour Wawa for a coffee on the way to my hunting spot. At 5:00AM coffee is a must!

 

My tradition:
Prepare all offseason.
Get all my gear just perfect.
Barely see any deer all season long.
End up hating hunting and vowing to never go again.
Repeat year after year

 

Deer chili the weekend before 10/1. Made a big pot Saturday with the last 2lbs of ground meat I had.

 

One whacky ritual/tradition I have is I wear the same sweater for all my cold season/late season hunts. Its an old Bobby Labonte nascar sweater I got when I was in my early teens, and yes I wash it every year lol.

 

I carry the same book in my pack. I stay on stand all day long and in the off peak time of the day i read this book.

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I am on board with "earlyin" on the 5am coffee but each time I go out I also eat 2 frosted strawberry poptarts in my truck on the 20 min. drive out to the the hunting land. I have a couple in my pack too just incase. They don't taste that good and I don't know why I do it but I keep eating them....