Feelin Good!

[longbowman]

I had posted the other day about going back to my "Bear" roots and along with that I've hung up the treestands (no pun intended) and my super day pack and all of my frilly stuff too.  I've scouted some good looking areas and have trimmed up some possible impromptu ground blind areas.  My pack is my old trapper basket and I just finished a new knife for this years hunt.  I just feel better knowing I'm hunting the way I started out but with a bunch of years more experience.  
    I guess at nearly 60 I feel that killing my deer in a way that gives me a good feeling about it is better than just killing the deer.  Just thinking I guess.

[23feetupandhappy]

[centaur]

I love the 'hunt' part of hunting way above the killing part. The past few days, I was up scouting my elk area, and got into a bunch. Being alone with the elk as they talked to each other, not knowing I was around, was a great day spent in God's country. Since I have actually killed very few elk for the time I have spent hunting them, I guess that it is good that the kill, at least for me, is secondary to the experiences that I enjoy in the outdoors.
I have had some success over the years, but some of my best outdoor memories are not of the kills, but of more mundane things; great sunrises, the colors of the forest in autumn, summer wildflower shows, etc. It's all good.

[AZWarts]

Amen Centaur. Well Said. Although eating fresh loins is pretty good.

[Rustic]

Originally posted by longbowman:
I had posted the other day about going back to my "Bear" roots and along with that I've hung up the treestands (no pun intended) and my super day pack and all of my frilly stuff too.  I've scouted some good looking areas and have trimmed up some possible impromptu ground blind areas.  My pack is my old trapper basket and I just finished a new knife for this years hunt.  I just feel better knowing I'm hunting the way I started out but with a bunch of years more experience.  
    I guess at nearly 60 I feel that killing my deer in a way that gives me a good feeling about it is better than just killing the deer.  Just thinking I guess.

I'm also in the same age group and I have just completed my transition into "Traditional Archery" by trading my compound for a kayak. Now I hunt with less equipment and more appreciation of the outdoors. Take care...

[Roger Norris]

Originally posted by longbowman:
I had posted the other day about going back to my "Bear" roots and along with that I've hung up the treestands (no pun intended) and my super day pack and all of my frilly stuff too.  I've scouted some good looking areas and have trimmed up some possible impromptu ground blind areas.  My pack is my old trapper basket and I just finished a new knife for this years hunt.  I just feel better knowing I'm hunting the way I started out but with a bunch of years more experience.  
    I guess at nearly 60 I feel that killing my deer in a way that gives me a good feeling about it is better than just killing the deer.  Just thinking I guess.

Yep, I agree that we need to take our deer (or whatever) in a manner that our "insides" agree with. I have long thought, especially with Michigan deer....just why would anyone (who doesn't have some physical limitation) NEED to kill one with a compound or crossbow? There are plenty of deer, and if you put in a few days you WILL get an opportunity. And if you don't kill one? So what?

By the way, I love pack baskets, pics required!

[Jon Stewart]

Headed in your direction also.  Made my first self bow and hunting with bamboo arrows and stones heads all of which I made myself.  If I happen to get a deer this year it will just be frosting on the cake as far as I am concerned.

I remember one day last year I was on the deck of the cabin having a coffee when my son came over on his way to a hunt.  He asked if I was going out and I told him NO that I was just going to sit there and think about grandpa who had died that summer.

Hunting is what you make of it.  I just enjoy being out there and watching just as much as hunting.