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Post by sd51555 on Nov 30, 2019 6:17:37 GMT -6
ive always liked to shoot and eat lots of critters and that hasn't changed. I rarely buy meat in the store, so I try to get a couple deer per year plus small game and fish. I'm picky where I can be and realistic with my expectations in other areas. In the past I set the bar too high for some properties where it made no sense. I still feel almost guilty if I'm not hunting and I have a tag in my pocket that I want to fill. I've felt that way since i was 12. I'm not sure I want that to change though. As I get older though I take more pride in making clean kills than I used to. My habitat work is enjoyable, but my goal there is to give the game animals what they need to thrive, then get them to walk by a specific spot so I can kill them quickly. My wife thinks I'm not wired right and she might be correct. This sums up my feelings near perfectly. The older I get, the less I want to eat shit from the store. Feeling guilty about having an un-filled tag with season left, is the same spot I'm in. I could have gone up last weekend to press it hard for a day and a half, but I was cashed out from all the running the past number of weeks. I will say this, it was damn nice to get back in the woods and get some shit done the past few days.
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Post by mnfish on Nov 30, 2019 17:00:46 GMT -6
ive always liked to shoot and eat lots of critters and that hasn't changed. I rarely buy meat in the store, so I try to get a couple deer per year plus small game and fish. I'm picky where I can be and realistic with my expectations in other areas. In the past I set the bar too high for some properties where it made no sense. I still feel almost guilty if I'm not hunting and I have a tag in my pocket that I want to fill. I've felt that way since i was 12. I'm not sure I want that to change though. As I get older though I take more pride in making clean kills than I used to. My habitat work is enjoyable, but my goal there is to give the game animals what they need to thrive, then get them to walk by a specific spot so I can kill them quickly. My wife thinks I'm not wired right and she might be correct. Couldnt have said it better!!! Descriped the TurkeyTown mission statement to a T. The woods, along with few fish ponds and a couple pigs, have created my utopia.
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Post by jbird on Dec 2, 2019 16:37:29 GMT -6
I grew up hunting small game and fishing as well and didn't hunt deer until I was out of college....just simply lacked the opportunity to. Once we moved to the farm, it was "on". First the stage of the struggle, then the stage of minor success, then a few on the wall, and now it's about my kids. I still kill deer and we eat several deer a year (main red meat in our house). However....I'm not out there every waking hour of every day possible like I once was. I enjoy the hunting, but I also enjoy the simple reward of basic work. Something just satisfying as hell about growing something...plots and critters. I still look forward to the next monster for the wall, but it's not the measure of success I once made it out to be. In fact I made comment to my youngest in the blind during our last hunt. She had wrote on the wall about her kill and I told her that maybe some day I would be sitting there with one of her "munchkins" and explain to them how I used to take their mom hunting.... It's about what we give back and how we leave it far more so than anything we take. Nothing connects you to the ground like getting some of it under your fingernails!
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