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After feeling the excitement of 8uptradbowhunter1’s multi year effort that finally paid off…I pondered what really makes a individual hunt in a way that he/she knows is a severe disadvantage and more importantly….why do they continue to do so when the failures start to pile up?
From my own experience, the answer isn’t completely clear even after decades of ups and downs….mostly downs. If it were merely “challenge” then I think common logic would eventually prevail; but for the people who really live this there is nothing “common” in the process.
For the first time I went back five years and tried to calculate my success rate in harvesting game. I knew some numbers but had to make a reasonable “swag” on others. In the end, my harvest success was a little less than 2% per sit. Keep in mind that this is without food plots or bait so I suppose it would be a little higher if I used those aids….but I don’t.
There are so few traditional bowhunters (even less so when they hunt all the way through and not just archery season) it almost feels as you have met an old friend when you stumble across one. The fraternal bonds run deep in the sport. I’ve never met a traditional bowhunter that I didn’t like.
I guess this is just a ramble with no real worthwhile value other than to kill a few minutes on a warm evening in a treestand.
So why do “I” do it? On my way to my stand, I passed a 15 foot tall box stand, in the center of a 4 spoke food plot that each spoke ran 200 yards… likely topped off with a feeder.
I just looked at it for a moment, shrugged my shoulders, and realized I do what I do because in my way of thinking; the way I hunt seems a fair and justifiable way to hunt a noble animal such as a whitetail deer.
That shouldn’t be construed as a expected benchmark for all others but it applies to me on this particular day….and I guess Im the only person that I need to satisfy. Today, the scales of fairness hang in perfect balance.
From my own experience, the answer isn’t completely clear even after decades of ups and downs….mostly downs. If it were merely “challenge” then I think common logic would eventually prevail; but for the people who really live this there is nothing “common” in the process.
For the first time I went back five years and tried to calculate my success rate in harvesting game. I knew some numbers but had to make a reasonable “swag” on others. In the end, my harvest success was a little less than 2% per sit. Keep in mind that this is without food plots or bait so I suppose it would be a little higher if I used those aids….but I don’t.
There are so few traditional bowhunters (even less so when they hunt all the way through and not just archery season) it almost feels as you have met an old friend when you stumble across one. The fraternal bonds run deep in the sport. I’ve never met a traditional bowhunter that I didn’t like.
I guess this is just a ramble with no real worthwhile value other than to kill a few minutes on a warm evening in a treestand.
So why do “I” do it? On my way to my stand, I passed a 15 foot tall box stand, in the center of a 4 spoke food plot that each spoke ran 200 yards… likely topped off with a feeder.
I just looked at it for a moment, shrugged my shoulders, and realized I do what I do because in my way of thinking; the way I hunt seems a fair and justifiable way to hunt a noble animal such as a whitetail deer.
That shouldn’t be construed as a expected benchmark for all others but it applies to me on this particular day….and I guess Im the only person that I need to satisfy. Today, the scales of fairness hang in perfect balance.
