Patience, Perseverance, And No Beginner’s Luck
As I write this I am twelve feet off the ground and my deer season feels like it is six feet under. This was supposed to be the year! I bought a bow in January and practiced religiously since March. I even got my wife a bow so we could practice together.
Photo by Jordan Pulmano on Unsplash
I am brand new, but if I just tried hard enough to learn everything there is to know about bow hunting mixed in with a little beginner’s luck I would be good, right?
Not so fast. Bow hunting is hard. Period.
My first hunt took place on public ground. The spot I wanted was taken when I pulled up, but my tardiness didn’t allow me to be picky so I charged off into 150 acres of native grassland and swamp on the less desirable side of the public ground. As I pushed through the tall grass I felt the old self consciousness burning in my brain.
“What are you doing? Where are you going? What if a more experienced hunter sees you right now? What if you end up being the numbskull featured in the next self filmed YouTube sensation?”
Onward I trudged.
I was planning to ground hunt, and finding a place where that will work in a sea of grass is nearly impossible. I slowly started to talk myself back into reasonable thinking, “Deer are creatures of the edge, find an edge. Deer only care about food, water and bedding. Look for fresh sign. Where there is sign there have been deer, and they could be close by.” This recollection of sound hunting wisdom calmed my anxieties and helped me settle into a spot and begin enjoying the beauty around me.
As I sat, rain rolled in and I was able to catch some incredible views of a massive weather front moving over me.
Then like the final rays of our favorite star breaking through the conclusion of a dreary day, a glimmer of progress!
A doe with twins had crept in between two short rises I was hunting over, and passed in front of me at 20 yards! I couldn’t believe my plan to hunt these minute terrain features had worked out. Since it was the first weekend and I only had an either-sex deer tag, I chose to shoot some footage instead of an arrow.
As I look back on this moment I truly feel as though it was one of my most successful moments of the season. I had taken the information I had been learning up to this point and put it into action and had three deer pass in front of me within bow range.
First Gen Hunters have a lot of moments where we feel inefficient, ineffective, and miles away from putting it all together.
But the point of this article isn't to wallow in these negative mind traps, it’s quite the opposite actually. It’s to re-ignite the fire within you. It’s to encourage you to put down the tag soup, and pick up a hunting magazine, or tune into a hunting podcast, or dial up a hunting mentor and ask all the questions you have at the conclusion of this hunting season.
Hunting is hard. Don’t ever forget that, but that’s what makes it rewarding. When you find those tiny little successes don’t let them get drowned out by the unfilled tag in your pocket.
As a First Gen Hunter that’s how it is. Always much to learn, no fast track to success, slim chances at beginner’s luck. And that’s how we like it.
If this was your first season, there’s a good chance you still have money left in your deep freeze budget. That’s normal. If it was your second season there is a good chance you feel frustrated that your year two adjustments didn’t bring about what you had hoped, and if you are a seasoned vet, you know that all of this is just part of the process of learning and growing.