Welcome to hunting season. It’s an exciting time to be outdoors. You can hear the shrill bugle of a bull elk piercing the chilly morning air. You can see a flock of ducks drop out of a pink sky, or feel your heart nearly erupt from your chest when a forest grouse explodes at your feet.
But to perfectly candid, those things might not happen, at least not every time you go, and you might ask yourself “what am I doing wrong?”
There may be a lot of answers to that question, but let’s start with this one: you’re probably doing nothing wrong. Learning to be a hunter is a process, it may be a lengthy one, and remember that even expert hunters get skunked sometimes. But the key to appreciating hunting is to savor the whole experience, accept the challenges and learn from your successes and failures.
To be blunt, your opponent in the hunt doesn’t want anything to do with you. It’s going to be as elusive as possible, and it will use the all the tricks and traits mother nature bestowed upon it to keep from becoming your post-hunt dinner. You should respect that, and accept it as part of intrigue of hunting.
There’s a lot of hype and marketing out there trying to convince you that buying some wonder gadget is going to make you a better hunter. That’s a discussion for another day, but instead let’s focus on things you can do to find success:
Spend lots of time in the field
Be an active learner
Be adaptive
Be flexible
Enjoy it all
Read more here.
(Photo source: Idaho Department of Fish and Game)