Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Do you keep count.

and I suspect the maintenance is much more important than the game.

BUT I will say this. Keeping data on dates and weather when you see game. When you catch fish etc... is much more important than what you caught or killed kind of thing. Working hard on building a data base for a new boss so he has info for the future on how fish move in the areas we guide in.

I kept a log years ago but eventually stopped. Back when I was mad at the fish I kept a log book of dates, weather conditions, Tides, and what we caught. Has been valuable data. I can pretty much tell you the date the shrimp will hatch in the upper end of the bays and where the Reds and Trout will be any time of the year. I have also kept a similar log of deer sightings, dates, weather, moon phase, times seen and other information. Been doing that since 1999 on the same ranch. It is interesting to go back every year and look at the data. Helps with rut timing and when I need to really hunt hard. The interesting thing is seeing how the herd numbers fluctuate depending on Anthrax, drought conditions, predators, and the influx of non-native species. My old boss always pounded into my head the saying "without data all you have is an opinion". His other saying was "a short pencil is better than a long memory". I was blessed to have some good mentors in my life!

i have a mini notched Buck 110 knife too. it is now put away and i use Melvin Worving belt knife.

I don't really keep track of deer, but i took 3 last year. The other stuff i keep tally of for the benefit of the rancher for predator control.

Last year I had 59 hogs, 3 coyotes, 13 coons, 1 fox, i also shot some skunks and porcupines, but i don't remember how many.

This year I'm at 7 hogs and 5 coons to date, but I've had less hunting time, so far, this year. Last year I had a lot of hunting time at the beginning of the year where I slayed a lot of hogs in the cold months. I also think we've started getting a handle on the hogs, so I expect them to be lower this year. Coyotes on the other hand... I need to hone my coyote skills. I have some catching up to do, but I think I'll come out OK.

I keep up when the turkey sightings and when they are grouped up with the gobblers, and flocks are breaking up and separate…. hen sightings going to nests.Most years all this is happening within few days of pass year. And people get all worked up over season opening late, breeding dates, they all henned up, and on and on….turkeys going to be doing there thing at around the same time each year and we going to be sitting under a tree opening day waiting for the sun to come up and yea….I heard one gobble this morning and all is fine.

Speaking of count geedubya. With roughly 100 animals does it make you wonder why you need any rifle other than that Sig Cross?

I started recording my kills (and my family members’ kills) in onX-Hunt. It’s only been a couple of years worth of data so far, but it’s really handy to be able to show someone on a topographical map where you shot a deer. It’s also useful for a situation where a wounded deer runs unexpectedly far to be able to mark where you shot and roughly where it was standing. And then to be able to mark the blood trail as you track it.

Even though I have hunted the same mountainside all my life, I still sometimes miscount the fingers as I crisscross the mountain. Being able to orient myself with the map is sometimes invaluable. “Okay, last year I scared up a big buck that was bedding down just the other side of this ridge.”

I know I have killed 19 deer in the last 4 years since they raised our limit to 5.

geedubyah;
Good afternoon my old friend, I see getting towards evening now down in your part of the world, I hope that this finds you and your fine family well.

Somehow I always found taking notes in school as a way to better lock things into my memory and that particular quirk remains with me today.

Our youngest is a high school teacher and she informed me that isn't super uncommon, that is to say that writing something down helps some people retain information.

When I asked her if typing will do the same for present and future generations, she said that it is being studied, so while the data isn't conclusive, it doesn't look like that's the case.

Anyways GW, all that's the long way of saying I wrote down the first two heads of big game about 5 years after the event, when I'd got back into hunting and have continued to do that since. Mostly it's been only big game that go in, but the odd interesting coyote shot seemed to make its way in there as well.

The data I record sounds somewhat similar to Mule Deer's in I'll record date, time, place, species, number of points, rough distance, bullet weight before and after if found, carcass weight, body condition and the animal's reaction to being shot.

At one point I thought I could remember each one without looking in the journal, but now when I go through it there's some I wouldn't have without reading about it somehow.

Also it's a nice reminder of hunts with my late Father too and perhaps it'll go to the kids as a bit of an explanation of who I was or have come to be.

All the best.

Dwayne

Like women, the only ones that matter are the first one, the last one, and the next one.




GR

I keep track of the number of double lung shots I have made on game—exactly one.

Spine, shoulder, liver, heart, head all hit in combination with a lung.

But just one broadside double lung shot.

Last week a liver/heart shot on a wild boar quartering away at 230 yards.

I don’t know how everyone else does it

BMT

I have many log books filled with data from years of every match rifle I have shot, but I have never kept track of the birds or animals I have killed.
Cat

One of the coolest things about way up north in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Upper Michigan is the amount of big racks that are hanging on a nail in some barn somewhere and they thought nothing of it. I knew 2 old brothers. They had so many huge racks. One, a 14 point buck was just amazing. He shot it in Boulder Junction , WIsconsin around 1940. He had an old Winchester, mod. 70 in .270 WIn. I asked if he ever wanted to sell it. He said " It ain't eatin no hay". I took it as a no.

Nope. Not at all

Not a log, but I get a ziploc bag and put the tag, recovered bullet if applicable, buglers, spent brass, and a 5x7 card with short details of the hunt to spur my memory when reminiscing. Kill site photo if I have one. Elk only.




P

Roughly, but never written down. I'm not a writer, and more interested in the meat and experience than anything else. I don't kill enough of anything to loose track, except caribou. Lost track there around 75. + - 100 now I'd guess.

Still, there are times I'd like to reference certain things. if doing it all over again, I probably would run a hunt diary.

I did have to list my moose kills a couple weeks ago to get an accurate count. The next day I added one I'd missed. 22.

I grew up when game meant food on the table. That's the way I lived, I remember the memorable ones, nobody else cares. When you die that is just that much more crap for your family to throw away. The past thirty years I take some pictures for hunting posts/ tutorials but even those get deleted soon. It's hard enough keeping tract of gear let alone memories, make new ones.

Killed a bunch of critters, if I ever cared about keeping count I've lost interest a while ago. Perhaps I should have kept a data set as it makes sense for referencing. The sharing of memories with family, friends and meeting fellow outdoorsmen has been my bragging board!

Not only didn’t keep a log, most of my kills I do not have pictures of. Since about 1980 I started carrying a camera , in a lot of cases those cheap cameras you sent the whole camera in for developing. Terrible quality of course. Unlike a lot of you midwestern and eastern whitetail hunters I have not killed a lot of game, but a big variety. Think I have 20 of the North American 29, including the grand slam of sheep and moose, been great sport. So many things and so like time and money was my problem.

Never kept track of it, myself. Sometimes I’d keep track of pheasants, chukar or ptarmigan, but just for that particular season and then I’d forget it.

I’ve hunted 4 continents, and will be on #5 next year. Hunted 8-10 countries and a half dozen states. Haven’t pulled anything but a general or unlimited tag since 2018, but that’s OK…

I’ve officially scored a grand total of one animal and that was only because it was the first of that species in the lower 48 to be entered. I’ve got 10-12 more that probably would make the book but have never cared enough to enter them, including a 54” and change Shiras moose that would (at least would have been) be top 5 in Montana. I am at about 16-18 of the North American 29 and there’s only a handful of upland bird species that I haven’t taken.

Just not my thing to actually keep track, but rock on to those who do.