I carry cold 99.99% of the time. the exception being the gig already mentioned when diggin out a wounded bruin in the thick and nasty, then the sling comes off, you slooowww way down, colors seem brighter, you hear better, it's an exhilirating experience.
specially when you pause to think "hey I'm gettin $200 a day to do this chit, lucky me"
I've walked up to an old moose kill hot on occassion when there's been bear sign about, but more often I've walked up cold just ready to cycle and fire.
I think how a guy hunts the majority of the time and who and how he was instructed to hunt early on, plays a large part in his decision whether to or not.
I have hunted hot in my youth for both squirrel and deer, but I changed that in adulthood when I realized I can work my action pdq and just felt like it wasn't worth it.
am thinking guys that only still hunt and are moving ever soooo slooowwly have a hard time grasping how some dumbazz falls down with a rifle in hand.
I've bailed guys off the side of a mountain, run a sprint across giant tussocks (the tundra hop) to get to the other side of a valley so that we could intercept caribou migrating. Lots of spills in that sorta action.
if I still hunt (not one of my fave ways to hunt) I prefer spot and stalk, it takes enormous discipline for me to move as slow as I feel you need to in order to be effective at still hunting.
took me a long time to develop the discipline to glass, glass, glass and glass some more to find animals.
I used to be in a hurry.
really feel you don't give up much if anything by hunting cold in the majority of scenarios and am hopin cooler heads prevail and guys will just evaluate if it might be a better way for them to do things.
for lots of other reasons than "hot or cold" I'm picky about who I hunt with as I believe most folks here probably are as well.
but I do go cold the vast majority of the time, it just makes sense to me. YMMV
"This ain't dress rehearsal....it's the life you get to live, make it a good one."
