Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Any photo Regrets?

I killed my best Muley to date in 1983. I'm lucky that a buddy had an old polaroid handy when I stopped by his business on my way home. I'd sure love to have some pics of that hunt!

That’s a great buck. I like your high tech hunting clothes too, first gen scentlok I’m guessing. 😁

Maybe somewhat of a different tack on "any photo regrets"

My oldest son married this boy's mom when the boy was 10.

He had never held a gun, much less hunted.




Here is the boy at 12 with his first deer.

About a week before we took him hunting for the first time, I took him to the range, and set him up with this Kimber Montana in 260 Remington, and 120 Gr. Nosler Ballistic tip

Anywho, I don't do high fence hunting.

I've only done three guided hunts. One in Montana for Elk and Mule Deer. One Bear Hunt with hounds in New Mexico and then a spot and stalk hunt bear hunt in north-eastern New Mexico with Drummond Lindsey (Hunt Sonora) and Ricky Bob.

Everything else I do is DIY on low fenced/no fenced private property trespass leases here in Texas. Some may disagree, but I like to think that I earn my deer and game.

So, about 5 years ago my oldest son and a couple buds contracted for 15 deer on a high fenced south Texas ranch that had not been hunted in years. IIRC it was about 1,500 acres, and there were tons of deer. From what my son told me they could start out on one end of a sendero, on his side x side and spin corn out of a tail gate feeder and by the time they got 200 to 300 yds down that sendero, deer would be out eating the corn.

Consequently, I turned down three opportunities to go there. I did not say hunt there, cause my idea that is shooting, not hunting, and I don't do high fence.

So here my grandson is with his "second buck" just before his 19th birthday, along with a knife I'd given him for his birthday



As I mentioned previously, I had three opportunities to go to this property.

Do I regret that I did not shoot this buck. Not in the least.

Do I regret not being there when he took this buck. Yes.

Best,


GWB

Nice work GW!

Man, put me firmly in this camp too. Up until a few years ago I rarely, if ever, even took pictures hunting or of the kills. Just never occurred to me.

Five or six years ago I was in an elevated stand facing west on the east end of an E-W field about 250 yds by 75 yds. I had a small video camera and was taping a couple of small bucks sparring and some does at the far end of the field. It was a nice day and winds were out of the South so it was a slight L-R crosswind.

I heard some rustling of the brush to my right and it sounded like a deer easing its way through the brush. Eventually, I saw some brush moving out of the corner of my eye to the right and pointed the camera at it. The next thing you know, a nice 8 point buck stuck his nose out of the brush. I got just a few seconds of him on video before I decided to shoot. I put the camera down, (I even remembered to turn it off 😊), picked up the rifle and got my shot with him trotting away at about 50 yards.. He made it another 20 yards and went down.

Checking his tracks afterwards I figured he was scent checking the field, paralleling it W - E along the north side to see “who” was out there causing all the ruckus.

Not intending to hi-jack but......

Do you guys think that in many instances the way we hunt has evolved from the differing geograph/topograpy, flora, fauna,climate and local culture. It would seem, as a circumstance, the instance of including photography in one's "hunting" may be in relation to the aforementioned factors.

For example,

I am afield, year around. That gives a lot of opportunities to "count coup' during the "off season".

Other than for varmints, turkey, and other fowl, I almost never spot and stalk. The temperature much of the year, the terrain and the habits of the game I hunt preclude this. Consequently I spend most of my time "afield" either in pop up blinds on the ground, or elevated "stands". Since I am heading to a destination, I can pack a camera, two long range lenses and a smaller zoom. I usually arrive about an hour before first light and either snooze or listen to an audio book. I may sit till noon. I usually go out in the afternoon at least two to three hours before dark. As I have night vision and thermal I may sit out until the wee hours of the morning. This time, being in one location in a blind allows for plenty of time to take photos of numerous subjects.

I’ve a want to tell folks, I shoot a lot more with a camera than I do a firearm, and the older I get, its not as much about the killing as it is being "afield".























Perhaps you get the picture!

ya!

GWB

I'm the same way buddy. I seem to always reach for my camera these days before my rifle. It's a blessing to get many many days afield each year.

Great pics gents. Thanks for putting them up.

I don't know that I ever took a picture of any game I'd taken until I joined the campfire. I'm never "in" the picture, I don't do enough clean up/background consideration, but at least I have a quick pic or two now. They're just cell phone pics. That said, probably the best result of all the time I've spent on the campfire is just the push to take a picture.

Not really while hunting. Easier to get the things in focus when dead.... I like meat.

Now, there are photo ops that I have missed and have regrets. One is a snowy owl perched on the tripod center struts of a big antennae up in Barrow. That sucker knew how to hunt for lemmings!

The most recent was a Masai herder in Tanzania, waiting to cross his cattle . They were ranked up nearly perfectly about 8 wide and 10 deep. Danged near military. Those bovines were trained!

My only real photo regrets is that I take lots of them and it's still not enough. I'm not good about stopping to take photos w/out a dead critter as the subject.

If I'm hunting, I'm hunting. I don't take pictures of anything I intend to shoot 'til it's horizontal on the ground with the red juice leaking out. I'll take pictures of critters if I've decided not to shoot and I'll take pictures after the shooting is done, but I won't ever risk losing an animal to a fool stunt like trying to take pictures of something before I shoot it. To me that takes a level of arrogance that should bite a guy in the ass now and then. Real hunting isn't hunting for TV. I don't care what the TV "hunters" have to do to sell their show. .. I'm not in that game. The first thing I do is check behind the critter to be sure I'm not going to shoot through it and hit something I don't wish to. Second thing is getting those dang crosshairs lined up just as fast as I can. Every moment you delay is a moment when all opportunity can be lost. Not rushing things, just taking my time very quickly.

Tom

I have more regrets than photos by far. I have hardly any pictures of all the old-timers that I grew up with in hunting camp 60+ years ago. I was blessed to have a grandpa and uncle who loved to hunt and didn't mind dragging me along. My brother videos a lot of the deer he shoots and it's really neat to see. I'm challenged when it comes to electronics.

I try to take time to do some photography while I'm hunting and fishing.

While fly fishing an Alaskan river for silver salmon, a buddy asked me why I was taking a break from the phenomenal fishing to take photos. He chided me a bit.

But when I sent him the photos of his beautiful wife, and of him too, fishing that river... Then he understood.

I thank the fellows who taught me to set up a "trophy photo" with the blood wiped away from the animal's face, the legs arranged right, the head held up, the tongue tucked in or removed... All those things that help make the photo a good reminder of the hunt, even many years later.

Do I have any photo regrets? Yes, of not taking more and better photos during earlier hunts. Some of those guys are dead now, others I'll never see again due to geography & time, but I do wish I'd gotten more photos in the past. My sons put up with me taking "too many" photos now, and fussing with the deer carcass too much as well. But we get pretty good photos.

Regards, Guy

ElkHunter49,

Thank you! Terrific photos!

Guy

EH49, you're very talented with the lens , nice photos.
Yes I have regrets; I wish had a camera handy when I took this big guy. I was 21 years old at the time and a camera didn't seem like a necessity.

Some great photos, thanks for posting them up.

I'd posted earlier about regretting not really taking pics of ANY game I'd killed, much less seen, before joining the campfire. ...thinking on it, not having taken pictures with friends/family while hunting is a bigger regret for me. I've spent a lifetime hunting with my father but I'm not sure we've taken more than a small handful of pictures together....and those were when I was a kid and deer were far less available (both population and kills). My father's main hunting partner passed away a couple of years ago. I tagged along with him and my dad growing up. I wish I had pictures of hunting with him as well. My grandfather was a serious bird hunter with some really good dogs and I only have 1 picture of him hunting that was handed down. You'd think my family was in witness protection or extremely camera shy from the lack of pictures.

I have my share of photos of big game once its down or after the hunt. But I have missed a bunch of opportunities get pics of other game and wildlife that were out of season or I just didn't have a tag for. Ill try to fix that. This thread has been pretty cool.