Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Do you hunt to make memories?

Or to kill schit? I've always been a killer first. Use what works the best and leave the others at home. I think that just changed.

Pondering which rifles to take spring bear hunting this weekend my wife suggested I take the ones that 20 years from now I'll look back on and be glad I took. I've got guns that are sighted in and ready to go, but have never been. One example, a 250-3000 sighted in with Barnes 80 grain ttsx bullets. Will it kill a bear? Sure. Is it ideal? Haha, no.

Maybe I'll get to hunt them all before I die now. Take a different rifle every day. In the end wouldn't it be a hell of a lot more interesting to have hunted them all?

I was planning to take the usual 284 and 358. Now it's a pair of 38-55's, one long rifle, one short rifle takedown.









Screw it, the legs only have a limited number of miles left in them, I better get busy.


So my question is, are you more a killer or a memory maker?

Have never "made a memory in my life".

I'm too old, too anti-trendy.


More nostalgic.
Like to be reminded of good memories.
And good friends/relatives.

I used to be a killer. We were young, broke, and with 4 mouths to feed, a hunting license had to be cost effective to buy. Now we are old, only 2 of us and a couple dogs, and we damn sure aint in no danger of starving to death, so its all about the experience. Hell Ive even been on a few out of country hunts and didn't kill anything just because I didn't see the point or need.

I hunt to put meat on the table. The memory is just a part of hunting.

Same
Fresh out of college late 80’s broke barely made enough to pay rent, hunted and fish to put extra on table. Deer burger mixed with cheap hamburger goes long way in winter in chili and such. Never really trophy hunted deer til early 2000 when i was finally in a great place. Still love deer meat but dont need it to make ends meet
Now hunt more for social activities than for food and fish more for relaxation

I hear you. We've all been making memories, just doing it differently.

My point was, here we are all wrapped in these guns, then we leave them at home and take the same two or three each year because they work so well. "Favorite deer rifle" thread fodder. What about all the rest? Obscure, iron sighted, hard to get cartridges, requiring a different skill set to use successfully. I used to wonder what hunting season would be like if I let a stranger go to the gun safe and pick the firearm I had to kill everything with that year. Could I do it?

Started hunting many years ago and was a killer, then only good bucks and a couple of does per year for meat
I has passed on many animals for various reasons but I don't care to hunt/kill anymore but the memories are there.

If I had realized I was making memories - I would have paid more attention.

When I was younger it was all about killing - everything I could. Now - meh, I don't care too much. It's nice but it's hardly the why. Just had this conversation with my son this week.

I'm getting to the point where getting up at 0400 and freezing at -10 doesn't interest me too much if that's what's required to kill something. I may never shoot another deer again in my life - I'm ok with that. I better get to go deer hunting tho every year for the rest of my life. Distinction there.

For me - it's now about just having the time in the woods and when the boy gets home this summer, spending it with him. We have 4 missed deer seasons to make up for. And I assume, within the next 4-5 years I'll have to worry about the grand kids that are likely to happen. Again - about the hunt not the blood.

I like to kill stuff, especially pigs and sorry ass Aoudads. If you have a lot of rifles, hard to use them all. I have some I bought new, sighted in, haven’t taken them out once.

Fair enough. As a kid growing up in the mid 60s, TV cowboys, well actually Indians, were my heroes. I ALWAYS wanted a SAA in 45 colt. By the time I could afford the real deal, I decided that it would be a waste to buy a 1st gen colt and use it. Instead I bought a Cimmaron/Uberti replica. I have killed 3 or 4 deer with it now and I love it. I then bought another Cimmaron 1873 replica in 45 colt. Before Ive had a chance to hunt with it, I ran across an ORIGINAL 1873 Winchester rifle in 38/40. Guess which one Im killing a deer with this year? The original!
Ive also got an 1894 Winchester built in 1895 chambered in 38-55. Eventually I will get around to killing something with it too.

Ok so I i have my go to guns that i depend on whether it birds or deer
Now my play guns have always been coyote guns swapping trading etc EVEN though i have my go to one with me all the time lol
Last few years with no children of mine and no grandkids in the future I’ve been selling off some of my not “go to “ guns thinning the herd and such
I have 2 hunting guns a LT20 ga 870 and a 25-06 covers all my needs here in midwest

Memories

I rarely see what's on the tag I'm holding anyway, or if I do see them they disappear over a ridge never to be seen again.

So, memories are the quarry.

My answer too !

I love hunting our own property, with my family, so we can feed ourselves.

Don’t care to kill anymore, I ‘hunt’ to be in the woods.
Special guns are good for one’s soul.

To add - I can put meat down pretty easy and be tagged out in the first 10 minutes of a season (deer) - I don't because I like all the stuff that goes into finding the "right" meat - so to speak.

I want to have a good time and that often ends when you pull the trigger.

When I was 10 , my dad gave me my first 22 ( ithaca 49 that I still have ). my whole family were /are hunters and houndsman, we hunted any and everything here in the mid west. hunting season was a huge , long family reunion. but as time has done by and the elders are gone , all that hunting and the stories are very treasured memories. And now I am the elder and trying to build those kind of memories for my younger family and their young friends as well as myself. when it is all said and done in the end those memories are all we have.

Post in error

Who gives a fugg which rifle you use?

Who did you take with you?

I love it all. I love Killing stuff I love shooting guns I love talking to my friends and celebrating their successes and retelling stories of past successes I love being outside I love being disconnected from “real life” I love cooking game I love feeding my kids clean food all of it.

And all of that goes toward making memories I suppose.

Fireball2, I hunt for a little of all of the reasons mentioned by the posters above, but now every time i hunt, a big part of the reason is because I know there is a finite quanity to the hunts I will be able to make.. I am almost 74 and still hunt hunt in the wild Carpathian mountains. My health is starting to go south and I am fighting it.
I think you have an excellent plan to hunt with all of those fine rifles and you should do it.
I have 10 rifles of which 1 single shot and 2 bolt rifles that have not been blooded. I plan to start getting that done this season. The best of luck and memories to you. RJ