Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Do you keep a "journal"?

I turned 55 in 2005 and it dawned on me...
"I've been hunting since I was 3 with my dad and grampa!
Other than memories, I have no record of our activities.
Grampa passed in 1973, dad in 1981.
I went back and recorded some of what I could remember.
Since then, I record every hunting, fishing and outdoor activity.
Sometimes, I even carry my journal out into the field.
Going back and reading what I've written since 2005, I realize just how much I don't remember from years past!

If you don't keep a journal, I encourage you to start! 😉!

I have kept a journal for some activities in my life, but I would have liked to have had one of my hunting life, I suppose its never too late, but many memories have faded, wish I did.

I write down how many hours I slept.

I take pics of my projects and send emails about them. gmail is a searchable data base.

I take a few pictures almost every day with my iphone. That’s my journal.

Pics are dated in the metadata.

Helps me remember when I changed tractor oil, snowstorms, dates and times deer traveled passed my stands

I have albums of pics of hunting trips back to 1974.

I only write down a narrative of a special trip, like when I went to Alaska and Africa. I used to write down the results and observations whenever I shot Skeet or Sporting Clays but thought it was a waste of time.

No, because I’m not a woman, real or imagined….

I've kept a daily calendar since 1993. It has come in very handy at times, i.e. when did I spray Asulox last year and how much, when was the first pick of blueberries, the first trip to the high lakes for trout fishing.

Na.. My my road has a lot of Clutter which can’t be put into Proper Prospective.. Hahahaha..

I keep a big game journal. Have since I started killing deer. It lists what, weights, distance shot and traveled, rifle and load, where and often other notes that made the hunt special. It now has 35 years of experiences in it. I consider it priceless.

GreggH

I try to include those facts and a narrative as to how it "went down", or on some cases, what DID NOT happen. LOL!

I have kept a log on monthly rainfall amounts for many years. It has been useful several times in the past, but I would give anything if I had kept a hunting log over the years. I’ve got a lot of memories, but they would be a lot easier to relive if they were written down. At age 78, it’s probably a little late to start.

I'm kinda thinkin' when it gets to the point where I cant remember what happened, I likely wont care what happened, or care what happens next?

I've kept a journal my entire life.

Every page reads "Your mom."

LOL

Got lots of deer hunt memories down on paper. Started doing that for most hunts back in the late 1980's. Early to mid 1980's I was talking to an old hunter way up in the woods who regretted not preserving more of his hunt memories from his younger days. Told me if I didn't then all the details fade away even though you can't imagine forgetting an exciting hunt. Now I'm glad I took his advice and can go back and re-read a hunting story and it really does all come back to me when I read it but without the story on paper I would have forgot all kinds of interesting small details. Kind of neat to be able to re-live a hunt.

Of course. In the beginning it was simply to aid my memory when writing for a magazine story and the journal was merely a jumble of notes that meant nothing to anybody but me. My handwriting is laborious, slow, and nigh the perfect unbreakable code -- by anybody including me. Time passed and technology progressed. I tried verbal notes on a wee dicataphone sort of gizmo and that was an utter failure, Trying to transcribe that later was a losing proposition. With the advent of Palm Pilots and detachable keyboards I was flying. There has been more technological progression, but a few minutes at a keyboard does it. Relax, have a brew, and get the day's activities down. When I get back, run it through the full word processor and let the spell checker help me clean it up, then print it off for the binder.
RB

DING! DING! DING! DING!
...AND WE HAVE A WINNER!

I've reread portions of my journal several times. It amazes me some of the small details that I had forgotten. Alot of the tine, it's those small details that add the pizzazz to the story!
Thanks for sharing 22250rem

My wife reminds me of everything I do...she seems to only the bad....hmmm

I got my living journal

not hunting related but...when I joined the Navy and fist started flying my logbook seemed a bit boring. just flight data, no details.

a senior officer told me to start taking some notes in the blank pages on memorable flights, so I did. I also kept notes on ports the ship pulled into, before you know it I was into my third log book with notes on a lot of Navy stuff. started in 1991. retired in 2018, 27 years of stuff I dun. glad I kept a bit of a logbook.

I suppose I've been around a lot longer than most on here.
I started keeping a journal in 1969. Wish I had begun it earlier. Not a diary in which you write every day. A journal you only write in when you feel like it; to note events that are important to you. My journals have entries about my personal feelings at the time, my work, my hunting and fishing trips; just all sorts of things. I started using military record books, and now use 3 ring binders that are 3 inches thick. Pages are in plastic page protectors. I am now on volume 21.
I keep my journals with all my family history stuff. One day my kids will get it, or if they don't want it they are instructed to give it all to the local historical society.