Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Mixed feeling on success

This will be difficult to put into words but I thought I would see how it goes.
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<br>The anticipation of a hunting trip and the days spent afield are what I am beginning to think is the best part of the trip in many instances. I find the effort to stalk the game, prepare gear, pack in, enjoy the sights and sounds and everything else so much a part of the hunt that it's really what I look forward to. I find the "fore play" of the hunt to be where I have the greatest enjoyment. I have hunted with an awful lot of guys who have killing on their minds first and formost and never really listen to the birds or care about the habitat or the sights. Nothing seems to get into their minds but the "KILL". It's sad to think guys put so much effort into the gun and equipment but have little recollection of the details of the environment or the wildlife and scenery around them. The best part of many trips for me is the whole trip without the kill even considered.
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<br>The second best part is the after effects around the camp with my friends or family when the pleasure of the days events have settled in. The third part of the enjoyment is the setup for the shot and the making of a clean kill with little to no tracking. What we would consider "text book" shooting.
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<br>The actual taking of the animal is not the high priority for me or many of the more experienced clients and friends I hunt with. I think the lack of, or loss of "buck fever" or what ever you want to call it makes the killing more academic and the lack of stress and excitement in the kill itself removes that part of the hunting trip from a higher priority spot on the list.
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<br>I have hunted with some really cool characters who were not shaken or overly excited when it came time to shoot. Many of them even seemed let down or disturbed and quiet after they make a brilliant shot. It's some kind of momentary post hunt depression syndrome. I can't say I have ever been "depressed" from success but it's such a huge build up and anticipation to get to the point of pulling the trigger that when it's over and your done taking the photo's many hunters seem to have a huge let down, if just for a short time.
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<br>The more novice the hunter the less likely this is to occur in my experience. A new hunter with me is shaking from excitement for an hour after the hunt, and never stops talking about it the rest of the day. The cool calculated shooter who is expert with his equipment and very skilled in his shooting will usually shoot the animal and be content but rarely has the same excitement a less experienced guy shows. He will also typically have this post hunt sadness or depression until the evening fire when they seem to snap out of the depression and they begin re-living the days events.
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<br>I guess the guys at the apex of the "experience bell curve" are the best clients from a skill and effort standpoint. However the clients that are still on the way up the curve are certainly more exciting to watch hunt and shoot. Fortunately all that levels out in the evening around the fire. That is certainly one of my favorite parts of each hunting day.
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<br>I guess what I'm saying don't be in such a hurry to have so much experience that the rush and thrill of hunting wears off. Enjoy your whole trip and take in the experience. Don't put so much pressure on the killing alone that you forget to see and enjoy the time spent in the bush too. Everyone wants success but way to many people I have hunted with have been miserable for days because they missed a shot, or passed on a good animal and then go without seeing another for much of the trip. They are so preoccupied with killing success that the entire trip becomes stressfull and miserable to them if they don't shoot something.
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<br>The guys who hunt with a more care free additute and "go with the flow" end up having a great time and shooting great trophies many more times then the dedicated trophy hunters who can recall very little of thier experience when it's over! Does this make sense or have any of you seen this? How many of you can relate in some way to the momentary post hunt depression? I don't mean having to return to work when the hunt is over I mean the let down when the chase ends and the rush is sucked away from you and your left with this empty sad feeling that all the anticipation is over and your done. jj

JJ, I know exactly how you feel and I've felt that way many times myself. I still get excited during the hunt, but I've never suffered from what I would call "buck fever".
<br>I definitely enjoy the hunt, checking out the game from a distance and watching what they do when they don't know you're around, and checking out the surroundings.
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<br>I think that is why each year I seem to be adding more hunting to my list so I always have a hunt coming up to look forward to. At least the talks around the fire are a good time to reminisce about not just the day's excitement, but past hunts that link us all together. We also start the planning for the next hunt or two, so the exitement seems to be somewhat continuous, looking forward to the next game animal, hunt, area to be hunted, and hunting companions to spend time with. I guess if I ever completely lose that enthusiasm, I will just have to give up hunting. However, I still have a long way to go before that happens. I still have to get my first Cape Buff, my first grizzly, Sable, etc......
<br>Now, how many campfires will that be before all that happens?- Sheister

JJ,
<br>I am not very experienced in the actual shooting of big game. I am 49 and shot my first deer this year. I was alone in a tree stand. I was excited both before and after the shot. I had to force myself to take care so I didn�t fall out of the tree while trying to get to the deer. It was about dark when he showed up. He was the only deer I had seen in 4 days of hunting. It was good and dark by the time I got to the ground.(took for ever) The guide got there a few minutes later and I started babbling like a schoolgirl. I took him to where the deer stood when I shot. We followed the blood and tracks in the snow by spotlight. We got to the deer in about five minutes. He was dead under a lowdown. I was happy with the deer. I felt a little let down because my hunt was over.
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<br> I learned, at least for me, the deer was not as exciting as the black bear was the year before. I was a basket case for a week after I shot him. I got the shakes three times while I waited for him to give me a clear shot. When it came he was ten yards off and quartering to me. I was sitting in the middle of the trail he was headed for. Yup, that was the plan. Dumb huh? The first shot broke his near shoulder. The second shot finished him. He ended up about twelve yards from the trail. I hadn�t felt adrenaline like that ever before. No one was there with a video camera so the world will never see my shaky attempts at tagging his ear. I got the date wrong. I was a real mess.
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<br>I don�t know if I will ever get enough experience under my belt to have the kill be anti-climatic. I enjoy my time in the mountains. I seem to have to spend a lot more time in the field then most guys before I see game. When I do, I get excited.
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Think that's called experience. The killing is when the work starts and most of the fun is over. For me the planing, packing, trip, companions and campfires are the main ingredients along with just being out in the wilderness. To set on a mountain side and listen to the wind climbing up the mountain through the pines or setting by a rushing stream and listen to the water, most young hunters have to grow into this phase. They want to kill yesterday and it is foremost in their mind. -- no

JJ- You've explained greatly, part of the five stages of a hunter!!! If I ever stop having a little remorse after I kill an animal I'll quit hunting, because that means I've lost too much respect for the animal.

I can remember taking a new big game hunter on her first big game hunt not long ago. I had taught her to shoot. We had selected her first big game rifle together. I had tried to pass on my personal philosophy of hunting to her. We had taken the NRA safe hunter course together.
<br> She is now my ex wife.
<br> I can recall getting the drawing information for Nevada in the mail. There is one out of state Pronghorn tag available for central Nevada. I had her apply for it. I have an old friend who lives nearby. I figured we could all scout the area together.
<br> We did. I contacted Nevada DOW for information. She had drawn, on her first try, that goat tag.
<br> We arrived the first day of the season, in a thunderstorm. We started hunting together. We both wore radio headsets, so we could stay in touch. Very flat, open country. The animals were very spooky.
<br> About the 3rd day, from a vantage point, I watched her stalk a nice buck. A lone doe spotted her as she closed on the buck and his harem. I warned her to be ready. They spooked. She got ready to shoot-and passed the shot. She was concerned she would hit one of the does.
<br> A couple of days later, I watched her miss one at about 200 yds. She had forgotten to get into a steadier sitting position, and had tried for him from standing.
<br> The last day of the season, we were sitting watching an old buck try to cut some does away from a younger 16 inch buck. The 16 inch buck finally got tired of the game, and chased him off. They came almost right toward us. She made ready to shoot. They crossed into a shallow basin almost across from us. Possibly within range. The 16 inch buck appeared. She turned and asked me how far was it. I told her to make that call. Training was over. She passed. The buck was almost 400 yds out. I was very proud of her.
<br> I reminded her to make ready. The old buck might be close enough. Minutes later, he appeared some 300 yds out. And turned to look at us.
<br> She knocked him flat, 300 yds. out.
<br> Later, on the way home, she apologized to me for not having a chance to hunt. I said "what do you mean, I hunted everyday." I hadn't carried a rifle once, during that whole trip. But it was hunting, in the best sense. E

JJhack. What you have explained is what I have been more or less preaching here for some time. Many call it my ethtics and are a might confused with it. I have repeatedly stated that the numberof elk /deer or whatever is not how you keep score in this game. To me, preparing for the hunt, packing in, using my skills to do this, finding the game and completing a good stalk is reason to go hunting. I have been walking up on elk for over 30 years,and a lot of people seem to think this is impossible. This is where I get my adrenaline rush. I don't set and wait for them or shoot from great distances. It's strickly one on one and a heck of a way to hunt.
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I have hunted for 31 years, carrying a shotgun for my first pheasant hunt at age 9. I didn't begin deer hunting until I was discharged from the Marines 18 years ago. Since then I have taken 18 deer and 1 pronghorn. I find this post interesting because I feel that over the years my enthusiasm for the sport has definitely increased but to the observer I may seem to have become more serious and calculating while engaged in the pursuit. Each hunt is different, if the animal is discovered while some distance away and the shot is taken at a fair distance the excitement level is not as great as the hunt where the animal is within mere yards or even feet of me and every blink of the eye or every breath of air may alert the deer. So to me, each hunt has different levels of excitement and part of the draw is never knowing for sure each day what situation I will be faced with.
<br>As far as sadness or remorse go, after the kill I may feel a little let down that the hunt is over but I haven't really felt sadness for the individual animal since I was a kid. I'm well aware of the cycle of life and how nature gives life and takes life. Each spring I plant feed for my horse and cows and the deer come in and eat part of the feed and browse in my pasture, which is fine, I feel that when I take one of their number in the fall that we ( the deer and I ) are taking care of each other.
<br>Now if I were to spend a chunk of money on a guided hunt ( which I plan to in the future ) I may feel a certain amount of pressure to get an animal. I went to Utah with a friend a couple of years ago to hunt mule deer. We didn't have any luck, seeing only a few does. I felt a little bit bad about not coming home with some meat after that hunt having invested a little money in it. I was able to enjoy the mountains and the challenges of a different type of hunting terrain, even though I didn't score, I still treasure the experience. I think maybe the pressure I would feel comes from what others would expect of my BIG hunt, not what I would expect.
<br>Nowadays I may spend a little more time just enjoying watching the animals through my binocular than I once did. I've never really been after the biggest or the best when it comes to hunting, just a decent head with a big body for meat. I have been more of a meat hunter than a trophy hunter, which may be why I don't feel much pressure when I step out the door deer hunting. But if I were to go to say Africa it would be nothing but horns and skins I would be after so I may feel more pressure to produce. I don't know if any of this makes any sense, it's just my thoughts on the matter.
<br>Jeff
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X_Jarhead,
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<br>You may have something there when you talked about the distance of the game when shot. Both animals I shot were within rock chucking range, and my throwing arm isn't all that great. There was a fear factor I had to overcome as the bear worked his way to me. No one would have been the wiser if I had decided to back off and forget the whole thing. I don't think I would have experienced that emotion if the bear had been standing in the open 150 yards away. Was I in any real danger? I don't think so, but perception is reality as far as the brain goes. I got the "affect" of shooting dangerous game in a close to home weekend hunt. Got to start somewhere.
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For those who don't appear as excited as they used too, I say they need to pick up a muzzleloader, bow, or pistol and go out and hunt awhile....I bet that would recharge them a little....
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<br>I have not killed enough to loose the thrill.
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<br> I am usually cool as a cucumber until the shooting is done then my knees knocking helps lower me and my climbing stand down out of the tree
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<br>Mike

Well you boys can be just giddy with excitement,at being skunked. I MUCH prefer filling tags and much prefer Big 'Uns,to little 'uns. I like a clean shot,up close,at an undisturbed animal too.
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<br>When I'm admiring beauty,it's with a camera. When I'm Hunting,it's with a rifle. I understand the differences and weigh each differently...........
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Who said anything about being skunked?
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<br>Jeff

Well said JJ. Don't forget the eatin' part. And for the shots not taken, just remind them (not that it helps for awhile) that any shot not taken is ALWAYS a good decision, vs those taken that shouldn't be. As to the 5 stages of hunting, I will never get to the part where I have to take big animals or nothing to "challenge" myself, or continually get a bigger one than the last. Each animal deserves its own individual respect, not just as a notch on someone's personal coup stick. The planning, total experience, seeing all the nifty "nature nuggets" incidental to what one is after - like having a hawk landand hunt from the limb two feet from your head, or watching a moose calf tease his mother are among the best parts of hunting. I could have passed on having that little furry whatever it was jump on my face in the night a couple years back, tho.

I've noticed that my misty-eyed appreciation of the hunting experience began about the same time I started letting lots of critters walk away, which coincided with getting old enough to get tired of dragging bambi out of the boondocks!
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<br>Jeff

Have you aver noticed that game comes out of nowhere specially when you are not thinking about anything, and just when not moving around and enjoying nature? That happens to me quite often when moose hunting. I sit out of view watching a large field in front of me, and sometimes when I am dozing off I get startled by moose. Sometimes I start thinking that I won't see a bull moose before the season ends, so I resign myself to that fact; but right when I am just enjoying whatever is around me (birds, little critters, the sun light and other things) out of nowhere a moose shows itself. Meanwhile my hunting parners are still moving around looking for moose. He...he..

It is called growing up I believe. Comes a time when you have taken your share, you know what you can do and are comfortable with the things you know you can't or won't do. Comes a time when you maybe just put your rifle on him and know you own him if you touch the trigger. But you had just as soon watch him walk and live another day. Comes a time when you make meat because you want to not because you feel that you have to because you have done it and done it and know you can do it again any time you really want to.
<br>You guys with babies like JJ and Stick will find in time that you had a whole lot rather your baby does it and that it is a lot more important to him or her than it is to you. You can see your self twenty years back and have just a super time watching your flesh and blood carrying on the line.
<br>BCR

As usual, well said BCR...right on the mark.

Well, I'm glad I'm different from some of the guys here in one respect: I haven't taken enough game yet to lose one bit of the charge I get from pulling the trigger, putting the bullet right where it ought to go, and seeing the game pile up just like it should.
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<br>When I get up to my deer, my knees are shaking too and, if I did smoke, I'd light a cigarette up right there just to help settle down. It's pretty thrilling for me to walk up and see that animal right where he ought to be, and knowing that I'll be taking sustenance from him, and that I did it right. Run my hands over his soft hair; admire his beauty; look at the scars on his horns or antlers, think about where he's been and what he's done. Maybe that's why I make mounts out of all my animals, even the small ones: to me they and their lives become personal, a part of me and my experiences and my past. I don't even mind cleaning and skinning them. Yet. Now, forty or fifty deer from now? Maybe..... ;-)

I think you said it right,Boggy.It truly is "growing up".In a nutshell,it's getting priorities lined up right and having them stay that way.When it is no longer "all important",but just exactly important enough that we get the "good - un",we start seeing more "good-uns".
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<br>I know the feeling JJ is talking about.He explained it as well as words can,but it still has to be felt to be understood. At depth,it probably reminds us of our own mortality.
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<br>When we are at peace with the GOD that made us,we are at one with the universe and all it's wonders.At one with all our surroundings,we see the "good-un" we were oblivious to before because we were looking too hard for a "good-un".We let him walk knowing there will be more or we take him because it is right that we do on this day and then we feel the feeling because something of great moment in the universe just happened and we are part of it.
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<br>Hunt alone until you identify with the feeling.Then you will be fit company for men such as yourself.
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<br>Good thread,JJ.

I'm not going to say I get REMORSE when I harvest and animal, but I do ALWAYS show a moment of SILENT RESPECT. I consider it one of those natural miracles (religous to some perhaps) that brought us together. I consider my self fortunate to have walked the many miles, reflected on my inner self for many of them, to bring myself to that very moment. The actual shooting is but the last page of a long and intriguing novel.
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<br>I always try to book a couple extra days in the middle of a trip to enjoy the camp and surrounding areas. I do not WANT to bust my butt every day, making sure I get every stinking cent out of my outfitter and staff. I want to remember the stalk to within 75 yards of the Jumbo (that I didn't have the license to take), the two bull Jumbo fighting on the river bank for territory, the 13' monster croc just swimming around looking for lunch.
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<br>If shooting/killing is all you are after, just go down to the Kroger, buy a T-Bone and whack it at 400 yds (zoning permission required of course).. You may get the same satisfaction.