calamar2000 wrote:OldMtnMan wrote:I've only hunted on RFF and TG. I like to stay on a map until I really know it and don't need a map/huntermate to navigate. Plus, about where the animals I hunt hang out. That takes a while and I don't move to another map until I do. I picked two big maps to begin with, so it's taken me a while.
No rush. If I knew it all. Then what? I never want to get to that point.
Old man poking along trying to find something to eat.
so ready for a good barbecue! ?
I really like the way you hunt and I will try to do it the same way. indeed I am against barrels here too it is an offense punishable by prison!
Thank you.
Well, I tried a whitetail hunt and it left me cold. Moose was better. I did realize just how much I love elk by thinking I was done doing it. Who am I kidding? I sure didn't kid myself for long. I know me.
I did forget something lately though. I remember a friend of mine who is a strict trophy hunter and makes no apology for it. He has a big room full of dead heads hanging on the wall. He said to me that it's not the journey but the destination that matters to him. I told him it's the hunt and not the kill that matters to me. We understood each other and even though we were the complete opposites. We were good friends. People are different. We have to accept each other for the way we are. Even if we disagree with it. It's not our place to tell anybody what they should like or how they should do something. Not unless they ask for help.
I forgot that. Sometimes important life lessons are forgotten. Decades ago I realized it was the hunt I loved the most. The whole thing was a package. From scouting to skinning the animal. I never enjoyed the kill but over the decades I came to love the hunt more and more. That never changed in real life hunting. It was that way in the game too at first. The I forgot. I got caught up in it. I wanted to win. My love for the hunt started to fade. I became more and more unhappy. Hunting wasn't fun anymore. I loved Red Feather and couldn't enjoy it like I should have.
I didn't go stale on elk. I went stale on myself. Trying the whitetail hunt snapped me out of it. What was I doing? I'm an elk hunter. have been all my life. Why am I hunting whitetail? Because i'm a dummy. An old dummy.
I quit the deer hunt and gathered up my elk gear again. I went for an elk hunt with the attitude I never should have lost. An elk bugled and I moved in. It turned in to be a young bull with a score of less than 100. I smiled. There was his older brother. He must be a 200. I had a bigger smile. I said to them. Hi guys, you get a free pass today and just watched them until they wandered away. I felt good again. Instead of being mad because the bulls were too small to place in a comp. I enjoyed the moment. I enjoyed the hunt. I was me again.
I'll continue to hunt elk. It's in my DNA. I'll enter comps when they suit me but with a big difference. I really don't care where I place. I'll only hunt to enjoy the hunt. Kick my butt in the comp? Good for you. I hope you enjoyed it because I know i'm going to be having fun. Some will say "why bother to enter?" Good question. Just to be part of something. To see how I can do while having fun and hunting my way. Not to win but to just compete. To hunt for elk. To have fun.
Sorry for rattling on. I didn't realize I wrote so much.
