Year in and year out life is filled with lessons. If you’re like me and always striving to be better than yesterday, you pay attention to those lessons. This past 2021 hunting season provided me with more than its fair share of takeaways, just like it should be. Here, I’m going to lay out my biggest lessons learned from the 2021 hunting season. I walked away from it with new perspective, and with any hope, you’ll walk away from this article with the same.
The first big lesson that comes to mind is staying in my shot sequence. For the better part of a week I traversed the rugged backcountry of Utah in search of big velvet mule deer. I found plenty of those and got in some quality stalks to boot. It was my last stalk that would seal my fate and brand this lesson in my core. This stalk came to a halt after I positioned myself over a bedded buck on my last evening there. I stood there for over and hour waiting for him to stand, as I didn’t have a shot where he was bedded. Finally, he stood and that’s when I began to crumble. Big bucks make you do stupid stuff, plain and simple. I drew my bow back and completely ignored my shot sequence. The result was me not leveling my bow and canting so far to the right, I’d miss the buck entirely. That was a tough pill to swallow. In fact, I’m still trying to get it down.
Because of this mishap, I’m now very intentional with my shot sequence here at home. In the past, I’ve found myself going on auto pilot. Auto pilot isn’t always going to cut it in the field though.
Last Spring I was sitting on an outcropping in Idaho hoping that the ticks wouldn’t find me while I glassed for bears below. After a few days at it, I found a bear and had a shot opportunity even. Truth be told it happened so damn fast I don’t remember a whole lot about it. What I do remember was missing the bear. It happened because in a panic I misdialed the turret of my scope and sent the bullet over the bear’s back. For some reason I thought I had to rush. Therein lies the takeaway. I didn’t have to rush in the least bit. In general, we usually have much more time than we think, but our minds trick us. Our desires outweigh logic. We think we need to shoot ASAP no matter what and that the animal is going to get away. That’s never really the case.
I’m happy to say I took that tidbit into my Fall bear hunt and used it to my advantage. I was able to constantly remind myself that I had more time and there wasn’t a reason to hurry up. The biggest bear I’ve ever killed came home with me after that.
September 2021 landed me in the unforgiving backcountry of Idaho looking for screaming bull elk. A bowhunter’s dream. I had a really great hunt with a great friend, and we even brought some elk meat home after he shot a cow. A great experience all around. Even there though, there was a lesson.
Early on in the hunt we had two bulls bedded in a great spot. So, naturally we came up with a game plan and started heading their way. In that process though, there were two options of travel we were trying to decide between. One was shorter and one was longer. The longer one was a dead ringer and the shorter one seemed like we should be fine. Well, we weren’t fine. The bulls ended up winding us, because we ended up beneath them instead of on their level. Always take the route that’s a dead ringer and forget about the shortcut until it comes time to pack him out.
I am a firm believer that we put unneeded pressures on ourselves a great deal of time. Sometimes we do things a certain way because that’s how we think we’re supposed to do them. And then we question drifting from that path, even if logic is staring us in the face. I did this on multiple levels in 2021. From certain gear items to hunting tactics. Not staying true to myself had a way of biting me in the ass. Once I snapped out of it and did what worked for me, I was not only happier, but I found success more frequent. It doesn’t matter how so and so does something or what the standard is at the time for gear. Do what works for you and use what works for you. You’ll be better off.
We’ve all got those expectations before a hunt. The exact country we’ll be in, the hill the elk will be on, and the route we’ll take to get to them. No matter how much we sit there and daydream about a certain hunt and how it’s all gonna go down, it doesn’t change the fact that sometimes things just happen. For me that thing was other hunters this past November elk hunting. On multiple occasions I had day hunts blow up due to other folks. It’s not their fault. They were out there doing exactly what I was. It’s public land after all. Because, it’s public land though, and because we wait so long for these hunts, we need to make sure we’re using our time wisely. That means having a plan A, B, C, D, and E. Hell, throw an F in there too for good measure. We’ve only got so many hunting seasons in us. Make the most of them and plan accordingly.
Lastly, but certainly not least, it is the process of hunting that I truly enjoy. From start to finish. Putting the breadcrumb trail of positive reinforcement together that leads towards success. That right there, the experience in all of its forms, is the reward. Sometimes I tend to forget that. I get caught up in my own head and get too serious. It causes me to lose sight of what’s important to me. And what’s important to me spans way past shooting that big buck.
All of the lessons I’ve discussed here are part of the process. And each one of them are valuable in their own right. Hunting is never something I’m ever going to master, which sits well with me. It means I’m never going to stop learning. For an eager student of the game, the sky is the limit. Let’s go 2022. Let’s go!
If you want to learn more about backpack hunting, check out my book Becoming a Backpack Hunter: A Beginner’s Guide to Hunting the Backcountry. It’s a from front to back look, and blueprint essentially, to take you from day dreaming about backpack hunting to actually doing it.
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