Luck is one of those words that get thrown around in the hunting world quite a bit.  I remember being a kid, in deer camp with my Dad, and him saying something along the lines of “Just give us some luck.”  A little luck goes a long way right?  While that is true, as I got older I realized that it wasn’t absolute.  If we only relied on luck, I feel like we would never be successful out there filling tags.  Putting yourself in the position to experience that luck is what it’s all about.  By that, I mean putting in the work beforehand.  Luck does go a long way, but hard work goes farther if you ask me.

To me luck is when that deer or elk turns left instead of right.  It’s when the wind isn’t entirely perfect, but for some reason it never hits the animal’s nose.  Or when that big buck chases a doe right by you, instead of away from you.  Luck is the stuff we can’t control.  If it weren’t for luck, this stuff would probably be pretty robotic and a lot easier or way harder for that matter.  You just never know what is going to happen out there in the hills.  As a hunter, you can do everything perfect, only to have your stalk ruined by a coyote.  Now, that would fall under the category of bad luck.  Which we all have from time to time.

While we can’t control everything, we can control a great deal of things out there.  For instance, we can control where we hunt.  With pre-season scouting animals will be located in advance giving us a great deal of time to study their movements or to just find abundant pockets of them.  As an avid bowhunter, I need as much opportunity as possible to be successful.  This means I need to know where to look beforehand or have some semblance on the matter.  If we don’t know where the critters are, well we risk our hunting looking a lot more like a bow hike.  Other things that we can control are our shooting ability, physical fitness, and gear choices.  Getting all of this stuff worked out ahead of time is going to pay off in the end.  Much of the hunt actually takes place before opening day.

In light of all we’ve mentioned, I think it’s safe to say that luck is what you make of it.  The more work you put into something, the more lucky you might be.  In order to achieve great things, one must put in great effort, and I think that holds true here.  In just over a month, I will be loading up my backpack full of gear, and heading into the backcountry with my bow.  Also accompanying me will be an archery deer tag surrounded by a plethora of ambition.  It doesn’t matter how many times I do this stuff, the coming of a new season will always bring excitement comparable to Xmas morning.  Are you feeling lucky?  I know I am.

Joshua Kirchner