The Best Advice I Can Give

I am a firm believer, that when it comes to hunting knowledge, that you should earn your knowledge with your own feet. I have pissed off a lot of folks by not giving them a neatly packaged answer to the where, when, and how on public lands. Instead I merely offer up the state’s wildlife website, and links to maps. I might even simply say, “The information is out there, now go get your hands dirty”. My thought is, the person that really wants it, will put forth the effort, appreciate the work it took to get it and create a stronger bond with the resource. The stronger bond, leads to more caring and better conservation. Its a kind of tough love, that selfishly weeds out the wishy washy, but has potential to foster true blue conservationist for the future. At least I hope. 

Its not out of malice that I keep things from other prospective outdoors people. Its out of a want to foster in the right way. I want you to invest. To not just be a tourist in this world, but be a resident. If you show a propensity to put in the work then I will begin to share, but I want you to show you care. For the land, and what happens to it to matter to you. So when I give nuggets of info, whether you deem them useful or not, I give them begrudgingly because of what I paid to get them.   So I’ll begin, with the simplest, yet most important of these lessons. 

Its a daunting task. When maps turn into mountains or swamps the feeling can be overwhelming. Even the best struggle with it. You can toil over topo maps and satellite images until your eyes fall out, but when your boots hit the dirt it all goes out the window. In that moment, at least for me, I have to find a way to fight the feeling that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. 

When I feel like this, I remember. winning any kind of hunting knowledge takes one thing. Time. Time in the field. Time walking trails. Time being still. Time hunting. Yes, that’s it, the most important lesson. Give it time.

The hunting seasons take place in on a calendar that does not jive with the one in your phone, or on your wall. Its the natural calendar, which pays little attention to man’s attempt to wrangle a continuum it continues to find it knows very little about. One year you may be at full draw within 15 minutes of shooting light. The next year it could be November first by the time you see something on the hoof you’d think about wrapping a tag around. Every year, every season, every hunt takes time and unfolds in its own time. 

This speaks true of the hunter as well. Lessons learned from time in the field are like legos. You gain and stack a few of them here and there, but it doesn’t really look like much, and then suddenly something clicks and you get it. You start to see what you’re building and can understand why things go where they do. Lessons are also like legos, in the fact that when you forget one and don’t pick it up, it is incredibly painful to step on in the dark. That one hurts. 

Yes, the specific lessons of reading sign, finding travel corridors and ultimately closing the deal are going to happen. First and most importantly you must acknowledge its going to take time. You cannot short cut Mother Nature.
Now don’t get me wrong, there is merit in map reading, e-scouting, reading articles, listening to podcasts, watching videos, etc. There’s good information that can be gleaned from all these things, but if you haven to spend the time and boot leather out there to know how to apply them. You have to put in the time. We all have to put in the time.   

So go. See what’s over the hill. Follow the stream and see where it goes. Sit and listen. 
I write this, just as much to remind myself, as I do to inform you. Time is what it takes to learn. Time is what it takes to be successful.