You think you’ve done everything right. You’ve scouted. You’ve ran your trail cameras. You have the pictures and the evidence that the buck you want is coming to your tree. You wash your clothes. You check the wind. You do everything right and just like that, it’s opening morning. You’re in your stand. The light begins to race the shadows down the forest floor. The squirrels begin to rustle above you. The birds start their morning songs. You are there. You are set. You are ready. Then, nothing.
Yup, nothing happens. It’s a familiar feeling. As hunters, no matter where you are, there are days where you go and don’t see any game. It’s disheartening of course, but it’s a part of the experience. Here in the southeast our public grounds are heavily loved and heavily hunted. So you may go multiple days without a sighting. Tough hunting conditions make the bed harder to leave, and often makes you wonder why you even do this? FOR FUN! I’m having a particularly rough go at deer season 2020, so I often find these thoughts circling around my brain like buzzards over my dying dreams. Perhaps now is a great time to remind myself, and all of us about the 3 P’s. I’m not talking about the type of business loans that have become so famous this year. I’m mean these:
- Patience
- Perseverance
- Perspective
Two of these are extremely self explanatory.
Patience is obvious and discussed at great length. Perseverance is often talked about in these situations and rightly so. The determination to get up every morning and hunt hard is a necessity for you to be successful out there. Maybe, though, just maybe, the most important of these three when things get tough in the woods is Perspective.
There is that one moment in every hunt where you get the feeling that it just isn’t going to happen. It’s not a set time, and it’s different every day, but we all know that feeling well. In those moments, I shift my focus. I try and create a new goal for the day. Killing a big buck isn’t going to happen today so let’s scout our way back to the truck. Sometimes, I’ll climb down and try and find a different tree to change the way I look at an area. Literally changing my perspective. I’ve even commentated squirrel fights like I was a wrestling announcer in my head. It’s stupid but I have fun. There’s a level of joy in the struggle that gets lost in the moment. This is the meat of your book. Enjoy it. No good story is one page long! Love the struggle. The climbs. The fails. These are the building blocks of success.
I have a list of specific hunts in my head that whenever time travel gets invented I want to go back and try again. Try and fix misses and missteps I made that cost me a filled tag. I think about this probably more than a sane person should, but my almost immediate next thought every time is, “but how would that change me?” As The Butterfly Effect rippled its way from my finger in the ethereal pond, would my story be less interesting? Would I be less interesting? The story, my story, is the trophy. Not the horns or the meat on my plate even, the story I have written with my own hands and feet. That’s the big perspective change.
It’s also funny how a change of perspective can even give you more patience and perseverance. Have that last little bit of “GRR” you need for the story to have a happy ending. You are allowed to get angry, and feel the full swath and depth of emotions that hunting takes you through. But as you turn off your headlamp and jump in your truck, have a smile. Your story just got more interesting.
A Day in the Field 