For those that didn’t go opening morning………like me.

Ahhhhhh! It’s opening morning of deer season here in Indiana!

A morning of 36 degrees with a steady N wind, clear skies and a warming sun after a few days of cold rain………I couldn’t have asked for a better one…..yet here I sit.

The old saying of “woulda, coulda……..shoulda” comes to mind and I know (er…..assume?) that there may be others that, for one reason or another, did not make it out there opening day for the first sunrise of the season.

My reasons? Nothing “concrete” yet I could state a few common sense reasons, blame old age and it’s unpleasant baggage or share the “busy, busy day” ahead of me, or even the lack of sleep (yawn!!!……3 hours just aren’t enough anymore!!! )

The TRUTH? I am just not yet (IMHO) mentally ready…ok fine, that MIGHT (hehe) be a result of procrastinating on washing my hunting clothes and REsharpening my broadheads..etc, etc. Birthday plans with my youngest and the wait for my first grand child, due Sunday, and on…….and on.

It’s mainly all of the above reasons “breaking my concentration” as a whole and effecting my confidence. Both my confidence in abilities (gotta concentrate) and also my confidence in enjoying the hunt (((( 😯 ))) Yeah I said it!

I have, on many occasions, made the comment that “CONFIDENCE KILLS” and that confidence IS a by-product of planning, preparation, practice and …oh well, you know……all that “stuff”.

Confidence, in my humble, non-college educated opinion can be a fleeting will-o-the-wisp for some and while it’s not OFTEN, the lack of it on any certain day for whatever the “reason” in MY hunting life will get the nod and I listen.

WHILE mornings are no longer “user friendly”, I could have done it but HERE the main subject of this post comes to be involved.

ALL WE DO in hunting our chosen game, is SUPPOSED TO BE …..FUN!

I have a GREAT friend, an over all super person, good Christian who’s life has often been a slap in the face compared to my own and feel his purpose in life has been to keep ME on the straight and narrow path yet we are all but complete opposites come season when “it’s time to hunt”.

Annually, I watch him hunt himself to exhaustion and even though today is the FIRST day of season he has already moved several stands. Arghhh! NOT ME.

Now I do NOT want anyone, who may relate to my friend’s actions, to feel I am “pointing the finger” and I humbly offer MY differing opinions as simple food for thought.
I will call my friend…..”Buck”.

Buck has hunted traditionally all of his, just turned, 62 years (at least the hunting part of it. lol) and at ONE time was content to take “a buck” with his 60s and 70s Bear bows and did so on a regular basis for several decades.

Interesting TO ME, is his CONSTANT haranguing on the “trophies are measured by inches” attitude group YET what I SEE in his life is a change towards that very thing to the point that he makes himself physically ill.
Yesterday he was already coughing from getting cold and wet over and over the past week out in the woods attempting to find the best spot to take the biggest buck he can.

Before the season is HALF through I will (again) hear…….”man, I am just EXHAUSTED…….I hope I get one soon so I can stop hunting!” Lord I PRAY I never get to that point!!! (and pray You give him peace.)

Perhaps correctly so, he will be utterly disgusted with me when he finds out I did NOT go this AM and past examples clearly make it plain to me, offering ANY reason would be met with disdain. It does indeed pain me to “disappoint” my dear friend but……..I also hate to see what he does to himself …….AND his family during season.

The bottom line is I hunt when I feel I will enjoy it and the factors of that are how I feel and what I have to do, how much time I have………..and when I think I’ll ENJOY it. It may seem ODD to some but I HAVE been in the stand when I was totally miserable and vow to NEVER tar our sport with such again.

Staying home is NOT a slap in the face to hunting……..regardless of Buck’s beliefs.

It IS tough, in this much heralded “gotta get a big one” world of advertising where one CANNOT escape (well…….maybe David can. ROFL!) the constant and seemingly insistent attitude that anything LESS than a “wall hanger” is unworthy and one MUST put family, friends, ……and life itself, aside and do NOTHING BUT hunt…then hunt harder to accomplish such.

Buck, over the years, has stood and shook his head in wonder at “How did you shoot that deer? How come he didn’t SEE you?” when joining me at a kill shot to enjoy the moment together. Buck doesn’t understand “how I get by with” sitting “out in the open” on my bucket, back against the tree or years ago, in LOW treestands on “telephone pole” trees (back when treestands were the norm for me).

Were I to point a finger at a SINGLE detail………….it would be the difference in our two “attitudes” that MAY be the most important factor for successfully doing so. (????) just 2 cents there.

Buck tells me I would have to hurry to get to “Laid Back” in my hunting style. Over multiple decades I have found that FOR ME…..this is a mandatory, repeat MANDATORY attitude for me to truly enjoy bowhunting , and quite obviously, it may not even include opening morning.

It might not include MANY mornings if present signs are reoccurring, LOL.

Oh, I recall the many years of hurrying to the stand after work, driving like an idiot, all sweaty from huffing and puffing my way out to my stand, nerves shot from stress, jumpy………dang was I having FUN! (please visualize an eye roll THERE!)
🙄

Granted, if I lived in “elk heaven” I wouldn’t be very successful with the comparatively short seasons.

Our three months of bow season gives me the liberty to pick and choose my times afield and , while it came late in life, I found that “less is more” more often than not and it isn’t the number of hours in the stand that make the season but indeed, the ones where I am relaxed and enjoying the total picture are the ones that stick in my noggin for future reference………at least now!

Sometimes those days even include a deer taken. LOL!!

For me,at least, its a bowhunter’s “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away” attitude.

Yep, before anyone asks, Buck DOES, more often than not, shoot bigger bucks than I do ( he RARELY will shoot a doe) but I radically dislike the look on his face and year long comments of “Steve showed me up last year” on the years he didn’t.

Never fear, if the wall hanger we have sighted in “our” woods meanders by me…….it’s gonna have to duck a Tuffhead to get by me…..but honestly? I really hope Buck whacks him this morning or better yet tonight when I’m at the other end of the woods so I can hear him scream “I GOT HIM! I GOT HIM!!”

Such is what great seasons, great memories with great friends, are made of.
(besides……..THEN I can hunt in peace ROFL!!!)

Wishing ONE AND ALL……..blissful days afield and a blood trail or two!

God bless.
Out amongst em tonight…..a bit more rested, Happy after seeing my son……and more confident of a great time as well as confidently facing another God given season bowhunting……..truly all blessings!

Steve Sr.