Discouragement

S

Swede

New member
Mar 4, 2014
1,722
Some hunts are hard and we get very little to show for it. Sometimes weather, equipment breakdowns, lack of game, knowing we don\'t know what to do, and even poor hunting partners can spoil a hunt. Maybe sometimes it is a combination of things that you take home with you, and you find you are discouraged.
For me it came last season when for the second year in a row, I went home without and elk. That in itself would not have been so bad, but I knew it was because the area I have hunted was not producing, and I have no control over it. I have to find a new area. I will put my time in this summer and scout. That should be enough, but I hate leaving my area. In reality I am rather bummed about it. I should be looking forward to new adventures, but I am attached to those familiar places I have enjoyed for years.
So what if anything has spoiled a hunt for you, and what did you do about it?
 
My worst year was when I pushed too hard from the get-go...didn\'t stay hydrated, and came down with altitude sickness. I got stubborn and stayed at 10,500 ft. way to long?wrecked the hunt and had to head home.
 
Swede, the older I get the more I have come to realize and accept that some of the things I have been fortunate enough to experience and enjoy are not going to ever be duplicated no matter how long or hard I try. On some things the thing to do is to look back, remember and enjoy the memories, perhaps of the way it used to be in your area and all the while experiencing something new that will also become a fond memory some day when all we can do is look out the window and watch as our children head for the mountains!
 
swede, you described the last 3 years to a t! not knowing, weather, then equipment failure.....
 
I\'ve only got one season under my belt. Honestly, just being in the mountains, it seems hard to be discouraged about anything! I\'ll admit I would have loved to been able to talk to some bulls and seen more elk but everyday I seen something different than the day before. I found fresh raspberries one morning, found some cow skeletons, seen a cow moose. That wasn\'t how I had my hunt planned but I was far from discouraged.
 
Hunting silent elk over long days with few encounters is just a way of life. It\'s expected, so it doesn\'t really get me down. About the only thing that can shut me down is severe weather. If it\'s just multiple days of rain...you can bet I\'ll be out there with my umbrella ;)

I find if I always have a new plan for each day...and stay busy putting it in operation, I cannot be too discouraged (no matter what the outcome).

I\'ve always been the guy that never gives up. This is the main reason I decided to solo hunt last Season. That being said...12 days with no human contact and little elk contact can easily set you up for depression/ discouragement. A lot of motivational conversations going on in my head :crazy:
 
I have definitely had discouragement from weather and lack of game. It\'s funny how it works and how quickly things can turn around. You can fell like there isn\'t an elk within 5 miles of you and all of a sudden one will be standing there. Things can change fast ;)

Good story on that: a few years back, we were hunting the final morning before breaking camp to head out. We had hunted hard the entire trip, covered a lot of ground, and had nothing to show for it. After hunting hard again the last morning, one of the guys from our camp and I met up on a logging road that would take us back to camp. Both of us slung our guns on our shoulder and started the trek down the road back to camp. As we got within 400 yards of camp, we were chatting in normal voices, not bothering to whisper anymore, when all of a sudden a cow comes running up the hill right at us! By the time I jumped and got my gun off my shoulder, all I saw was a white butt running away from me and I never got a shot.

In that circumstance, I wasn\'t necessarily that discouraged, but I let my guard down thinking the hunt was over. And it ended up with me eating my cow tag that year. You can\'t get discouraged or ever give up on a hunt, because it can all change very quickly. A hunt that seemed helpless can turn into the hunt of a lifetime in a matter of seconds. All the more reason to keep your head up and always be prepared.
 
AndyJ\'s embedded Photo


I copied the below from another website where I started a conversation very similar to this. I though it applied well.

\"I rate a hunt based on one thing. My enjoyment of my time in the woods. I rate ALL of them as extremely enjoyable.\"
Brotsky\'s comment on the hunt rating thread made me think of a frequent FRIENDLY argument (I would like it to stay that way) I have with other hunters. It is a great pro shop conversation.

I love elk hunting. It is what I think about at least 75% of my day and what my year revolves around. With that said, I wouldn\'t really describe it as \"fun\". The author John Kraukuer describes alpine climbing as \"like fun only different\", I would say that is more or less my opinion of elk hunting as well. Even enjoyable could be a bit of a stretch at times. I would say elk hunting is right there with working on a farm: it is a lot of really hard work, but in a beautiful place.

The attached picture is an all too familiar event on most of my elk hunts, that particular stay was over 6 hours. That airy looking tarp that doubled as my shelter proved to be as airy as it looks. It kept the water off us for, at best, 15 minutes.

The other side of this situation is getting up at 3:30am after not sleeping to make a crappy breakfast or eating a raw packet of oatmeal and slamming back a via coffee without water because your partner left the stove under the truck when he repacked his pack to make sure he had the stove. Then you hike in a blazing sun through steep deadfall, sweating you butt off, with a 40lb pack in dark, not so hiking friendly clothing, all the while trying to stay quiet.

Then you get those moments where you hear a bugle, and for me that sound does something to my soul. All the hardships are forgotten. The sound of a bugle makes all those sleepless, rainy nights totally worth it. The cold breakfast...at least I got a breakfast. My one pair of socks and underwear for a four day bivy hunt...they\'re dry enough.

You do everything in your power to get in front of that bull and then that magical moment happens: everything comes together and miraculously you manage to close the distance to bow range. In miles and miles of timber you inexplicably end up 30 yards, give or take, from this massive, wild, free range animal. You send your arrow on its way and it connects right where you wanted. You see your elk go down.

Then as they say,\"the fun begins\", truthfully I like the whole deboning process. I\'ll lump that into the fun category, but on the packout, I just try to find my happy place. I\'ve heard a lot of guys say they enjoy the packout. I wouldn\'t say I hate it but I don\'t necessarily enjoy it either and I certainly wouldn\'t call it fun, satisfying? yes. It is sort of the light at the end of the tunnel and it\'s what I am there for.

Some guys hunt for the experience. I am one of those, but I am also there to put meat in the freezer and hopefully antlers on the wall. My wife seems to think the same. This year was particularly hard. With abnormal crowds the elk were not where they usually are. I felt like a starving wolf out there trying to find the elk. At one point I called my wife from the continental divide. The view was amazing but I was getting pretty burned out. She gave me the pep talk,\" I don\'t care how far you have to hike or how long it takes...don\'t come home without a dead elk in the back of the truck.\" That is a direct quote. It\'s one of the many reasons I love my wife, but at the moment it started to feel like a lot of pressure. The season was quickly coming to an end and the hunting action wasn\'t getting any better. I was beginning to think my man card was going to get pulled if I got skunked.

While I was running from drainage to drainage, spending hundreds of dollars on diesel, I often thought to myself, \"Am I having fun?\" Honestly the answer many times was no, but strangely not in a bad way. It wasn\'t a bad time. It wasn\'t like sitting at the DMV. But I sure didn\'t have a smile on my face and one wasn\'t likely to appear anytime soon.

In the end, I managed to call in a decent bull for a friend and he shot his first hunting, of any kind, kill ever. It was awesome. He filled his tag and we filled our freezers on the last week of the season.

I used this season as an example, but this is pretty accurate of most of my elk hunts.

Most guys on this site, myself included, leave a lot of newbies thinking elk hunting is a total blast and for a lot of you it probably is. But I bet there is a pretty high percentage of guys out there who feel the same way I do: Elk hunting is about 99% really hard work and 1% some of the most amazing experiences you will ever have. It is definitely an addiction. In three weeks of hunting I had a cumulative total of probably three hours of really good action. So including sleep that\'s 3 hours of action and 501 hours give or take of working for that action.

This isn\'t a sob story or me venting. I just find it to be an interesting discussion. No matter how bad it gets, I wouldn\'t trade it for anything. If it was easy I wouldn\'t be interested in it and despite not being a particularly religious guy I am thankfully for every second I am chasing elk.

So what\'s your opinion... is elk hunting \"fun\"?

(Sorry for the long post. It\'s frickin\' cold and snowy out right now so I\'m taking the day off and I don\'t have a lot going on.)
 
\"AndyJ\" said:
So what\'s your opinion... is elk hunting \"fun\"?
Click to expand...

Absolutely, But I know the intensity of drive you have, and the weariness it brings. I feel the uncertainty of a 2015 season, reminded of two years in an worn out area, and having to find a new place I am totally unfamiliar with.
After a week long scouting trip in July, I returned a month later to my hunting area, to spend five weeks preparing and hunting. I averaged 9 hours a day for 29 days in a tree stand. I usually spend more time in my stand, but I wanted to scout some to help increase my chances. In addition, I tried calling on the ground. In the end I saw from 3 to 5 elk, during the season. I think I saw one bull three times, plus a cow and calf, so that is why the uncertain number of total elk. That is sure not much to show for a month and a half out. For some that would be grounds for discouragement and even quitting. For a committed elk hunter that is the basis of a challenge to improve our game.
 
Is sitting in a stand for 9 hours fun for you?

It would be torture for me. I have a hard time sitting down long enough to eat lunch when i\'m hunting. Shows how different we all can be.
 
Elk hunting is a labor of love. I think that\'s what all hunters have in common, no matter if you are sitting tree stands from daylight till dark or hammering out miles chasing gobblers and elk.

There are no shortcuts in hunting-you get out of it what you put into it. That can\'t be said for everything in life!

I watched a hunting show a couple of nights ago with an Afghanistan veteran trying to kill an elk. He was a double amputee with no legs. He climbed mountains on all fours. My wife never watches hunting shows with me but watched that one. I know the guy wasn\'t chasing public land elk and he had a guide but he looked like he was struggling for every foot of elevation. When things do get discouraging, I try to think of other people who haven\'t been as blessed as I have been. Makes me happy to be in the woods and suddenly I don\'t care as much if the birds aren\'t gobbling or deer aren\'t moving.
 
I think it was Steve Rinella that I heard this quote from, but I think it fits pretty well.
\"There are things that are fun to do, and then there are things that are fun to look back at and remember\"
 
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