Hunting requires a lot of patience, especially if you are bowhunting. If you’re a bowhunter, you understand what I am saying. In the last five years, with both a bow and gun, I have harvested several big game animals on the last day of my hunt.... many of them mere moments before dark.
A lot of my hunts begin the same way. Months before leaving for a hunt, I shoot my bow until I am consistently hitting what I am aiming at. For weeks before my hunt starts, I dream of seeing large-antlered animals and being able to take my pick and only shoot a monster. However, in the real world when hunting on public land, we don’t always get to take our pick like the TV stars do. In fact, even when hunting on private ground I don’t always see large bucks or bulls. Sometimes I don’t see animals at all.
Usually I am very excited for the first few days of my hunts. I wake up before my alarm goes off and make sure my clothes are odor-free. I wear Scent-Lok. I store my clothes in a ScenTote and don’t put my hunting clothes on until I reach the field. Typically by the fourth or fifth day of a week-long hunt, I often begin breaking my rules. I get lazy and wear my hunting clothes in the truck, don’t store my clothes properly and start to mope around like a third grader.
But, in the last few years I have learned that a hunt isn’t over until your hunting license says the season has closed or you pull away from camp in your truck. I have learned that I need to be just as diligent about remaining scent-free on the last day of a hunt as I am on the first day because I never know when I will get an opportunity. Last year while bear hunting in Quebec, I filled my tag on the last night of my hunt with only a few minutes of daylight remaining. Three days ago, I filled my Kansas whitetail tag with fifteen minutes of light remaining on the last night of my hunt. The buck wasn’t a monster, but it was one of two bucks I laid eyes on in seven days.
These hunts have taught me two things. I need to be patient until the bitter end and have a positive attitude until the sun goes down on the last day. At that point, I cry in my soup if my tag isn’t filled, but up until that point, I hunt hard.
I’ve had the privilege of hunting with and interviewing several well-known expert hunters. What separates most of them from average hunters is most of them don’t understand the word “quit.” They hunt hard until the bitter end. If you are having a tough week, month or year of hunting, keep your chin up! Tomorrow is a new day and tomorrow just might be the day that you fill your tag.
The author with his last minute whitetail
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