BowHuntingFool

What, you lost me here..... learning, gaining experience and making memories that should last forever is considered failure in your eyes??? I would say you succeeded BIG TIME!

davidmil

Oh my God. Now we have to play nursemaid and community service to be a good hunter. Give me a break. If you knew me better you'd know I was tonque in cheek the whole time in this thread. I taught hunter safety and bowhunter ed classes for yearsss, up until this year. I've been responsible for 4 kids(who were not my own)getting their first deer. And guess what, I've failed at hunting at times. We fail in love, war, checkers, business and work all the time. It's best to admit your failures and do better... not sugar coat them with touchy touchy feel good crap.[8D]

rybohunter

I think the word succeess is used TOO often.

Hunting is great in such that you can learn, have fun, make friends etc, all while failing. When you go out hunting your intent is to kill something. Just because you don't doesn;t mean you didn't have fun, or enjoy yourself, or help some one else out, etc. But you failed at killing an animal. Sometimes the greatest hunts are those that we fail on. there is no shame in it. Look at every predator in the world, they fail far more attempts than they succeed. That's how it goes. It's ok to admit failure, and have a good time doing so.

GMMAT

I've had my share of "success" in a short deer hunting life.....but my greatest day afield (deer hunting) didn'tculminate ina kill.

I see both sides of the argument. I really do. There have been times when I have failed. No question (I wounded a deer, last year.....that ended up being fine). But the 41 hunts I wen ton last year that didn't see me harvesting an animal were part of an overall "successful" season. If I hadn't put the "failure" days in on stand.....the "successful" days might not have happened.

If you look at it in terms of each day being a barometer of a single hunter's "success" or "failure".....I think you're looking at the small picture. Big picure.....when everything's said and done.....and your season culminates......look yourself in the mirror and be honest.

Were you "successful" in your goal (whatever that may have been)? Or....did you "fail"?

I had a very successful 2006 season. That same, exact season, this year, would have me giving myself a different grade. "Success" will be graded on a different scale, this year.

txjourneyman

The whole success, failure thing is relative. Do you mean todays goals or my goals for the season? Do you mean in terms of kills or in terms of enjoying life in general? Much like Jeff I consider last season a success, however there were days I felt as if I failed miserably. I am still fairly new as a bowhunter. And as a relative newbie I don't measure my accomplishments against anyone but myself. If I try to compare my hunting failures and successes against some of our members that have many more years of experience or even against guys with better land to hunt, well, then I am shortchanging myself. My only measuring stick is me and that is all it should be. I believe that to be true for me and for anyone else that heads into the woods be they grizzled veteran or first timer.

GR8atta2d

Theodore Roosevelt:
[blockquote]
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
[blockquote]
From a speech given in Paris at the Sorbonne in
1910





Winston Churchill:
[blockquote]
Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
[/blockquote]

[/blockquote][/blockquote]

njbuck22

I dont think you could put an individual hunting tripin a success or failure category. Well i take that back, youcan, to me if i shoot an animal, i won, if i dont i lost. Its that simple, Davidmil is right, in the end its about killing an animal. Is that the only reason i hunt, hell no, but it is the main reason, to get a beautiful animal. Going back to my first sentance though, i think you have to look athunting in seasons. If you go out andkill a deer everysingle night, it wouldnt be hunting anymore, it wouldbe killing. To me, hunting is ultimately about putting and animal down, but i know its not a one night thing, most likely it will take and entire season to do it.Some days the deer justdont move, you could be in the right spot at the wrong time. In otherwords, last year i had many many many failures inhunting ( sits without killing) but i enjoyed them all and in the end i got my animal and my season was a success. Hope that makes sense.

Killer_Primate

You guys crack me up...


Happy Friday!

LebeauHunter

I know this, being out in the woods right now hunting and "failing" would be ten times better than sitting in this #$#% little office typing on my computer.

HuntingBry

Best post on this thread. Read it. It's all you need to know.