Do Not Pass On First Day What You Would Be Happy To Shoot On The Last: A Refutation

[PoleX]

At some point in the last 2 years I've started to value the experience over the end result. I think kids and a busy lifestyle have helped me appreciate any time spent outdoors. It's a nice place to be.

 

[Irrelevant]

Here in WA I've never known anyone who passes up a legal buck. Ever.

 

[LuketheDog]

I'm more of the mind "Do not pass on the second-to-last day what you'd be happy to shoot on the last"

 

[Irrelevant]

Side note. I've never drawn a "great" tag. But I've assisted with several. Pretty much every one of the tag holders is stressed out from first light on opening day, until they pull the trigger. Seems like a real waste of a potentially good time.

 

[TOGIE]

Side note. I've never drawn a "great" tag. But I've assisted with several. Pretty much every one of the tag holders is stressed out from first light on opening day, until they pull the trigger. Seems like a real waste of a potentially good time.

Having just hunted a fairly good tag - the only "good" tag I've ever held - I started feeling anxiety before the trip started. After a couple days hunting, including a big screw up on my part, it became more apparent that opportunities were gonna keep rolling in if we kept trying and my brain eased. But i struggle more than most probably to believe that to be true, even when it's becoming apparent, and my finger and brain remained fairly itchy.

Good tags create this expectation/realization, regardless of reality, in the brain that something "must" happen and something good. You get antsy over it and wonder how in the heck it possibly will. OTC tags you kinda go in with the expectation that something is probably more likely to not happen.

I only think, for the most part, that many years of experience, if you allow them to, can lay that to rest for a person.

 

[SaskHunter]

I usually add a preamble to that saying: "If you're going to bitch and moan because you didn't get anything... then don't pass on the first day what you would beg for on the last".

... and if you do bitch and moan, F U, you're on your own and in it for the wrong reasons.

 

[MThuntr]

The difference between folks who consistently achieve their hunting goals for harvest size and folks who shoot dinks is that the folks who achieve their goals understand their chance for finding the needle in the haystack increases for each day in the field. Success is relative to how much time is spent searching rather than how much time is left to search.

That’s why the last day is more likely to produce a trophy than the first day.

Then there’s the rest of us who just get excited and think a buck is bigger than it is as the hunt is winding down….View attachment 392545

That was a fun hunt even as the observer without a tag. I'd that trip all day long! The Martin Clan knows how to have a good hunt!