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What is your favorite part of deer hunting?

What is your favorite part of deer hunting?

  • Scouting (boots on the ground and cyber)

    Votes: 7 8.4%

  • Gear Prep (researching, tinkering, planning, DIY-ing)

    Votes: 4 4.8%

  • Planning the Ambush (putting the pieces together and deciding where to go hunt and what gear to use)

    Votes: 8 9.6%

  • Hunting (the actual time in the outdoors getting in, hunting, and getting out)

    Votes: 29 34.9%

  • The moment of Truth (seeing the target animal and getting to take a shot)

    Votes: 23 27.7%

  • Tracking (finding your quarry)

    Votes: 3 3.6%

  • Processing (turning your deer from a whole animal to useable meat)

    Votes: 3 3.6%

  • Cooking (taking your usable meat and turning it into delicious food)

    Votes: 1 1.2%

  • Storytelling (recounting the adventures with your hunting buddies)

    Votes: 5 6.0%
  • Total voters
    83
Bama_Xander

Bama_Xander

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2019
Messages
1,226
Location
North Alabama
There are so many things that make deer hunting so great. It will be hard to pick your favorite but if you had to pick your most favorite part of deer hunting, what would it be? Vote and comment on why that aspect is your favorite part. Let me know if I left any out.
 
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So many great choices and fun parts to a hunt, but "planning the ambush" was the easy choice for me. The strategy is the part I love the most!

Now if I could just get that to pay off more often!! :p
 
KelvinM12 said:
So many great choices and fun parts to a hunt, but "planning the ambush" was the easy choice for me. The strategy is the part I love the most!

Now if I could just get that to pay off more often!! :p
Click to expand...

Ha same choice
 
I love ALL OF IT, but...

When folks say "it's not about the kill" I call shenanigans. I don't carry broadheads and expanding bullets because I like to commune with nature. If that's all I wanted, I'd stick with the camping, canoeing, hiking, bird watching, and fishing I do.I like to feel my heart race in those final 30 seconds.

Scouting is great.

Hunting is great.

Processing game is great.

Telling tales is great.

But killing critters is FREAKIN' AWESOME!!
 
Nutterbuster said:
I love ALL OF IT, but...

When folks say "it's not about the kill" I call shenanigans. I don't carry broadheads and expanding bullets because I like to commune with nature. If that's all I wanted, I'd stick with the camping, canoeing, hiking, bird watching, and fishing I do.I like to feel my heart race in those final 30 seconds.

Scouting is great.

Hunting is great.

Processing game is great.

Telling tales is great.

But killing critters is FREAKIN' AWESOME!!
Click to expand...

That's exactly why I included that option. There is no greater drug than "the moment of truth" and killing an animal.
 
This is not the first time one of these polls has been posted referencing options that I don't see anywhere. Starting to wonder if it is a Tapatalk issue or what?
 
NW_Arkansas22 said:
With all other aspects aside, one of my favorite things about deer hunting is how it can go from 0 to 100 in a split second. It's a different type of adrenaline rush for me that's hard to explain but I am absolutely in love with it.
Click to expand...
I imagine it's the 2nd oldest rush there was. The 1st rush was...

"Holy cow, that sabre tooth is gonna eat me!"

The second was...

"Holy cow, I'mma eat that mammoth!"
 
I enjoy everything on that list, but what's it all for? To Put an arrow into an animal that I've spent all this other time and energy to get close to. I love venison. The taste, where it comes from, how it got onto my plate. But nothing compares to the feeling of watching that animal coming into range and you know that the shot opportunity is going to happen. When you get that draw anchored back, the angle is good.......mattte......he stops. Boooya. I just gave myself a little adrenaline rush.
 
Hunters or killers?

8 of those strike my 'hunter fancy' but only 1 strikes my 'killer fancy'. And that is the moment the aforementioned comes together and is the true testament of hard work paying off! So clearly, my vote is The Moment of Truth! Don't get me wrong, however, the reverence, respect and honor I feel puts chills down my spine the moment the shot hits it's mark!

But much like Samuel Clemens ...I am prone to hyperbole, so campfire storytelling gets my juices going too.
 
Let’s be honest it’s all about the rush. When your heart starts beating through your chest so hard your pretty sure it’s making an audible sound coming out your mouth. Hahaha. Nothing like it! First couple hunts of the year when you get all jacked up over a doe or a friggin squirrel sometimes even! Just jones’n for that moment of truth on a shooter. And of course when and right after it happens.

I do love becoming part of the woods. Blending into your environment to a whole different level than most folks would understand. Very therapeutic in this fast pace world we live in.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I voted scouting. I've always liked research more than anything else. You are much more relaxed and free to follow whatever trails you see and hunches you might have. During season, it's much more serious. I can't just romp all over the woulds without consequences. But of course, killing is the close second.
 
I have to admit, for me, it was at one time all about the moment of truth and the success criteria was strictly whether the kill was completed or not. However, as the years have gone by and many "successes" have come and gone I find most of my enjoyment nowadays comes from just spending time in the woods hunting. In fact, since here in Michigan we only get two tags, I will consciously pass deer early in the year just to prolong my season. I always tell my buddies that for me to shoot a deer in October it's either got to be Bullwinkle or my freezer's got to be empty.:)

Don't get me wrong, I still revel in the kills I do make and it is still the ultimate success but I now find my success is measured in other ways. I find great satisfaction in outsmarting a worthy adversary and having him close enough I could certainly have taken him. In fact, last year I passed a pretty decent 8 pt I had at full draw inside 5 yds on the 10th of November (qualifies for late in the season for me). He came by paired with a doe and as he walked up I decided I was going to take him. I drew as he went behind some scrub beech and waited for him to walk out. However, instead of just walking out he paused long enough with just his head exposed that I had time to reconsider and I made the decision he just wasn't what I wanted to put one of my tags on. I let him walk. If it was all about the kill for me I would have easily drilled him.
 
I need an all of the above button. I literally love ever step of the hunt. At this point in my hunting life, even though the kill comes 2nd nature, it is almost anti-climactic for me. Lemmy said it best:
 
They are all great, but the actual hunt would slightly beat the rest. It’s just plain satisfying and relaxing. Plus my hunting partner is my wife and that’s great times for sure. But the story telling runs a close second
 
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