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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
Scouting all the way. I love to figure things out-movement etc. Also me thinking I’m gonna find something new no one has seen. While I do Enjoy all the rest, if I’m hunting I’m thinking I missed something or I need to check this or that. Just knowing there is a better spot than the one I have is what drives me. I have probably 4 bomb proof set ups as close as you will ever get to a guaranteed buck on the 1st sit on public land as you can get and I want to find more lol
 
I chose planning the ambush but really all choices apply. I enjoy the entire journey.
 
If I couldn’t share my hunts with @bigasports and @catman529 I probably would give it up. I have as much fun scouting, checking cams, prepping, hunting, killing and Eating are all equal but the comradeship from my friends in unequaled.


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The older I get the more I enjoy just being outside in nature, reveling in what God has made and the miraculous way He designed it. It's amazing how it all comes together harmoniously, too bad humans mess it up most of the time. It makes the anticipation of the kill all the more sweeter.
 
For me it's processing. Yea I'm weird. But when we process deer it's an event with friends and family. It's a time to decompress from the long season, tell lies, crack jokes and just enjoy everyone being together.

But don't get me wrong I do love shooting stuff!

Edit- no votes for gear prep? On this site? I'm calling B.S.
 
For me it's processing. Yea I'm weird. But when we process deer it's an event with friends and family. It's a time to decompress from the long season, tell lies, crack jokes and just enjoy everyone being together.

But don't get me wrong I do love shooting stuff!
Ain't nuthin wrong with that. That's one thing my hunting partner and I look forward to. I live in the burbs, my neighbors look forward to us coming home with one. They come over and ask questions, we point out cuts, anatomy, learn where meat comes from, etc. The kids get involved, have to smack the dogs away. Good times.
 
The long walks in and out with ya huntin partner. Even better walking out heavy from hittin paydirt

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All of it! Except the dragging.
Yeah, it's a bitch for sure. But I just stop as often as I can and turn around to gawk at it and remind myself that I'm dragging a frickin' deer out of the woods!

A close second to the moment of truth is laying first eyes on the downed deer. Part of it is how nervous I get that I won't find/recover it, and when I do it is utter joy and relief. Big emotional swing at that moment. Not the same as the adrenaline rush of the shot but pretty cool.
 
I have really taken a liking to scouting. It's all good, but I really love crashing through the woods, no regard to sound or wind, finding new stuff and figuring things out. The hunt is so much "business", and then I don't see something most times out... Most hunts are just silent bird and squirrel watching.
 
I have really taken a liking to scouting. It's all good, but I really love crashing through the woods, no regard to sound or wind, finding new stuff and figuring things out. The hunt is so much "business", and then I don't see something most times out... Most hunts are just silent bird and squirrel watching.
I've come home without deer so many times the wife jokingly refers to it as squirrel watching. So, you going squirrel watching this weekend? Har har wife, you got jokes.
 
I've come home without deer so many times the wife jokingly refers to it as squirrel watching. So, you going squirrel watching this weekend? Har har wife, you got jokes.
There was Indians who carried water too. Never worry there is always a place for you

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There is so much that I love and enjoy about each step of the process but the moment of truth may be the biggest for me with tracking as a close second.

Now that my boys are getting a little older (ages 3 and 5) any part of it i can involve them in is now becoming my favorite. They are too young at the moment to come out and hunt with me but telling stories to them and seeing their eyes light up is fun. Scouting with them is an adventure that is probably more chaotic than useful but it gets them in the woods. I haven't been able to have them help me track a shot deer as of yet but I'm hoping this year might change that. Just too much to love about having them want to be a part of hunting with daddy!
 
For me it's processing. Yea I'm weird. But when we process deer it's an event with friends and family. It's a time to decompress from the long season, tell lies, crack jokes and just enjoy everyone being together.

But don't get me wrong I do love shooting stuff!

Edit- no votes for gear prep? On this site? I'm calling B.S.

I love breaking down a deer too. I feel like a butcher cutting it up into all the different cuts of meat.
 
Scouting is a year around thing in my book. Cutting fire wood always ends up a scouting trip. Same with syrup season. Crooked rows planting corn, mowing hay, and I can't seem to find a way to bring the cows down to be milked without detours through the woods and head lands. I want to be the guy everyone asks for the best spot....so I can steer them in the other direction from that one buck!
 
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