“Once you pull the trigger, the fun is all over.”
“If you need to shoot something to make a hunting trip successful, you went for the wrong reasons.”
“I didn’t ruin the hunt by killing something.”
These statements reflect an attitude expressed by hunters who come back skunked. In part they attempt to justify or rationalize for the lack of game. Perhaps we have all used one or more of these excuses. I know I have.
Looking back with a 60-year Alaska hunting perspective confirms a true-ism was spoken each time such a statement was made.
Hunting is more than shooting. Talk to any hunter or search your own memory, and I’ll bet it’s the other things and not the shooting that makes the hunt.
It’s the fireside at day’s end, the northern lights shooting searchlight beams of color across a star filled night sky, the full moon changing mountaintops from dark shadows to ice white temple spires.
It’s campfire smoke in your eyes, blisters on your feet, bugs in your soup, and rocks under your sleeping bag. It’s a rainbow after a storm, waking to the deafening silence of new snow, or just lying in your sleeping bag watching your breath on a cold morning.
It’s not shooting that makes the hunt. It’s not shooting that makes a person a hunter. He may have a scrapbook filled with photos or walls lined with trophies.
He may own airplanes, boats, campers, and snow machines to get him afield. He may have hunted Africa, Asia, and Alaska. Rifles, shotguns, and pistols may fill his gun cabinet.
He may have received awards, citations, and honors. Still it’s the other things he remembers and speaks about.
Our family has its share of game in the freezer each winter.
When the meat is prepared and dinner is served, we remember, rehearse, and enlarge the size of the pack, the distance of the hike, and the quality of the cooking—not the shooting.
Hunting begins with planning and packing, replanning and repacking.
If the hunter goes for the wrong reasons, the hunt only ends when the trigger is pulled.
Hunting success is not measured by the size or number of animals taken.
It is measured by the sum of all the parts from concept to completion.
