#1787719 - 02/14/10 08:58 AM
The factors.............
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Bottom Hunter
16 Point
Registered: 12/29/06
Posts: 15494
Loc: Hatchie Bottoms
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Not all hunters can be deer hunters. I mean, people can go deer hunting, but in order to be very successful as a deer hunter you need patience and the ability to brush off the "get up and go" monkey that seems to sit on so many hunters shoulder.
Very similarly , some people can only fish when it involves lots of casting and moving around(bass fishing, for example). Give some people a cane pole and tell them to fish one spot and they'll be back at the truck in no time......
I don't necessarily think that this "ability" is inbred, but is more learned or maybe a better word would be "developed".
I'm sure that if you think back long enough that you can come up with a few factors that helped you develop the skill to sit for hours on end, provided that you have. I'll share a few of mine.
I've talked about my first ever hunting experience on here before, but I'll bore you with another visit... 
As in many areas, opening day of squirrel season is a huge thing around here. Many children get their first hunting experience on that day. I was no exception.
Joe Powell, Chaneylake's Uncle, was a good friend of our family, as was most of the Powell clan. He owned a cabin along the banks of the Hatchie River that just happened to be a part of the Powell tracts of timberland. He held an opening weekend campout and hunt for a few friends and their children. I have no idea why, but this is the only one that I remember......but I'm grateful for it.
The night before was filled with smoke, burgers and steaks, stories and whiskey. No whiskey for the kids, though. I still remember sitting around the fire listening......Some of the participants that I can remember were.....Coach John Hooper and his two sons David and Trell; Coach Richard Ross and his son Neil; Old man Tom Currie (he seemed old even then) and his son Thomas who was my dad's age and Mr. Joe's son Joey.
Anyway, the next morning all the father/son groups went out. I followed my dad about two steps behind, 410 single barrel in tow.
It was early morning and abit dark still and I remember being a bit frightened. We walked along a logging road until my dad found a nice scaleybark hickory that the squirrels had also found. The cuttings covered the ground like sawdust.
My dad sat me down under that tree and told me not to move. He told me to just watch the trees. He told me that he was going to make a loop out in the woods and would be back in a couple of hours. I guess he figured that he couldn't kill many squirrels with a young boy tagging along. My Father was a great provider for his family, but he was never what I would call a great DAD. I'll just leave it at that.
For the next two hours or so, I went through many emotions. As I watched my father disappear into the trees, I had a false feeling of panic. I had nothing to worry about, he was coming back......but, since this was my first time to be in the woods or actually anywhere with a loaded gun, I was somewhat apprehensive about the entire experience. I can't remember my father ever training me to shoot. I'm sure that he did at one point, but to this day, I don't remember it.
Anyway, I remember being scared at first and then more or less amazed at the silence. I heard the occasional shotgun blast, but other than that, it was pretty much just the sounds of nature. A train did come by that morning, the tracks ran along the western boundary of the property.
I watched the trees just like my father told me to. I guess I was a good boy. I saw several squirrels come to the tree. Each ran around and fed for a while and eventually left. For whatever reason, I never seemed to know when or how to take that first shot. I don't remember being afraid of the gun or being afriad to shoot. I do remember never even raising the gun up to shoot. I'm not really sure why.
I do remember not being disappointed that I didn't fire my gun while sitting there. After my father came back and got me, we were walking back to the cabin and a squirrel ran out on a limb. My father let me have first shot at him. Of course, I missed. My father seemed more disappointed than I was and maybe I did let him down by missing. My father always liked to brag on his kids.
Another time, it was my first ever trip to the Hatchie Wildlife Refuge alone. I was 16 years old. I used to go squirrel hunting after school. The first trip was amazing. I remember following a slough than ran east and west . I walked down one side of it, heading west; crossed it in a shallow spot and came back up it and out to the car, heading east. The squirrels were feeding on tupelo that day and I loved to hear them dropping the balls in to the slough. I think I may have killed a few but not many. I did learn not to shoot a squirrel over a slough.....I may have lost two or three before I decided that I could not get to them after they hit the water.
That day was great. I must have been the only hunter in the Bottom that day. I never heard another shot fired, just my own. i saw all kinds of critters. Coons, a beaver, a mink, a bobcat and much more. I saw my first deer up close as a doe and a fawn came by me as I sat quietly beside the slough ....I also learned what that loud hellish sound was coming from overhead....a pileated woodpecker and not some devilish creature...haha.
A spent many , many days alone down there. I loved every minute of it. Sometimes I would just go down there and sit in one spot and watch nature go by. I fell in love with the beauty of it all and also with the peace that it brought me.
Since then, I can not express in words the blessings that have been bestowed to me in the serenity of Nature......
I have no doubt that my first day of squirrel hunting was somewhat of a preview of things to come. Being left alone on that first day, under that scaleybark, was actually more of a blessing than I realized at the time or for many years afterwards. Having a place like the Hatchie Refuge to go and be alone with Nature gave me a better look at things, IMO, and has given me the time and patience to be a true part of my surroundings and not just someone "passing through".
If you talk to anyone on Chaney or anyone that has ever hunted with me, they might tell you that I'm not very "social"....they might have come to the conclusion that I just don't like them or that I just prefer not to be around them. That is not it at all. It's not them that I prefer to NOT be around, but more it's NATURE that I prefer to be alone with.
My ability to simply enjoy where I am and what I am a part of allows me to sit there for 8-10 hours at a time, day after day.
Not all people can do that and I guess I understand why they can't.
What I don't understand is why they wouldn't want to......
BH
_________________________
There are some people who always seem angry and continuously look for conflict.
Walk away; the battle they are fighting is not with you, but with themselves.
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#1787735 - 02/14/10 09:01 AM
Re: The factors.............
[Re: Bottom Hunter]
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Football Hunter
18 Point
Registered: 10/22/07
Posts: 24565
Loc: Wilson Co/Perry Co
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The older I get,41,it seems the longer I can sit,getting more patient I guess.
_________________________
The best day to plant a tree,IS TODAY!
You wont know,if you dont go!
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#1787894 - 02/14/10 10:07 AM
Re: The factors.............
[Re: Double-D-Team]
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Mike Belt
TnDeer Old Timer
16 Point
Registered: 03/26/99
Posts: 16933
Loc: Lakeland, Tn.
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There are some very great things that I can remember about as a child but overall we were poor. My parents split up when I was 5 and times were tough. When I was 12 my Mother finally re-married and less than 6 months later the guy took her life and his. My brother and sister and myself went to my grandparents to live. They didn't really want us but felt obligated. They had lived through the great depression and still maintained that ultra-conservative life style. You only had what you needed and you never wasted anything. My grandfather was an evil man and would beat you for blinking wrong. From the time I was 12-18 I was worked like a dog. My only outlet was along the banks of the local streams and rivers and in the fields and woods. I hunted and fished every chance I got. It was my refuge. I could get away from everything and everybody. I had no problem spending hours and hours in solitude and I grew to love the outdoors as much for a relief valve as I did simply being amazed at everything I experienced. As a youngster I could probably outfish, outhunt, and outshoot most men and my most pleasant memories were spent roaming alone or with my dog while hunting or fishing. That carries over into my deer hunting today.
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BONE HEAD HUNTER
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#1788691 - 02/14/10 05:17 PM
Re: The factors.............
[Re: Bottom Hunter]
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moondawg
16 Point
Registered: 06/19/02
Posts: 17774
Loc: Millington, TN
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I have not developed the skill to sit still for a long time.
I like being outdoors. I like hunting. My problem is that I can't slow down enough to enjoy it. Maybe I get bored and restless too easily. Maybe I have that "get up and go" monkey and can't get rid of it.
Maybe I go hunting with the expectation that I need to kill something. You know, that feeling that a hunt isn't sucessful unless I actually have a deer on the ground. Maybe I need to slow down and just go out and observe...no need to bring a gun, because shooting isn't the main goal. The main goal should be to slow down and observe.
I guess that's what I need to do.
_________________________
Don't look down, BE down!--Turkeyburd (Prevous 2012)
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#1789439 - 02/14/10 10:26 PM
Re: The factors.............
[Re: moondawg]
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Chaneylake
Brownsville Mafia
16 Point
Registered: 12/18/07
Posts: 15300
Loc: on the wings of a snow white d...
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good post BH, you basically nutted Hatchie Bottom and also me, I guess its one of the reasons I love the movie Jermiah Johnson
_________________________
"Don't piss down my back and tell me its rain", Fletcher, Outlaw Josey Wales
Living somewhere between this world and the other, Legends of the Fall
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#1789547 - 02/15/10 05:25 AM
Re: The factors.............
[Re: Chaneylake]
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Setterman
8 Point
Registered: 12/31/09
Posts: 1783
Loc: Knoxville, TN
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10% of the hunters are killing 90% of the animals...
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#1789649 - 02/15/10 08:03 AM
Re: The factors.............
[Re: Setterman]
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Bottom Hunter
16 Point
Registered: 12/29/06
Posts: 15494
Loc: Hatchie Bottoms
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10% of the hunters are killing 90% of the animals...
I'm not in that 10%, I assure you. Taking one or two does and one buck annually is about the extent of the damage I inflict.
Two years ago, I took a nice eight pointer during bow and then a 148" during gun season. The best year I have had in many years, maybe ever.
I'm not a limit guy. I can assure you that in Haywood County, the limit would never be a problem even with any sort of antler restrictions.
This past season alone I passed no fewer the ten "legal on Chaney" bucks before deciding to take the best one I had seen so far. Well, maybe I should re-phrase that and say that I took the best one I had seen and got a shot at. there's one down there that no one killed on our club that I saw for just a moment. I had a quick shot at him but chose to wait. No sense in wounding such a great animal. Hopefully he'll be around next year.
And just so we are all clear, it's never been about the accollades or the free membership for killing the biggest buck. My goal every season is to enjoy the experience and possibly learn from each and every hunt. If good fortune comes my way in the form of a nice deer, then so be it. If not, then I have to ask myself, "What did I learn?".......
I know that I can't speak for everyone here or for all hunters, but if I could I would hope that I would be correct in saying that the reason that I go hunting is to absorb the experience like a sponge and store away all the memories that I can. Some day , the memories will be all that I have.....
The old saying...'You can't see the forest for the trees" means a great deal to me. Too many hunters are so absorbed in success and wanting the accolades, that they don't really see the whole PICTURE and thusly are missing the ENTIRE SHOW.
The next time that you come home empty handed and feel bad about it, just try to think back to the hunt and remember something that you learned or something that you may have noticed for the first time......
You might be amazed that if you look closely enough, you will always find something new out there....
Mother Nature is far from boring and if you ever leave a hunt because you are bored, well, I'm just glad that I never get that feeling.
If heaven does exist, in my mind it must have a winding river and a stretch of bottomland as far as the eye can see......
I just hope that I get to see it some day......
BH
_________________________
There are some people who always seem angry and continuously look for conflict.
Walk away; the battle they are fighting is not with you, but with themselves.
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#1789934 - 02/15/10 10:41 AM
Re: The factors.............
[Re: Bottom Hunter]
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DOC1187
16 Point
Registered: 06/14/08
Posts: 10384
Loc: east tn
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great post
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