Hard work...

[bowhunter1023]

This one is for Monroe since he seems to like my head scratchers! ;) I’ll start by saying I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to this question, so I see no need to debate anyone’s response so long as it is how they truly feel. There is no scientific answer to this question, so there are no facts to prove one side or another. It’s all personal belief and your opinion and thoughts are all I’m after in this thread. With that being said, here goes…

Do you believe hard work in the off season creates an advantage that you would not have otherwise?

I was drug to a post-wedding brunch yesterday morning and could not have been more thrilled. :irked: The whole time I was there, I was thinking about what I could be doing and I could barely wait to get the hell outta Dodge so I could get to hanging stands! I was exhausted and still had that feeling I drank too much the night before, but I sucked it up and put in a solid 8 hours hanging stands, cutting lanes, clearing trails, and hanging cameras yesterday. I was driving home and despite the exhaustion and splitting headache, I could not help but feel like I just “earned one” by getting out there busting my arse rather than staying at home in the AC and napping or hitting the golf course. I would have enjoyed both the latter activites as much, if not more, than hanging stands but there would have been no benefits. That feeling of having “earned one” goes back to my post about karma. It is not just the hard work of hanging the perfect set-up and cutting the right lanes, but the ideology that all that hard work creates a swing in positive karma that will cash itself in when it’s my time. I always have a saying when I am hanging off the side of a tree 25 feet in the air exhausted and dripping with sweat: “This is when you earn ‘em boys…” I truly believe hard work pays off in every aspect of your life and bowhunting is no different. Whether it is the physical results achieved through the hard work of the gain in positive karma, I feel the long hours in the summer give me an advantage when the leaves start to fall…

With that being said, I can’t wait put in the last plot and hang that final set of the summer tonight! While I do love the hard work, I am ready to relax for a month and just shooting and run cameras!!!

[Hill Hunter]

Here are my thoughts, I found from your Karma thread they probably do not line up with most but here they are anyway.
First I do think hard work pays off in everything that we do, I think we reap the benifiets of all that work, more scouting leads to better stand location, more stands leads to less overhunting of our stands, food plots lead to larger healther deer heards all of these increasing our chances of scoring a nice buck. so in essence there is where you earn them.
I do not think there is a cosmic book keeper who says OK he has earned a 160, write him a check, I think this is proved by the new hunter who does nothing but goes out and sits down and kills a trophy on his first hunt, I have known people who have done that and no they did not earn it by doing good elsewhere in their lives. I hope that if there is that book keeper up there that they hold my check until I have a car wreck, heart attack or am diagnosed with some disease before they writh my check. but thats just me;)

[Quantum673]

I believe that the same holds true in life, sports, and hunting. The harder we work the more of an advantage we will have in being successful. With that said I also believe that old Lady Luck should still have a place in all our hearts.

[CritterGitter]

This one is for Monroe since he seems to like my head scratchers! ;) I’ll start by saying I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to this question, so I see no need to debate anyone’s response so long as it is how they truly feel. There is no scientific answer to this question, so there are no facts to prove one side or another. It’s all personal belief and your opinion and thoughts are all I’m after in this thread. With that being said, here goes…

Do you believe hard work in the off season creates an advantage that you would not have otherwise?

I was drug to a post-wedding brunch yesterday morning and could not have been more thrilled. :irked: The whole time I was there, I was thinking about what I could be doing and I could barely wait to get the hell outta Dodge so I could get to hanging stands! I was exhausted and still had that feeling I drank too much the night before, but I sucked it up and put in a solid 8 hours hanging stands, cutting lanes, clearing trails, and hanging cameras yesterday. I was driving home and despite the exhaustion and splitting headache, I could not help but feel like I just “earned one” by getting out there busting my arse rather than staying at home in the AC and napping or hitting the golf course. I would have enjoyed both the latter activites as much, if not more, than hanging stands but there would have been no benefits. That feeling of having “earned one” goes back to my post about karma. It is not just the hard work of hanging the perfect set-up and cutting the right lanes, but the ideology that all that hard work creates a swing in positive karma that will cash itself in when it’s my time. I always have a saying when I am hanging off the side of a tree 25 feet in the air exhausted and dripping with sweat: “This is when you earn ‘em boys…” I truly believe hard work pays off in every aspect of your life and bowhunting is no different. Whether it is the physical results achieved through the hard work of the gain in positive karma, I feel the long hours in the summer give me an advantage when the leaves start to fall…

With that being said, I can’t wait put in the last plot and hang that final set of the summer tonight! While I do love the hard work, I am ready to relax for a month and just shooting and run cameras!!!

I am a big believer in hard work. I work hard and play hard. However, I think you are just ate up with deer hunting and everything under the sun associated with it. That's a good thing. It keeps you busy and out of trouble(when you're not being dragged off to a wedding :biggrin: ).

[bowhunter1023]

However, I think you are just ate up with deer hunting and everything under the sun associated with it.

What in the world would give you that idea?!? :dizzy: :biggrin: :whistle:

[TheCream]

I am pretty much from the same mold (only a little bigger mold :D). I feel like I have to do something every day to get ready for the season. Between planting plots, maintaining them, running cameras, scouting, supplemental feeding in the winter, shooting all summer, shed hunting, etc...I put in a lot of work. That being said, I think the hard work only does so much for you. I feel like my work will help put me in the right place and prepare myself to handle the opportunity if it presents itself...but is no guarantee that the hard work will produce the opportunity I want/need.

Let's face it, we can put in all the work we want, but when it comes right down to it, there are folks every year who put in no work and wind up having the greatest successes. Hard work is time well-spent, but does not guarantee opportunity.

[geezer II]

Uhm tired:irked:

[tuffshot]

Wait until you and your wife have kids. Until they are old enuff to follow you around You will be doing a lot more thinking about hunting and preperation than actually doing it. Then again maybe that is just what you need, kids are more fun than wedding too.

[5Cent]

Wait until you and your wife have kids. Until they are old enuff to follow you around You will be doing a lot more thinking about hunting and preperation than actually doing it. Then again maybe that is just what you need, kids are more fun than wedding too.

In all honesty, I think this is his best answer yet. I feel bad for his wife and dog. This is all they ever hear about:D

Only problem I see here would be doing the "work" to make kids. I've heard he doesn't have much "work experience" in that area and is lacking crucial skills to get the job done successfully. Maybe if he concentrated on his home life a little more often and less on hunting, he would become one of the "lucky" hunters.

Honestly though Jesse, you have got to slow down. I understand that you have a great passion for this sport, but at this rate, in 10 years you're gonna be so burnt out it's not even funny. You need to pace yourself, let Karma work it's magic and smoke em if you got em:coolgleamA:

[bowhunter1023]

What?!? I love this pace!!! What would have burned me out was going through what I did with Deuce year in and year out. Placing all the eggs in one basket would have ruined the sport for me. Now that I have my head straight in that regard, I don't ever see me getting burned out. I love every aspect of what I do. Sure, it can be a burden at times. But when I look back on everything I accomplish over the course of the summer, I just smile and know I didn't waste that time!

I was making some calls the other day to figure out who all was coming to camp this year. I have 4 bowhunters coming at their leisure, 2 guys for the extra gun weekend, and 2 guys coming in for the muzzleloader season. All that hard work benefits those guys as well. Not to mention all the hours I will spend filming and helping my two cousins, my two buddies new to the sport, and my wife. I'll spend more hours in a tree with someone else this fall than I will alone. All that hard work is for those people too and it will be far more rewarding for me when they reap the rewards. Their rewards are what will keep me from getting burnt out. Someday, I'll have children of my own and they'll fuel me to bust ass and create the best oppurtunities I can for them. But for now, I'll settle for the joys and successes of my family and friends for keeping the fire burning!

[Thunderflight]

IMO hard work helps increase your odds, but in the end it boils down to luck. The more work you do the more luck you'll create, but it only takes one dog, a car driving down the road, a slight shift in the wind, one poacher, or what ever to cause that buck of a lifetime to take another trail or vanish from the face of the earth.

Jesse enjoy it while you can. Sooner or later life will catch up and slow you down. You'll never loose the pasion, but you'll be forced to deal with other things that quickly become more important. I'm saying this because two years ago I was doing the same thing you are. I used to work my butt off setting stands, planting mini plots, shooting for hours, trolling for trouble on various websites under multiple alias', and hunting for Mr Big. I enjoyed the hell outta it and wouldn't trade a day of it, but then my job took over. Of course the past year and next two are self inflicted, but my point is that through the natural course of life your gonna have to put your passion on the "side burner" and focus on things that at the time become more important. That's why I say enjoy EVERY minute of it.

[joejoe8]

Its good to see someone has it as bad as I do. If NC had the size deer as Ohio, it would run me crazy.

I enjoy preparing almost as much as I do hunting.

[va.rn]

concerning mast this year