Do you have to shoot a limit? I have a hunch it means different things to different people. Our limit here in Georgia is 3 birds. I was privileged to harvest one and he put on a show I`ll never forget. I spent time with a good friend from high school with whom I hunted and fished, and now 40+ years later, hunt with again. I enjoyed the beautiful woods and God`s creation for another year. For me, it was a successful season.
Sometimes its a good battle with a bird whether you shouder him or not.Ive had a few where all I walked away with after a week is the effort I gave and was very satisfied.On the days I dont put a tag on one if I learn something it is a good day.Today in Michigan was a satisfying day!
Smiles and laughter. The more if each the more successful the season.
I got to go a fair amount, heard gobbling birds, killed a few in the company of good folks, killed a few by myself. Enjoyed every minute and counting down the days till next March.
Being able to enjoy a few days afield away from reality.
Killing a Gobbler is always a bonus. The fun meter gets moved a little more or less from year to year depending on the number of days I get to go. Traveling to other states is always a focus for me and I was lucky enough to share a new place with two different sho nuf killers this year. I hope they had as much fun as me.
2020 is going to mean many more days open to go greet the dawn. I will be an empty nester. :z-guntootsmiley:
My 41st season was about average as to number of scalps, but above average on the fun meter.
The number of birds I get to engage with is how I rate my season. First time in a long time I didn't kill one bird. I still consider it a great season though. I called in two birds with a trumpet which was a first for me. Getting into trumpets made this year a good season for me. If I would have not been committed to the trumpet perhaps the kills would have been different, heck that's just some for next year!
Just being able to go out in the woods and here it come to life. Hearing them gobble and seeing them strut is a successful day for me. Killing them is a bonus. I will have to say this year was the best season I ever had because my daughter went with me. That alone was enough but it was super cool because she also tagged a nice gobbler.
To me it's all about the fun. If I hear some gobbles and get some excitement I am good. The more chances I get to go the better. I just like listening to and working birds. I have as much fun when someone else is on the gun. If I get some excitement and some laughs it's a good year. Really enjoy hunting with my oldest boy. He is starting to catch on to this Turkey business pretty good.
I enjoy my Spring early archery hunt in NE and KS with my buddy on public land. I shoot any legal bird and we always have a great time. Any other Spring hunt is hard for me to even want to go. After we get back from our hunt I look forward to Fall turkey hunting.
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I have killed a couple of turkeys this year. I called up several more for others. Called up a friend of mines first gobbler. I hunted with my son some too. All of that is good, some real good, but I think what makes a successful season for me is just still being healthy enough to go. I am 55 now and have lost several friends my own age or even younger. I have a friend that's two years younger than me, that's been in a nursing home for five years because of a stroke. He wishes he could just get out of bed so I don't complain a lot if I don't kill a turkey. I am just so thankful I can still go. That's success enough for me.
Another lesson I learned just the other day: I work on farms scouting for insect pests and pulling soil samples from a four wheeler. Last week I was pulling samples in a field that was so rough I could hardly stay on the four wheeler. I was having to go so much slower than usual that I was just a fussing to my self. I topped a hill when I finally got to the other side, where I saw a lady, sitting in a wheel chair using a garden hoe, with one arm, that was trying to weed her flower bed. I stopped feeling sorry for myself very quickly, and was ashamed of my pitty party I was having. If you're still healthy enough to work and play and enjoy yourself, be thankful.
Quote from: larry9988 on May 06, 2019, 09:13:59 PM
I have killed a couple of turkeys this year. I called up several more for others. Called up a friend of mines first gobbler. I hunted with my son some too. All of that is good, some real good, but I think what makes a successful season for me is just still being healthy enough to go. I am 55 now and have lost several friends my own age or even younger. I have a friend that's two years younger than me, that's been in a nursing home for five years because of a stroke. He wishes he could just get out of bed so I don't complain a lot if I don't kill a turkey. I am just so thankful I can still go. That's success enough for me.
Another lesson I learned just the other day: I work on farms scouting for insect pests and pulling soil samples from a four wheeler. Last week I was pulling samples in a field that was so rough I could hardly stay on the four wheeler. I was having to go so much slower than usual that I was just a fussing to my self. I topped a hill when I finally got to the other side, where I saw a lady, sitting in a wheel chair using a garden hoe, with one arm, that was trying to weed her flower bed. I stopped feeling sorry for myself very quickly, and was ashamed of my pitty party I was having. If you're still healthy enough to work and play and enjoy yourself, be thankful.
That's the perspective we should all use. Thankful I get to go no matter the hunting. Thanks, I needed to read that.
I always loved being outside weather it be turkey hunting, deer hunting, playing paintball with friends or walking or riding my bike.
After my car accident in 2001 I lost all of that and after 17 years God gave it back to me, I enjoy every minute I am out there, I enjoy the sun coming up and how God uses his paintbrush each morning, hearing the birds in the early morning light, seeing squirrels and chipmunks frolicking in the trees and on the forest floor, I enjoy seeing deer that are just getting their antlers in the woods and in the fields moving silently about. I enjoy the time out there with friends and making new friends. I enjoy the walking that I could not do much of but can now do more of. I like driving there in the early morning when the air is crisp and fresh smelling in the nostrils and the smell of the foliage as it starts to green up and the smell of the soil both fresh and after it has been trodden on.
All in all I think any hunt that can end without serious injury to self or others to be a successful season. I still have never gotten one but I pray one day God will gift me one
and truly look forward to it.
Admittedly, to some degree, success... Were I to hunt all season without a bird, I would not consider that a good season.
Taking my kids out has proven extremely rewarding... It was a bit thrilling to kill a bird last season with each of my kids, and this season with my daughter and her friend watching. While at the same time, after dealing with all of the frustration of taking children along, I now really appreciate the times I get to go by myself.
I enjoy finally beating "that bird." That one bird that eludes me all season, and finally makes a mistake (and I don't). I enjoy reveling in the moment of any hard-earned bird...
If I killed a bird every time, I would undoubtedly lose interest... On the same note, if I never killed a bird, I would also undoubtedly lose interest. Without some degree of failure, that success would not be nearly as exciting or fulfilling.
Did you enjoy your time hunting? Share it with a friend? Mentor another hunter?
This is all personal to each of us as to what success is and it changes over time.
We all at some degree measure a kill as success, and also the ones you didn't kill that you challenged and they beat you!
While I was guiding, there was a lot of success measure by your percentage of kills made, unfortunate but it happens when you guide... during that time I could have given you all kinds of data, statistics and "numbers" of successes, it plays a part in that business
I have a lot of ways I think of what success is and is dependent of that hunt.
I can sure say if you lose the passion for it just becomes "killing/shooting" and not "hunting" you need to be the judge of that.
Here's to the Hunt!
MK M GOBL
I always have fun but need tags filled to claim success.
Quote from: Sir-diealot on May 06, 2019, 09:38:54 PM
I always loved being outside weather it be turkey hunting, deer hunting, playing paintball with friends or walking or riding my bike.
After my car accident in 2001 I lost all of that and after 17 years God gave it back to me, I enjoy every minute I am out there, I enjoy the sun coming up and how God uses his paintbrush each morning, hearing the birds in the early morning light, seeing squirrels and chipmunks frolicking in the trees and on the forest floor, I enjoy seeing deer that are just getting their antlers in the woods and in the fields moving silently about. I enjoy the time out there with friends and making new friends. I enjoy the walking that I could not do much of but can now do more of. I like driving there in the early morning when the air is crisp and fresh smelling in the nostrils and the smell of the foliage as it starts to green up and the smell of the soil both fresh and after it has been trodden on.
All in all I think any hunt that can end without serious injury to self or others to be a successful season. I still have never gotten one but I pray one day God will gift me one
and truly look forward to it.
I agree with most of the above post says and that to me makes for a very successful season. To stay healthy enough to be able to go out into the woods and watch it come alive and be able to go home and do it all again is successful. To enjoy the time afield with my children or grand children is a successful feeling. Last buy certainly not least stepping on a gobblers neck and hearing those final wing flaps is also successful. Bundling them all together into one day is a bonus.
If I get to go and hear a few gobbles the hunt was a success. If that happens more often than not, the season was a success. Usually that includes some turkey nuggets. This year was a success for me down here, especially watching my son kill his first bird, and getting a good friend a first bird as well. Those were more fun than the one I shot, by far.
For me most of what has been said about health, being outdoors, and the chase/gobble. If the kill is the mark of success then I am in the bottom profile, partially due to my personal restrictions, some bad luck, and the ability to absolutely make the wrong choice/decision. I have also mostly only hunted marginal property which also adds to the equation. With all this said I am already counting the days until the 2020 and dreaming about what might be. Fortunately, Old Gobbler is available to fill the void until the end of March next year.
As others have said just being able to be out in the spring woods and watch it come to life in the morning. Getting to play the game with a wary old gobbler or two. Getting to tote him out of the woods is just icing on the cake. This season was a huge success to me, I was able to call in my oldest sons first Gobbler. At 32 he thought he wanted to try turkey hunting I think he maybe hooked now.
I keep this right above my picture of Megatron...
(http://i68.tinypic.com/9an1nb.jpg)
Quote from: tha bugman on May 07, 2019, 10:18:20 AM
I keep this right above my picture of Megatron...
(http://i68.tinypic.com/9an1nb.jpg)
Haha! That's great!
I need to print that out and put it where I'll see it every day.
Pretty much sums up my season this year.
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I hunt public land in GA. A successful season is finishing without getting my kneecaps shot off, turkey or not.
Agree with a lot that's been said. I always enjoy listening to the woods wake up especially if that includes some gobbling. Just getting to interact with a bird is a success in my book. Walking out of the woods with one over the shoulder is just icing. At my current state, my top priority every time I enter the woods is to learn something new. And hopefully someday I will be accomplished and confident enough in my ability to join a mentor or youth hunt program and pass it on.
There are so many things I enjoy and would consider a success, but overall I think my personal success meter is driven mostly by time spent out there doing it.
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Just being healthy enough to hunt is a successful season for me. There are so many who are unable to. I hurt my back and didnt do much for a year while doing physical therapy. Working to get better so I could hunt again kept me motivated. Life can change in an instant and I count my blessings every time i'm out there. Being able to share the experience with someone else and teach others is double success. I had a friend who wrote me "enjoy and live life like every day could be your last. Take nothing for-granted." He killed himself the next day. I've lived by those words ever since.
Only one bird this season, but he put on a show I'll not forget. Fortunate to be blessed with the health to get out with friends and into some beautiful woods. Yep, a successful season for me.
Time in the woods, time with family & friends who share the same passion, and the stories that come along with these few weeks of fun!!! Encounters and Harvest are bonuses in my opinion.