Let's Talk Success!

[MK M GOBL]

So been prepping for another string of seminars I have coming up for the next month and in one of my expert level seminars "Let's Talk Success" I talk about the mental game, how to put it all together and measuring success in a number of different ways, either that you tagged your bird or were able to help another in tagging their (first bird, maybe a first with a bow, a learn to hunt, or mentored hunt) or that you learned from the experience, an unsuccessful hunt...

Not to say I am a numbers guy, but I have kept a notebook (now the laptop) of every bird since day one of my turkey hunting history. I was in WI DNR website to look at what the average success rate of turkey hunters in WI is? Not just how many are taken annually but what kind of success one may expect, statewide we have a 24% success rate. I'm sure this 24% has a lot to do with "new" hunters to seasoned and what not, I usually get a survey every year on how my season went.

So last year out of the 13 tags I had or hunted/"Guided": (1) Learn to Hunt, (3) Youth Season (2) First Season (1) Second Season (1) Third Season (2) Fourth Season (1) Fifth Season and (2) Sixth Season Tags.
6th Season was a couple hours hunt each morning till the heat hit and then a friend and I were on the water Bowfishin' (One of my other addictions)

In all ended up tagging 11 longbeards!!
It was a pretty good year for the 2016 season, I carried a 84.6% Success Rate

Here's to 2017 Spring Season, Good Luck!!

MK M GOBL

[boatpaddle]

That's a GREAT year...

[Yoder409]

I'd say ya done OK.   Yep.

You're a good ways above the curve.

[dirt road ninja]

I've been more successful at killing the turkeys than they been in killing me.

[fallhnt]

I don't have a problem with hunters who say they kill "x" amount.  It's just a goal IMO. I still have a few goals i would like to accomplish in turkey hunting. I also kept a log at one time. It is fun to go back 20 or more years and read about how your hunt went.

[MK M GOBL]

I don't have a problem with hunters who say they kill "x" amount.  It's just a goal IMO. I still have a few goals i would like to accomplish in turkey hunting. I also kept a log at one time. It is fun to go back 20 or more years and read about how your hunt went.

It is always hard thing to post about "numbers" and how others look at it...

Agreed numbers are just numbers, I started that notebook 28 years ago for several reasons. Mostly because it's the first thing I ever started hunting on my own, Dad had never hunted turkey and Wisconsin didn't have them when I was young growing up. A buddy and I decided to try it one year and I started my notes on our hunt, the next year I talked to my dad to going turkey hunting with me and has been a big part of my life since then. In it's notes it taught me about how hunts went both good and bad, I wrote a bit about every hunt, who I was with and how the year went. As you know there is a lot more to turkey hunting than just killing a bird and within those numbers there are those that I have shared my hunts with, from taking buddies and their kids, family and friends to the mentoring I do and it all is what this turkey hunting is about for me. I still have plenty of things I would like to accomplish in the time I have left chasing them longbeards
So it's not all about those numbers... they are just a small part of it.

MK M GOBL

[dejake]

My most successful hunts are the ones that are ingrained in my memory.  And, some of those didn't involve a kill.

[Happy]

 Couldn't honestly say how many I have killed or been responsible for the death of and don't really care. I lost count years ago when I was moving around and I also had a cat that loved to destroy beards. I don't keep score and just keep looking for the next one to chase. As long as I have tags I hunt and if I run out I have others to help.

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[maytom]

My most successful hunts are the ones that are ingrained in my memory.  And, some of those didn't involve a kill.

I agree totally.

But, some like to brag to others on how many birds they have taken, and nobody likes a braggart!!!

[Blong]

 
My favorite hunts involve gobbling, reposition,more gobbling, audible wings dragging or small twigs breaking and a gobbler to hunt the next day. Killing one that will play the game is bittersweet.

[BowBendr]

I was fortunate to guide/outfit professionally for a long time. When talking to a potential client the first question ALWAYS asked was, "what is your success rate ?"
It can be looked at in several ways, either pure numbers, as in actual number killed, or a percentage rate for the opportunity at success. I would not fail at my job of putting you on a deer that you definitely had a shot at, so my success rate was 100% most years. The goober sitting in the stand that couldn't hit the broad side of a red barn consistently kept the actual success rate hovering around 25%. So what do you want to hear ? I can't book people by telling them I have a 25% success rate. I told them the truth, I will set you up to succeed, it is up to you to finish it. If my clients had killed 50% of the deer I put them on I would be considered the greatest whitetail guide in America, but it doesn't work that way.......soon I became bitter about it. I was measuring my success against theirs. I needed their success to further my business and when it didn't work out I started going mad...literally mad, because I looked at pure numbers. I left the business......I now have a severe dislike of the "trophy" side of deer hunting in any form and I'm not scared to say it. I could tell you stories that would leave you speechless.

Flash Forward 10 years

I have a dear friend on this forum that I absolutely love to turkey hunt with. In our years of friendship we have never deer hunted together. But we have piled up some birds. If I had a bird that I had to get killed, he gets the nod. It will die. The boy could absolutely care less. He has tagged out in our state the past 17 years, usually in just a day or three. Could absolutely care less. It's about setting up the tent, cooking great food and a cold beer at nite beside the fire. It completely changed my way of thinking about hunting.  The fire I see in his eyes when a gobbler booms is soul stirring but I see that same fire when he is roasting a weenie on a stick over a camp fire. It's all about the journey and that just can't be measured. I finally started feeling better about it when I learned to quit giving a rip. Got back to the basics, enjoying life more AND loving the ride as a whole. Our best times spent together have involved walking miles down logging roads in the dark, heading toward a roost, talking non-stop about our families or trout fishing. The very best of times have involved a pot of beans and a piece of chicken. That's good stuff man, I quit measuring success in any form. Any day on this side of the grass is a great day.

[davisd9]

Somethings are too personal to talk about.

I've been more successful at killing the turkeys than they been in killing me.

I have been close to being a casualty!

[1iagobblergetter]

One regret I have that I didn't do is my wife bought me a nice journal along time ago and asked me to jot down whenever I did hunt what might have lead to me bagging a bird or not. Just a short story with details from the weather,time of day if I succeeded ,call or calls i used,and how everything played out. I also don't believe success is measured by carrying a bird out everytime you hunt,but we're also not carrying a gun with us because the only enjoyment were after is the fresh air and listening to the birds sing that's just part of the reason we are out enjoying what we like to do...

[Meadow Valley Man]

It's funny how priorities change as one gets older. My goal on every hunt is to kill a gobbler, but it isn't as important as it once was. I know I have fewer seasons ahead of me than behind me. At 65, I'm the second youngest of the guys in our Missouri and Wisconsin camps, and success now means enjoying good times with each and every member of camp. So, yeah, numbers are nice. Really, though, they are meaningless. We don't always kill turkeys, but our "success" rate is always 100%.

[Dtrkyman]

Statewide success rates likely are not taking into account hunters that did not hunt and many hunters that have very little time in the woods...Over the last few seasons I have only failed to fill a few tags out of dozens...I have never really kept track but I do know I have filled all my Illinois tags for 4 years in a row and maybe more? That's 12 in a row plus...I spend more time than most scouting and hunting at it pays off!!!


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