This is another early draft of an article an archery magazine (Longbows and Recurves) published for me a couple of years ago. I think I recall that there were some editorial or grammatical corrections so please forgive the typos.
A Hunter’s Journal
The way hunting is seen from outside the fold is changing in troubling ways, however, the way most hunters see their sport is changing on the inside in heartwarming fashion. We are becoming a better trained, more concientious and all in all, I believe that hunters are a more caring and thinking group than they were when I first entered the sport. One aspect of contemplating hunting that some hunters are finding useful is a log or journal of their activities afield. Not some new-age self analysis, rather a detailed reporting of specifics that are important to past, present and bear on future hunts. I propose the following five reasons that hunters should take time out to write up their experiences afield. Here are five important reasons that hunters should take time out to record their hunts in a journal.
An Accurate Historical Record
My grandfather was a hunter. I only know this from the few recollections my father drummed up when we discovered one weathered black and white photo of a group of men in oilskin boots standing beside a barn door covered with scores of ducks, geese, rails, snipe, gallinules. That is about the extent of what I know of his hunting. What a treasure it would be to read that old man’s observations on the marsh, hunting styles, and shooting. Might our great-grandchildren revel in the long past exploits we enjoy each year? Because we probably won’t be around to tell our stories, it will be up to others to explain what sort of man or woman would hunt deer with primitive or traditional tackle. Frankly, it is doubtful anyone can reiterate these experiences better than the ones who actually drew the bow.
Two of my favorite reads are history-steeped essays of hunting conditions from a previous era: The Lewis and Clark Journals of exploration of the headwaters of the Mississippi River ( Citation). And more prosaic but mostly accurate reporting of the hunt, William Faulkner’s Hunting Stories which should be required reading for any hunter of deer in the Mississippi River bottomlands. The true stories we capture in our journals may be as moving and informative to our descendants as these great works are to us.
Insight And Personal Evaluation
Our experiences and satisfactions and ultimately reasons for bowhunting are difficult to capture on paper. Describing my motivations for hunting, the conditions under which I took game animals, or my feelings about my time afield require some head scratching if I procrastinate for a few days after the hunt. However, when my field-weary feet are propped up on a hard bunk and a hissing gas lantern lights my journal, I can catch a slice of the day’s adventures to relive forever.
When I re-read selections from my early journals it is obvious that unprompted, it would be impossible to accurately recall details of where I saw turkeys feeding, or which antler had the forked browtine, or how cold my feet got without my records. More importantly, my journal is a window into what sort of hunter I was at that stage of life. As much as I would like to disavow it, there is no denying that I once tied a deer to a carhood for transporting it from the field (Polaroid photo, Ford Truck, 8-point, 188 lbs, 1973), that ) in that ancient southern ritual of first blood, my first deer earned me a blood dabbed face (doe, 35 yards, neck shot, 280 Remington, bottomlands outside of Tallulah, Louisiana, 12 December 1966) The color photographs in my journal bring these memories back easily.
Personal Recollections
On the morning I killed that first doe my writings remind me that I also saw lots of black phase fox squirrels and one set of black bear tracks. Even today when I drive past a particular bridge on Interstate 20 near Mound, Louisiana, I can pick out to within 100 yards the very spot amidst thousands of acres of soybeans where a large dark colored doe was slipping through a cane break by a towering Nuttall oak. The distant echoing of walker hounds barely reached my stand. My whole chest vibrated from a thudding heart and then how my sorrow turned to elation after she disappeared at my shot only to materialize still on the ground where I had reduced her to bag.
I do not have a particularly good memory but with these journals will provide a clear pathway into the past for me when this old gourd of mine dries and rattles hollow. The day may come when my hunting activities consist of half thinking about it and half talking about it. If I have my hunting logs handy I will be the raconteur of the old-folks-home!
These pages include so much more than simply hunting. How easy it would be to forget the exact bluish-tinged monologue that was delivered as the last three feet of a giant bull snake disappeared into the bedsprings at our hunting camp; the faulty alarm clock had us cooking a pre-hunt breakfast at 1:15 am; how 6’ 7" Eric overdrew and broke 2 borrowed bows in the same week; the 1948 Willis Jeep winched 25 feet straight up into a tree to escape a rapidly rising river; how the "squeeze and sling" technique for gutting rabbits lofted viscera into the hood of a bystander’s parka; the gill netted alligator gar that firmly clamped on my partner’s index finger, an instinctive shot that pinned a cereal-robbing mouse to the rafters, or a thousand other choice memories that were of hunting but not necessarily hunting itself.
Hunter Success
Bowhunters sometimes find formulas that produce shot opportunities year after year. The popular literature dwells on natural funnels, water level that moves deer out of the bottoms, shifting food sources, scrape lines etc.. Though it makes easy reading, wildlife movements are rarely a linear A +B = shot opportunity. Sure, location is important but a more 3-dimensional overview of the hunting conditions would consider (1) location, (2) weather conditions, (3) time of day and seasonality of food sources (4) disturbance, (5) animal behavior, particularly the rut, (6) huntability (e.g. a hunter’s ability to withstand the bugs, cold, rain, sun glare etc.). and (7) how these factors mitigate or militate each other. The following passage caught most of these factors:
4 January 1996 - Thompson Creek stand in water oak overhanging the creek, light wind moved my scent down the creek drainage during the evening hunt, sunset put the sun behind me and because the water oaks hold their leaves during acorn fall, there is good backlighting and breakup of my outline. I feel confident. Traditionally scrapes follow edge of creek along major travel lane. Do NOT hunt this stand if Paw Paw’s clover patch stand is occupied because travel lane from across the creek is cut off. Mosquitoes are voracious in the shadows! Need to remember blunts for squirrels next time. Consider fertilizing this oak, it is a real producer.
This stand produced three shots on the last five times I hunted it over a two year period. Only my journal knows the outcomes of those shots and it ain’t talking thank goodness!
Mementos and Explanations
My favorite way of journal-keeping is to let them bristle with hunting "debris". A sampling from mine includes a turkey feather knocked off a strutting jake, a porcupine quill from the nose of a very unhappy Labrador retriever, the entire blood trail of a small liver-shot buck (contained on a single white oak leaf), the alular quills from a bow-killed male woodcock, an intact 1.5 cm antler from the smallest whitetail rack I have ever taken, a whole page of pintail sprigs and greenhead curliques, various persimmon, overcup, and beech seeds, a pressed passion flower, flint flake workings from under my bow stand on a creek, a rock-shattered broadhead and lots of photographs.
The material in these journals will keep hunting alive in the memory of a hunter if this way of life is ever, heaven forbid, banned, or through some turn of fate one’s ability to hunt is lost for health or geographical reasons.
When I choose to share some of this book of "trophies" with a child or non-hunter it is so much easier to take than simply presenting them with a carcass or trying to conjure up the intricate tapestry hunting to their wildly exagerated imaginations. The photos, insights, collegiality, nature bits with notes, are tangible connections to the broader realm of appreciation that surrounds the hunt and even more specifically the kill. My later journals, those of a more mature, thinking hunter show more reflection, family interaction, hunting related fun. It gives meaning to the analogy that the kill is simply the tiny, albeit essential, grain of sand around which the pearl of a hunt forms.
In my basement are some things I hold dear; a homemade rack holding my Longhunter longbow, a battle scarred Bear Super Kodiak, and an unblooded ash selfbow; a large dog bed for my retired Lab; and a bookshelf full of fond memories. The journals in that book rack speak volumes to me, volumes about me, and someday they will be called upon to speak volumes for me. Every hunt, specific shots, important scouting trips, weather, companions’ successes, insights, inspirations, and frustrations. These six volumes range from modest cloth-covered accountant’s ledgers and three-ring binders, to embossed leather official hunting logs. Perceptive spouses will seize on these as a perennial favorite Christmas gift. Their signature and Christmas date makes a nice starting place for the year’s records.