"Hunting, a Sport and a Passion"
by Kelton Goold
Hunting is a passion and a lifestyle that builds character and respect for the outdoors. Hunting also goes beyond taking an animal, it's the camaraderie with friends and family that makes hunting so great. Hunting also keeps you in shape year-round with all the shooting sports available in the off season.
Hunting is more then a hobby, it's a passion. That passion makes you hike miles and miles into unknown territory and camp there for days. The not knowing what's around the mountain or past the valley is what heats that passion. Hunting is much more than taking an animal, it's the camaraderie with your friends and family, sitting around the campfire cracking jokes or listening to stories. It takes you away from the fast pace most of us are so used to and to a simpler way of life.
Being in the outdoors teaches you great life lessons and builds character that you can take with you through out your whole life. Hunting also teaches you what conservation really means and without hunting our ecosystem would collapse. Great numbers of animals would die from disease or not having enough space to live or eat. More animals would die from this collapse than from being hunted.
Today, just because hunting season is over, doesn't mean the rifle gets locked up for the rest of the year and collects dust, or the bow gets put in its case and thrown in the closet for ten months. There are lots of skeet shoots, rifle ranges, indoor pistol ranges, 3D archery shoots and indoor archery ranges that are open year-round, so you can stay in shape for hunting season and be more accurate than in years past. The camaraderie also comes into play with going to these shoots. There is nothing like spending the day outside at an archery 3D shoot with friends and family just flinging arrows and having a great time doing it.
In the off season, you can also hunt varmints and predators, such as rabbits and coyotes with no bag limit, which can greatly increase your accuracy. If you can shoot a rock chuck from 300 yards or a coyote from 150 yards with only a few seconds before he catches your scent, or a cottontail or prairie dog at 15 yards with only a few seconds to draw your bow, you can definitely take a deer or elk easily. Also, just because hunting season is over doesn't mean you can't scout land, plant food plots, clear shooting lanes, or build tree stands. There is always something to do to make your hunt better.
I've always known the harder you work, the more likely you will be successful, which couldn't be more true. I know people that get an elk or deer every season, and its not luck, it's all the work they put into the hunt that made them so successful. I also know people that have only taken one or two animals in their whole 15 to 20-year hunting career. They get their bow or rifle out a couple weeks before the hunting season and when they step foot on the hunting ground, it's the first time they have been there since last hunting season. They must depend on pure luck for a deer or elk to walk in front of them. The hunter who trains and scouts, knows the animal patterns.
Thank you for the opportunity for the chance to go on one of these once in a lifetime hunts.