Hunting Journal

[ar15jules]

Does anyone else keep a journal? I got the idea from a friend of mine a while back and have been keeping one since the 2010 rifle opener. I keep track of where I was hunting, the weather, snow etc...wind, wind direction. I note any deer or other animals that I see and where they come from and where they are going. It is interesting to see that during similar wind patterns etc..that the animals move the same way. I also note anything else of interest like "first deer with a particular firearm etc." I laugh quite a bit going back and reading it as I add funny stories from camp as well. Mine isn't anything fancy, just a small reporter's notebook.

[27hand]

Jules,

I have been keeping a mini journal since I started deer hunting in 1976. Not in as much detail as you enter.

First few journal entries read:

1976---No deer. Bought a 1893 Spanish 7mm Mauser from Springfield
Sporters.
1977---No deer. Bought a Remington 760 pump in 30.06. No scope.
1978---Spike. 30.06 1 long / 1 short. Tionesta. 9 AM about 35 yd shot
(above 3rd sluice). Missed a spike.
1979---Spike. 30.06. 3 1/2". Tionesta. 12 noon at power line by Otter Creek
15 yd shot running flat out. 100 yd drag. Missed 4 point.

It was kind of funny that I was recanting the story of my first buck to a friend i saw hunting the same area at the end of the last day today.
The guy whose camp I went up to Tionesta to visit told me where I might see this long/short spike buck that I eventually shot. After telling the story, that same guy came out of the woods in Avella as did another 2 good friends. I only knew my one friend would be there and turned out to be like old home week. All 5 of us stood around reviewing what we saw and bullshitting for a half hour or so before going our separate ways.

Cool end to this rifle season.

I am missing 2001 through 2008. I kept a few sheets and feel i lost that one or perhaps it'll turn up when i clean out my garage

[Gunplummer]

I started one with photos for our group that goes to West Virginia every year. I missed about the first 10 years when we started and was sorry I had not started sooner. Many discussions around the campfire from that. I never kept a book for PA, but do have plenty of photos. I told my Buddy's kids to start when they were young and they are glad they did.

[A-5]

http://youtu.be/gRu74zO0Q_E



Here is mine. Hence the name paoutdoorjournal

[mosseater]

I often think of doing this. Sometimes when I'm on stand, I pass the time by trying to recall various hunts and kills in the past (note I separate the two, they are not one in the same. Some of my best hunts resulted in nothing more than some knowing chuckles to myself).

If you don't write it down, it becomes hard to remember the ones long past. It will be the details in 30 years that make memories pop. I should start. Prolly won't.

[dk99358]

I had been for deer season but slacked off a few years back. I kept my hunting licenses, and a note on what I got (6 point), where I got it (Cal's tree), what I used (270), and the distance (200 yds).

If I ever get back to it, I think I can still generate much of the missing years, I haven't shot that many deer recently.

Dale