Hunting Journal

[jlw0142]

I looked around and couldn't find another thread for this. I was wondering how those of you who journal your hunts do it. Do you carry a physical journal in the field with you? What do you log in the journal? Has it paid off for you?

I am considering starting to do it, and I have been told it can really be worth it. But I would just like some opinions. I have tried to do it in the past, but end up quitting because I feel like I am just wasting my time writing pointless information down. It also is just one more thing to carry around and one more task to commit to. If you think that journaling your hunts is dumb, please let me know why, too. Thanks.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I don't keep a journal, but note my dicoveries and observations on topographic maps. I not bull ridges, cow ridges, trail access, kill locations and special notes for places to avoid.

I maintain field maps that get dirty and sometimes bloody. I transfer the data to a master map I keep in my reloading room. I told my wife that if I die those maps should be worth $10,000.

Imagine folks - every observation for over 50 years, 8 counties in Montana.

 

[Pacific_Fork]

When I get home I write in mine. I’ll put notes in my phone while on the mountain so I don’t forget what to write about when I get home. Mostly keeping track of deer/elk numbers and whatever else I see out there. I also like to keep track of days in the field each year. I think there’s value long term in a few ways even tho it’s a PIA.

 

[jlw0142]

@Pony Soldier No joke, I bet folks would kill to get their hands on those maps. That sounds like a good way to do it. Right now, I mark most things on my digital maps but I think a physical map would probably be more beneficial.

 

[jlw0142]

@Pacific_Fork yeah it is kind of a PIA, but I'm sure you're right. I think that is a good method--transferring from phone notes to physical journal. I just wonder, would I ever even look back into my journal? Do you have separate journals for different types of hunting, locations, etc? How do you organize so that you could go back and easily find some relevant info if you wanted to in 10 years?

 

[Pony Soldier]

I often refer to my maps to develop recon programs adjacent to know elk areas. Often we pull them out on the kitchen table for planning the next days hunt.

 

[BadEarth]

I started journaling in 2003. I was 10 years old. And have recorded every single thing I’ve done since then. Sometimes I fall behind and have months of things to write about but date, people, harvest, some notes on the story. It’s wild looking back and all you need is a vague note and it all comes back. I find myself saying “if I hadn’t written that down I never would have remembered that hunt!” A lot. Id say well worth the time. I enjoy reading about my sparrow hunts and snared rabbits 20 years ago

 

[jlw0142]

@BadEarth that is awesome. Makes me wish I had started doing it a long time ago. There is something about reading an old story written in your own handwriting. I bet I have forgotten a lot more than I think I have.

 

[Warmsy]

I keep a little rite-in-the-rain notebook that I have titled "hunting log". I note general area and then specific locations/features of where I saw significant animal sign, animals themselves, weather conditions, etc. It's been helpful to compare year to year especially for my local spots. It really helps me too reinforce that I should check certain areas versus wandering around aimlessly.

It's so hard to remember when and where I saw animals and under what conditions and this helps me a lot.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

This is one thing I wish I could change about all the hunts past, especially with my dad. I've never been a picture taker but I would really like to know how many critters I have killed over the years.

 

[BadEarth]

@BadEarth that is awesome. Makes me wish I had started doing it a long time ago. There is something about reading an old story written in your own handwriting. I bet I have forgotten a lot more than I think I have.

It’s never the big hunts and trips you forget. It’s the duck hunts after work or that crazy thing that happened on the trap line before school with dad type things. Makes it worth the time

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Funny, one of the most memorable turkey hunts was after work one day. I put my camo coveralls right over my office cloths and took off. Killed the biggest turkey of my life at the time. Fall hunt in MO circa 1987. Again, not a single picture.

 

[Warmsy]

Funny, one of the most memorable turkey hunts was after work one day. I put my camo coveralls right over my office cloths and took off. Killed the biggest turkey of my life at the time. Fall hunt in MO circa 1987. Again, not a single picture.

But you have the memories. Stories are awesome... Sometimes pictures can get in the way.

 

[jlw0142]

@Warmsy gotcha. Great info, thanks! I would also like to know what kind of weather info you are including? Are you going as far as to report to barometric pressure and moon phase, or just the basic “cloudy and humid”?


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[Rich M]

Im too lazy to journal but guys i know do.

They usually shoot more game and catch more fish by knowing what the critters did last time the weather was unseasonably warm or the wind switched mid-morning.

if you have the discipline, that journal will make a diff in your success over time.

 

[mobilefamily]

I looked around and couldn't find another thread for this. I was wondering how those of you who journal your hunts do it. Do you carry a physical journal in the field with you? What do you log in the journal? Has it paid off for you?

I am considering starting to do it, and I have been told it can really be worth it. But I would just like some opinions. I have tried to do it in the past, but end up quitting because I feel like I am just wasting my time writing pointless information down. It also is just one more thing to carry around and one more task to commit to. If you think that journaling your hunts is dumb, please let me know why, too. Thanks.

I journal all big hunts out of state day by day. Then I clean up my notes on the plane ride home. They are always there in my phone in the Onenote app.

For hunts closer to home, I keep photos of every trip in a OneDrive folder. That's more about tracking the progression of specific whitetails (private land) and monitoring antler development year to year.

 

[mobilefamily]

I also do a lot of fishing, and write a summary of each fishing trip in my log (Word doc in OneDrive). It now goes back over 15 years and has proved to be tremendously valuable in planning as well as a joy to read and remember all the good times.

 

[jlw0142]

@mobilefamily I’ll have to check out Onenote. You like it better than regular old Apple notes?

I also do that with our whitetails, but I have been slacking in the past few years since I have been off at school. That is totally worth it! I killed a buck last year that I had been after for 3 years. It’s so, so fulfilling to finally put it together and have the pics to see the progression and follow his life a little.

Also, just out of curiosity, you do a lot of saltwater fishing or mainly fresh? I feel like a fishing journal would be particularly helpful for saltwater fishing, but it would definitely be useful for bass fishing on a big public lake too.


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[MTPipeliner]

I keep a journal of hunting and fishing trips, mostly just for the memory of it, I don’t record specific details like weather or anything like that, more of just a couple paragraphs about who I was with, general area, cool things we saw or did, etc. I sporadically kept one when I was young, but have been more diligent the last 20 years. Trying to get my boys to start early and be more consistent than I was of their early hunts.

 

[Smallie]

I started journaling my hunts at a young age. I wrote about my first deer kill when I was 8 and Buckmasters ended up having a kids writing contest about hunting memories shortly after so I sent it in. Ended up winning a coyote hunt in SD. I’ve always brought a physical small notebook in a tree stand and wrote down weather conditions, wind direction, location, etc. It really helps when targeting a specific deer and you can look back and see where you saw him at certain times of the year and what the weather was like. And they do tend to stick to the same pattern year after year.

My Dads two buddies (brothers) had at least 5-6 huge binders with each page having a picture and a journal entry of every day they hunted or fished together the past 40 years. I love going up to fish camp every spring and pouring through those books. So much good information in it and just reading about funny stories like someone fell in the water or lost a rod or missed every shot grouse hunting. I could sit there for hours reading them. Would love to start putting one together similar