Specialize or Wide Variety

[mooretitan]

How many of you focus the vast majority of your effort on one thing. Example mule deer hunting and everything else comes second. I am finding it harder and harder to just zone in on one thing. My kids love to fish so the vast majority of the summer has been hitting the lakes and rivers with them. I finally told them fishing season is over this last Saturday and now its time to zone in on our deer hunt at the end of the September. They of course want to get another trip in on the water. Since we have been fishing I have not scouted for Dove which opens Sunday. Going to drive around Sat morning and hopefully run into some birds. But Dove hunting will take a couple weekends away from deer scouting. Probably only going to get a couple weekends scouting for deer it look likes. After deer season is upland birds which I love doing. But my oldest son loves coyotes and bobcats and wants to get a large cat and dog to mount. So I have to find time for that which will take some time away from the birds.

Man there is just so much to hunt and fish and just not enough time to do it all. Add in all the weeks nights and weekends of kids activities and other family stuff there just is not much time. Plus all the house stuff that needs to be fixed.

My two favorite are Mule deer and Chukars. But it just seems like the other things get in the way. I guess its a good problem to have.

 

[zacattack]

When I was young and unencumbered I focused specifically on training rabbit beagles. Now with more responsibilities as I’ve gotten older I’m becoming much more flexible in my hunting and fishing targets, and it’s becoming what’s legal when I have an opportunity.

 

[ODB]

About the only thing I really seek anymore is peace and quiet. I’ll take it via whatever means it’s available.

 

[CX5Ranch]

If my kids want to coyote hunt, we coyote hunt. If they want to fish we fish. Rodeo we rodeo.

We'll have plenty of time to dove hunt when they're married and wishing we could take them coyote hunting.

If we were face to face I'd say dude get real.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[FLAK]

I do love it ALL. But I can rarely succeed trying to do it all. I generally have
to put my time in on whatever I want to do at the time.
I have actually talked about this with my son. As in Pick a couple.
I pretty much suck at everything cause I spread myself too thin.
EX: Small stream freshwater fishing with ultralight AND FLY gear.
Inshore saltwater/surf fishing/kayak in the bay and gulf
Offshore saltwater charter
Bow fishing
Small game hunting : waterfowl, moorhen, gallinule, Dove
Predators: Would LOVE to spend more time on BOBCATS.
Javelina this season with my son.
Big Game: Whitetails in the SE. Coues deer this year in the SW.
Doing Euro Mounts.
Thinkin about going up to N. GA on a Bear/Deer/Hog hunt in the Mtns.
Love 4WD's
Havent done any reloading in a while.
Love tinkering with guns.
Would like to try my hand at forging. Been gathering components
for a while.
Havent grilled out in quite a while.

See what I mean? My Cup runneth over. I need to FOCUS more.

 

[backcountry_hunter]

If my kids wanted to fish another weekend or 20, I'd take them..... that's time you don't get back.

 

[mooretitan]

My cup runneth over also. With five kids all with different likes for the outdoors its hard to focus.
I have not even dived into fly fishing and waterfowl. I have heard they are addicting and dont need anything else right now.

Like I said I have a great problem. All my kids love the outdoors but sometimes it just seems like we are spread a little to thin to always be as successful as we want.

 

[Fitzwho]

Specializing in upland or waterfowl seems like a slight waist to me. I love to do both, but I don't carve out time to do these specifically anymore. I have shot thousands upon thousands of rounds at birds and clays. Shooting a shotgun is basically second nature. I just use small game hunts as an opportunity to get out for a day here and there between other hunts. I don't have the time or money to invest into a good bird dog, so that may have something to do with it.

As far as big game I like to hunt whatever I can get a tag for. Living in Texas I get 4-5 deer tags and a bunch of turkey tags for my $70 license fee. But I have shot 2 deer in the last 5 years in Texas. I have a place to shoot hogs whenever I can make the trip and need to fill the freezer. Otherwise I have been running 50% success on tags since I started hunting out west. Bull Elk still elude me, but I have another tag this year. Have my second bear tag, the first of which I shouldn't have purchased in the first place (OTC NM), and I have my 3rd Coues' tag (50/50 on the first two in AZ).

I don't think its necessarily about being an all around hunter for me, it's just taking the opportunities I am given and running with them. I think if you can hunt new areas and animals every year and be somewhat successful at it, what more could you ask for? I fish when I can, wherever I can and I hunt the same way, just neither are usually as often as I would like.

I do have a 2 year old daughter that I cannot wait to get out in the woods for fishing and hunting. When she can start drawing tags (I guess if she wants to), I will gladly set aside some of my hunting to make sure she has a good time first and foremost.

 

[mym93]

I have a crazy busy schedule as of late but I still try to do every single thing I can. I may not be exceptional at any one thing but I'd rather be able to get out as much as possible year round.

 

[Rich M]

I deer and duck hunt and fish locally, then maybe travel for a week or two at a time to do other things but don't put all my energy into trying to do everything or all kinds of hunting.

Life is full of all kinds of things and if you let hunting be your only or main focus then you miss out on the rest.

 

[*zap*]

Whitetail.