What determines success on a hunt?

In most cases it’s the grip and grin at the end of a hunt and posing with your trophy animal that determines whether or not a hunt was successful. In some cases, it goes much further than that.

 

I have spot and stalk hunted mule deer for five years now and I have had success in both harvesting a good deer and harvesting a great deer. But the way I hunt the animal, the stalking, and capturing it all on video is what is most important to me these days. I spent the past nine days chasing mule deer through the fields of Alberta, getting within bow range on numerous occasions but not getting a shot opportunity. Something always went wrong, whether it was the wind shifting, the deer was in bachelor groups adding extra noses and eyes to fool, or the vitals of the deer being covered when they stood up. In the end I never released an arrow, but I hunted as hard as I possibly could for the full nine days and captured it all on camera. 

 

The physical and metal exhaustion that happens when hunting from dawn till dark, day after day will, at times, make you question your commitment to hunting with a bow. It was so frustrating to lay up for hours in bow range only to be betrayed by the wind and have your shot opportunity blown. But there is a kind of fairness to a hunt like this. You are challenging your skills as a hunter against the senses of an animal trying to survive. With every step taken and yard crawled there is no mistaking what this is about; the life and death of this animal is in the balance. I did not harvest an animal on this trip, but I came away with something more, my renewed passion for what I do and the way I do it. My rules, my fairness. -Gus Congemi