As an outdoor writer, I’ve had a chance to meet a lot of truly successful trophy whitetail hunters. Some are well known in whitetail circles and others are simply guys who are consumed with big whitetail bucks and have little interest in publicity. As different as these hunters are, they all possess something that I believe is a key ingredient to their success. It’s not something that can be readily bought or learned. Simply stated, the key ingredient that drives these hunters to higher levels is desire!
We all have some level of desire to succeed as deer hunters or we wouldn’t be hunting in the first place. I believe that in deer hunting we eventually reap what we sow. Some hunters are satisfied with lesser results than others. That’s fine, and I’m not putting down that mentality. However, half-hearted efforts nearly always result in lesser rewards than an all-out pursuit. Sure, a beginner might go out and kill a world-class buck during the first hour of his or her first hunt, but over time things will even out. That beginner is likely to pay a lot of dues before a second or third monster whitetail comes along.
THE POWER OF DESIRE
Even though I’m human like everyone else, big whitetail bucks consume me to a degree that very few people will ever understand, including many other deer hunters. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to sound like I’m the only deer hunter in the world with a burning desire to kill big bucks. I know I have plenty of company in that regard. My point is that desire is stronger in some of us than it is in others.
I recall a conversation I had with my good friend Alan Foster nearly two decades ago. Al, who contributed a number of stories on trophy hunting to North American Whitetail back in the late ‘80s, was working on a new article when he shared some of his thoughts with me. Al had come to the conclusion that hunting trophy bucks must be one of the top priorities in a hunter’s life next to God, family and career! In other words, he believed that if killing mature bucks wasn’t a man’s primary “hobby,” then his success was going to suffer.
I was in my early 20s when that conversation took place, and I remember it well to this day, probably because I have found it to be so true. It is desire more than a conscious decision that places trophy hunting at a certain spot in a hunter’s list of priorities. If desire is absent, then total effort will be lacking and success will suffer. I sometimes believe that the desire to be a successful trophy hunter is something that a person is born with. Although it is possible to do so, it’s hard to develop the degree of desire that I’m talking about if you don’t already have it.
I recently observed a debate that was taking place on an Internet message board about which factor is most important for success in tagging a monster whitetail: knowledge, time or location. From that list, “location” would definitely be my answer. However, I feel like every respondent overlooked the most important factor of all: desire. Desire takes you to the right location. It makes you do whatever it takes to get the hunting rights on a good piece of property, wherever it may be. Desire also drives you to make time for your passion.
It inspires you to work all summer long without a vacation so that you can save that time for hunting season. Desire will make you work the night shift so that you can hunt during the day. Desire drives you to make time for hunting. When that level of desire is present, you’ll spend your time reading books and magazines about hunting trophy bucks. Desire drives you to want to learn more. Much of that education will be self-taught as you rack up years of hard-earned lessons through practical experience.
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