Trad Gang

Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: Pine on December 31, 2019, 12:50:20 PM

Title: To log or not to log
Post by: Pine on December 31, 2019, 12:50:20 PM
I was just sitting here and wondering, do you keep a hunting log?
I personally have never kept a log, but it could be a neat thing to look back on your hunts.
I have hunted with a few people that will write every hunt in there book.
I also love to listen to the hunting stories told at gatherings like shoots and shows.
So, do you have a log book?
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: Wudstix on December 31, 2019, 12:54:03 PM
No, but try to long all my backpacking trips.
:coffee:         :archer2:         :campfire:
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: durp on December 31, 2019, 01:09:52 PM
started keeping one for elk season about 20 years ago...it helps when u cant remember all the details years down the road...wish i had started doing it back in the 60's

Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: 8upss on December 31, 2019, 03:59:49 PM
I've logged every turkey I've ever taken (gun).

I need to start one for trad hunting. Admittedly, it will be much shorter.


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Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: Sawpilot 75 on December 31, 2019, 04:09:32 PM
I have a logbook for scouting and hunting. I started at 12 years old and I am currently 44. The weather logs are the best part. They really paint a picture for Whitetail hunting. Someday my boys will have some great reading.


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Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: Orion on December 31, 2019, 05:28:26 PM
I'd have to go back and check, but I think I've been doing a log (hunting journal) for about 40 years.  Also started another one when I built my cabin about 23 years ago.  That one will stay with the cabin when I'm gone.

Lots of very useful information in my journals, i.e., where and when I shot every deer, bear, turkey, elk, etc. and the conditions under which I shot them. Reviewing these is just good reading and helps me plan future hunts.  It also refreshes my memory on a lot of occurrences over the years, and resolves any camp disputes about what happened when.   :goldtooth:
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: The Vanilla Gorilla on December 31, 2019, 05:55:28 PM
No but I do take a lot of pics
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: SlowBowKing on December 31, 2019, 06:08:19 PM
I did this one season (before I hunted with traditional equipment). It is really cool to look back on this and see patterns emerge and remember the fun of the hunt. Of course at that time I was a bachelor with no kids and the only things on my mind were working and hunting...much simpler times!

Maybe next year!
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: wood carver 2 on December 31, 2019, 06:10:46 PM
I started one years ago and kept it up for several years. Over time I just got lazy about it and eventually dropped it.
Dave.
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: shick on December 31, 2019, 06:13:39 PM
Been keeping an informal log for quite a few years;  Entertaining if not useful;  Received a leather-bound hunting journal this past Christmas.  Time to get serious.
Shick
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: Trenton G. on December 31, 2019, 07:07:33 PM
Yes, I keep a log/journal. Mostly it's just hunts that I've done while at college. I figure it will be entertaining to read through down the road.

I also have an Excel sheet on the computer with a category for location, sightings, weapon, weather, wind direction, hunters, and date that I fill out after each hunt as well.
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: Friend on December 31, 2019, 08:49:00 PM
I log every deer hunt.
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: ron w on December 31, 2019, 09:37:21 PM
Started writing stuff down in the mid 80's, kept it up pretty good until about 3 years ago. Hard to record stuff when nothing happens. It is a great tool ......
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: TooManyHobbies on December 31, 2019, 09:52:41 PM
Yup. On the computer. "2008 - Year of the recurve". I've missed some of the turkey hunts, but all of my trad deer hunts are logged. Last couple years I added gun and ML too. Date, location, temp, wind direction, stand, animals seen, shots taken, hours in stand, and description of the hunt, good, bad and other. It just keeps running. At the end of the season, I know how many animals seen per hour on stand.
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: greg fields on December 31, 2019, 09:55:51 PM
I keep a log of every hunt, and shed hunt and fishing trip I have been on over the last 35 years....  where I hunted, what I saw and a brief synopsis of how a hunt occurred if I missed, hit or killed something...  Hard to believe all those years have gone by already....  rereading them shows I have wasted, well not wasted really, but put in a lot of time for the animals I have harvested..  and how few deer I really see while hunting..
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: Crittergetter on December 31, 2019, 11:11:51 PM
Wife got me a leather bound journal a few years ago. I was writing down all my memorable hunts at first but I've been neglecting to write them down recently. I need to get back on that!
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: Red Beastmaster on December 31, 2019, 11:55:49 PM
For 32 years I have religiously kept my journals up to date. The title is "Hunting Notes And Lies". I believe I'm on the 11th one now.

What started as a hunting journal has evolved into a diary of sorts. Family news, every hunt or bow shoot, major events, even my thoughts are all written down. There have been so many times I referenced my notebooks to answer questions or relive an event with a friend who has passed away.

I can tell you every hunt, every stand, every state, every hunting buddy, every camp, and even every chipmunk I knocked off a stump. ;) I consider my journals to be pretty valuable above most of the things I own.

I have never taken enough pictures but I have recorded everything that mattered to me for over half my life.
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: Petrichor on January 01, 2020, 07:59:06 AM
Huntx logs my hunts.
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: Sam McMichael on January 01, 2020, 03:10:22 PM
No, I've never kept a journal for any activity.
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: Silvius on January 01, 2020, 03:53:15 PM
I have kept a log of every deer I have shot in an old fashioned leather bound book. I even for some reason write it with an old fashioned ink pen. However I regret not doing it in a more useful way. As it is I just tell the story of how I found and shot the deer. Its interesting to read because it helps me recall not only the experience but where I was in my journey to become a better hunter at that time.

What it lacks is the hard data in a standard format for each location I have hunted -things like weather, wind direction, time, date, light, moon, recently past and forecast weather conditions... It would also be really useful to have some sort of tally charts to quickly show what conditions yielded the most deer.

When I fill the book up I will do better with the next volume. However I mostly just write one page for each animal unless it was a particularly noteworthy experience and I am only half way through with about a hundred pages left. So either I have to write some very long stories or shoot a lot more deer.
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: STICKBENDER98 on January 01, 2020, 04:35:59 PM
I haven't kept a log, but I have a cork board with pictures of my Grandpa, Dad Uncle, Brother, Cousin, friends, myself before and after I was old enough to hunt.  It is always good to look at and reminisce, Grandpa, and Dad are hunting together again, my brother and I still go somewhere and hunt together every year, the family grew up and apart, miss getting together and rehearing all the old stories...even though I know most of them by heart.  I guess if I had to do over again I would have written down everything I could have just so my kids, and someday grandkids would have something to look back on and read along with all the pictures I have.


Jason
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: bunyan on January 01, 2020, 09:30:43 PM
I try to log my hunts. I have done so off and on over the years. Some years I've done so better than others. Same for fishing and other outdoor adventures. Wish I had done so from the time I was young and that I had kept up on it more. I try to at least record successful or memorable hunts. Sometimes the memory needs a push or hunts blend together when trying to recall details!
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: MnFn on January 01, 2020, 11:34:04 PM
I have been keeping a journal for quite a few years now. 

My father started taking me bow hunting when I was probably ten years old or so.  He has passed on now, but he was the one who got me got me started bowhunting. My parents bought me a Shakespeare "Wonderbow" when I was 13.

Anyway, somewhere on my journey I realized I had a lot of great experiences with my dad that my other siblings never got to experience.  So, when something triggers my memory about one of those hunts, I also write those down as best as I can remember.

My brother and sisters don't know about that, but someday I'll share it with them.
My son knows about it and once asked me, "where do you keep that?"  I think he silently called "dibs" on it that day. I feel pretty good about that.
Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: Bisch on January 02, 2020, 12:01:17 AM
The only time I have kept any kind of log was on my trips to Africa. You sit in a hide (blind) for long periods, and writing down everything I saw gave me something to do when there was no critters to shoot around.

Bisch


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Title: Re: To log or not to log
Post by: MnFn on January 04, 2020, 09:53:20 AM
Africa must have been so cool to experience. I'll never see it;  Manitoba is very satisfying tho.

Ron, lots of times I don't necessarily have a great "hunting" experience.  In fact I rarely shoot something- I am very picky. But some  of the stuff is priceless anyway.

Like the last time out hunting in November.  I threw my bow across the creek that I had to cross. Oops, didn't make it. So I climbed down the 5ft bank and retrieved it but not before I got a boot full of water. In North Dakota, in late November... coooold.  Hunted as late as I could, but had to cross the same crick. Missed my spot- now two boots full of water. Stuff like that.

Or crossing paths with a fisher, coyotes.  I don't have that great of a memory anymore. And I want to remember all the stuff, good or bad.