By: Rick Hall

As hunting season gets closer most hunters are beginning their preparation, fine tuning gear, making habitat improvements where possible, shooting, scouting and daydreaming about big bucks. I myself spend most of the offseason thinking about deer and working on ways to be more successful in the coming season. While physical and technical preparation are absolute necessities and topics that I’ll cover more in the coming weeks, I think there needs to be a major emphasis on goals and expectations. As hunters we need to enjoy the experience, soak in the wins and losses, and leave each season with a sense of contentment, along with some way too early excitement for next season. Unfortunately though, we can easily get caught up in the “keeping up with the Jones’s” mentality, comparing our success to what we see on television or social media. If we’re not careful, we can begin to hunt for the wrong reasons and completely take the joy out of a pastime that we love so much. Defining success in our own terms, with little or no regard for what others might think, could be the key to having the best season of your life.

While social media certainly has some bright spots, its most damaging quality may be the “comparison trap” that it sets for everyone scrolling through. Just one quick glance at your platform of choice, and it’s easy to start believing that so many people have it better than us. Whether it’s an incredible looking meal, someone seemingly always taking the best vacations, or a friend whose life looks perfect in every family photo. It’s easy to compare those things to our own life and think we are falling short. This is true not just for life in general, but in hunting as well. Once deer seasons start opening around the country, that Instagram feed will begin to fill up with grip and grin shots, bringing a feeling that “Everybody is killing big deer except for me!”. If we’re not careful, we can begin to start comparing our season with the highlight reels of others, and before you know it, you’re hunting not because you love it, but because of your desire to post your own hero shot and a few dozen likes.

I fell into this trap myself a few years ago. As the host of an outdoor and hunting podcast, I felt a little extra pressure to fill tags, not because of my own joy, but to add validity to my “expertise” as a hunter. I was relatively new to social media as well, so the sensory overload of hunters posing with big bucks began to take its toll on me. If I was lucky enough to fill a tag, I found myself having to justify the size of the deer by saying things like “he’s not my biggest buck, but…”. If I came home from a trip eating tag soup, I wouldn’t talk about the trip at all, for fear of having to explain why I wasn’t successful. In both situations, I had incredible experiences that should have been more than enough to smile about, but instead of being grateful for those experiences, I let the comparison trap catch me in its snare. On more than one occasion, I let coming home with an unfilled tag seriously affect my mood, putting me in a funk that even began impacting my relationships. 

One of those occasions was the fall of 2022. I was coming off the best stretch of hunting seasons I’d had in a while, arrowing big mature bucks 4 seasons in a row. I had big plans for that season, but during the summer, I had a pretty significant injury to my right arm that required surgery and a lengthy recovery. I worked my tail off through the rehab, focused solely on being able to draw my bow by the time season started. I was as motivated as ever, and just knew that if recovery went well, I was going to be able to keep my recent string of success going. I reached my goal of shooting my bow at full poundage in September and then in October, headed to Illinois with a couple of friends. I was hunting a piece of public land that I had experience on, seeing dozens of shooter bucks and arrowing a stud 8 point the previous year. I was confident that I was going to get on a true trophy on this trip, but that was not the case. After 5 days, I had only laid eyes on one shooter. I did take the biggest doe of my life on the last afternoon of the trip, but the thought of going home with an empty buck tag did not sit right with me. For the next several weeks, I was miserable. I wouldn’t talk about the hunt, never shared a photo from that trip, and internally kept asking why I wasn’t as good as other hunters. Looking back, even though it was a tough trip, there was so much to be thankful for, but in that moment, I was prioritizing my perceived opinion of others over my love for hunting. 

A couple of weeks after that trip, my wife was tired of my moping, miserable attitude. She has been so supportive of my whitetail obsession throughout our 20 years together, but she could see that I needed a change in mindset. I had a pretty flexible schedule at the time and after a conversation one evening, she suggested that I take a couple of days and go back to IL. She did have one condition though, and that was to come back in the right frame of mind. She told me to leave all my frustrations behind and to enjoy the hunt. As I drove back to IL, this time solo, I had a lot of time to think about things, to try and reconcile all of the negative emotions that were coming from something that I loved so much. It wasn’t until the last day of the trip that I found the answer. After spotting a big deer from the truck one night, I made a move the next morning into an area that I felt would give me a good shot of seeing him again. Sure enough, about an hour after daylight, he shows up, chasing a doe at Mach 3 speed right by me. For the next 6 hours, I watched him tend to his lady, spending most of that time within 80 yards of my tree. I watched him push multiple other bucks away, make several scrapes and rub dozens of trees. It was one of the best days in the deer woods I’ve ever had. As I watched the 150” buck finally push the doe out of sight, rather than being depressed because I didn’t get a shot, I found myself smiling, realizing how awesome that experience was. In that moment, I remembered why I hunt and how blessed I have been throughout my hunting life. The places I’ve been able to go, the people I’ve been able to meet and share camps with, the things I’ve seen and of course, the tags I have filled, make it all worthwhile. I was learning to redefine success and with that, came a sense of relief and enjoyment that I had not felt in a long time. 

Fast forward to this past season, and it was one of the most trying to date. Because of a new job and the time spent coaching my daughter’s travel softball team, my hunting opportunities were considerably less than years past. I hunted hard when I could and saw a lot of deer throughout the season, including several really nice bucks, but I just couldn’t seal the deal. As the end of the AL season approached, I looked at my calendar and could only find one day for a last chance trip. I typically wouldn’t make the 6 hour drive to only hunt one day, but being the end of season and knowing I could use some meat in the freezer, I decided to give it a shot. That decision would quickly get tested, as a huge rain system was moving into the area and the forecast called for heavy rain most of the day. I pushed on knowing that the weatherman isn’t exactly known for being accurate, keeping my fingers crossed that I’d catch a break. I also decided to adjust plans, and carry my rifle (actually my late father’s rifle) for the first time in several years, so as not to jeopardize losing a bow-shot blood trail to the rain. As it turned out, the weatherman was dead on and the weather was nasty. I checked the radar as soon as I woke up and noticed a possible short break in the rain at about 8:00, so I took my time getting ready, planning to get to my area just ahead of that break. As I was getting dressed, I knew the odds of seeing a deer were probably not great, so I decided that my target deer would be the first legal deer I saw. This property is landlocked, and one that I access by e-bike to limit noise and pressure. I remember riding through the easement, laughing at myself for biking a mile in this pouring rain, but really enjoying the moment. Once I reached my gate, I parked the bike, took one step and noticed a deer on the edge of the woods about 100 yards in front of me. I knelt down and drew the rifle on the young spike and quickly noticed a slightly larger buck behind him. It was a legal buck, a young 6 point much smaller than I would normally take, but I thought about my expectations for this hunt and decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Within 30 seconds of my hunt, it was over, as a perfect shot put the buck down in his tracks. I immediately felt a rush of emotion and busted out laughing in the middle of the downpour! I couldn’t believe how it all played out. Sitting over that buck, knowing it was my last hunt of the year, I reflected on the season that was. While my opportunities to hunt were limited, so many good things happened. I rekindled a relationship with one of my first hunting buddies, getting to experience his first public land experiences and following him as he chased and harvested his first deer with a traditional bow. I hunted two pieces of AL public land for the first time, having some really good encounters and seeing a couple of really nice deer. I shot my best FL buck to date (though I didn’t not recover him, I put myself in the right position on heavily pressured public land). I shared a camp in KY with some of my best friends in the world. I got to enjoy God’s great outdoors in some really cool places with some amazing people. Finally, it came to an end, with my Dad’s old .30-06 in hand. I had found success, in my own terms.

One of my favorite social media follows is a guy named Ryan “Moose” Glitsky, a big buck guru from Pennsylvania. He has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to big woods, public land hunting, but his best piece of advice is “Hunt your own hunt.”. He has had amazing success in tough conditions and is a pro-staffer for some elite companies. Ryan could easily be a big buck snob, but he understands that success isn’t always in the size or number of deer you take. Making it fun, setting your own expectations regardless of what others think, and hunting your own hunt is what will ultimately bring satisfaction at the end of each season. As hunting season gets closer, I find myself obsessing over what could be. I also find that I am not being consumed with the harvest, but enjoying the process along the way. From summer scouting through the end of the season, it’s all part of the hunt, and I don’t want to take one piece of it for granted. We are all blessed to be hunters and to experience all that comes with that. With preparation and anticipation for the coming season ramping up, make sure to set yourself up for success by defining what success means to you. Maybe it’s your biggest buck to date, but maybe it’s the time in camp with people close to you, or just filling the freezer. The important part is that you get to define it, not anyone else.