Experience: First Public Land Hunt and Learning to Enjoy the Journey

Ain’t in no hurry

I’d be a fool now to worry

About all those things I can’t change

And the time that I borrow

Can wait till tomorrow

‘Cause I ain’t in no hurry today

Zac Brown Band

I’ve always envied folks who can sit back and just enjoy the journey. They seem carefree and just at ease in the moment.

I, on the other hand, I’m always laser focused and treating every decision as if it will make or break an experience…in the words of my dad, “you are always pressing”.

I’m fortunate enough to hunt a small family place in East Texas and managing that place with my dad has always been more than enough to keep us busy during the season. 

Well this year is my first time putting in for a public land draw. I honestly just wasn’t aware of the process, but a work friend got me interested after he took a deer on public land last year and I’ve been eager for the draw all year. 

I decided to put in with my father in hopes of making some more great memories together. We put in for many hunts and we only drew one in our first year (pretty good I hear given the points system) but to our surprise (and likely the disdain of many folks in the hunting community that feel we don’t deserve it yet), we drew Hagerman.

I’m extremely excited, never having been in the woods with the likes of the deer Hagerman has produced over the years, but I immediately felt an overwhelming rush of “unpreparedness”: where will I setup, how do I get dad and myself in a position to be successful, do I have everything I need?

Not that those questions don’t need to be answered, but I’m committing to myself to enjoying this experience (harvest or not) and not let it slip by “pressing”…not worrying about where I’ll hunt, the competition for “spots” or any other thing that could take some of the fun out of the experience.

A huge thank you to those I’ve reached out to…some great folks on TexasBowhunter and the conversations have been great..really appreciate it…and if you see me at Segment A and I’m a ball of nerves..tell me to chill out and enjoy it.