tick tock........

[boneaddict]

clocks a tickin'   
What are your guys emotions before the big hunt?

I'm a bit nervous about this one.  Pushin' the clock, finances, new area, old game, and an old friend.  Missing my favorite partner........feeling a little pressure. 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm beyond ready, for me next week cannot come quick enough.  then its another 3 week wait till the big one. 

[WDFW-SUX]

I've got a pit in my stomach and haven't been sleeping well so much stuff running through my head.....

Very excited tough keep changing plans, Ideas,

Ready for the long road.

Good luck all!

[Mike450r]

I get the same way.  I am a big opening day/weekend guy and I always start thinking ahead to how little time is left if we don't connect with something on opening day.  Me, the wife and both sons are hunting so the freezer always ends up full but I get all jazzed up thinking up scenarios for all of us not just myself.  

My youngest son has the youth tag for Skookumchuck which will get him out in Vail a week early.  You can say what you want about Vail but I have been hunting it for 30 years and an opportunity to get out there with only 50 other hunters is a nice one.  We are pretty excited about it but I am already thinking about the what if's and then that weekend will be gone and then he just has an any deer tag for the rest of the season.

[NRA4LIFE]

Nervous?  How about freakin' out!  Had the opener of deer planned for 3 days, 4 days of elk season, then a week in Montana for deer and antelope then a week in Missouri for deer.  Then an opportunity jumped at us and my wife and I are suddenly going to SE Asia for 2 weeks next month.  Crab and salmon have been put on hold for a year (bummer) and I am trying to figure out how to get a scouting trip in edgewise.  AHHHHHHH!

[bucklucky]

Im not doing well. Bad things keep happening! Hyperextemded my thumb fleshing a bear yesterday  , My tranny went out in my 4runner(hunting rig), Not gona be able to go scout this weekend like I had planned. My sight fell off my bow 2 nights ago while shooting my broadheads, the clamp came loose and the pin section fell out .  Plus I have a pit in my stumach that just wont go away! Im starting to loose it

[buckmaster_wa]

Always excited and nervous at the same time. It seems like I am always thinking of my plans when I should be falling asleep. The few weeks before season are always hard to sleep. I am always nervous as to where to sit come opening morning. There are always deer running everywhere and a ton of bucks get shot the first few hours. And regardless of where I sit I always wander over towards the shots to wait for the deer to come running by.

[boneaddict]

I'm hearing noises in my truck that I never hear.  Its always a worry this time of year because I don't have a back up and I have been doing these big trips.  Sounds like my worst fear has happened to you Bucklucky.  DANG!  At least it was now instead of the trip there.  I pray  nothing like that happens on this trip.  Idabooner might be getting another one of those calls at 2 in the morn. 

I don't feel mentally prepared or physically prepared for this hunt as I usually am.  Working too damn much.  My Spouse is playing her games as well.  Always fun to deal with.  It always works out. 

[bowsandhose]

minutes seem like hrs pacing around driving my family crazy   if it wasn't for archery deer, i think with this bull tag i would stroke out before Sept 8Th    just have to get through one more shift on Friday and I'm done with work until Sept 27Th Oh ya

[Idabooner]

clocks a tickin'   
What are your guys emotions before the big hunt?

I'm a bit nervous about this one.  Pushin' the clock, finances, new area, old game, and an old friend.  Missing my favorite partner........feeling a little pressure. 

Emotions!!  I have more staying behind than if I was going. I'm the missing partner, because I can't cut this hard a trip anymore.  I really feel helpless.  He didn't invite me this time because he knew I would go and how tough it would be for me, I'm glad he didn't because I would have to say no, I  would just hold him back and make it double hard for him. We've hunted together since he was a small boy, I would take his hand and lead him around the mountains, long before he had a gun, we became very close, and I was able to teach him all I knew about the woods, now I hope it was enough, he did became a much better hunter than me.
Emotions? Ya I got'em, I'm beginning to know what your old hunting dog feels like when he gets to old to go and he lays there broken hearted watching you load the gear.  I'll just try to keep my tail waging until my partner gets back and we can go to a drive to camp.

[Skinner]

I'm going insane!!!  I have been trying to get my new house at a place where I can leave for 2 weeks.  Just finished putting up blocks for my mounts at 9pm last night so they can insulate and sheet rock while I'm gone.  What a relief!  Now I just have to make sure I got all of my gear.  I got in bed with my camo bandana and face mask and my girlfriend said "whats that smell did you --- what the heck are you doing take that off!"  I didn't smell anything but hunt'n.  Oh ya I am still getting over an ear infection from a month ago!  All in all its been a great summer!!

[bowsandhose]

  sorry Idabooner sounds like you have some great memories

[EastWaViking]

Tick tock is right.  I have about two months worth of work to do, and 6 days to do it in.  Overtime every day, which is killing my target practice/preparation time....Sept 8th can't come soon enough, a week of Bull hunting.  Then I will cram about three weeks worth of work into one week Sept. 15. then it's off to Wyo for a week, and play catch up all of Oct.  Work gets in the way of real life some times.

[huntnphool]

Emotions!!  I have more staying behind than if I was going. I'm the missing partner, because I can't cut this hard a trip anymore.  I really feel helpless.  He didn't invite me this time because he knew I would go and how tough it would be for me, I'm glad he didn't because I would have to say no, I  would just hold him back and make it double hard for him. We've hunted together since he was a small boy, I would take his hand and lead him around the mountains, long before he had a gun, we became very close, and I was able to teach him all I knew about the woods, now I hope it was enough, he did became a much better hunter than me.
Emotions? Ya I got'em, I'm beginning to know what your old hunting dog feels like when he gets to old to go and he lays there broken hearted watching you load the gear.  I'll just try to keep my tail waging until my partner gets back and we can go to a drive to camp.

Why do I feel like the guy in the green suit at the door of the Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz?

[JBR]

I'm on the other end of Idabooner's journey.  I have 3 young sons 11, 9 and 7 yrs old and we're just starting all those memories.  I soak 'em up like a sponge.  My 11 yr old and 7 yr old will be hunting with their own guns/licenses this year (2nd year for the oldest) and the 7 yr old can't make the days/years go by fast enough til he's carrying his own as well.   There's nothing quite like spending time together as parent and child (no matter how old you are) out in the woods hunting, fishing and camping. 

Reading Idabooner's comments makes me fast forward in my mind to the days when my sons are grown and I'm the 'ol man' tagging along with them.  Gets a guy all choked up thinking about it.  It's a LOT of extra work on this end of the journey, but as the years tick by, I can't image better hunting partners than my sons!   

It's not the destination, but the journey. 

By the way, as for upcoming thoughts and plans, I'm totally excited.  This will be my first year archery hunting and going for elk on the east side has me pumped!!  Going scouting this weekend and can't wait to get out there!!