I'll Never Kill a Grizzly -- Not an Anti Rant

[Gen273]

Grizzly has always been my dream hunt, but I don't think it will ever become a reality for me.

[Joshua Polland]

Roy,
First off, thank you for your service, especially in a time when it was not appreciated by so many in this country. I too have accepted there are hunts I’ll never afford. I try to pack meals when I travel and I tell my wife the money saved goes towards my next diy elk hunt. I do dream of Alaska, I don’t care what species though. I may never make it but I’m a firm believer in having a dream to chase! I’m glad you are enjoying time with your grandchildren, so many of our Airborne Brothers never got that chance. Stay safe, shoot straight, and keep your feet and knees together. All The Way

[Bowwild]

Joshua,
I have the highest respect for our past and current service men and women.  I need to correct the record. When I jumped out of that little airplane, it was purely recreational. It was a private plane and I was headed off to college soon after. I did not service in any of the branches.

Sorry if my post confused that issue.  However, it is your kind thoughts that count.

Thank you for YOUR service.

Roy

[Jerry Russell]

I was a dreamer early in life and about age 30 realized that time was passing me by.  I did a solo Alaska caribou hunt and after that, all I could do was plan that next wild adventure.  I was of modest means but I knew that I didn’t want life to pass me by.  I worked a second job to pay for those early trips and eventually built a company to help fulfill my dreams. Every hunt was self guided where legal.   I’m not sure what I would do if I couldn’t look forward to the next adventure.  Waiting on the world to get back to normal a bit right now and then it’s off to Australia for Buffalo. 

Everyone has a different way of dreaming but I have always encouraged others to stop just dreaming about their life’s adventures and DO IT!   If you have to save a year or even 10 years-do it!
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[JR Chambers]

I use to do a lot of those hunts. Now as I am getting older and have more money and time I find I get the most enjoyment hunting my farm in the mountains of WV. I’d just as soon hunt those mountain bucks now than anything else. Some species I wanted to hunt you can’t even get tags for. I always have tags at the farm and can take the wife and enjoy it with her. Kinda nice sitting on the porch eating dinner with the wife and having a glass of wine after hunting my own place.

[GCook]

I dreamed of hunting caribou and moose.  As a kid growing up rabbit and grouse hunting I had dreams.  But by the time I had the time and money to, I realized I had no place in my house for a caribou or moose mount and I eat venison every week from deer I kill right here.
There are plenty of folks with lots of disposable income who can and do afford.  As herd numbers of animals like caribou and elk continue to decline the haves (or Jones) are bidding the costs so high soon America will be like Europe.

As for me I just think it's kind of selfish for me to save 5 or 10 years for a hunt that is a few days, that I may not have anything to show for it when it's over then have to live with what I could have done for my family with that same money. 
Once upon a time I was consumed with hunting and fishing.  Won a good amount of money fishing tournaments (basically enough to pay for my boats and deer leases) and spent a lot of time away from home.  Never did make it to B.A.S.S. Pro or the FLW tour.  But I dreamed about it.  Never killed a 150+ inch whitetail either.

I'll never kill a grizzly.  Or a moose.  Or a caribou.   But I may get lucky and kill another deer or three next season, a few pigs tween now and then.
If The Lord God wills it and allows me one more year.

[Trenton G.]

Growing up I used to always love watching or reading stuff by guys like Jim Shockey or Tom Miranda who were always going after different species in different parts of the world. It was really exciting stuff for a kid to realize that there is more out there to hunt than just whitetails in Michigan. While I was somewhat unrealistically inspired by reading about the slams and N.A. 29, those desires to go hunt new species in exciting new areas has stuck with me. I would love the opportunity to just try a bit of everything. Will I ever shoot all 5 caribou species? Probably not, but I'd sure like to try for one of the subspecies to get a taste of caribou hunting. Same with all of the other "groups", I'd love to experience hunting for them. Whether I'm successful in harvesting something isn't overly important. Obviously that would be great, but a huge part of hunting for me is the experience, and I would love to experience things such as hunting a muskox in the arctic, or a mountain hunt for goats, as I doubt I could ever afford a sheep hunt. Just stuff like that.

I've kind of based my career goals around this idea, whether or not that was a foolish thing to do is yet to be determined, but I'm hoping not. I'm just going to try and make things happen as best as I can and who knows, maybe one day I'll kill a grizzly.