predator instinct

[Bear Heart]

After a week of hunting I am finding it hard to be content inside.  It's as if my predator instinct is still in high gear.  Anybody else take a while to settle back in after hunting hard?

[Stumpkiller]

I don't understand what you mean by "content inside".

Do you mean you're not content unless you are outside; hunting?  Do you mean you have an internal conflict in your mind that you didn't "complete" the hunt or score a kill?  I have had very fulfilling hunts that I never ended with a kill.  Just getting within range of a stalked deer tides me over whether a shot is taken or not.

Do you mean you need an animal to die in order for you to have had a fulfilling bow season?  

I got over the latter by taking "coup" on does and small bucks early in the season.  Even though I don't shoot I feel that if I got to full draw on a deer within 20 yards I chose not to harvest I have satisfied that part of my spirit.

[tarponnut]

I think you mean you're still in predator mode?
Yes, I can identify with that. Following an extended hunt it can be hard to get back into the flow of everyday life for me.
I think when we are hunting we are doing what is natural and second nature to us, everyday work/jobs, not so much.

[buckeyebowhunter]

I get the same feeling almost every weekend after being in the woods. Work or school on Monday morning is definitely tough after a fun weekend in the woods.

[Bear Heart]

I meant content being inside the house.

[ChuckC]

After more than just a few days away from home I feel the same.  It takes a few days to change, and you don't notice it until you start on your way home.  It is then, when you again think of the office, and work needed to be done etc that you realize the change took place.

On a lighter note,  when I am away for any period of time, out in the woods, away from civilization,I have the devil of a time not getting out of my truck on arrival home... and peeing on my driveway.

ChuckC

[Jerry Russell]

I know exactly what you mean. I hunt nearly to the point of exhaustion during the rut. I am talking 6-7 days a week. When I force myself to take a morning off, I wake up before daylight, and pace around the house until my woman tells me "you are never going to rest until you are back in that tree, just go back out there".

[dhermon85]

I know what you mean. I've came so close this year too many times. I'm still trying to punch a tag. You can't get one from the couch.

[PaulRoberts]

I know what you are saying. For me, it's from having spent some quality time with myself in nature, being fully aware, being truly alive. And over some time I fell into its rhythm. It's a healthy place. That period becomes crowded with events (the true measures of time), and I come home feeling like I've been away for a long time. I think it's called "rejuvenation". John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt were big on it. We're in good company. It's company that I fear is getting smaller and more distant with every passing decade though.

I also find the opposite to be true too: Being inside too much (office, computer esp) robs me somehow of the motivation to be out. "Too much work and too little play make Jack a dull boy." We're very much creatures of physical habit and have to be careful -aware of what our bodies are doing for extended periods.

It's difficult to live in both worlds. I've tried to keep a foot in both, but find it tough to do.

[Bear Heart]

There is something inside man that once awakened by returning to the woods will not be satisfied by artificial stimulus.  There is a tremendous difference in experience between observing nature as an outsider and observing nature as a participant. Although I love hiking it bares little substantive resemblance to a hunt.