by TalkHunting Member David "KraQr" Culver

I have always wanted to treat myself to a hunt in a known trophy area. This year I will get that chance.

This will be my first time actually doing a semi guided hunt with an outfitter. I am extremely excited and can't wait for it to get here. I have researched the area extensively and the timing coordinates with another hunt I will already be on in NE Arkansas. This will greatly help in traveling over to Kansas.  This will make it a 5 hour drive vs. a 17 hour drive from Florida.

With an outfitter you are paying for an experience.   This will be a chance to sit in the woods in a blind or stand with the hopes of seeing a deer. Hopefully a big monster deer for me to take home and will become the start of my trophy wall. You can check success rates, talk to references, look at statistics, and track past weather patterns but in the end it is an experience that you are paying for. No one can guarantee you a big deer unless it's in a pen or drugged.

Do I want a trophy? Absolutely I do. I have hunted for a long time and still have no "wall hangers" to show for it. I want a bragging wall too like so many of my friends; I want a display of my conquest. I want to have a token of my efforts and the thought that I had the ability to conquer the wild.

But, if I don't find that trophy all is not lost. It is not the outfitters fault (hopefully). It's all about the hunting experience. Deer patterns change, weather can change, food sources change, some things you just don't have control over and Mother Nature has a mind of her own. I cannot wait until that opening moment in that stand with my senses peaked and my nerves anxiously waiting to see what stands beyond the darkness or behind that bush.

I am as excited as a kid at Christmas to be in SE Kansas in a blind this fall. Cold, Hot, Raining, or Snowing, I will be perked up with eyes wide open and looking around like a raccoon in the trashcan. I am hoping for an opportunity to score big.
But if not, I will have experienced a day of peace, a moment without phones ringing, cars screeching, and TVs blaring. A moment as nature had intended. At peace, relaxed, having a moment of enlightenment that can only be achieved while not having a worry in the world.

I'm coming to SE Kansas Mr. Buck. While I will enjoy every single moment of quietness, peace, and tranquility that nature has to offer, I hope I get to interrupt that serenity just for one brief moment with a loud bang from my gun and a crashing into the woods. The smile that will forth come will be equally as enjoyable as anything nature can share with me.
Again, I'm coming Mr. Buck, I'm coming very soon.