Not necessarily limited to the upcoming year. I have several. Killing a mature buck while tracking on snow. Taking any deer with my self bow, a true primitive arrow and stone head. Taking a deer or bear on an extended back pack hunt in one of the ADK wilderness areas. Elk hunting horse pack trip.
Regarding the ADK I recently learned that the five ponds wilderness contains 40,000 acres of contiguous virgin forest, never logged. An extended backpacking trip there is on my near term list of things to do even if it is not a hunting trip.
Tekoa
Do some real productive scouting. I am reading a bow hunting book that has provided some great insight. Tapping the knowledge base here has been huge. In one month I have already identified six legit spots with amounts of sign I have never seen before. I have also incorporated a couple of cameras into the scouting plan. The lack of sightings on "film" has taught me more than the actual pics of deer. Now that I have learned where to focus, travel between food and bedding (and just bedding), I am getting pics of deer. Very cool.
Get the saddle hunting setup wired. I am almost there. Have the saddle setup, climbing set up and some of the ancillary items. I have been practicing climbing and hanging. I have even setup for some shooting sessions. This is going to be a game changer. I can hike in further and hunt almost anywhere. I had the all of my saddle and climbing gear in my pack yesterday while scouting. Almost three hours of walking through the wettest thickest crap. Never felt the load and it never got caught up on anything. Game changer.
Bow refinements. I made some great strides here. Broadheads fly the same as field points, so I plan to get away from mechanicals. I am also toying with getting a thumb release and learn how to use back tension to fire the bow. I'm on the fence with this for now. Also, train by shooting at a minimum of 40 yards all the time. And practice awkward positions while hanging.
My next targets for hunting are odd. Buy less stuff - I dont need it! Expand areas that I hunt - keep growing my "repertoire" of locations.
I hope to have some good turkey hunts this spring. It would be nice to bring a bird home, or two... but mostly, I just want to see the sun come up, hear the woods wake up.
I want to shoot a deer in CT. I blew it this past year and missed a nice buck and saw a lot of deer but was always a smidge off. I feel like I'm "there" now with several spots, and hope to connect.
Assuming that happens, then I am going to start my MA season with a 3.5+ YO estimate as my target for deer I shoot here. I'd define that as a mature doe (only in my higher density Z9 spots) or a buck I suspect is 3.5 + based on body size and rack.
To many other, but good things, happening in my life right now to be able to take a stab at a trip some place to hunt. But over the next 20 years, I'd love to go elk hunting at least once.
Kill my first buck and black bear this year.
Do more 3D shoots.
I'd like to get a new guy in to hunting every year. My good friend will be hunting his first season this year. I've got another buddy going to buy his first bow ever at Reedy's tomorrow. Hopefully we can get him in a stand in 2019. I'd also really like to get my buddy onto some deer this year. We scouted a great spot together yesterday and have a tree picked out where we will hang his first stand.
My last goal isn't necessarily related to my hunting, but I'd really like to help spread as much factual, science based info about hunting as possible. Not sure how to go about this just yet, but I am continually amazed about the nonsensical crap I hear and read about hunting/hunters.
:o)
Tekoa, I started checking out the Adirondacks after you posted this. I guess I never realized what a vast chunk of wilderness it is. I think a new goal of mine in the next couple years is a bear hunt via canoe.
My current goal is to maximize my knowledge and skills so that when I do get to go out, my odds are better. This will come with lots of reading and practice. Georgia will be good hunting, but I will be working more hours.
My daughter is 6, and begging to go with me. I'm looking forward to teaching her, and eventually my son. Going to start with squirrels, and see where it goes.
Of course I'd like the usual elk, bear, boar, pronghorn, ect eventually. Not likely to happen before I retire, but you never know.
Once I retire, I do want to either own land to manage and hunt, or near land I can manage (example, my house in PA has 4000 acres of old mining property behind it that's owned by the state, but not managed, not a refuge, not game lands, it's just kind of no man's land). Getting to know an area for longer than 3 years and improving it for game would be awesome.
