Hunting Records

[Doc]

I wonder how many of you keep a log of your hunts. Years ago, (1982) I chose to use an Excel spreadsheet to record my hunting activities. How many of you keep some kind of hunting log as a way of recording the details and memories of your hunts. I chose a spreadsheet because of the analytical capabilities.

 

Hunting Log Spreadsheet

From 1982 through 2010, I kept a massive spreadsheet that recorded and analyzed every stand ever created in my hunting area around the valley and hill top (114 different stands). It takes in a huge amount of acreage and a massive amount of individual hunts.

From this data, I could sort out what stands were most productive, and which weather and dates they were productive in various deer sighting. What areas were most productive and when and under what weather conditions and times of day.

Below are the headings of each hunt that I went on and the kind of data I collected. Each hunt was recorded in a notebook and then transferred into the spreadsheet over the dead parts of winter. It was kind of a fun activity which taught me quite a bit about my hunting area and the deer movements in that area. It has also served as an interesting set of memory joggers that are fun to review at times.

Log number: Numerical order tracking number for each hunt.

Date: Date of the hunt

Location: Written description of the spot where the deer encounters occurred

Number of deer sighted: Self explanatory.

Time of day: am or pm

Weather: Raining, clear, cloudy, snowing,

Temperature: Warm, cold, hot, moderate

Wind Direction: N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW, Variable

Wind Velocity: Calm, windy, breezy, light

Entry Direction: Which way did the deer come in from (N, S, E, W, bedded)

Exit Direction: Which way did the deer run (N, S, E, W)

Hunter Action: None, shot, passed

Results: None, Deer spooked, Deer walked on, Kill, Miss, Wound

Hunting Style: walking from stand, walking to stand, standing, still hunting,

Hunter: Me, my Brother-in-law, sons, other

Bucks: How many bucks encountered

Does: How many does encountered

Unidentified: How many unidentified deer were encountered

Location Code: The entire hunting area was broken into 9 different large areas

Stand Number: every stand had a number and description in another spreadsheet

Closest Stand: When walking and deer were encountered, what was the nearest stand number?

Moday: A sortable number involving the month and the day. Used to pick specific dates of encounters.

Uphill: Notation used to analyze uphill movements and encounters

Downhill: Notation to analyze valley bottom movements and encounters

Sidehill: Notation used to analyze deer movements and locations on the side-hill of the valley

Remarks: A place to note oddities of encounters

Year: What year did this encounter take place. Used for sorting purposes.

It was all a fun activity, but took in so many years that I found that human and natural changes made some of the analytical conclusions no longer accurate or useful. So I discontinued it in 2010. There were things like a couple of massive ice storms, logging operations and new hunting cabins and residences and posted land and other interruptions that messed up past observations. So as an analytical tool it began to lose its value. However as a record of individual hunts it is still fun to go back and read about those 28 years of hunting details.

[airedale]

 I kept meticulous records when hunting and training my dogs, I came up with and used a graph type scale to score how they performed each time I took them out for both training and actual hunting. Sort of like a report card from the time they were pups right through adulthood. Over that period of time the score on the scale would accurately pretty much tell what kind of hunter they were going to be.

Other type of hunting I did make mental notes but did not keep and written records.

Al

[Doc]

The older I get, the more I appreciate these detailed records. They actually bring back a lot of the hunts that otherwise would have been forgotten. It all sounds like a lot of work, but it didn't seem be as I was accumulating the data. And it gave me something to do in the dead of winter. I kind of like record keeping. The above spreadsheet had so many analytical features that it was consulted for years before I went out hunting. Certain weather conditions helped me figure out which of the stands would be the most likely to produce. It all was pretty useful. 

I can see where strict records keeping would be useful in your dog-training activities. I'm sure there are other things that lend themselves to detailed records.