Anyone else keep a field journal?
 

Didn't know where to post it so put it under the Hunting with Parkers title. I have been keeping a journal (both hunting and fishing) for 30 years. Sometimes just a few words, like, "Porcupine covert, 3 grouse flushed, one shot, none dead. Lucy worked well today.." Other times a page full. I don't do weather, humidity, wind...etc. I'm usually too pressed for time. But now, looking back, the past 4-5 years I can't read any of my writing. Damn it degrades with time (or is it the single malts after the hunt?) Thinking of going to a Word document journal but I like written pages (that I can read). Guess I need an executive secretary. Anyone care to share what they do, or am I an outlier? I figure someday someone will give a large enough turd to read them, maybe not. I find if I look over them I get sad over the loss of the dogs that came before. I also find that I had a hell of a lot more energy back then, starting at 6am and hunting until dark well over 100 miles away in the North country then up and at work the next day.

I used to Andy, but like you, it became too time consuming, and my writing just got to sloppy as I became rushed. I do keep a simple log of my grouse hunts in the UP with the following info:
Date/ Hours hunted/ Cover name/ grouse flushes/ kills(hopefully) + woodcock info.

Thank you Harold. I like reading my detailed notes from years ago.

I keep one as well. Ever since I've had bird dogs. Someday, when I cant make the trips out with my best friends I hope I can relive some of these great memories. Normally just a paragraph but if there was a memorable moment it make the journal.

I do for my business since it helps with everything.But I have a friend/client who keeps one religiously as did his parents and Grandparents.All the writing is difficult to read but in surprisingly good shape.In fact he recently wrote a book of his life outdoors along with many other stories along the way.He also is working on another about his safaris in Africa back in the 60's some of the last true safaris.His parents and grand parents kept detailed journals.

We used to keep a journal of sorts, you know the kind that has spaces for dates, weather, time of day, etc. and then columns for pheasant, ducks, geese, rabbits, squirrels, grouse, woodcock, deer, bear…

It was nothing more than a tally of kills and there was scant space for details and memories so we pretty much stopped using it.

As a result I began writing about our hunts and which cover we hunted and our experiences and the good times and memories, a lot of which included misses and mishaps.
This quickly became a lot more fulfilling and enjoyable to go back and read. Many of them are included in the book I hope to publish, “Tampico, My Tinkhamtown.”





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Andy, I've kept an upland shooting journal since 1988 (and I kept one for my bow hunts prior to that). My journals are some of my most treasured possessions, and I like to go back and compare notes from a given day over the years. It's like bringing one of my old dogs back, not to mention letting me see "who I was" at given points in my shooting life. It also helps when I try to gauge a particular dog's progress, because I can look at others at the same point in their development.

Continue keeping one. In a few years, you'll be glad you did.

Great topic, and dear to my heart. I started keeping a journal about 15 years ago, and when I began it I digressed to my childhood days when I began hunting with my Grandad, and recorded all the significant hunts I could remember. Like you I sometimes make short notes, other times lengthy ones. I note the dogs, guns, shells, locations, successes and failures, and even glue in a lot of my expired hunting licenses and duck stamps on the facing pages.

I must admit, I don't do this for myself. I realized, when my two grandsons began to show an interest in hunting with me, how important a journal of my "exploits" could be to them someday after I "cross the river". I have thought so many times what I would give if my Grandad had done so, and left it for me to be able to read and relive his hunts vicariously. I have his guns, an old duck call, and some pictures of him in field and stream, but no handwritten notes. I hope it will be as special to my grandsons as that imaginary one would have been to me. From what I am seeing of them as they mature into men, I think it just may.

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Andy:

I just enter some thumbnail data on every hunting or fishing trip into my daily appointments planner. The merest sketch will stimulate pleasant recollections and settle questions that inevitably arise from retrospection.

This way, without the discipline called for with a dedicated journal, one can still get a lot more mileage about something we think about much more than we actually do.

Funny, as I drove home yesterday from my 50th opening morning of duck season I was thinking on this subject. Kinda wishing I had kept a journal with a bit of info from each hunt, who I hunted with, which dogs, faces and places, etc. My still slightly wet, stinky rice field water soaked companion had just made her tenth opener. Two old dogs took big time "duck" naps when we got home!