Two Questions About Hunting

I have two questions for you:

This isn’t a high school literature class, but take the time to answer those questions before you continue with this article. Those questions are going to matter.

Aside from my editorial role with Born Hunting, I also freelance for almost every publication and outdoor website. Writing about gear, creating tip-and-tactic articles, and writing hunting stories are my job, but hunting is my life.

Why do you need to know this? Stay with me here.

In addition to working full-time as an outdoor writer, I coach high school basketball. I love it! The kids, the coaches, the relationships built with other teams and coaches—all of it! What I don’t love is the failure of many who don’t realize the actual purpose of high school varsity boys’ basketball. First, it’s my job, along with my assistant coaches, to help these young men become men of strong character and faith. Second, it’s my job, and the job of the boys I coach, to win. Winning matters.

Ask any of my assistant coaches or past players who has the most energy at practice, and most will tell you, “Coach Jace gets crazy energetic.” Still, there are some practices where I coach to coach. That’s a problem.

Why?

If I coach to coach, then players practice to practice. If I’m not growing as a coach and bringing my best every single day, how will I get the most out of my players? If my players see me coaching to coach, then they practice to practice, and we lose.

Just like all of you, I have good days and bad days. That’s part of being human. However, if I take something negative that’s happened at work, with my family, etc., to practice, I’m not coaching to be great. If I don’t coach to be great, my players likely won’t practice to be great.

Make sense?

This is why I asked you question number one: Why do you hunt?

Understand, it’s totally OK to hunt to get away, get outside, and relax. It’s OK to hunt to make memories with family and friends, and it’s OK to have an unsuccessful hunt and dismiss the thought of an un-notched tag before your wheels hit the blacktop on the return trip home. It all depends on HOW you answered that question.

You see, like many of you, I hunt to get away, spend time with family and friends, and make memories. However, I don’t hunt to hunt. I hunt with the intention of being great at it.

Is that wrong? Having the drive to be great at something? I don’t think so, but I’m always open to a healthy debate. If you read this article and want to comment, please do so. I will get back to you. You can also email me at jbauserman@hotmail.com.

Being great at something requires year-round work. Being great requires more than telling your friends and family that next year you’re going to fill all your tags and have the best season of your life. As with anything, talk is cheap. Work produces results.

My youngest son, Brody, can play basketball. He’s got the potential to be great. This is the question I asked him the other day: What are you willing to sacrifice to become great?

Those who didn’t roll their eyes at this article and who are still with me, I ask you the same question. In Brody’s case, he will need to sacrifice gaming, time on his phone, and sleep to become great at basketball. Notice I didn’t say he needed to give up time with his family and friends, or quit playing other sports or participating in in-school activities like FCA, FBLA, and others.

If you want to make 2026 your best hunting season yet, and have adventurous hunts that end with filled tags, then you’re going to need to sacrifice. What exactly? I have no idea. I’m not you. I sacrifice sleep and relaxation. Because I want to play family card games and take my wife out on date night, I run at night and lift at lunch. Because it only takes me a few minutes to shoot a handful arrows daily, I squeeze in shots before work, after work, and pretty much anytime that I can.

Finding and taking the time to become great at something is a lot like budgeting. You often have to give up something to get something in return.

Am I a great hunter? NOPE! There are so many better hunters than me. However, I don’t worry about them. I worry about myself. The thing is, even if you’re not great but want to be great and make strong efforts in that direction, good things will happen.

I know that in 2025, my hunting stats were this:

January 2025 – Compound Bow – One-shot kill mountain lion – Colorado

March 2025 – Rifle – One-shot kill red stag – New Zealand

March 2025 – Compound Bow – One-shot kill tahr – New Zealand

March 2025 – Rifle – One-shot kill Southeastern ibex

March 2025 – Rifle – Wounded Iberian mouflon ram; harvested Iberian mouflon ram the following day with one shot.

April 2025 – Shotgun – One-shot kill Merriam turkey – Colorado RFW Tag

April 2025 – Compound Bow – One-shot kill Rio Grande turkey – Colorado General Tag

May 2025- Compound Bow –  One-shot kill Merriam turkey – New Mexico

June 2025 -Rifle – One-Shot kill black bear – Idaho

August 2025 – Compound Bow – One-Shot kill pronghorn – Colorado buck

September 2025 – Compound Bow – One-Shot kill whitetail – Wyoming buck

September 2025 – Compound Bow – One-shot kill bull elk. Hit was terrible. I shot him in the guts. Relentless tracking      led me to the bull three days later. I lost all the meat.

October 2025 – Compound Bow – One-Shot kill whitetail  – Oklahoma buck

October 2025 – Compound Bow – One-shot kill whitetail – Oklahoma doe

Great is mostly perfect. These stats are not. There’s much work for me to do this off-season to ensure I don’t wound a single animal in 2026. I never recovered that first Iberian mouflon. The thought of that amazing animal having to traverse such hellish terrain with a broken leg sickens me. My Colorado bull elk died from infection—digestive contents spilling out. The process is painful and takes a lot of time. I think about the suffering that bull endured every single day. I use those thoughts as fuel to be better.

As to question number two: What do you do to prepare for hunting seasons? I have no idea what you do. What I will tell you is that if you want to be great and fill tags regularly with quick one-shot kills, you need to do a lot. Some will tell you to just do “something.” Something is better than nothing, right? Ya, but not by much. Something is preparing to prepare. Making time to work out at least 5 days a week and to shoot your bow, rifle, crossbow, muzzleloader, etc., is preparing to be great.

No, you don’t see many articles like this. Some of you will read it and say, “It must be nice to get to hunt all of the time.” Others, even if only one, will read it and say, “This guy threw himself under the bus. This guy thinks as I think, but I just need to make my thoughts become actions.” If you’re that one guy, gal, or kid, then penning this article and telling of my shortcomings was totally worth it!

Blessings, friends, and remember, be better today than you were yesterday.