Winning and Losing

With predator season in full swing in my part of the world, I called up a young friend who is a new hunter, and we went out after coyotes. We hit a nearby rancher's property, who always appreciates it when I show up. The last time I was there more than a month ago, I reduced the number of coyotes around his cattle by five, so it was time to hunt his place again.

The two of us hunted hard all day, and while we managed to see a few coyotes, neither of us fired a shot. As the sun set and legal hunting light faded, there was a lack of fur and disappointment in the truck. After all, in the eyes of my young friend, I'm supposed to be the coyote whisperer—the guy who can always find a coyote and unfailingly bend its will with expert calling. But not that day.

Some days, memories and photos are the only things we bring back from a hunt.

I've been hunting long enough to have encountered numerous days like this, but my young friend's experience isn't nearly as deep. It is a valuable lesson for him and a good reminder for me that it's important to find a healthy way to accept the losses and the wins that happen in all shooting sports. It's easy to have an unsuccessful day hunting, just like it's easy to have a bad day in a shooting competition. Dealing with these losses is much harder than dealing with the days when everything goes right, and we tag out or score high. Beating ourselves up for that poor performance comes naturally and can quickly result in descending into a deep funk.

MANAGING DISAPPOINTMENT AND GRATITUDE

Disappointment is natural, so don't try not to be disappointed. Statements like, "A bad day hunting/competing is better than a good day in the office," suggest someone is trying not to be disappointed. I've been there, said that, and it's not particularly healthy. Don't lie to yourself.

A better approach is to begin by acknowledging our disappointment in the failed harvest or poor score. With the disappointment recognized, give yourself time to process the emotions. Depending on their depth, it may take a few hours or days. Recognize the loss that has occurred; don't just stuff it down. Communicating with another trusted person is key here. If this is a team member or a hunting partner, odds are they'll have encountered the same thing and can readily identify with you.

Taking home hardware at every match is an unrealistic expectation.

After this, it's important to keep the loss in perspective. Yes, there's no meat in the freezer or no trophy on the shelf, but there's always another day to hunt or another shooting competition to participate in. For example, just days after our unsuccessful hunt, I was out with another friend, and we bagged eight coyotes and one fox in a single day. What you've encountered is not the end of the world, but just how life sometimes turns out. Nobody wins every shooting match they enter, and no one succeeds on every hunt. As much as we might like to, we can't script our lives that well. And it wouldn't be good for us if we could.

A major part of keeping perspective is to realize that failure has the potential to mature us much more than success. After all, there's a name for people who never need to deal with failure but have everything handed to them on a silver tray. We call them spoiled brats, and they end up being narcissistic adults.

Lastly, we need to practice gratitude after recognizing and processing emotions and then putting failure into perspective. And fortunately for us, there's a lot to be grateful for in shooting sports. In hunting, it includes the opportunity to spend time in nature. For example, while waiting motionless for a coyote to respond to my calling on our unsuccessful hunt, a chickadee flew in and landed on my rifle scope. It watched me eye-to-eye for a time, creating a magical moment in an otherwise dreary day and creating an event worthy of being thankful for.

In competition, the opportunity to watch and learn from other shooters is something to be grateful for.

An unsuccessful competition may be the opportunity to spend time with friends, learn new techniques, or improve certain skills, such as reading the wind. Even learning what doesn't work through equipment failures is something to be thankful for. Practicing gratitude isn't difficult, as it's simply about recognizing the good things in our lives. And it's always most beneficial to us when communicated to someone else through a spoken word, a written message, or a prayer. Yes, practicing gratitude benefits others and is also one of the best things you can do for yourself.

So here's some advice from an old guy: when the hunt or the shooting match goes sideways, recognize and process the emotions that have bubbled up. Once you've done that, keep the event and everything that happened in perspective. Then practice gratitude.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

ARTICLES FROM AL VOTH

• Common Shooting Myths
• Rimfire Season
• Optics: Parallax and Optical Center
• Optics: Understanding the Optical Triangle
• The Ethical Shot
• Avoid Common Gun Mistakes
• Hunting Drills for Success
• Pursuing Precision
• Rimfire Season
• Airgunning With MDT
• Picatinny Rails Vs. Weaver Rails
• How to Keep Records on Your Firearms
• Four Common Shooting Mistakes Hunters Make

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Al Voth calls himself a "student of the gun." Retired from a 35-year career in law enforcement, including nine years on an Emergency Response Team, he now works as an editor, freelance writer, and photographer, in addition to keeping active as a consultant in the field he most recently left behind—forensic firearm examination. He is a court-qualified expert in that forensic discipline, having worked in that capacity in three countries. These days, when he's not working, you'll likely find him hunting varmints and predators (the 4-legged variety).