By James Moffitt
Photos by James Moffitt
Hunting season has looked a lot different over the last couple of years. My wife and I welcomed our first child last summer, and the rush of new parenting has changed how, where, and when I can hunt. This, on top of the constant shuffle of gaining and losing access to hunting spots, has made scouting critical to me.
One of our new family traditions has become loading up my wife (and now baby) after work, getting Slurpees, and going for a drive to scout and glass for deer. It’s helped me find new leases, explore new Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), and identify target hunting spots. It also helps encourage some car naps for the tiny terror and gives my wife a chance to just relax for a little while.
Virginia is interesting due to its deceptive size, scope, and diverse terrain. As an adult-onset hunter, I never really realized this, but as I’ve pushed further and further away from known hunting spots, it’s crazy to me how many little pockets there are to explore. From our numerous WMAs to private lands and leases, the options seem endless and borderline overwhelming at times.
What I’ve learned—about both parenting and finding places to hunt—so far is to break everything into chunks. Recently, I’ve been focused on helping my daughter learn to walk without trust-falling off the playmat, and on choosing different types of terrain each year to refine specific hunting skills. Last year was all about just finding time to get into the woods, but this year, I’m able to see the forest for the trees again and have been focusing on waterway-based bucks.
What this means for the summer is time in the truck with my family and bribery snacks, putting on some miles to find new spots and access points. I used to build scouting up into what I saw on the hunting shows: a pack, binoculars, miles of walking, sitting, and watching, full-day (or weekend) endeavors. I’m not knocking that style by any means, but frankly, I don’t have the time for it right now.
Instead, I’ve found a way to cover some ground while keeping my newborn comfortable and spending some time with both her and my spouse. We’re using these opportunities to explore public lands and WMAs that I’ve never been to before, show our daughter the wonders of Virginia’s wildlife, and spend some quality time together.
The remarkable part is that it has been valuable. You can spend all day on a mapping app looking at properties, but nothing comes close to ground truthing what you think you believe. Beyond that, I’ve been able to expand my hunting range and have created some great opportunities to knock on some doors and ask for permission.
I’ve been able to check out boat ramps, watch some fields come to life during the waning hours of the evening, and see deer, turkeys, and other wildlife emerge. I’ve a theory that being in the truck makes the wildlife more comfortable, and we’ve been able to witness some incredible moments while spending time together. Hunting is no longer a solo pursuit for me, which has been an adjustment, to say the least, but it’s a pill easier swallowed with a blue raspberry Slurpee.
James Moffitt is the founder of TrailHead Creative, a branding, and content agency based in Richmond. He’s an avid outdoorsman, hunter, and angler and takes any opportunity he can to spend time outdoors with his family and Labrador retriever, Huxley.
