Hunting requires many things. It requires being familiar with the woods, swamps and fields and all the flora and fauna therein. It requires familiarity with various kinds of weapons including a variety of firearms, bows and crossbows.
It requires a knowledge of the weather, camouflage, seasonal changes, legal constraints and ethical behavior. And hunting requires that you take the life of a beautiful and impressive animal.
Of all the things required, the taking of a life is the one thing that is never fun, never relaxing, never fulfilling and always profound.
Deer, wild hogs and turkey are equipped with natural defenses and traits that have evolved over millions of years. In Fair Chance hunting, the odds of harvesting an animal are only as good as one’s skills in bettering the animal’s survival behavior. It takes me around 40 hours of time hunting in the woods to harvest each animal.
The hunting I have done required months of prep work including practice and fine tuning of the weapons to be used, planting food plots, and walking the fields and woods to see critter signs and patterns of behavior. It requires weeks of getting stands set up and secured, hunting gear dialed in and blinds built.
And on the day of the hunt, pre-dawn hours are spent getting dressed, scent controlled, hiking into position, getting set up and then waiting for prey, while remaining completely motionless for hours at a time. It is not unusual to remain absolutely motionless for 5 hours at a stretch. The discipline required to do that matches any discipline I needed in the sports in which I have been involved.
When the prey is first spotted, it has to come into a position where a clean shot can be taken. “Clean shot” is a euphemism for a nearly immediately fatal shot. Up until the moment one pulls the trigger, everything has been somewhat academic and a challenge to one’s skills in the woods. The moment one pulls the trigger, the entire situation changes.
When one pulls the trigger, more than anything, one has to make sure the shot is clean.
No animal wants to die.
When an animal is shot, it tries to flee. If you have made a clean shot, that’s not possible, but life doesn’t cease the moment a shot is made. You will likely watch the struggle as the wounded animal goes from this life to the next. Sometimes the animal will bound into a thicket or beyond view.
In these cases, one waits. After around 20 to 30 minutes, you can start the tracking to locate would should then be a lifeless carcass. In those cases where an animal gives up it’s life in plain view, I find it a very difficult thing to witness.
But one has to watch to make sure the animal doesn’t struggle and move off. Watching life pass away from a beautiful animal is profound, sad and sobering. I confess that I have broken down in tears more than once when I watched a beautiful buck or doe give up its life. It is awful and the memories haunt me to this day.
There is a period of time after the shot that hunting is not a fun thing to do. It is profound and moving and deeply impactful.
And those are emotions that make up a key part of the wisdom that comes from being this kind of provider. But I am always reminded that we are all just passing through this world and I will give up my life someday before too long. That’s the bargain we make.
I always give thanks and say a prayer to the great spirit for the blessings of food this animal will provide to me, my family and my friends.
Then the truly hard, difficult, sweat generating, ass-busting work begins.
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