Hunting Sense

While trying to explain my desire to hunt to non-hunters, there is one sticking point that is hard for them to wrap their mind around.That sticking point is the very final act of the hunt: The actual killing of the animal. And while trying to explain that, I have to admit, my views on it are so hard to explain, I can see where it would be a huge contradiction to anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about.

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DISCLAIMER: The following posts may be offensive to some hunting ideals. I state upfront that it is only my opinion, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of your regular blogger.

Reading this post may cause: Increased blood pressure, headache, bouts of outrage, numbness, intense dislike, heart or kidney failure, and a desire to thoroughly throttle ‘the wife’. If, at any time, you find yourself suffering from any of these afflictions, please discontinue reading immediately, take a deep breath, and go for a walk…except in the case of heart/kidney failure. For those, see your damned doctor–something is seriously wrong.

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When we think about safety while hunting, what normally comes to mind? Weapon safety? Treestand safety? Both of these springs to mind immediately for me, but there is another that is equally as important. What is it, you ask? Safely venturing into your hunting terrain and making it back out in one piece.

That may not sound like such a huge feat, but it can become one very easily for those who fail to respect Mother Nature and how unforgiving she can be. Sometimes we can forget that, especially when we have hunted in the same woods for years. But no matter how familiar we are with an area, we can’t afford to let our guard down.

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Yes, I know it isn’t the most original title, but it works, right?

My blogroll is now limited to fifteen links, so I have decided to add this new category and link to it at the bottom of my blogroll. Here I will be making posts adding anyone who isn’t listed and adding other sites I find interesting.

I apologize to those of you who don’t appear on the regular blogroll any longer. I figured the best bet was to do it alphabetically, but I may decide later on to rotate the links out with other ones from time to time. We’ll have to see what happens.

Over the years, I’ve hunted both private and public lands. As more and more of the private land was no longer available for hunting, public land allowing access became much more important. Public hunting land was the always-there-to-fall-back-on option. And then, I started seeing the available public land start to slowly disappear as it was sold off or closed to hunting activities.

The fact that private land is sold off and developed into housing additions, business, or other types of uses that make hunting unavailable is a sad but expected reality as the population grows. The loss of public land for hunting, though, is another thing. It is the one thing that in my mind should be guaranteed to be there. It is what the government should make every effort necessary to insure it never disappears.

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Hunting is something I have always loved to do and bear hunting is something I have always wanted to do. The closest I have came to getting to hunt bear is looking for them in Arkansas during deer season when bear season was open as well. I think that may be the closest I’ll be able to get to actually going, as far as my wife is concerned.

For a person who is fairly new to hunting, she is very open to the idea and concepts. She encourages me to teach the kids. She even requests a nice supply of venison and moose to be put in the freezer for the winter. But when it comes to hunting bears, that is where she has yet to entertain the notion.

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As hunters, we put a lot of trust into our tree stands. We trust that the manufacturer has built them right, that they are strong and sturdy, and that they will hold our weight for countless hours while we sit in them waiting on on the game of our choice to walk by. All of this without worrying about it failing and us coming crashing to the ground.

All tree stands come with a recommended weight limit and I’m sure that most of us pay careful attention to it when choosing which stand we buy. But how often do we take into consideration not only our weight, but the weight of us and all of our gear? And by gear, I’m talking clothes, boots, weapon, and anything else we carry with us into the stand. I know I’ve never really considered it before, but I normally go for the heaviest weight limit rated stand just because it makes me feel safer in general.

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What if a city opened areas for the bowhunting of deer, and no hunters came? That is exactly what happened in Clive, Iowa last year, and they want to change that.

It seems that hunting within the city limits of Clive last year, and even though ten applications were picked up, zero hunters participated. It couldn’t have been what city officials, or residents who requested the city manage the deer population, had hoped for. This year, they have made some changes and added additional land to try to increase interest and entice hunters to hunt.

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Recently, we’ve been making a lot of excursions into the woods and meadows behind my mother-in-law’s house out on the farm. The farm is made up of twenty-eight acres and there is a wide variety of habitat between it and the surrounding property. The farm itself is made up of mature pines from an abandoned Christmas tree farm, meadows, softwood stands, apple trees, and a wet weather creek. The property on either side is planted in soybeans while the back turns into thick bush.

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Like many hunters probably have, I first started deer hunting using a gun. It wasn’t until I had been hunting for quite a few years that I picked up a bow and arrows. At first, it was just something different to do, but over the years, it has increasingly become my main method of hunting.

As much as I enjoy hunting with a rifle, I have even found myself leaving it behind during gun season in favor of my bow. Like many other times, I’ve recently found myself wondering why that is. Many people would say your chances are much better with a gun than with a bow, and at times I would have to agree. So what is it that draws me to using a bow instead of my rifle? What exactly is the allure of archery hunting?

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“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Lord Acton in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887.

Like me, this may be what you think of when you read about a British Columbia proposal on deregulating parts the commercial hunting industry and turning regulation of the rest over to an industry-led board. I hate thinking such things when talking about hunters, but no matter the nobleness of intentions, too much power can change people and whatever good they wanted to accomplish. All you have to do is take a look at politicians for proof of this.

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This past weekend, four out of five members of our family stayed at my mother’s house, taking care of the farm, while the fifth was gone to a horse show. While we were there, Cliff took our boys for a walk in the back forest–a lovely diversion for them and some quiet time for me!

He showed them deer trails and the places where deer had bedded down, and while breaking off branches from the pines to make the going a little easier, he explained that they could be creating paths deer might use because it was now easier going for them, as well. He explained that, just like humans, deer like to take the path of least resistance. All very cool information, but it got me thinking.

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Outdoorsmen love to tell stories, and Buckmasters knows it. The best part is, they are going to award you for sharing them. That’s right; you could win a brand new Thompson/Center Omega Z5 .50 caliber muzzleloader valued at over $500 for doing what you already do, sharing your hunting stories with others! How sweet is that?

I know I have a ton of stories I could share, but, unfortunately, being in Canada I’m not eligible. But for all you hunters out there in the US, what are you waiting for? I know I’m going to be passing this along to my family down in Oklahoma.

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With summer temperatures soaring and trips to area lakes and beaches at their peak, thinking about hunting season may not be at the forefront of most peoples minds. It’ll be upon us before you know it, though. And if you need to take a Hunter Education Course before heading afield, then you need to start planning now to be ready for opening day.

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