HUNTIN' ATTITUDE

                                         Across the country several hunting seasons are in full swing; bow season began this week in Missouri.
  

Many folks share this lifestyle and believe in the traditions of our heritage to put food on the table with their own hands and tools, be it a trowel or a rifle.  Hunting is a personal choice with family tradition as integral as using a fork. 

This is revised from one of my first posts.  It's always a challenge to re-read and publish to current readers but the "attitude" about this deserves a repost...  Now since my work is at my desk, if I chose to go hunting, I'd grab my bow, a snack and 2-3 bottles of ice water and off I'd go...  But damnit. I broke my ankle last April and I'm just not capable of tackling the hiking and timber.  I's 'makin' very slow progress but that's just the way it is.  This year the old saying 'playin it by ear' really applies.  

     The reality is that all hunters have life to deal with in lieu of going hunting like we want. TV shows and articles make it look so easy.  For the show's sake of course they don't show the guy or wife doing their laundry or taking out the trash or fixing a clogged sink in lieu of hunting.  Or when someone gets hurt or sick and must stay home.  We envision perfect hunts, killing that monster buck or "patterning" the deer or fish or shooting up a huge flock of birds.   Just to show off skill.  Ya gotta have zzz's so if the chores or family won't or can't stop their demands, it aint gonna happen.  The woods will wait.  The mundane but real everyday stuff has to be done. This is the reality check what those hunting pros don't show.  That would detract from their drama.  I'm not saying making money hunting is wrong as long as those so inclined do acknowledge the truth about real sportsmanship to respect all God's outdoors, with vigilance.  Hunting does not need more drama - nature provides its own to me.  However, my husband and me do enjoy watching and comparing notes with some of the more reality hunting shows, it's one way to kill a lazy, rainy Sunday. 
     There are thousands of hunters in this country, most have the best intentions and best sportsmanlike attitude towards traditional hunting.  Some people do not.  (Those bastards're called poachers.)  Obviously those ass-holes have the attitude (and truly believe) they are above the law the rest of us adhere to and respect.  It f'n sucks they give legit, honorable hunters a bad rep.  I won't waste any more time here on it, makes my blood boil.  Thieves and poachers are a harsh reality; I'm sure most typical hunters are as adamant against them as I am - enough said. 
      I've heard the term, 'leave it as you found it' by proponents of environmentalists, some who border on extreme, it is not new, although now it's merely politically correct.  Most avid hunters I know learned as youngsters to leave well enough alone as 'the old man' use to say.  So that as a matter of course, the implication of 'don't touch' undermines their traditional upbringing to the tune of a nag over their shoulder. Just someone else's bossiness.
  

There's the aspect of "patterning".... I say, "whatever"... It's my belief those critters will do only what they must to survive. The idea that a proclaimed professional hunter or fisherman can outwit all wild game by their educated guesses, subsequently outweighing the odds that stamp the rules of wild animal behavior is pointless ego. Maybe not you so much, but I see men who just gotta pretend they rule. Then their ego usually gets the better of them. It's easy to understand that rationale, in the excitement of the hunt and chasing the quarry. But Nature rules, not humans.
The point is, wildlife knows no man-made category or definitions of tactics. And that is why I believe hunting is true sportsmanship.  Hunters must show respect for folks' property and the environment - it's an attitude - a lifestyle. It's not simply a weekend venture out of boredom to appease the wife and quell the kids' restlessness.  It's the core of grassroots folks across America.  Sometimes in the midst of being surrounded with those haughty men vested with hunting skills and maybe more knowledge of the tools of the hunting trade, I smirk to myself a bit, I'm a "woman" hunter.  Huntress? nah, just a hunter.  But not to be arrogant - hunters shouldn't brag.

When we succumb to boasting, that's the moment Mother Nature throws a thunderstorm at us in retaliation, just to give us a taste of good ol' humble pie. " Ah ha! Take that you braggart!" She sneers with thunder, then she laughs in the wind and finally smiles, letting us bask in her brilliant sunshine in the storm's aftermath.  Every hunter who takes on the challenge must respect the weather - it's the uncontrollable factor - and survival depends on common sense and paying attention.

About shooting, I'm no expert, but I can't believe there is any differentiation with male or female shooters regarding a person's aim or knowledge. I learned to aim by plenty of misses and now I can shoot a shotgun better than some men, jokingly, meaning primarily my husband, since I've successfully killed turkeys mid-flight, however he has not.  Although he can kill a deer jumpin' through tall weeds that we bumped walking through our mini deer drive - I can't.

Now I give credit where it's due; my husband taught me to shoot a rifle well.  I knew the pattern of the shotgun but had no experience with a rifle.  So he set up a target on a hay bale and within minutes and two dozen .22 rounds later, I was shooting precisely where he hollered at me to shoot, 2 o'clock, 6 o'clock, etc.  I was right proud I learned so fast and it was fun!  I soon had the chance to put it to the test.

   

over ten years ago...

     After I got off work I decided to try deer hunting alone.  My huntin' attitude was more naive than nervous.  I drove an hour to the property which I had permission from the rancher to hunt.   His Hereford herd was grazing across the road in the fields of the main farm. I walked around the alfalfa field to the backside of the lush 80 acres of the section we called The Pear tree Orchard. There I waited in the timber, standing beside a slender oak tree, binoculars in hand.  My patience paid off, early dusk, sure enough two does came out of the ditch timber some 200 yards down the slope.  I leaned the rifle into the sturdy oak with my left arm,   I steadied my shooting arm firmly against the bark, tucked the stock into my shoulder and centered the cross-hairs on the doe's vitals.  I took a breath.  I pulled the trigger.  The doe jumped up in reflex and landed in the ditch.  

     The shot was perfect; through the heart and both lungs. I don't brag or presume that was such expertise because I didn't understand bullet physics (of the arc) but moreover I had patience to take the necessary moment to hold my breath and, center the cross-hairs on its breadbasket.  I would've been very distraught to have a wounded deer to find or worse scenario, to lose her in the woods at night.  My heart was racing, pounding out of my chest.  Being that I was alone I had to drive to my farmer friend's house to fetch the son.  They both followed me in the 4wheeler to help haul the big doe out of the holler.  They knew it was my first deer ever and generously helped me gut her.  And with a final heave-ho, she was loaded into my truck.  
     I thanked the men and headed home with my first deer in the bed of my pickup.  Mr. Hunt and his wife were damn near as excited as me.  I was exuberant!  On the drive home I recalled my grandpa teaching me to hold my breath and to hold the rifle steady as a rock. I had adjusted the scope to pinpoint her vitals.   Ed was very proud he'd taught me to shoot too. We later estimated it was a 250 yard shot.

   

                                                      Men and women, it's exciting to come home with game and just as frustrating not to. In our hunts, there's been plenty of both.  I don't have the confidence to shoot at a running deer.  I've been the 'closer' more than once with my husband - I can't tolerate the thought of wounding any animal - do not like that tactic - in my heart it is inhumane. Standing in a field, Ed's arm is faster, steadier than mine cradling his .06 so with an opportunity of a deer bounding away within a few feet rare as a blue coon, he's the designated shooter.  I'm just too clumsy in those tall weeds.

                                                      Some hunters lack the guts to openly fess-up that we have a duty to maintain our wildlife quality. They deem it weaker than what society says being a man dictates. The fact is: hunting is not a man-thing, we're all responsible sports folks, all duty bound to take care of our environment.  

                                                       Love of the outdoors is experienced.  It takes first-hand experience to find your way in the woods at night, stepping around sticks and fallen down trees, not to trip and land on your ass in a thorny brush pile. And with more experience, I learned to walk like my Indian predecessors so not to spook the deer I knew were there in the woods along with me.   Indians thrived by stillhunting.  Our natural instinct is to walk heel to toe; stepping toe first is more difficult, a very much slower step, a methodical motion, producing less footfall than heel-toe steps. 

                                                         Stillhunting

     "Stillhunting, is commonly mis-understood as to what it is and just how to begin it. It's following deer, maybe not waiting on the stump or in a blind for your deer to come quickly to you. It can be one of the most rewarding deer hunting experience you can do. It can also be the most annoying, since it is an art which requires you to slow everything everything - your walking gait, your breath and your view. Nevertheless the payoffs rise above the search for your greater enjoyment of nature itself.    As you are going to make sound, a hunter. However, so do other game and deer. So does anything breathing and living in the-woods. What you want to prevent is making the rhythmic gait a hunter makes when he's working, usually after a deer, or doing anything he can to be silent, when he doesn't yet see one." 

     "Because the side of your foot may be more variable in its a reaction to the softwood twigs and deadfall underfoot - like deer, whose hooves make relatively gentle experience of the forest floor, walking toe-heel is the way to go. Walking heel-toe creates a heavy, hard step - a step. Walking heel bottom, take a few steps, pause, and, utilizing the soft-focus described above, take in the environment, in a healthy way. Above everything else, in case you find yourself entering in to a constant, rhythmic running, break it up. Additionally you need to avoid any clearly individual sounds sounds via anything man-made, such as for example metal or hard plastic. Bottom-line - brushing past a pine stump is o.k. Marching in cadence is not, or is that canteen banging against your hunting rifle strap buckle."
     It makes less vibration and takes precision and balance.  You can stop your step if you feel a stick under the toes or ball, preventing that Homer Simpson "doh!!"when a stick cracks under your boot.  I've sneaked up on more deer and turkeys stepping toe-heel than heel-toe.
Obviously walking softly enough not to hear your own footsteps is learned. This isn't bragging, it's real knowledge. It's the child in all of us playing Indian and feeling nature in our bones, listening to the crackle of leaves underfoot and grimacing if you step on a stick. You can swear all the animals can hear its crack...  they run. They won. You lost. Try again.  
 Read the Wind, at Least Try
     Finally, head into the wind. Yes, this really is rule 1. But many predators, particularly those used to remaining in a relatively protected hunting blind, forget this primary principle. I've stood with my bow pulled on a buck 10 yards away, with the buck clearly attempting to figure out exactly what the heck this would-be rambo was around - simply to watch it spring to life when the wind changes, and thanksgiving was a little, uh thinner that year. 

Don't even bother still hunting on blustery days, without prevailing winds.

The bottom line, when you're hunting deer in this manner, will be to get used to is slowing yourself down, for hours at a time, and softening your concentration to 'deer hunt' for action - not deer. 
But act like, see like, deer, be more a part of where you're, and you will reap many advantages - whether you take a deer or not..

     I know how after hiking in the woods as a kid, all my life longing to really get the chance to see a deer just stand there in the trees watin their home.  I explored far as I dared to go, intensely fascinated, the woods pulled me into its deepest recesses and what seemed so far from home to a young girl, giving me a real thrill in my belly better than a roller coaster!  But in reality, the adventure was only about a half mile.... but since then plotted a few maps and distances in my hunts, that's still a fair distance to hike in deep timber.  Few gun hunters do it. That's how I knew I could bow hunt. It's not everyone's belief but it's the core of me - it's the chase and that skill to success.   the good Lord's hand that guides you and me to their habitat to kill a deer or other game in the midst of the chase.  But the real heart-pounding excitement is all about because He has blessed us with . Then I feel honored to hunt in His presence, humbled by His guidance.

     I'm glad to learn of different lifestyles, it's an honor that other hunters are interested to read my blog. Obviously you follow my stories and respect your environment same as me.  Above all, guns being the very basis of hunting, we must protect the 2nd Amendment to maintain our rights, family traditions, being a privilege to hunt in this vast and beautiful country., bless your hunts with laughs, pride and joy and filled tags, carrying on the best tradition that Americans enjoy.  Good luck huntin'!!