This weekend marks my 34th firearms deer season. It’ll begin at sunrise on Saturday in a blind with my 19-year-old daughter, Annabel, sitting next to me. The evolution of my experience as a hunter, specifically the reasons why I rise hours before dawn to head to the woods, has changed drastically. Observation and education are now my main drivers, as I look to pass this tradition on.
When I began hunting in the early 1990s, we pieced our gear together with whatever we could find and afford. I wore the same clothes hunting I shoveled driveways in for cash to save up for arrows at the local archery shop. My bow was bought at a garage sale. My shotgun was a second-hand 20-gauge from a store named Fetla’s Trading Post, which one fella described as the only place he knew of where you could buy an M-16 and a gallon of milk. It fired slugs from a smoothbore. They flew like knuckleballs.
In those early years, I was desperate to kill a deer. There may have been dreams of a monster buck wearing my tag, but any deer would do. It took four years before I finally killed my first deer, a yearling doe. The pride I felt was immense. I did it on my own. On the ground with an old-fashioned side hammer .50-caliber muzzleloader.
Back then, you had to take your deer to check stations to register them. After years of hanging out at the check station watching deer after deer roll in, it was finally my turn. With my chest puffed out a little, I stood next to my uncle’s pickup truck while we waited our turn. Hunters strolled by all the truck beds to see what was being checked in. Most guys gave me a slap on the back and an “atta boy.” A few just scoffed at the small doe, but I’ll never forget the deflating feeling of my grand accomplishment being dismissed by one man who shook his head and chuckled.
I lost count many years ago of how many deer I’ve killed. To say hunting became more than a hobby to me would be a vast understatement. Much of my career has involved hunting in some capacity. I’ve successfully hunted 36 states and plan to have all 50 completed in the next few years. The evolution of my passion has taken me from determined above all else to kill a deer, to wanting the biggest deer, to now wanting nothing more than seeing the passion for wildlife grow in others. Especially those closest to me.
Deer hunting has changed so much in the last 30 years. Land that used to be accessible with a handshake is almost all leased now. Often by out-of-state hunters who only show up for a week or two a year. So many locals are left without private property to access because they can’t afford to best the competition, causing overcrowding on our public lands. This is just one of the many reasons why any government attempts to reduce our public land acreage must be met with intense opposition.
The last couple weeks of bow season are glory days at this stage of hunting life. When rifle season starts, my goal shifts from personally taking a buck to helping others find success. Last year, Annabel took her first buck, and this year she is even more excited to go. Seeing the excitement in my daughter to go deer hunting is easily the greatest trophy of my hunting career.
We’re having a feast at our house the night before opening day and will gather with others for breakfast before heading to the blind on Saturday. A lot of the discomforts we dealt with years ago are gone, as Annabel and I will be sitting in a box blind outfitted with comfy chairs and a table for my thermos of coffee and bag of donuts. It’s not the hike across a vast, broken western landscape, where my soul yearns to be with a rifle in hand, but it is the common scenario of the day.
We’ve allowed technology to infiltrate nearly all aspects of our lives and hunting is no different. Advanced firearms, better performing ammunition, warmer clothes, blinds, gun rests, trail cameras and more; all making it easier to kill a deer at a time when many regions have more deer than ever in recorded history. So while hunting may have become easier, the basic tenants of why we do it – food, tradition, conservation, and a connection to nature – remain the same.
This season a lot of new, and young hunters will be in the field becoming hunters. While the goal of most is to take a big buck, most hunters won’t. They’ll take deer that mean a lot to them though, and for some, they’ll take deer that will be their first. My ask of you is no matter what the deer looks like, whether it’s a giant buck or a yearling doe, celebrate the animal and the hunter who took it. Your reaction could stay with them the rest of their life.
