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Thoughts on deer hunts past, future

We have another deer season coming up again Nov. 15. I started deer hunting at 14 in 1959 with my dad and my brother. It was a whole different way of hunting than we hunt today. I had a hand-me-down Winchester lever action .32 Special, no scope in those days, just the old iron sights. We also did not have the quality clothes and boots we have today. There were no deer blinds, and we did not bait. One used woodsman’s skills of finding deer trails, rubs, scrapes and trying to sit where two trails crossed one another. We also did a lot of deer drives back then, after posting till 9-10 a.m., we would gather and do a number of drives that once in a while produced a buck, but lots of sweat. It was a fun time with all the gang hunting like that.

Today, hunting has evolved into hauling out a couple hundred pounds of bait and sitting in a warm, insulated deer blind. Young people today do not know anything of the hunting of the past, just comfort. These young hunters would never hunt the way we used to, without bait and a warm blind. It took a lot of fortitude to sit out in the cold on a log against a tree so you could lean back against the tree. I remember my brother showing me how to look for a large spruce that had limbs all the way down to the ground. He would go in and cut the limbs out and make a little hide away inside the tree. If nothing else, if it rained or snowed you did not get wet or covered with snow. We shot bucks that were just moving around naturally, not looking for bait piles. There was also no such thing as “Oh, that is not big enough, let him go;” we shot a spike or fork and was proud of it.

The last couple years of hunting — and I am a baiter also — I have gotten to where I really did not want to hunt any more. I had lost my edge, and I could not figure it out for myself. Others around me would say, “What is the matter with you — you going to give up hunting?”

So, this year I am going to go back to my past and hunt the “old-fashion” way a bit. Yes, I will still have my baited blind at camp, but I am going to spend more time just going out and sitting on a log against a tree. I want to just sit and try and wait for a buck to walk by me, either looking for a doe or going to bed down. I want to see if I can still find a good spot to hunt with deer sign, rubs and scrapes. I had a friend tell me, “You will never get a buck without bait today!” I do not believe that. There are still many places that the average hunter will not go into — too dirty — but that is where the big bucks hide from hunters.

I may not get a buck but that is OK; I have not shot one since 2009, anyway. I do not need to kill a deer to have a good season any more, just being out in the great outdoors, enjoying life, and getting a lot of satisfaction for just participating.

I have not killed a deer with my bow since 2002, I now just shoot them with a video camera, sort of “catch and release!” I have shown my videos to others and I have had up to three different bucks at the bait and I did not shoot. I just love to watch them interact with one another. They all say, “Why did you not shoot that eight-point?” Plain truth, I did not want to shoot. I enjoy looking at these videos in the winter of all my memories of letting deer go.

I do like venison to eat, and the sausage is great, but I just do not know if I want to kill deer anymore. Anyone else out there having these thoughts and experiences?

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