By Bryce Nielson
I
was up before daylight this morning. As I watched the daylight start to fill in
I was thinking about deer hunting. The light filled in and was soon there was
enough to shoot. This is the time of day when the bucks, who have been out all
night, start to move into cover. I stood on the deck listening for the first
shots of the opening morning. I heard nothing, no people in red on the ridges,
no sense of excitement. School wasn’t even let out early on Friday.
My
thoughts slipped back to the 1960’s ( hell, I am starting to sound like the
Muddled Male and the Unmuddled Mathematician) and I thought about the 1964 deer
hunt. I had waited for this hunt for my whole life for this day after I turned
sixteen. I had always watched my Dad return to Salina where he had grown up to
hunt deer. I had never been able to go until now. Deer hunting was serious
business. He needed meat to feed his five hungry kids and now I could add to
the larder. My rifle was a war surplus Springfield 03-A3 bolt action 30.06. I
had been working on it all year trying to sportirize it after he bought it
through the mail for $29.95. It came wrapped in Cosmoline. It took forever to
get all the grease off and cut down the old military stock. I removed a lot of
wood and when I was through it was light, with open sights and kicked like a
mule.
I
have hunted deer every year since. After I left home the strategy was still the
same. Don’t worry about “horns” because you can’t eat them and knock down the
first buck you see. After I had a family that philosophy continued. Fast
forward 50 years. Now my wife and daughters don’t eat deer meat. My grandsons,
however, love and request “delicious deer”. They are the reason I will continue
to hunt. Their Dad doesn’t hunt so I wan them to have the opportunity to
experience what I did as a boy. If they like it and continue, great, but it is
fine if they don’t. I will understand.
As
for deer hunting today things are drastically different. The big family tent
camps with everyone from grandpa to the baby standing around a smoky fire and
sleeping on the cold ground are gone. The death mall came when Wildlife
Resources limited the number of permits busted up the State into 26 areas that
you have to draw on.
Today’s
deer camps are different and new family traditions are being made. Trailers
and toy haulers of all sizes, OHV’s and magnum four wheel drive jacked up
trucks, big screen TV’s, little yapping dogs running all over and the kids are
having a blast, making memories. As far as killing anything, that is incidental
and just causes issues with cleaning, skinning, processing and then (uck) eating
it. The point is, it has become a family event with the same core values that I
had as a kid.
Do
I pine for the old days? Not really. It is a new generation and they need to do
things that match their perspective. Besides, I find deer hunting much easier
on my side by side Ranger.
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