It's Complicated

[BSK]

I know exactly what your talking about. Me and my wife were blessed enough to be able to purchase my great grandparents farm back. It's like I am enjoying the management of it more than the actual hunting. My wife was able to harvest her biggest buck to date last muzzleloader season off our land. And that feeling after all that work is amazing.View attachment 117961

Super cool story and picture!

 

[recurve60#]

I wanted to share something that has been on my mind lately, and see if anyone else relates.

When I first started hunting, it was honestly a thrill just to see a deer. Passing a critter, much less anything with hard horns wasn't on the agenda. I seldom ever thought about what a deer was doing outside of the few minutes that I waited, sometime patiently, for a clean shot.

Deer camp in Texas and then Southern Arkansas was often full of 10 or more people crammed into a singlewide trailer on the edge of a timber company lease or a tent on a ranch, and getting the chance to come dragging a deer back into camp was the thrill of a teenage boys life.

Fast forward... a "few" years and I have a place of my own now. I hunt 4 or 5 different properties, but this 40 acres is special... it's mine. I work the land, sow the seeds and hope for rain. I care about it.

Somewhere in all this happening, my wife decided that if I was going to be in the woods from October to December, she might as well learn to hunt so we could spend more time together. That was 10 years ago. Of course, what I didn't know then is that she was going to become a skilled hunter in her own right, more patient and deliberate than me, and for quite a few years that followed I was the one sitting at home entertaining kids while I got pictures from HER from the field.

But now that we have our own place, and we've done the habitat work. The hours, the sweat, and the stands, things are... a little more complicated.

I run 6 different cell cameras on this piece of property, which is also the same property where I lay down my head most nights, and I've come to know these woods and these animals in a complicated way.

Yes, these animals put food on the table, and I still get just as excited seeing brown movement as I did 25 years ago. I haven't lost the passion for hunting even a little bit. In fact, the part after the kill has become so much more important to me. We take care in processing and packaging, and try not to let anything edible go to waste.

But now I've watched these fawns be born. I've seen them slip past predators by mere minutes, and I've watched them nurse. I've seen them at 7 days old and maybe 7 years old. And on an almost daily basis, I get pictures of these deer and can identify many of them with a quick zoom. Some of them have names (Scar, Spots, Buddy) that at first was meant to simply identify them, but has since become endearing. (Whatever happened to old scar anyways? We'll probably never know for sure.)

And we are nearing a point on the property, where it may be time to take a few does out of the herd. Best I can tell, we haven't been losing many to predators, most does have fawns with them, and the bucks are fewer and farther between outside of the rut as the does have firmly planted a territorial briar fence around this place.

And in that I have to admit, it gives me pause. Even a buck that we've watched grow holds a little bit of a special place, not just the maternal aspect. I'm constantly thinking about and probably overthinking what the impacts will be from the trigger decisions we make.

There's such an easy disconnect from the nicely packaged ground protein at Kroger, and these animals out here.

Don't worry - I'm not going vegan anytime soon.

But as I prep our gear for tomorrow's youth hunt, I want my kids to be free to make their own hunting decisions. If my daughter wants to harvest the first doe she see's in the morning, I'll be one proud father. No less proud than if she holds out for a mature buck. Or if she decides not to take anything at all. She'll help me field dress and hang it, and then later she will know where her food came from in a way that so many people don't.

I also know that it's likely I will recognize the deer. I will have a little history with it, and will appreciate it all the more for it.

She probably won't think any of these things. She'll just be an excited kid, and I may even be a little envious of the simplicity.

Like I said - complicated.

Hunt and take them from the land. Pure nourishment in the best form. Feel blessed you can do that from what you earned. Very very few have what you do.

 

[THEdonkey0515]

We got a little 50 arce spot in the middle of no where that my great grandparents built a small house on. Part of The old chimney is all that remains. I grew up listening to my grandmother talking about how they would chop a big tree down across the creek so she could walk across it alone in the dark to go to school when she was just a little girl.

Fast forward 3 generations later its so special to be able to still hunt that land. Plant food plots in the same field my great grandfather grew crops. cross the same creek my grandmother crossed to go to school. We run cams all year around watch the deer grow. I always give a pause when taking a deer from this spot also because it's such a special moment and a special deer.

 

[Gravey]

I don't live on the land I hunt nor do I own it but I'd sure like to try it. For me at this point sitting around the campfire with my buddies is what I enjoy most. If I kill a deer then so be it but pretty selective on what we shoot.

 

[RS]

This post reminds me of a friend that had some land, but never raised livestock. He decided one year that they would buy a young heifer and raise it, then slaughter it for the beef. He and his family became so attached to it, they couldn't bring themselves to kill it, and that cow died of old age.

It definitely can be difficult at times with a deer you have a lot of history with because when you pull the trigger, it's all over.

 

[rukiddin]

Now that I'm exclusively using trail-cameras on video mode, I got a ton of videos of fawns jumping and frolicking in the food plots. Kind of makes me a little sad to think in a couple of years, I just may shoot that playful fawn.

I'm fortunate that I can watch my big food plot from my kitchen window. Watching those fawns bucking and kicking and playing is worth the work alone. Instead of being somewhere and saying "hey look at those fawns playing"….I catch myself thinking "why are you burning that much energy?" Haha.
I've said it ever since we bought our place, I wish everyone had somewhere they could just watch deer be deer undisturbed 365 days a year. It's amazing the different behaviors and habits of deer I've learned that I don't think you'll ever see from a tree stand.
Speaking of shooting does, it's all good though because even though I know "who's who", I also know which does never had a fawn this year and even though I had excellent fawn recruitment this year, there's also 2 or 3 big old does that will be prime candidates for freezer camp. I just wish I knew somewhere that had a big doe contest. Haha

 

[fairchaser]

Great post! Taking a life, any life is a thing. The animal will die anyway and maybe a horrible death but you shortened it suddenly and that carries responsibility. Some remorse should accompany a kill and as humans, we should feel that and realize the cost. For that animal, the cost was everything.

The other side of this is that our lives are also short. Very short. The times we share with our kids is even shorter. One never knows what the future holds. CWD or something else could change the equation.

There are great life lessons to be learned and that's why we hunt. Allow your children and others to learn these lessons, create those memories and enjoy the fruits of their labor before it all disappears. One day it will.

 

[BSK]

Great post! Taking a life, any life is a thing. The animal will die anyway and maybe a horrible death but you shortened it suddenly and that carries responsibility. Some remorse should accompany a kill and as humans, we should feel that and realize the cost. For that animal, the cost was everything.

The other side of this is that our lives are also short. Very short. The times we share with our kids is even shorter. One never knows what the future holds. CWD or something else could change the equation.

There are great life lessons to be learned and that's why we hunt. Allow your children and others to learn these lessons, create those memories and enjoy the fruits of their labor before it all disappears. One day it will.

Fantastic post fairchaser!

 

[Knothead]

Well said, DeerCamp. Great post. And I can especially relate to the part about 'cramming in a trailer at deer camp' in South Arkansas as that is where I grew up. Just curious as to what part of South Arkansas you hunted. I hunted around Sparkman, Arkadelphia, Camden, ElDorado.

 

[durtynacho]

Great post OP. I shared it with my wife (who gives two yugos about hunting but your post touched her).

Every kill I make I always spend 10 seconds or so over the animal in silence. I've never really known where it came from. I don't feel bad about the kills, but I guess I just appreciate the fact that I just took that animals life (as all responsible hunters do). Touching the animals head and having a silent moment always makes the hunt feel very bittersweet.

 

[KevinC]

I wanted to share something that has been on my mind lately, and see if anyone else relates.

When I first started hunting, it was honestly a thrill just to see a deer. Passing a critter, much less anything with hard horns wasn't on the agenda. I seldom ever thought about what a deer was doing outside of the few minutes that I waited, sometime patiently, for a clean shot.

Deer camp in Texas and then Southern Arkansas was often full of 10 or more people crammed into a singlewide trailer on the edge of a timber company lease or a tent on a ranch, and getting the chance to come dragging a deer back into camp was the thrill of a teenage boys life.

Fast forward... a "few" years and I have a place of my own now. I hunt 4 or 5 different properties, but this 40 acres is special... it's mine. I work the land, sow the seeds and hope for rain. I care about it.

Somewhere in all this happening, my wife decided that if I was going to be in the woods from October to December, she might as well learn to hunt so we could spend more time together. That was 10 years ago. Of course, what I didn't know then is that she was going to become a skilled hunter in her own right, more patient and deliberate than me, and for quite a few years that followed I was the one sitting at home entertaining kids while I got pictures from HER from the field.

But now that we have our own place, and we've done the habitat work. The hours, the sweat, and the stands, things are... a little more complicated.

I run 6 different cell cameras on this piece of property, which is also the same property where I lay down my head most nights, and I've come to know these woods and these animals in a complicated way.

Yes, these animals put food on the table, and I still get just as excited seeing brown movement as I did 25 years ago. I haven't lost the passion for hunting even a little bit. In fact, the part after the kill has become so much more important to me. We take care in processing and packaging, and try not to let anything edible go to waste.

But now I've watched these fawns be born. I've seen them slip past predators by mere minutes, and I've watched them nurse. I've seen them at 7 days old and maybe 7 years old. And on an almost daily basis, I get pictures of these deer and can identify many of them with a quick zoom. Some of them have names (Scar, Spots, Buddy) that at first was meant to simply identify them, but has since become endearing. (Whatever happened to old scar anyways? We'll probably never know for sure.)

And we are nearing a point on the property, where it may be time to take a few does out of the herd. Best I can tell, we haven't been losing many to predators, most does have fawns with them, and the bucks are fewer and farther between outside of the rut as the does have firmly planted a territorial briar fence around this place.

And in that I have to admit, it gives me pause. Even a buck that we've watched grow holds a little bit of a special place, not just the maternal aspect. I'm constantly thinking about and probably overthinking what the impacts will be from the trigger decisions we make.

There's such an easy disconnect from the nicely packaged ground protein at Kroger, and these animals out here.

Don't worry - I'm not going vegan anytime soon.

But as I prep our gear for tomorrow's youth hunt, I want my kids to be free to make their own hunting decisions. If my daughter wants to harvest the first doe she see's in the morning, I'll be one proud father. No less proud than if she holds out for a mature buck. Or if she decides not to take anything at all. She'll help me field dress and hang it, and then later she will know where her food came from in a way that so many people don't.

I also know that it's likely I will recognize the deer. I will have a little history with it, and will appreciate it all the more for it.

She probably won't think any of these things. She'll just be an excited kid, and I may even be a little envious of the simplicity.

Like I said - complicated.

Great read! Well spoken!

I know exactly what your talking about. Me and my wife were blessed enough to be able to purchase my great grandparents farm back. It's like I am enjoying the management of it more than the actual hunting. My wife was able to harvest her biggest buck to date last muzzleloader season off our land. And that feeling after all that work is amazing.View attachment 117961

Congratulations on getting the family farm back and your wife's buck! #Memories

 

[chart1300]

I completely understand this conversation. I am a die hard hunter but I have lived on my small piece of heaven for 4 1/2 years now (112 acres) but owned it for 8. I work hard on the habitat to make it the best I can for the deer/ Turkey. I like many others know every deer on my farm , watch doe and fawns all summer and feed protein and mineral to increase health. I am quickly approaching 50 and as I have gotten older the cycle of life has become much more prevalent in my mind. I love to watch them and learn as much as I can about this majestic animal. I find it harder every year to kill the deer I " raise". I almost exclusively kill roaming deer during the rut and I think much more about pulling the trigger. I am so much thankful for the opportunity GOD has given us to chase such a magnificent animal.

 

[DeerCamp]

Well said, DeerCamp. Great post. And I can especially relate to the part about 'cramming in a trailer at deer camp' in South Arkansas as that is where I grew up. Just curious as to what part of South Arkansas you hunted. I hunted around Sparkman, Arkadelphia, Camden, ElDorado.

Our lease was down in Star City.

The picture below is actually kind of a neat story. It was my first "big buck" from that lease. I was hunting a hilltop on a homemade platform stand with a folding chair on top.

Problem was, there had been an ice storm and when I got to the stand, the chair was full of a big chunk of frozen ice. I couldn't get it loose, so I tried sitting on it. Predictably, pants got soaked, every time I move the chair popped and I eventually got frustrated and threw the chair out of the stand and climbed down, still early in the morning.

As I turn to pick the chair up and walk back to camp down the logging road, I heard a noise coming from down the hill and could see antlers coming up through the brush. There I am, standing in the middle of the logging road, in the wide open. The deer was coming FAST.

I raised the rifle and when the deer popped up onto the logging road, he was 7 yards from me. He looked as surprised to see me as I was to see him. He was so close, the scope view was just a brown blur.

So I just rough aimed the rifle and squeezed. He went down immediately. I watched him breathe his last breaths just a few feet away.

Pretty surreal experience for a 17 year old. I still wonder if somehow the noise of that chair hitting the ground didn't make him curious.

 

[gary66]

went to the store today, saw the price of food, especially meat. It became a lot less complicated.

 

[Knothead]

Our lease was down in Star City.

The picture below is actually kind of a neat story. It was my first "big buck" from that lease. I was hunting a hilltop on a homemade platform stand with a folding chair on top.

Problem was, there had been an ice storm and when I got to the stand, the chair was full of a big chunk of frozen ice. I couldn't get it loose, so I tried sitting on it. Predictably, pants got soaked, every time I move the chair popped and I eventually got frustrated and threw the chair out of the stand and climbed down, still early in the morning.

As I turn to pick the chair up and walk back to camp down the logging road, I heard a noise coming from down the hill and could see antlers coming up through the brush. There I am, standing in the middle of the logging road, in the wide open. The deer was coming FAST.

I raised the rifle and when the deer popped up onto the logging road, he was 7 yards from me. He looked as surprised to see me as I was to see him. He was so close, the scope view was just a brown blur.

So I just rough aimed the rifle and squeezed. He went down immediately. I watched him breathe his last breaths just a few feet away.

Pretty surreal experience for a 17 year old. I still wonder if somehow the noise of that chair hitting the ground didn't make him curious.

View attachment 118026

Star City. Yep. I've been there. Dated a girl from there for a short while back in the late 70's.

 

[Willysman]

I wanted to share something that has been on my mind lately, and see if anyone else relates.

When I first started hunting, it was honestly a thrill just to see a deer. Passing a critter, much less anything with hard horns wasn't on the agenda. I seldom ever thought about what a deer was doing outside of the few minutes that I waited, sometime patiently, for a clean shot.

Deer camp in Texas and then Southern Arkansas was often full of 10 or more people crammed into a singlewide trailer on the edge of a timber company lease or a tent on a ranch, and getting the chance to come dragging a deer back into camp was the thrill of a teenage boys life.

Fast forward... a "few" years and I have a place of my own now. I hunt 4 or 5 different properties, but this 40 acres is special... it's mine. I work the land, sow the seeds and hope for rain. I care about it.

Somewhere in all this happening, my wife decided that if I was going to be in the woods from October to December, she might as well learn to hunt so we could spend more time together. That was 10 years ago. Of course, what I didn't know then is that she was going to become a skilled hunter in her own right, more patient and deliberate than me, and for quite a few years that followed I was the one sitting at home entertaining kids while I got pictures from HER from the field.

But now that we have our own place, and we've done the habitat work. The hours, the sweat, and the stands, things are... a little more complicated.

I run 6 different cell cameras on this piece of property, which is also the same property where I lay down my head most nights, and I've come to know these woods and these animals in a complicated way.

Yes, these animals put food on the table, and I still get just as excited seeing brown movement as I did 25 years ago. I haven't lost the passion for hunting even a little bit. In fact, the part after the kill has become so much more important to me. We take care in processing and packaging, and try not to let anything edible go to waste.

But now I've watched these fawns be born. I've seen them slip past predators by mere minutes, and I've watched them nurse. I've seen them at 7 days old and maybe 7 years old. And on an almost daily basis, I get pictures of these deer and can identify many of them with a quick zoom. Some of them have names (Scar, Spots, Buddy) that at first was meant to simply identify them, but has since become endearing. (Whatever happened to old scar anyways? We'll probably never know for sure.)

And we are nearing a point on the property, where it may be time to take a few does out of the herd. Best I can tell, we haven't been losing many to predators, most does have fawns with them, and the bucks are fewer and farther between outside of the rut as the does have firmly planted a territorial briar fence around this place.

And in that I have to admit, it gives me pause. Even a buck that we've watched grow holds a little bit of a special place, not just the maternal aspect. I'm constantly thinking about and probably overthinking what the impacts will be from the trigger decisions we make.

There's such an easy disconnect from the nicely packaged ground protein at Kroger, and these animals out here.

Don't worry - I'm not going vegan anytime soon.

But as I prep our gear for tomorrow's youth hunt, I want my kids to be free to make their own hunting decisions. If my daughter wants to harvest the first doe she see's in the morning, I'll be one proud father. No less proud than if she holds out for a mature buck. Or if she decides not to take anything at all. She'll help me field dress and hang it, and then later she will know where her food came from in a way that so many people don't.

I also know that it's likely I will recognize the deer. I will have a little history with it, and will appreciate it all the more for it.

She probably won't think any of these things. She'll just be an excited kid, and I may even be a little envious of the simplicity.

Like I said - complicated.

Well said my fellow hunter. I'm at the point in my life that I just want to go hunting and not really wanting to kill anything. I just want to see them and hope they go by my son and grandson. It really excites me to hear a shot from their direction and wait for the call.

 

[Chiflyguy]

We got a little 50 arce spot in the middle of no where that my great grandparents built a small house on. Part of The old chimney is all that remains. I grew up listening to my grandmother talking about how they would chop a big tree down across the creek so she could walk across it alone in the dark to go to school when she was just a little girl.

Fast forward 3 generations later its so special to be able to still hunt that land. Plant food plots in the same field my great grandfather grew crops. cross the same creek my grandmother crossed to go to school. We run cams all year around watch the deer grow. I always give a pause when taking a deer from this spot also because it's such a special moment and a special deer.

You sir are the type of deer hunter I like.
You've got a huge connection to the land you hunt.

 

[Snake]

I know exactly what your talking about. Me and my wife were blessed enough to be able to purchase my great grandparents farm back. It's like I am enjoying the management of it more than the actual hunting. My wife was able to harvest her biggest buck to date last muzzleloader season off our land. And that feeling after all that work is amazing.View attachment 117961

Nice buck !

 

[csi-tech]

My uncle was an avid hunter. Everything from caribou to moose, elk and sitka deer. Put the gun down one day. I'm not there yet but I never faulted him.

 

[megalomaniac]

My uncle was an avid hunter. Everything from caribou to moose, elk and sitka deer. Put the gun down one day. I'm not there yet but I never faulted him.

I think many pure hunters eventually get to that point out of respect for the animals, even though it may not be in the best interest of the herd. I'm not there yet either!