A Record Month!!!

First off,  I just want to say a thank you to all of you.  August was the best month ever for visitors and the amount of content y’all were reading– about 20% more than the previous record back in April and double what it was a year ago.  It is getting so I have at least 200 readers a day, and a growing number of you are coming back for more after the first visit. I really appreciate your appreciation.   Feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you are thinking.  I’d love to hear from you.

Smokepole Back from the Dead!

I’m just in from trying out a new-to-me muzzleloader.  It is a 50 cal caplock Hawken, quite probably a Lyman Deerstalker that got some customizations.  It lay for a while uncleaned in the hands of the previous owner, so it took quite an effort to bring it back to shooting condition.   After the rain stopped, and before O.T. came by for a chat, I was putting it through it’s paces.  More on that later.

Jaegdenfreude?

I can remember a time when life shifted dramatically at the arrival of the Cabela’s Fall Catalog. July and August were a frenzy. I was out every night practicing my bow, practicing with my climbing stand, sorting the mounting pile of camo clothing. Then the fall hunting stuff would start showing up at Walmart, and I would spend endless lunch hours there and at the other sporting goods stores looking for bargains. All in all, I spent more time shopping for the Bow Opener than I did for Christmas.

That’s changed a lot over the years. I’ve changed. Walmart has changed. I went into a Dick’s Sporting Goods a while back and discovered they had zero hunting stuff, zero fishing stuff, zero camping stuff. What is up with that? Walmart? Fuggetit! The ones by me put all their hunting stuff on closeout 5 years ago. All the smaller Mom and Pop stores are gone. All I have is BassPro– heck of a store, but the prices are astronomical.

That is okay. I do not need all that much anymore. The only reason why I am complaining is that so much of what used to get me cranked up about deer hunting is gone. Thursday nights used to be dedicated to packing for Friday all the stuff I had washed and dried on Monday thru Wednesday. I had to get my 20 arrows in every night too.

I could blame it on the bad shoulder– that got me off bow hunting. However, it has been 5 years now since I put the bow down and I got my crossbow exemption signed. I have the crossbow, too. I have not shot it in three years. I took it out and . . . it just was not the same. Don’t ask me why. It just wasn’t.

Why? I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you why I have become such a fud. It is not about getting old. It is not about becoming a curmudgeon. It is. . . well, let me just tell you.

For beginners, when I started hunting over 30 years ago, there just were not that many deer. If I wanted to bag one, I had to be out every weekend from October to December and maybe January too. It was a maximum effort for about 5 months every year. Now? Last night there were 8 out in the yard lounging about. I had another couple by a few days ago. They are everywhere.

Second, when I started, the idea of nailing a nice 8-point rack for the wall was a distant fantasy. Now I have heads and antlers and pictures over the walls. Some of them are bigger than I ever dreamed. That is not a complaint. Nor is it a matter of getting bored with the sport.  It just . . . is.

Third, I still feel like deer hunting is my all-consuming passion. Deer Camp is still my family’s preferred lifestyle. It is just that now that I have the farm and all the big goals have been met, I feel the need to go at this a bit differently. It is now 9 weeks until the Rifle Opener. Yute and Muzzleloader seasons come in a month earlier. That is fine. I can wait. I can enjoy the fall, take in the sights, watch the deer, hunt some squirrel, take hikes, take some pictures, have fun. Having the freezer full by Thanksgiving is now almost a given. My son, Moose, now has his own freezer, and we will probably fill that too.

I rail against the idea that somehow I have become the True Sportsman, the apex of those goofy 5 stages of hunter. See Whydo I Hunt?. I am still that naked ape with a rifle. I have just become more thoughtful about it. When Deer Camp convenes in earnest, I will still be like a kid on Christmas.

Maybe one difference is that unlike 30 years ago, I now fully recognize that taking the shot is just the beginning of a hard day’s work. I’ve been up to my elbows in gore enough times that it is not without a certain amount of apprehension that I move the safety off and start to squeeze the trigger. I break the silence of the woods now with a pang of. . .what is it? I don’t think the English-speaking world has quite the word for it. For that matter, I do not think it has a good word for that feeling I get when I am down to one tag, and it is the last weekend of season and I have to play eenie-meenie-miney-mo with a herd of doe, figuring which one is going into the freezer and the season ends. Mind you, I am not complaining. I would not give up the chance to do this for anything.

Jagdenfreude? Is that what I have? That odd joy in the taking of game tinged with all the other baggage that goes along with it? Yeah.  That’s it.  Jagdenfreude.

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What do you prefer: Bow, Muzzleloader, or Rifle The ritual of Fall has begun. Changing a Deer Hunter Would you buy a Crossbow How was my Bow Season? How high should my stand be? Saturday Openers Thoughts on the Opener