Monday, November 11, 2013

Doe a Deer

You can now consider me a modern Katniss Everdeen because I am officially a hunter. Get ready for some photos and a little bit of kumbaya. 

Jason's been hunting for about five years now and last year he started to hint that he wanted me to join him. I was originally not jumping at the chance to kill an animal and said that I would go if we didn't kill anything. Not totally sure what I was thinking because that means I was asking to go sit in a tree in the cold at the crack of dawn for a few hours. And that's it. Just sit there.

This year he asked again if I'd want to go and I started to entertain the idea. He said I could just come and sit with him and he'd do the shooting since I didn't want to.

Now if I'm going to get up at 4 am to sit in the cold, I want to be the one taking the shot.

So we went to the range to practice with the hunting rifle. It had been a couple years since I'd shot a rifle so I wanted to make sure I hadn't lost my touch.


Three shots from 85 yards:


We first went out last weekend and, while we saw four deer, we didn't get any. I had a shot and overthought it long enough that they walked away. "Is this the right place? Do I go now? Will they run? Can I make it? I don't know about this."



The rest of the week I regretted not taking the shot so when we went out this Saturday I was ready.

We got into the stand at about 6:30, sunrise at 7:00. Then at 7:45 there she was about 65 yards away. I spotted the doe, placed the rifle across the stand bar, looked through the scope, aimed... and she walked behind a tree. I got a couple glances of her ears. Jason told me to wait til she walked between a gap in the trees. Once she stepped out, I didn't think twice. With calm breath and focus, I aimed and took the shot.

The rifle is so powerful that it makes an extremely loud noise and kicks back enough to bruise. I didn't feel or hear a thing. It really did feel like the whole world went still in the short 30 seconds from when we first saw her to when I took the shot.

The second the trigger was pulled I saw her white belly turn up, meaning she dropped without running and died instantly - partly because I hit the heart and lungs but partly because the gun is so powerful. I think this is a big reason that I feel so zen about it - she wasn't wounded or in pain or suffering, she died in a heartbeat.

We climbed down to check her out. This is the hardest part to describe because I felt very one with the earth. **Kumbaya my lord kumbaya** I said a little "thanks for giving your life" prayer in my head as I looked down at her. I know not everyone is crazy about hunting but if you're a meat eater, I think having a hand in the animal's death just once will help you understand what it takes to put meat on your table. There is a life lost and it deserves your thanks.



Now this deer lived a wonderful, happy, free life in the woods - romping with her friends and eating yummy acorns. And she died instantly. We don't have to go into the lives and deaths of farm-raised beef/pork/chicken but they're significantly less natural than this.

Going into this, I didn't know how I was going to feel. I thought there was a good chance I would burst into tears and try to revive my kill. I must say that I'm surprised at how humbling and natural the whole experience was. I'm glad I went and actually had fun. After the meat is processed I'll be proud to eat it knowing where it came from and how it lived and died.