The week of the 5th through the 11th of November this year was a dream three years in the making. I had spent the last three hunting in Michigan in the big woods, while going to seminary. I really enjoyed that time, but my heart was really back in Iowa, the Land of Giants. I have yet to kill one of those giants but that day is coming. And if it doesn't I will still spend my free time and vacations in the pursuit of taking one with the bow.
I took vacation in early November, and I was just about a week too early for the Rut to really kick in, but the experts were predicting an early Rut. Just as in life things do not always go as planned. The weather pattern turned very warm and everyday was blustery, and very little sign of the Rut was to be seen. Sitting in the ground blind I could hear limbs crashing all through the woods, but evening and mornings quieted down. Two of the seven days were spent for the better part of them at home, strategizing over topos, and pouring through the latest wisdom on hunting as well as my other passion-Christianity, while peering over to see the guys on TV make trophy deer hunting look so easy.
Let me tell you, hunting whitetail is not easy. It will test you to the core. No one who is a bowhunter is a perfectly sane individual. Bowhunters are a breed of our own.
I am beginning to be a firm believer in the idea that hunters are not made- hunters are born. There is something in the blood-its instinctual. When the cool north wind starts to blow in early autumn and you don't feel anything; you don't feel the predatory instinct welling up inside you. You are probably not a hunter and you will never be one, and you probably will never understand those of us who are.
As a father of two infant sons, this is a great fear of mine. I pray that my sons will share my passions-Hunting and The Kingdom of God. Sometime later I will elaborate on these because admittedly I have to try hard to keep my passion tilted in favor of ministry. I have to keep my eyes in focus, and on the right target, so that my passion does not turn into an idol.
Those of you who are whitetail freaks, than you know what I am speaking of. It is not easy being us. We have to balance our work, our home-life, and our spirituality, with the pull of the woods. Many times it feels like no one wins.
So in the meantime I am trying to find a way to combine my passions. After all if I am a Christian and God created me as a hunter, than surely there is a way for me to offer worship in all my passions and do it in a way that promotes life in a lifestyle that has to do with death.
In the end all hunters shed blood, and while some are just blood thirsty vampires, the majority of us, especially bowhunters, we see the killing of animal as a spiritual/sacred yearly ritual. For us sacred space isn't found just in churches, its all around us, especially in the wilds of creation.
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Monday, February 11, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
In Hunting And In Life There Are No Mulligans
It has been awhile since my last posting. One does not have time to write while the hunt is still on. But now looking back over last year's season I have many thoughts.
It was a good season, a week long bowhunt the first week in November (5-11th)was the highlight. It was a great time, I hunted public and private ground from the tree and ground. I sat in a groundblind from sunrise to sunset two of those days. I saw seven bucks over one water hole. I am sure that location will be next years honey hole. I thought about life alot during those times. I thought about the coming birth of another son who was born in December, little Alexander. And while I was daydreaming I had a good 170in buck appear just long enough to get my adrendaline pumpling, it had to be one of the biggest bucks I had ever seen while bowhunting. He was beautiful, he had a thick neck, and wide tall rack, at least for the very brief glimspe I caught of him. I was using a Montana doe decoy with scent for the set up and that combination sparked his interest. I had a few other smaller bucks show up before and after. The Rut was just heating up in Western Iowa.
The next day I was ready, I had cleared shooting lanes, setup early, everything was perfect. I was hunting from a groundblind with setup for an easy thirty yard poke. Around 11am, a bruiser showed up, a good 140in. or bigger buck walked right into my position, and stopped to sniff the grass where I had dropped scent. I slowly drew my bow, picked my spot behind the shoulder, and released. I had already imagined how great this deer was going to look on my wall. Boy was I wrong. My carbon arrow with a 100 grain muzzy tip, hit what was supposed to be shoot through netting and zip I never even saw where the arrow hit, and the buck did not wait around for a second opportunity.
I could not believe it. I have somewhat of a perfectionist streak in me, and sometimes it gets me in trouble because I wait for the perfect moment. I over analyze, plan, and train. But this time everything was perfect, nothing left up to chance, except that I had never shot through the netting material in the blind. I just trusted it, not wanting to put a hole in the brand new material.
I can make many comparisons to that mistake in life, but many people make that mistake through their faith. Some like I did with the blind netting, just take what is handed down to them through their culture or through tradition, and take it for granted that when it comes to time of the shot that everything is going to go smoothly.
They never take the time to test it out; see if it performs as advertised. They seldom do the research to see if what they are being sold is genuine, woods tested.
But like my experience, if something is not tested, put to a real world test, it often does not work like it is advertised and falls short. Now in my case, true I lost a trophy deer and may have shed some tears, but the hunt went on, and I got another shot, another deer.
But in life most of the time we don't get second chances, we get one shot and if we havent taken the time to found out if our beliefs fly true to the mark. In the hunt of one's lifetime, we can often find ourselves asking what went wrong, after the shot. But then it is too late.
Life is a lot like bowhunting. Most of the time we only get to release one arrow.
After season upon hunting season, and hours upon hours waiting for that trophy to arrive; enduring the elements, and then in the few seconds to make the shot. One arrow is all we get and so many things can go wrong. Once it is drawn back and released their is no bringing it back, now matter how much we want to. Believe I have a few shots that may forever play in my head.
In life and in hunting there are no mulligans, no do-overs, we get one shot and we had better make it count. When arrows are our beliefs, that we use to make our choices we had better test them on the range, before we enter into the hardwoods.
It was a good season, a week long bowhunt the first week in November (5-11th)was the highlight. It was a great time, I hunted public and private ground from the tree and ground. I sat in a groundblind from sunrise to sunset two of those days. I saw seven bucks over one water hole. I am sure that location will be next years honey hole. I thought about life alot during those times. I thought about the coming birth of another son who was born in December, little Alexander. And while I was daydreaming I had a good 170in buck appear just long enough to get my adrendaline pumpling, it had to be one of the biggest bucks I had ever seen while bowhunting. He was beautiful, he had a thick neck, and wide tall rack, at least for the very brief glimspe I caught of him. I was using a Montana doe decoy with scent for the set up and that combination sparked his interest. I had a few other smaller bucks show up before and after. The Rut was just heating up in Western Iowa.
The next day I was ready, I had cleared shooting lanes, setup early, everything was perfect. I was hunting from a groundblind with setup for an easy thirty yard poke. Around 11am, a bruiser showed up, a good 140in. or bigger buck walked right into my position, and stopped to sniff the grass where I had dropped scent. I slowly drew my bow, picked my spot behind the shoulder, and released. I had already imagined how great this deer was going to look on my wall. Boy was I wrong. My carbon arrow with a 100 grain muzzy tip, hit what was supposed to be shoot through netting and zip I never even saw where the arrow hit, and the buck did not wait around for a second opportunity.
I could not believe it. I have somewhat of a perfectionist streak in me, and sometimes it gets me in trouble because I wait for the perfect moment. I over analyze, plan, and train. But this time everything was perfect, nothing left up to chance, except that I had never shot through the netting material in the blind. I just trusted it, not wanting to put a hole in the brand new material.
I can make many comparisons to that mistake in life, but many people make that mistake through their faith. Some like I did with the blind netting, just take what is handed down to them through their culture or through tradition, and take it for granted that when it comes to time of the shot that everything is going to go smoothly.
They never take the time to test it out; see if it performs as advertised. They seldom do the research to see if what they are being sold is genuine, woods tested.
But like my experience, if something is not tested, put to a real world test, it often does not work like it is advertised and falls short. Now in my case, true I lost a trophy deer and may have shed some tears, but the hunt went on, and I got another shot, another deer.
But in life most of the time we don't get second chances, we get one shot and if we havent taken the time to found out if our beliefs fly true to the mark. In the hunt of one's lifetime, we can often find ourselves asking what went wrong, after the shot. But then it is too late.
Life is a lot like bowhunting. Most of the time we only get to release one arrow.
After season upon hunting season, and hours upon hours waiting for that trophy to arrive; enduring the elements, and then in the few seconds to make the shot. One arrow is all we get and so many things can go wrong. Once it is drawn back and released their is no bringing it back, now matter how much we want to. Believe I have a few shots that may forever play in my head.
In life and in hunting there are no mulligans, no do-overs, we get one shot and we had better make it count. When arrows are our beliefs, that we use to make our choices we had better test them on the range, before we enter into the hardwoods.
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