Hunting season is almost upon us here in Canada, and to my dismay, I will not be able to purchase my deer license this fall. In the Hunt & Trap booklet, it says you can get your deer license at the age of 16. I am 17, and I had been hyped up about going deer hunting since the spring of this year. But see, there is a rule that wasn’t mentioned. You have to have two years prior hunting experience to be able to hunt for deer. In my case, I didn’t take my Hunter’s Education/Canadian Firearm Safety Courses in time to buy a minor’s license at the age of 14 or 15, so I do not qualify.
Needless to say that when I read this, I was quite mad. I had found someone with a rifle who would allow me to borrow it (since I refuse to use my own after a certain mishap), and I had even given thought to entering the Antlerless Tag draw. Though I will not be able to hunt deer, I can purchase my small game license, and hunt for grouse and rabbits and the sort.
Living in the country only makes this fact harder to cope with. My backyard is filled with apple trees, and a fir tree plantation, that I have permission to hunt. It is wonderful grouse territory, and on many an occasion I have seen partridge roosting beneath the fir trees, or basking in the morning sun, drying the dew from their feathers. Of course, they only tend to show themselves out of season, but watching them look at me is fulfilling enough for me.
Not to mention a young buck that is nearly tame, that loves my apple trees. He’s a spike horn now, but his spikes are beginning to curve, and I was almost sure he would be a fork horn before the season started. When he was just a baby, my neighbors began to feed him, and they ended up keeping him for the winter. Because of this, he was quite small this spring and summer, and we thought that he might have been sick or malnourished, though he has really bulked up since. I would love to tie a ribbon around his neck so that hunters won’t shoot him, but I know it’s inevitable, even if they should pass him up for a bigger buck.
My father was an avid hunter, and angler, and this is no doubt where I found my passion to be in the woods, following closely in his footsteps. My mother, who was born in Hamilton, Ontario was never the hunter he was, though she did on occasion join him. Now that she works as a homecare worker, it is almost impossible for her to have any time, other than weekends, to hit the bush. This, however, does not stop me. I’m actually thinking of skipping school on October 2nd just to go grouse hunting. Missing the first day of the season would really throw me off, since it is an unwritten tradition I have for myself (note that the grouse season usually starts on a Saturday, not a Monday.)
So now, I sit, cleaning my shotgun and surfing the net, looking for some hunting gear. Sears and Canadian Tire do stock Rocky Hunting Boots, which is what I am looking for at the moment, but for some odd reason, they do not stock women’s sizes, which is another thing that annoys me. Sears, for one, should know that the majority of people looking through the Wish Book (after children), are women – Possibly women that like to hunt. So why don’t they stock both styles?
Cabela’s Online Store has the boots that I want, but to buy them, I would have to pay duty to get them across the border. There are no Cabela’s Retailers in Canada, though they are building a store in Montreal, Quebec, but that is an eight-hour drive to get there from my home. Buying the boots online, and having them shipped here would likely cost somewhere around $130.00 usd. or approximately $150.00 cdn. That is still cheaper than the nearly $200.00 cdn that Sears or Canadian Tire charges, but if they don’t fit, I have to pay duty to ship them back. Oh well, that’s life.
So, after pondering my ‘hardships’ I have given thought to every aspect of my outdoorswoman life, and I have figured out that I do not need to harvest a deer, nor do I need expensive boots. All I need is my trusty .410, my blaze orange clothing, and my small game license. After all, having the opportunity to be in the woods for a day should be enough to satiate me, knowing that many people do not have the chance that I do. Carrying on as part of a legacy of hunters is definitely a good feeling, either with a successful harvest, or not.
