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 At 16, I met my husband, Aaron. When I first found out that he was a hunter, my reaction was, and "you kill those poor defenseless Bambis?" He laughed at me. You see, I was raised in the "Leave it to Beaver" family. My Dad hunted with his father for years until he had three girls of his own to raise! With my Mom being a non-hunter he figured his chances of hunting any longer, were gone. I don't think he has hunted since. I didn't believe this because of anything that I had been taught growing up, but because I had formed my own opinions from what society had fed me.After a getting married and having our first child, the talk of hunting was still kind of taboo in our relationship. Aaron finally told me, "Come hunt with me once. If you like it, you will be my hunting partner for life, but if you still believe that what we hunt is a "poor defenseless animal", you don't have to hunt, but I ask that you support me doing it." So, we set out for my first hunt. I had the camera around my neck, the 30-30 slung on my shoulder and a pack with all my gear. We were heading into the trees of Washington State hunting the Black Tail Deer. After about ½ mile and my 60 pound overweight body telling me just how out of shape I was, I could no longer carry my own pack and my poor husband had to carry not only his own, but mine as well. When we stopped to transfer the equipment, I spotted a Black Tail just 30 yards away staring at me through the stinging nettles. I set my rifle against a tree and picked up my camera as I told my husband, "Oh look, a deer!" He got his military tone of voice and asked, "Why did you put your rifle down? Was it a buck or a doe?" I honestly didn't know what to say! I felt like one of his troops! So I just blurted out the first thing I could think of, "It was a doe, so I wanted to get some pictures of it, Sir." At that point, I really showed my ignorance to the Black Tail when I found out that you cannot always see the horns behind the ears of a Black Tail buck! Needless to say, the deer didn't stick around to watch what I am sure was a pretty amusing argument between Aaron and I about this hunt I was attempting to prove was inhumane! He took the camera away and left me with only the rifle to carry!  We continued to hike about 5 miles into the woods with the intention of getting away from other hunters and where some more deer may be. He spent the next few days walking me through some techniques of hunting, and allowing me to lead the way on this hunt for those "poor defenseless Bambis". After 3 days of hunting, I was exhausted! This stay at home mom was not used to getting up before dawn and staying up. We saw just one more deer from about 500 yards away and went home empty handed. These animals are anything but defenseless. Imagine the advantage you would have in your home over an intruder. These deer have that same advantage over us when we hunt. No matter how much time we spend learning the great outdoors, we will never have the jump on them. I'm telling you, tag soup is not very tasty!S I have always been a woman easily challenged, and that weekend did it for me. I changed my way of thinking pretty quick. It has been 16 years since that first hunt and I have been hunting ever since. Each year the challenge is different and brings more excitement to doing something that I was once so critical of. Just like myself, those so critical of hunting don't see how much we love these animals aside from hunting. Time spent just photographing them and watching them is so vast in comparison to time spent pursuing them for a kill. Even after 16 years of hunting I still believe that the only "poor defenseless animal" out there with me that first hunt, was my husband! |
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