Why We Hunt- The Blackout and Whitetail Deer Blog

“Good God, man. If you need meat, I’ll go and buy you some!"

It was a fellow cop talking to me years ago in early November. I told him I was taking time off to hunt and he didn’t see why. True, the grocery budget was a bit slim.  Still that wasn’t really what hunting was all about, although it did certainly help.

So I told him why I hunted. Yes, I told him about the relaxing time spent outdoors, the long reflective time in the deer stand with no outside distractions, the beautiful sights and sounds, the thrill of the hunt and the successful, although always somewhat sad, time of the kill.

I also told him other reasons that are even more valid now than they were then.

Do you know what is in the beef you just had for dinner? Do you? How many antibiotics, steroids and other drugs were pumped into that animal? What did it eat? Did it eat natural foods, or genetically manufactured food-like products? These questions might make you take pause and think about what you put into your mouth and wonder about the actual nutritional content and healthfulness of it.

And how did it live? Did it live free-range as God intended it to, or was it in an inhumane meat-mill living in its own filth? How did it die? Did it die a quick death from a well-placed bullet or did it get herded into a slaughter-house? Was God’s name spoken over it and thanks given for it after the kill? Was it cared for after the kill in a sanitary, respectful way or was it left dead in a pile of waste from other dead animals until lifted out to be processed by a machine? If you believe in anything like chi energy, you will appreciate that there has got to be better, healthier energy in the meat from a free-range living, quick, humanely killed deer.

Finally, I told him that it was about self-reliance. It was about being able to go out and do what man has always done.

So for all these reasons, I hunt. My cop friend will never be a hunter, but I think he understands why others do.

Gotta go, the fresh deer liver and heart are about done cooking. And yes, I killed it with my 300BLK!