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I still vividly remember my first deer hunting.
The year was 1995, I was 10 years old, and I was finally legally able to attend Maine’s annual deer season. This was the benchmark day of my life and, as far as I could understand, kind of the gateway to ritual masculinity. With the gear prepped, the anticipation ran high for weeks. The night before, everything had been laid out on the dining room table, and finally, in the early hours of the morning like we had never seen before, it was time to get ready for the big day.
Gear back then was very simple. Like most of my age, I received coveted hand-me-down hunting clothes. Beanies and vests meet state fluorescent orange requirements. He slipped a pair of old state-issue size 10 Danner boots into my size 8 feet to complete the ensemble.
A fun-sized Snickers bar and a few Tootsie rolls for the day’s meal fit in my jacket pocket.
My father, a game overseer in Maine, required me to carry three essentials during my outings in the woods: a compass, a knife, and a lighter.
The weapon of choice, or occasion at the time, was a borrowed single-shot .410 shotgun of unknown make. The intended quarry had its limits, but at the time I believed it could bring down a bull elephant.
I pocketed a handful of 3-inch slugs individually to avoid unnecessary ticking. My junior hunting license slid proudly into my breast pocket and off we went.
I didn’t fill the tag that day. In fact, it took me three years before I finally got the chance to put my first deer in the back of my truck and roll proudly into the tagging station parking lot. At that time, what I really felt was not the culmination of years of failure, but the culmination of experience, knowledge, and skills gained through hard work and perseverance.
My only equipment and gadget upgrade was a Browning A-Bolt Medallion .308 rifle fitted with a Bushnell Banner 1.54 – 4.54X32 scope. Moderately upgraded with a Leupold VX-Freedom 3-9X40 scope, it was my prized possession at the time and is still my go-to rifle for everything.
Looking back on those days, it seems amazing, at least by today’s standards, to even see a deer, let alone tag one.
How can I do that? I didn’t have a handheld trail camera to prove there were actually deer in the forest. There is no way to identify a specific deer, assign it a witty nickname, identify its routines, and issue a warrant as a “target bucks”. There is no laser rangefinder to know for sure how far a potential shot is.
Without digital game calls and hunting applications on mobile phones, how could we have been so successful? How have you ever kept yourself calm while sitting on a cold afternoon? I had to sit on the ground exposed to the elements, rather than the portable hunting blinds heated by the heater.
There was no digital camouflage to blend accurately into a particular environment. The rifle had no range finder or red dot optics. I also had to wear binoculars around my neck or even carry them in my pack instead of a multi-point chest harness.
Now that I think about it, it seems like a completely outdated hunting chaos. But was it true? Or was it simply related to the idea of a “fair chase”?
Since its inception, hunting and its equipment have been constantly upgraded by mankind to increase their quarry advantage.
We can assume that this will always be the case, but as technology and invention continue to advance, at what point will the scale of hunting tip so far in our favor that fair pursuit ceases to exist and success is guaranteed? will it be?
Is it reasonable and fair to question whether such technological advances and luxuries in today’s hunting world are a substitute for mastered and applied skill and knowledge?
Each hunter has their own perception and assessment of what fair pursuit is. For me, I think I’ll have a few fewer gadgets in my pocket this year and a few more Tootsie Rolls.
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