I was not raised in a hunting family.  As a matter of fact, absolutely nobody on either side of my family was involved at all in the great sport of hunting.  As a young child I did not accompany my father on scouting forays or even have that special uncle or grandfather that was around to introduce me to the sport.  Magically, as I was nearing the age of twelve I somehow became interested in hunting.  I have no clue what triggered the event. Whether I read a magazine, saw a television show or happened to be at one point in my impressionable life in the company of a successful hunter and felt that a needed to partake.  At this point in time, I have zero recollection.  Somehow, I coerced my father into taking me to a hunter education class.  Keep in mind that my father had never hunted in his life.  My father decided to join me in my educational endeavors and we both passed the class with 100% scores on the test.  I do remember in the class that common sense hunting bylaws were driven home about safety and even hunter etiquette.  We learned about safety zones, keeping a gun muzzle pointed in a safe direction, and honoring an area that was already occupied by a hunter.  In the case of the latter, one would simply back out of the area making as little noise as possible and find another unoccupied area to hunt. 

After passing the course my father decided that we both would join the ranks of hunters and I began the sojourn into the world of the great outdoors at the tender age of twelve.  Even though my father had no hunting experience to pass on to me, using common sense and learning from my experiences, I soon took on the shape of an outdoorsman.  I honed my outdoor abilities on squirrels and other small game and made “attempts” to harvest my soon to be obsession the white-tailed deer.  In my junior years I could not hunt unless accompanied by my father or another adult but was lucky enough to do my fair share of hunting. 

Through these years if I learned one thing about hunting it was to be ethical and treat the outdoor world with the greatest respect.  Respect was held not only for mother earth herself, but also for the multitudes of hunters that shared her with me.  I also held the greatest respect for the wildlife that I hunted and the shared the motto of others that “if you kill it you grill it”.  I hunted until I was seventeen before harvesting my first deer.  At that point you could say that the hook was set and I was being reeled into the world of a total hunting enthusiast.  As the years wore on I still held firmly to beliefs that I had nurtured through the years.  I continued to treat other hunters with the respect that I felt they deserved and began to cherish my moments in the woods. 

As the years passed I slowly began to notice that not only were there more people occupying the woods that I loved so dearly, but that a growing percentage of them did not hold the same set of values that were bestowed upon me at a young age.  I believe that at the time I made a mental note but did not dwell on the problem.

One instance that stands out in particular has probably happened to countless bowhunters but the indifference of the other hunters’ haunts me to this day.  I had scouted a particular area to bowhunt that was just chock full of deer sign.  Big rubs abounded and I had seen a particularly good buck while scouting the area.  I finally picked a good tree and planned on hunting the spot when the wind was right.  Mind you, this particular spot was one hell of a walk back into what I thought would be virgin territory and well before I could even think about being able to afford a four-wheeler.  As I settled in that afternoon, the world could not have been more perfect.  I was sure that action was awaiting me with the dropping of the sun.  Instead I was in for a lesson in bad hunting etiquette.  As I was sitting in my “new” Loggy climber, I heard a heck of a commotion coming my way.  Making the noise of ten irritated elephants walking on a world of Corn Flakes, two squirrel hunters trampled my way.  I quickly whistled and waved to get their attention.  They soon glimpsed my camouflaged shape in the tree and I figured I still might see some deer after they trampled away.  Much to my delight, they walked through my mock scrapes that I had just doused with scent I could not afford and added insult to injury by talking in quite the amplified volume.  I once again whistled and tried to wave them off.  Again, much to my irritation, they decided to sit down and “join me” in my scouted deer hotspot.  At this point what was the point.  I climbed down out of me tree and decided to give them a piece of my hot tempered ill thought out mind.  As I came closer to the two invaders, I changed my mind on my choice of words when I noticed the young boy with the older hunter.  When I asked the man if he had seen me in the tree he simply answered “yes”.  I simply told the man that “I was glad to see that he was instilling in the budding hunter a poor sense of hunter etiquette” and moved on with my bad self.

Many years have passed since that episode and I could probably write endlessly about my experiences and the experiences my hunting cohorts have had with disrespectful people.

This past season had to be the proverbial icing on the cake.  Not only did I experience some of the most disrespectful people while hunting; I was dismayed this year by the lack of gratitude and respect that some people have for the wild game they hunt.  I have come to expect rude hunters but not the evidence of animal disrespect that we found.  My hunting partners and I found several deer carcasses in the woods this season that each held a story of poor woodsmanship and a total lack of respect for the animal.  We found several deer left in the woods to rot with only the racks cut off as the “prize” for the non-hunter.  The real prize of sustenance was left to be absorbed into the earth and the stomachs of scavengers.  We also found several deer that were within eyeshot of a road or trail that still had very prominent fatal wounds that led me to believe that not much effort if any was put into the most important part of harvesting an animal—recovery.  I also found several squirrels in a bowhunting spot that had obviously been shot and left to rot. 

The point here is not to whine about rude people.  Anybody that exists in this world is well aware that some people leave much to be desired when it comes to their behavior.  And I am sure that as public hunting land shrinks to private, this issue is only going to escalate.  The real loss here is the disrespect for the hunting values.  The values that were taught about having the ultimate respect for the game animal you intend to kill.  Leaving a deer to rot in the woods or even a squirrel for that matter goes against all that is right.  These are the issues that anti-hunting cults thrive on.  Why give them any more ammunition that they already think that they have???  Or are they right???  Maybe there are enough pig hunters that they could at least justify a small percentage of their inflated anti issues. 

As much thought as I have applied to this issue, I can’t come up with a quick and easy solution to the problem.  Maybe I just had a bad year and everywhere else people are polite and respect all game animals.  I am sure that every person that shot a deer made a concerted effort and exhausted all possibilities before giving up the search.  Maybe the start of a resolution for the problem is just plain awareness.  For the future of hunting I can only hope so.