Growing up hunting in WV

in #nature7 years ago

Since I was eight years old one of the biggest things in my family has been hunting be it deer, dove, squirrel, moose, elk, boar, and even bear. It was never needless killing as some people think, nor was it required for survival due to lack of food, or for protection. In West Virginia where I grew up, it was about bonding with family, and as a way to pass on life lessons to younger generations and to re-connect with the older generations.

One of the most valuable lesson I learned from hunting with my family was the value of life. Not just human life, but animal and plant life as well, and the balance between them. When you killed an animal, it was to use the animal the pelt and the meat at a minimum; when you built a blind, you would use dead logs from a tree that had already fallen. You left trees that were alive for later harvesting them for wood, or to provide shelter for other animals. Learning how to best use the land for both you and the animals was a side effect of learning to hunt, if you destroy the forest then the animals will leave due to nothing to eat and no shelter from the weather.

The main argument that I have heard from people that are against hunting usually state that it is cruel to the animal or that it is gross. Any “real” hunter’s goal is to make it as humane as possible, mainly because your goal is to make a quick, clean kill, and to do it without the animal knowing you are there. One of the many reasons for this is if it’s not a quick kill, the animal will try to run, you have to track it and you run the risk of not finding the animal. It will also stress the animal and people believe that the extra stressors on the animal prior to it actually dying can change the taste of the meat in a negative way, usually making the meat tougher, and giving it a “gamey” taste.

Here in this pictures (second one I zoomed in a little to make them easier to see) there were three deer all within range and with easy shots, but they were smaller (younger) and I was after larger quantity of meat. Therefore, I just sat with them for a couple hours watching them graze about eating and drinking. (third is right over the hill out of sight) I actually had to throw rocks over at them to get them to leave so I could leave for the night.

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The next day I got a 6 point buck, decent size but I didn't get a picture. I spent the rest of my hunting vacation (two days) hanging at hunting camp. We built the hunting cabin with a large window by taking a sliding glass door, and separating the window panes putting it sideways and using that as our window. We have planted a few apple trees, pear trees, and some crab-apple trees just up the mountain so that we could watch them from the kitchen. Its a great view...

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Hunting this year with my family, was especially important.

The hunting cabin is on my family's land and hunting season was always been a family event; my grandfather, my father, my brother and I went hunting every year, starting from the time I was eight years old. About 10 years ago, when I was prepping for a deployment I wasn't able to attend for 2 years, about that same time my brother stopped going hunting, which left just my grandfather, and dad; they invited up my dad's best friend Chris to hunt with them. Chris has been a long time friend of the family. Great guy, loved to help anyone and everyone he came across, and was always ready to have a good time, and was hardly ever caught in a bad mood. He would help out taking care of the land, scouting, and helped my grandfather whenever he needed help with the cabin. The past 8 years-ish it has been the four of us hunting up there, heckling each other and having a great time; he had become part of our family . Last year right before hunting season, Chris had a massive heart attack and passed away, it caught everyone off guard. This year it was a little quieter, a little softer, but his tree stand still sits up in his spot, we removed the ladder to get to it, but it will remain there. It ties back into the value of life that hunting camp is all about. You miss the people that have passed on, and value those that are still there to enjoy it with you.

In the future I will be explaining more about hunting and how I hunt. Hunting using dogs, a push line, and bait piles are not hunting in my opinion. In the future I will go into tracking, signs to look for while hunting, positioning around where you expect the game to be, blinds and stands, and whatever else you guys would like to know. If there is anything specific you guys would like me to expand on about this post, or what you would like to see in the future, please drop a comment and I will do my best to answer.

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I will go into tracking, signs to look for while hunting, positioning around where you expect the game to be, blinds and stands

I am looking forward to these upcoming posts by you!
Especially the tracking and determining which footprints belong to what animals.

Would you like a spatula? For your bunghole?

I've never actually hunted, but I would love to learn. Not just for SHTF scenarios, but just because I think it is important for us to be reminded of the fact that the meat we buy at the store is actually from a living being who has had their life taken for our nourishment - and there is no better way to be reminded of that except through hunting. It's so easy to pick up that pack of chicken, or some ribeye, and not think twice about where it came from.

Honestly, I'm feeling a little guilty just writing that, guess that's why traditionally men are the hunters and us girls do the gathering and processing, rather than killing - it so goes against our nature... LOL

Like @Finnian, I would be really interested in a deer processing piece this fall, I think it would be really unique and educational. :)

::puts on his tinfoil hat proudly::

What's coming will bring death to millions of people. They will not eat. They will not be warm. They will not be safe. The best case scenario is an economic collapse. Within it, starvation will be the worst enemy. It doesn't matter where you live either. As I tell everyone who'll listen, prepare for the day when your fiat buys nothing. That day is coming.

I want my friends and their loved ones to survive. Growing your own food, hunting for your food, and securing your home will be vital. Those things will drastically improve a person's chance of survival. That is why I am here. If I save even a single life, all the time spent here is worth it.

I know it will come to that, and I know it could be sooner than we would hope. It's quite sad that an economic collapse is the best case scenario, but there are several other worse threats looming, which could all potentially lead to eventual economic collapse as well as all kinds of literal hell.

Today something happened that I've been waiting to happen and saying would happen for years. The bond market crashed. Now they will be forced to raise interest rates and quickly. That will crash everything. This is going to be ugly. There's no easy way out of it.

Ugh, so many people have said this is the year! Here we go..

The processing, I could possibly do prior to the fall, since I do have over 70 LBS of meat from this year's hunt I will be turning into almost all Jerky.

I agree that there are a TON of people who don't actually understand that grocery store meat is from an animal.

I see pines, therefore I see fat wood. :) How old are the fruit trees? They are too young to be producing fruit, right?

I only went hunting once with my dad. It was pretty dangerous, so they probably didn't take us again for that reason. We were little kids, and they were rabbit hunting. Keeping a line and being safe is pretty important in that situation. I could have easily done something stupid and been shot on accident.

Still, I wish I had learned more. One of my weirdest memories is my dad bringing back a cleaned squirrel in a pot filled with water one night. The cabin of my uncle's place was far away from my dad's place. It took a couple hours to drive home. He had a camper, so we'd be in the back of the truck camper as my dad drove listening to Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell over and over.

One of these days I still want to learn what I need to learn to hunt on my own. It is a valuable skill.

There are pines so yes, a lot of fat wood, we actually just planted 2200 loblolly pines last year. So there is plenty of fat wood producers. I think 3,000 more are planned for next year.

The fruit trees are all new-ish (1-2 years old) except the crab-apple trees they are producing already they are fairly old.

Did you guys put in any bushes for berries? :)