Another Year of the Deer

D EER. THOSE BEAUTIFUL, spectacular, always fascinating deer. I have a funny feeling that if you’re reading this here Uncle Ted deer celebration in Texas Fish & Game magazine, that you and I share this quality of life stimulating relationship and admiration for our brother the deer.

I love deer.

And though the role they play in our lives is powerful and moving, just to keep things in perspective and avoid anything that could be misinterpreted as psycho-obsession, be it known that God, family, country and freedom (and rock-n-roll) do indeed eclipse our love affair with deer.

But these wonderful critters do rank right up there just behind those primo priorities, that’s for sure.

I doubt there is any other organism this side of cancer cells that has been more exhaustively investigated, analyzed, studied or probed more than the deer of North America.

We could talk all day long about their beauty, habits, mysticism and scientific significance, but ultimately I think we can all agree that our brother the deer could very well be our canary in the coal-mine of happiness and life.

Surely, as goes deer goes our environment, and as we hunters dedicate ourselves to the welfare of deer and all wildlife, the condition of our world can be thoroughly monitored and accurately evaluated as we walk the wild ground as one with God’s creatures.

As reasoning predators always honing and upgrading our level of situational awareness, our conscience and hearts dictate a conservation ethic and responsibility that is at the core of America’s unprecedented wildlife success story.

To kill them and grill them is to love them, and respectful, hands-on value wise use conservation drives our relationship with the beasts.

Those of us so very fortunate to grow up in hunting families may tend to take this pure, primal urge for granted, but being blessed and privileged to introduce, guide and hunt with many hunters that came to this greatest sport later in life have shown their immediate grasp and celebration of this perfect tooth, fang and claw nature lifestyle.

I have witnessed so many times where citified individuals that have been hammered by the tsunami of animal rights and anti-hunting fake news their entire life have come to grips and sincerely embraced the perfection of the hunting, sustain yield wildlife conservation science and logic within minutes of sharing a campfire with me.

As hunters, our radar is better tuned and our eyes pick up the image of distant critters whether we are on the hunt or just driving to the store for milk and bread with the family.

Even on those rare days when bad weather shuts down my hunt, I still find myself sipping coffee staring out the window of our farm or ranch looking for deer.

Cruising down the HI ways and byways of America I am constantly reminding myself to keep my eyes on the road and do my best to ignore the surrounding landscape for deer sightings.

I simply love deer! Genuinely, passionately, sincerely love them!

I love to know they are around even when I don’t see them.

I love to witness their beauty and grace and miraculous sense of elusiveness.

I love to watch them stand, to walk, to feed, to groom, to stare, to frolic, to run and jump, to fight and breed.

I actually love to watch them figure out my best attempt at ambushing them and mysteriously evade me.

I love to occasionally outwit them, though it is usually more a result of dumb luck than any real killer skill.

I love to kill them; track them, gut, skin, hang, butcher and I love to eat them.

I love to stroke their beautiful hide, look into their eyes and fondle their amazing antlers as I accept the gift from the Great Spirit for a job well done.

I love to share their life sustaining protein with family, friends, soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

I love to share sacred ground with them and I love doing everything in my power to ensure their healthy, thriving condition.

I am able to spread these self-evident truths and wildlife love, fascination and logic far and wide with the incredible advantage of social media technology, and the good word gets out there on my Facebook on a daily basis to many millions of non-hunters and die-hard rock-n-rollers worldwide. And they like it!

So as we plunge spirit first into 2018, thank God every day that we are deerhunters.

I like so many of you will still be out there with the deer as we jettison into another year of the deer.

I wish you well, good hunting and good luck, and may your deer dreams glow forever.

 

Email Ted Nugent at tnugent@fishgame.com