Today is the first day of deer hunting in the southern region of NY if using a firearm.  Bow season started about a month ago.  How do I know? Am I currently bundling up and heading out to a tree stand?  Not that I have not done so in the past, but no, I am getting myself geared up for a 12 mile run.  I awoke today to the sound, not of my neighbor having target practice – a loud close shooting noise – but of a distant shot that told me someone was hunting in the area and has seen a deer.  I decided if it was light enough to be hunting already, it was time to drag myself out of bed.

Ah, have I stirred an interest in me hunting?  Once.  I went hunting once.  I did it for the guy I was dating.  We went to college in a very rural area of the Adirondacks.  We were both majoring in forestry and had taken wildlife management classes.  We knew the reasons for hunting and controlling the population of deer.  I was not convinced that hunting was my thing but Glenn asked if I would go hunting with him.  He had a rifle at school and his parents would bring an additional one up when visiting for me to use.  I just had to take a hunter safety course to be able to get my permit.

First, at 20, I was by far the oldest person in the hunter safety class.  It was filled with 12 year olds and maybe a couple actual teenagers.  The course itself was easy.  There was a written test.  Then, there was the shooting.  I was handed a .22 and told to shoot the 9×12 paper that was probably 50 feet away.  All the little kids had done it.  Some right in the center, some off to the edge.  I sighted and shot.  Oops! I missed the paper.  I was given three shots where everyone else got one.  I think I heard the instructor muttering something about the deer being safe.

The story of that first and only hunting trip will hold for another morning that I am woken by shots.

Do you hunt? Does your significant other?  Do you eat game such as venison?