Growing up hunting in WV

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.

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...

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.