Why Do Hunters Hunt? And Other FAQs About Hunting

 11-14-10

Why Do Hunters Hunt?  And Other FAQs About Hunting

I was travelling to a meeting with a business acquaintance earlier this week and the topic turned to hunting.   My friend wanted to know what all these “…little buildings in the middle of farm fields” were, and I chuckled as I explained they were deer shanties.  He and I represented the two types of people in the world – those who hunt, and those who don’t.

Anyway, what followed was about one hour of questions about hunting.  As my friend admitted later, he was not raised in a hunting family, although he had no objections to it per say.  His questions struck me as comical, only because the answers I gave were as second nature to me as a discussion about accounting methods might be to a CPA.

Therefore, on this most hallowed of hunting season eves – the opening of Michigan’s firearm season for deer – I offer the following, ubiquitous Frequently Asked Questions About Deer Hunting:

Why do you hunt ?   This is difficult to answer if you were not raised as a hunter.  Fortunately, I was raised in the Thumb of Michigan, where hunting is as common to Thumbers  as commuting is to city folk.  Simply put, we hunt for food (venison); for crop damage control (a few dozen deer can strip a bean field clean in a matter of days); and for sport (more on that later).  We also hunt in the Catholic sense – because it’s tradition and it fits our Orthodoxy.

Why do hunter’s grow beards?  Growing a beard is a rite of passage for hunters.  The beard itself provides shelter from wind and snow.  It also provides natural camouflage (if you’re manly enough!).  The conventional wisdom is that a hunter should cease shaving from November on until he has successfully tagged a deer.  Also, having a beard makes you feel like a Viking.  And being a Viking is really cool.

Why does the season open November 15?  Deer are nocturnal, and also pretty skittish around humans.  Except during mating season.  A male deer, or “buck”, enters into a fairly high hormonal stage in the late fall.  Around mid October, bucks enter the “rut”, a term which describes a basic sexual frenzy which causes male deer to become focused  on one thing only – finding a suitable sexual mate (picture the woods as a giant singles bar, with plenty of eligible doe, and bucks trolling day and night for a partner).  This increased activity gives hunters a chance to play policeman and crash the party, so to speak.

For those deer that mate, when are the fawns born?  The deer’s gestation period is about 200 days.  Hence, most does give birth in May.  Those “yearlings” are normally not large enough come November, and normally survive to become next fall’s potential crop of deer to hunt from.

What about bow hunters and black powder hunters?  In Michigan, the dedicated deer hunter (such as this author) can be treated to three solid months of deer hunting.  Bow hunting season starts October 1 and runs through November 14.  Firearm (shotgun and rifle) season runs November 15 through November 30.  December 1, bow hunting resumes and black powder/muzzle loader season begins.  All in all, any hunter who wants a deer and commits the time should be able to bag a deer in 90 days.

What are all these terms I hear about, like “scraping,” “rubbing,” and “rattling”?  Positioning oneself to come within range of the elusive whitetail is not a matter of chance.  To the avid hunter, there are clear signs of buck activity in all fields and woods.  Bucks create “scrapes” along tree lines, where they paw the ground and urinate to attract does in heat (note to novice readers, this does not work for humans).  They also rub the velvet of their antlers on small trees, creating noticeable “rub” marks.  Hunters position themselves in these areas.  Furthermore, hunters use doe “bleats” (a rubber instrument which replicates the sound of a bleating doe in heat).  Finally, they attract other dominant bucks by “rattling” old antlers together.  The sound of other bucks fighting attracts dominant bucks – similar to a schoolyard fight which attracts a crowd.

Do you really “field dress” a deer in the woods?  This was a question my non-hunting friend was afraid to ask and somewhat shocked to hear about.  It’s true.  Shortly after downing a buck or doe, the hunter must complete that most gruesome of tasks – to make an incision from sternum to abdomen and more or less empty the body cavity of the major entrails.  I’ll not go into detail here.  All I can say is make sure your knife is sharp, and invest in some shoulder length gloves. 

How do you “process” a deer?  Another good question.  Many hunters (my brother for example) are skilled processors who can skin and butcher a deer in matter of hours.  Myself?  I’ve not yet invested the time for this chore, so I simply drop it off to any one of a number of local “processors” who specialize in taking a corn-fed deer and turning it into steaks, chops, jerky, sausage, hamburger and roasts.  Average costs of processing a deer range from $50 to $100.

Is this really a sport?  Don’t you feel sorry for the deer?  This is a fair question and one I struggle with, especially with the non-hunting crowd.   First, most hunters (at least the good ones) understand that hunting is a form of conservation.  Michigan’s deer population is estimated at 1.5 million, with around 400-500,000 deer annually taken by hunters.  This activity adds about $500 million into the annual state coffers.  Another 60,000 deer are hit by Michigan drivers each year.  Finally, Michigan’s winters are tough, and thousands of deer perish each year due to starvation, disease and over population.  Responsible hunters think of the fall deer hunt as a harvest –removing a select number of deer each year.  If you’ve ever seen a starving group of deer in the winter, you might agree that the herd control provided by hunters is much more humane than letting them starve.

Finally, regarding the sport aspect, I DO think it is a sport when the rules are followed.  There is a strategy to scouting, locating, and ultimately taking a deer.  It’s not the killing that most of us enjoy, but rather the strategy, the good times spent with friends and family, enjoying nature and rehashing the stories of the previous day and the previous year’s hunts.  And, as most hunters age, they increasingly become less obsessed with bagging an animal and more enthused about just being in deer camp.

I hope if you’re a non-hunter, you’ve learned a thing or two.  And if you’re a hunter, I wish you well Monday morning.  Be safe, and hunt responsibly!