The Trophy Hunter

To anyone out there with a buck on their wall, or a grip and grin on their instagram you are probably equally as enraged by this controversy as I am. You know, those muttered words “you are a trophy hunter”, “killed that to take a picture”, “proud to kill an animal”, “ you are a psychopath for hanging a deer on your wall”. Let me start by pointing out that anyone who eats anything at all kills as well, thats right you vegans who call us a murderers, your salad killed way more animals than my shot gun ever has. Before your salad is in a bag at the grocery store a farmer sprays a field with chemicals to kill everything in and around it. After that he then drops a plow about 1-2 feet deep into the dirt and turns the dirt over, and proceeds to disc it, (little metal circles pointed in a “v”) to break the dirt down into silk. During that process mice, moles, rabits, worms, birds, snakes, bugs and frogs, and hell even sometimes deer caught in combines during harvest are decimated. If you haven’t figured it out yet you have to kill to eat regardless of your diet, and if you think when you rip that lettuce out of the ground that’s not a living thing either you’ve got another thing coming. You are probably wondering where I’m going with all this and what the hell it has to do with the title of this article. Well that deer isnt hanging on my wall beacuse I am a psycho or a serial killer, and you see us smiling in pictures holding deer because we’re proud and we’re grateful to the man upstairs for making it possible and giving us the opportunity to do so. Before you make the argument that I killed it for its horns I’d like to point out that targeting more mature deer, older deer with bigger antlers, the alpha males of the woods isnt for clout, it’s to make room for the new, young deer to thrive and grow. That animal is on my wall beacuse not only am I proud of the hard work, dedication, training, and preparation it took for me to harvest that animal, but its also means something. When I look at my wall and see them looking back at me I dont see them as “trophies”, I see them as a memories, each of them tell their own story. I can hear the birds chirp, I see the sun rising, I smell the autum air and feel a breeze at my back. I remember that morning like it was yesterday, I see it as a reminder. I look at that deer and see it for what it is, a strong, smart, beautiful animal. I look and see months of hard work, blood, sweat, tears, early mornings, I flash back to scouting, I feel the frustration again, joy and peace all at the same time. Look, at the end of the day I’m a conservationist, we all are. I do this not only for food and fun and camaraderie, but I do this so that my kids can do this and their kids can do this, I do this so that the deer are still here in 100 years. I promise that at the end of the day I have more love, respect, and knowlege about each and every one of these animals than those anti-hunters out there and I will continue to proudly do so.