What I think of the WHA

Worldhunt.com

Here's the link. I posted in a thread on the Deer Forum a few weeks ago.


My reaction: tell me it's just a joke like the Bonzai Kitten site. Then I can laugh at it and move on.

Hunting whitetail deer isn't all THAT hard. Granted, they're a wiley species. However, if you find a place that has deer and you take an elevated stand over a place they frequent, it isn't all that hard to do. Furthermore, a big one gets shot just as easily as a small one. There are just fewer of the big ones.
A big buck on the wall is not a sign of prowess of the hunter. Rather, it is a gift from forest itself. Now we're going to knock them down and set them back up again like bowling pins? Blech!

The point of hunting is not the pulling of the trigger, it is in the process that gets you there. What would baseball be like for the players if they had to hunt all year for a diamond to play on, and only got to play one full game? As a sport, I'd rank deer hunting up there with croquet-- both as a spectator and a participant. However, as a way of life, deer hunting is fantastic. It's a year-round fascination. It's something that never grows old for me. Count me among the true believers. This WHA thing is not a heresy; it is a travesty.

What really boils my bunny in all this is how it trivializes the hunt even more than those goofy hunting shows do already. It's like playing with your food at the dinner table instead of joining in the saying of grace. Deer Hunting:It's a blood sport, Stupid!. At the end, something dies and we take it home and eat it with our friends and family. It is the Eucharist. It is the promise of life transformed from death. It is a reuniting with the Grand Scheme. It is NOT some semi-celebrity standing over a drugged deer high-fiveing the cameraman. It is NOT instant replay of the dart hitting the hide. It is NOT a play-by-play commentator handing it off to the color guy for a tease into the commercial.


What IS deer hunting?

1) Deer hunting is going out on the last day of season and passing on a doe, because she has a fawn. No meat in the freezer. The tag taunts you from the dashboard all the way home through 6 hours of sleet, but you walk into your house justified and fulfilled.

2) Deer hunting is coming in from retrieving a deer with your son. The shot caromed off something on the way through and took some paunch. After cleaning the deer, you walk in-- blood to your elbows-- and the wife has made your favorite venison roast. With all you have had in your nose for the past hour, you fight blowing chunks all the way through to the pie and coffee. You eat it anyhow, and feel great for doing it.

3) At the last moment of light, a doe steps out and you hand your son the 54 Hawken and say: "You take her."

4) After 364 days of waiting, a nice buck comes out of the bottoms and walks past your stand oblivious. You aim, you squeeze. Click. The buck is gone. Out of a gazillion loads you've loaded in that caliber in that gun, you ended up with one bad primer.

5) You go through 5 seasons without seeing a deer during daylight hours of a legal season. Then, one day, walking out to your stand after a noon break, the biggest buck you have ever seen jumps from his bed beside the road and disappears into tall brush within 10 yards. You ammo is still in your pocket.

Put some of THAT into half-hour thirteen episode season, and I might watch it.