Hanback Blog Classics: Kill or Harvest a Deer?
January marked my 4-year anniversary of blogging, first for Outdoor Life and the last 2 years here on BIG DEER. That means I’ve posted about 1,500 times, maybe more. To blog well, you have to be spontaneous and frequent, on it all the time. This thing is a monster. There are no outlines or deadlines, just post, post, post whenever and wherever you can. I’ve blogged at every hour of the day, in street clothes and camouflage. This is more information than you need, but I’ve bolted upright at 2:00 a.m. and run to my office in my underwear to post about deer. I’ve blogged in hotel rooms and deer camps, from lodges with wireless to tents and trailers out in the sticks with my Verizon card. When I’m hunting and not blogging, I’m checking BIG DEER and your emails on my Blackberry (might have just got a giant buck somebody killed to get up on the blog!). I have saved every text and picture I have ever posted on one of 5 computers and/or backup drives. Sometimes when I’m rummaging through old files I’ll run across a post I really liked, and that sparked this idea. From time to time I’ll post a classic, like this one from my OL days:
I just read an article about a guy who “harvested” a nice buck. The next day his buddy went out and “took” a good one.
Please. I killed this 8-pointer dead last fall, and I’m proud of it.
You harvest corn. You kill a deer. You take your kids to school. You shoot a buck. Then there’s the old “bag.” Well, you bag groceries. You kill or shoot game.
We don’t need to tiptoe around the reality that when you shoot something, it dies. Trembling, you walk up to an animal that will never take another breath or step. You’re happy and sad at the same time. You knife open a deer and are shocked by the smell and the hotness of its blood on your hands. To try to rationalize all that away with the benign vernacular is to degrade the experience.
Sometimes I try to spice up my stories by whacking, busting, nailing or smoking a buck. But if you ever catch me harvesting or taking or bagging one, call me on it. That’ll mean I’m old and senile, time to quit. comment
People are waaaay too "pc" these days. Everything is offensive to someone. I agree with you totally. We kill animals. Period. Where I come from, we harvest crops not deer. One thing though, not sure how it is out east but, when someone says they "nailed" something it could mean something else...I'm just sayin'
Thanks for dusting off some of the oldies. I've been here for a while now but I certainly missed some of your early blogs.
harvest corn and soy beans
It's why I don't watch those shows and read those magazines
anymore.......
My passion is being in the outdoors, hunting, fishing and I'll never get enough time in doing it. I love hunting and my hope is that it will continue to be around for my time here on Earth and for future generations. I'm thankful for this blog and for the other media out there that helps keep my enthusiasm jazzed up for the next hunt or trip planned in my year. Thanks Mike for your hard work putting out this blog and for the others here on the blog.
Do the Antis not "kill" their lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and other vegetables when they eat their salads? Don't all those plants die as well?
I'm tired of having to sugar coat it as well.
That being said, I wouldn't fault someone for using the term "harvest". I believe this term to have come out of the new era of management where hunters plant food plots, set up trail cameras, and routinely "pass" small bucks. Many of us talk about growing big deer don't we? After planting food plots for the deer, getting hundreds of trail cam pics, and passing on the buck twice before you "shoot" and "kill" the deer, it seems more like we are harvesting the deer. The term does sound quite PC, that's why I don't use it. However, I personally think some of the terms Mike mentioned are more offensive for the opposite reason. Whacked, Nailed, Busted. Many of these terms border on disrespect, like you just hit a melon with a baseball bat just for fun. I kinda cringe when I hear a snaggle-tooth redneck walk up to the check station and say "Man, I whacked 'em and stacked 'em today!".
Shot, Arrowed, Killed. Those are the terms I'm sticking with.
The word "harvest" isn't just a politically correct word and my hope is not to confuse or offend anyone between using the words kill or harvest. Use either word in the way of deer hunting and you are not offending me. The word harvest in the way of usage isn't limited to agricultural crops. Medical people speak of harvesting healthy organs or tissues for the purpose of transplanting. In arid regions, people speak of harvesting water - collecting rainwater for irrigation. We hear people speak of harvesting renewable energy - capturing and storing solar, wind and geothermal energy. Foresters talk about harvesting timber and the need to provide a sustainable yield. We harvest renewable resources. Jesus used the word harvest in John 4:35 when he said "Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest."
If Jesus can use the word "harvest" to talk about people's souls, if doctors can harvest organs, if foresters can harvest trees, then hunters can talk about the annual harvest of game. I'm for using the word "harvest." Harvest implies something else that's positive to me. Harvest implies thankfulness. I'm thankful for the opportunity and privilege to hunt these awesome animals and to bring in the harvest.
Harvest to me does not say I'm killing a pen raised or farm raised deer on a high fenced property. To me that is a whole separate topic and I am no way using the word harvest to say I support that practice at all. More importantly my hope is that there are more important issues for us hunters to fight over and fight for like preserving our gun rights and preserving our heritage rights to hunt.
Cody
Doesn't strike me as an issue on which to dwell or for which to denounce our fellow hunters.