daniel prazer

It’s been ages since I’ve posted on here, and there really isn’t an excuse. This winter, I’ve been doing a bit of driving back and forth from Chicago to Ohio, once for Thanksgiving, and twice for my first season out trying my hand at deer hunting.

My mom will never understand this newfound fascination of mine, and my wife’s sick of hearing about it. But for me and thousands of other people, hunting isn’t about killing defenseless animals. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Division pegs the whitetail population in the state at just over 650,000, far beyond the natural carrying capacity of the state’s ecosystems. Which explains why there were three huge whitetails in my mom’s suburban front yard last week.

I didn’t managed to harvest a deer my first year out—yet. But I’ve had an amazing time out at my friend’s 93-acre farm in Bellefountaine, Ohio. I’ve seen plenty of deer; after all, it’s a long-neglected apple orchard ringed by cornfields. And even though my first trip was cut short thanks to the flu, being outside and off Chicago’s pavement for a few days is indescribably refreshing.

It’s more than a few days of solitude and a chance for my mind to quiet down, though. It’s ethical. If I’m going to eat meat, I better be able to man up and harvest it myself. Besides, I’d rather have an animal on my plate that’s lived its entire life in the wild than one that spent its life on a factory farm. And it’s worth noting that no group—none—contributes more financially to conservation than hunters and fisherman (there’s an 11 percent federal excise tax on all firearms and ammunition that goes directly to the Department of the Interior). The press release that’s linked to above points out that deer season brings almost $900 million to Ohio’s economy. And I can get behind that, especially if I can clear the city air out of my lungs while I’m doing it.

Morning in the ground blind. Click to enlarge.