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Fun Little Article

Nutterbuster

Nutterbuster

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www.themeateater.com

Why Deer Make People Stupid

Most hunters or their families know someone who loses their common sense or credibility over deer hunting or management. Deer. They make people stupid. Some deer hunters and wildlife professionals are immune to the disorder, though that’s rare. Far more yearn for a cure, but usually for a dear...
www.themeateater.com www.themeateater.com

Just throwing this out there to see if it sparks up an interesting discussion.
 
I don't live out west and cannot say with certainty with elk, but no other game animal is treated quite like deer.

With every other game animal (air/land/water), there are size and quantity limits but people overall just enjoy the experience and food. Yes, a monster trophy garners headlines but there isn't shame if you didn't get the biggest duck/elk/fish.

With deer though, everything is about the antlers. Yes, there are those like myself who hunt for the meat but there's almost a down trodden tone in your someone voice if "they only" got a forky or similar. Doesn't matter if the body was massive, it's all about the forehead bling.

It's that obsession that makes people idiots.
 
In VA, you can hunt anything on public land that moves with archery, except during rifle season. For this reason, I don't get excited about rifle season anymore. I hunt it, but don't like the horn hunting restriction.

To be totally honest, when I'm hunting, I'm hoping to see game, but it's out of range. With my arthritis, it's more than a chore to deal with downed game, but I accept the responsibility.
 
Heberlein wrote: “When an attitude is part of who you are—your identity—it has many beliefs, considerable stability…and a strong emotional basis…Strong attitudes resist change because they’re based on direct experiences…and many…values.”
When it comes to deep-seated identities based on beliefs, emotions, traditions, and direct experience, deer hunting has few equals. “Deer are important to our identities as hunters, and as members of hunting camps and hunting families,” Heberlein told MeatEater.

I think that section really hits the nail on the head. We (as a general rule) work hard and spend a lot of time and resources to pursue deer and the experiences we have stick out in our mind like they happened yesterday; success or failure. If those experiences are with family on land you always hunted they probably stand out more. My dad still tells the story of my first chance at a buck when I was 12 like we were in the woods that morning to anyone who will listen; that was 28 years ago and the man who forgets the name of the donut shop he got breakfast at can tell you about the tree I hit instead of the deer.

Durkin is a really interesting guy, fun to listen to and read, thanks for sharing.
 
HuskerInIowa said:
Heberlein wrote: “When an attitude is part of who you are—your identity—it has many beliefs, considerable stability…and a strong emotional basis…Strong attitudes resist change because they’re based on direct experiences…and many…values.”
When it comes to deep-seated identities based on beliefs, emotions, traditions, and direct experience, deer hunting has few equals. “Deer are important to our identities as hunters, and as members of hunting camps and hunting families,” Heberlein told MeatEater.

I think that section really hits the nail on the head. We (as a general rule) work hard and spend a lot of time and resources to pursue deer and the experiences we have stick out in our mind like they happened yesterday; success or failure. If those experiences are with family on land you always hunted they probably stand out more. My dad still tells the story of my first chance at a buck when I was 12 like we were in the woods that morning to anyone who will listen; that was 28 years ago and the man who forgets the name of the donut shop he got breakfast at can tell you about the tree I hit instead of the deer.

Durkin is a really interesting guy, fun to listen to and read, thanks for sharing.
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Yeah, I like how they made a pass at tracing those strong emotions/memories/identity formation back to the increase in heart rate when you kill a deer. It's interesting to wonder how right they are assigning that to a biological response to an increased risk/reward situation.

The concept of identity formation and the problems that causes is one I've been thinking about more. I feel like I've actually become a better hunter since I stopped being a hunter (or bowhunter, or saddlehunter, or public land hunter) and started thinking of myself more as a guy who hunts (or bowhunts, or saddle hunts, or hunts the local WMA).

As a marketing guy, it's really interesting and a little sick to see how much money companies dump into encouraging people to form identities around the products they sell. And I won't even get started on political parties.
 
Not sure if it will hold up over time, but I see some merit to the explanations from Terror Management Theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory

Not holding on to the wheel so tightly now has me considering the Hickory Creek crossbow, I think that would represent real progress for me, psychologically and spiritually.
 
Nutterbuster said:
Yeah, I like how they made a pass at tracing those strong emotions/memories/identity formation back to the increase in heart rate when you kill a deer. It's interesting to wonder how right they are assigning that to a biological response to an increased risk/reward situation.

The concept of identity formation and the problems that causes is one I've been thinking about more. I feel like I've actually become a better hunter since I stopped being a hunter (or bowhunter, or saddlehunter, or public land hunter) and started thinking of myself more as a guy who hunts (or bowhunts, or saddle hunts, or hunts the local WMA).

As a marketing guy, it's really interesting and a little sick to see how much money companies dump into encouraging people to form identities around the products they sell. And I won't even get started on political parties.
Click to expand...
That’s an interesting thought as to being a guy who hunts compared to a hunter. At a recent kids birthday party my mother-in-law mentioned something about me getting a deer and another person said “oh you’re a hunter?” I couldn’t really read whether they were into it or not by their tone and don’t have a desire to disrupt a 7 year olds bday so I just kid of laughed and said “depends on who you ask and what day. Yesterday I was an underwriter, couple weeks ago I was a coach, and my daughter recently told someone my job was being her dad.”
As far as identifying around a product the marketing has gotten really good at that, probably always was but I noticed less. I’ll also be avoiding politics as a discussion point (best to keep fun threads active and a great forum overall free of them imo) other than to say my uncle and talked awhile ago and both essentially said the same thing; it gets really dangerous to have part of your identity too strongly tied to something. I think that concept applies to more than politics here, the personal identity as a hunter/bowhunter/saddle hunter and the marketing side as well.
 
I can appreciate the idea of not trying oneself to any certain identity. Just saw someone yesterday wearing their hipster beanie cap in 75 degree weather. That one gets me everytime.

Still for myself, I didn't start hunting to embrace a particular way of being. I started hunting because Dad said he would take me. It has evolved from there not by concious design, but simply because I can't resist going hunting and at this point I don't try not to go. I really have to go when their is time to do so. And I make time to do it at certain dates on the calendar.

That doesn't mean I wear camo out on the town like a badge. Or that I bore everyone I meet talking about it. On the contrary, in many social situations I'll get introduced as a hunter to someone who does want to talk about it and I steer away from hunting conversations. Most people don't hunt like I do, and have for a long time, so I find so little common ground with them that we usually aren't even in the same conversation.

So I'll say that I don't like being labeled a hunter only because it is so one dimensional. There is a lot more to me than that.

Yet inwardly I know that hunting is core to my identity. I just generally won't admit it publicly.
Nor do I let that identify the rest of my life.
 
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