’Tis the season for camo and ammo
Cowgirl Sass And Savvy

By Julie Carter

If big-game hunting and all that goes with it offends you, I will understand if you want to turn the page. It’s not for everybody.

On the other hand, there is a world full of bodies that thrive on the hunt with every intent for the kill and none of their reasons are the same.

The fall months bring out the masses of hunters seeking trophy antelope, deer and elk, and the world turns camouflage.

Drivers dressed in camo, the highways are covered up with trucks loaded down with 4-wheelers, coolers and camping gear. Some of them even bring a gun.

At a grocery store in a small town on the perimeter of hunting land, a guy leaving the store made a comment that he had been going to go in and buy a loaf of bread. He indicated there were so many hunters inside he figured it would be quicker to just go home and make biscuits.

Masses of businesses depend on the hunting industry for a major boost to their economy. Small communities in hunting country have signs everywhere offering free chili suppers and free hunter breakfasts.

One guy reported it cost him about $200 in gas to go around to all the little towns and eat their food. He isn’t a hunter, just an eater.

Posted signs read 45 miles to the next ammo store and if they don t say “ammo,” they say “beer.”

I come from a long line of meat hunters who, indeed, hunted, but foremost for family sustenance and somewhat of a right of passage to manhood for the growing boys in the bunch.

The locals simply gear up, go kill something, bring it home, skin it out, cut it up and know they have winter meat in the freezer.

While they have plenty of fun doing it, as witnessed by the masses gathered around the skinning tree, it is more a way of life than an epiphany.

When the fall weather turns cool, the primal instinct to hunt and kill a little winter meat rises like sap in a maple tree. It is one of the few things that bring out the same stalk, kill and drag-it-home instinct in men the same as it did in the days they lived in caves.

Die-hard hunters look offended if you ask them, “Are you going hunting this year?” In their minds, it is a national holiday. Hunting season is marked on the calendar first and before anything else for the year. Of course, they are going hunting. Any more silly questions?

I’ve known men to quit their job so they could go hunting. Another who would injure himself just enough to qualify for some paid time off which, of course, he used to go hunting. Neanderthal instincts are not buried very deep in most men.

My favorite story from this year’s hunt was when my daughter telephoned via cell phone from the hunting grounds to announce success. She then emailed me a picture, again via cell phone, of the prize animal with the hunter and his bow.

Nothing is safe from technology.

Visit Julie at her Web site at www.julie-carter.com