I think I made my friend feel about 2 centimeters tall today, but I feel it was justified. He came in to work all excited. He told me he wacked a deer in the swamp behind his house. He told me how it went something like this:
It was right about sunset when I saw the deer. I just glanced at the head and not wanting to get fixed and rattled by seeing antler I just picked out the body and shot. I watched it kinda gallop away and stop way out. I turned to hang my bow up and when I turned back the deer was gone, I just thought it dropped where it was."
First mistake was not watching the deer till you couldn't see it no more (he agreed with this mistake.) Then it all fell away from there. He didn't mark the general spot he shot the deer. He didn't have any lighting to search with. didn't have his tracking gear (like his spray bottle of Hydrogen peroxide.) He had to walk the 20 minutes back to his house. He probably spent half an hour looking before giving up for the night.
Now, at this point Im still pretty relaxed. I found it odd he was here at work and not out searching, but he said he would go back out tonight. He is a janitor and would not be missed for a few hours, his boss would have no problems, and he is well off financially (thanks to his wife) that he didn't even need to be at work for the pay.
So I make some offhand remark about investing in a string tracker. His son (grown adult) lost one in the same swamp bowhunting not more than a few weeks earlier. He said "Yeah well I Know guys who used em and said sometimes the arrow hangs up and stops even before it hits the deer." (I actually doubt he even knows someone who ever used this device.) I said "Id rather watch the arrow stop before the target and watch the deer run off unharmed than shoot one, know I hit it and know its dead but I cant find it." His Half a** reply to this statement is what floored me. I was ready to spit fire, and the as the conversation progressed I was ready to tell this guy I didn't even want to associate with him anymore. I told him that a responsible hunter would have been back out in the woods the next morning looking till he found the deer or was almost sure it was lost for good. Add to the fact that he was WELL AWARE that it would be raining when he was going to continue his searching, as well as the fact that the daytime temps hit up over 60! I asked how he could live with himself knowing what he had done and doing things so half a**ed. He said it was something that just happens and that I would know what he means when I take up bowhunting, so deal with it. Then he made some stupid comment about "oh well, just thinning out the deer herd." It was at that point, as he was chuckling and grinning, that he got the cold stare of death from me which instantly wiped the grin off his face. I told he squarely "Im done talking to you today. No offense but I don't want any more advice about bowhunting from you ever again." He tried pressing his case further, but I was POd to the max. A veteran hunter with about 20 of those bowhunting, and a hunter safety instructor to boot. I told him that as a hunter safety instructor he should be setting a better example, to which he continued to ply his "wait and you'll see" response. I understand that losing a deer can happen to the best of us, even gun hunters. But his half a** attitude and nonchalant way of brushing off the fact he was responsible for killing something, and not doing everything possible to recover that animal was a disgrace to hunters and the code we live by. And as the day wore on all the other hunters in the plant took a similar stance as I (though it was personal for me and more of a joke to them about this guy.) I don't think he came in expecting to be cut down like he did, but I ccouldn'ttake it. I guess all that came after I began my rant was him trying to take the heat off himself, and I ttrulyhope he does not really think that way about things he said. And hhopefullyhe does not do it again. Later that afternoon I gave him my number and our buddy Ricks number. I told him "be smarter next time, don't do such stupid things, and give us a call. We would be glad to come help." Another friend of ours said he would be happy to help any time as well.
Im sorry for this long rant. But it was stewing inside me all day and I had to get it out. Was I totaly out of line for un-intentionally belittling him? I just couldn't believe this guy I had respected could act so callously.
Anyways, thats it.
Brian M.
