For those of you who are not familiar with the tradition of hunting, more specifically whitetail deer hunting, this post might be very interesting or possibly disturbing to you.
I come from the state of Pennsylvania where there are around 1,000,000 (one million) registered hunters (that number is a the best estimate, next survey is in 2010). And there were plenty of reports of the numbers going up this year because of it being a relatively cheap way to fill the freezer with meat for the winter during these tough economic times.
According to that number, if all of the PA hunters were to assemble in an organized "military" unit, versus the active personnel numbers on Wikipedia, it would be the 4th or 5th largest military in the world. Intense.
So needless to say, its a strong tradition for suburban to rural families in the state of PA. Including mine!
The hunting (whitetail deer) season starts on the Monday after Thanksgiving every year and lasts for two weeks. That day is basically a state holiday, kids off school, and lots of people off work.
This year dad, brother, and sister went out on my uncle's farm, about 300 acres, in Susquehanna county (Northeast PA or NEPA).
Kevin got a spike (allowed on a junior license) at around 6:45 AM. He said it looked like a tree at first, granted it was still semi-dark at the time. He was using a 30-30 with a mounted scope, I think. (Ignore the date on the picture, and let that be a reminder to never buy a Kodak digital camera, they're terrible)
Dad got his sometime mid-morning with his .270 I assume, the same gun I shot my first deer with. It's a very nice 9-pointer (would have been a 10 but one was broken off), he said it had ~19-20 inch spread. Of course this one is getting mounted on the living room wall next to his other "big one." That's how we do it in PA. (Pardon the goofy expression....haha)Hopefully Meg can get one when she goes out again on Friday like she plans. Dad and Kevin can each tag a doe too since they all got doe tags this year. Essentially my family can harvest 6 deer this year. I wish I could contribute to that but some people feel grad school is more important to attend....pshh. Its been 5 years since I went out in the woods to hunt....I'm going through some serious withdrawal. I can't wait to go home for winter break to some deer meat!!
Since this blog tends to lean towards the controversial side let this post be an opening to some hunting/anti-hunting discussion. Fair warning, if you defend PETA in anyway you automatically lose.
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