Apathy Towards Hunting Essay, Research Paper

Apathy Towards Hunting

When I was around eleven years old I wanted to go deer hunting more than anything else I could remember. There was one problem my dad would not let me go with out a hunter’s safety certification. So that year I enrolled in a class and got my certification. That first deer season, for a reason I can not remember wasn’t able to go hunting, and by time the next season came I had “buck fever” quite bad. So how did my youthful exuberance turn in to apathy?

That next year came and I got my license and deer tag, and the night before the opening day I couldn’t sleep. Even though I knew I needed as much sleep as possible to be able to get in the field at dawn and function enough to see and kill a deer. I finally got to sleep and the alarm came soon enough, so Bobby, my brother-in-law and I set off to the field.

I could almost taste the deer steak that I knew I would be eating in the months following my hunt; I found my stand and climbed into it. It was cold, but I was too excited to let that bother me. After an hour my tree stand became comfortable enough for me to fall asleep in.

Not too long after I awoke from my short nap, I only dozed off for a minute or two for it was too cold to fall asleep soundly, Bobby came and said it was too cold and they would be bedded down, so we should walk and “jump” one. To make a long story short I never got the deer that at the begining of the day I could almost taste, but I still enjoyed the experience, and there was still a week of season left. The rest of the season came and went with no deer, but the excitement was enough to where I couldn’t wait for the next year’s hunt.

The next year came and on opening day I got in the field at dawn, I wasn’t as confident as I was the year before but excited none the less. After the opening weekend I caught a cold and the first Saturday and Sunday was the extent of my hunting for that year.

The next year my dad went with me for the first time, and with dad going it made my excitement almost as high as my first hunting experience. Again I didn’t kill a deer and after three years of hunting with no kill I was really getting discouraged.

For the next deer season I didn’t buy a tag I just went out with Bobby on his fathers land. His family always had plenty of tags so I went hunting, but with fewer obligations because I did not feel the need to fill my tag, but still no deer. The next season I had to work opening weekend, and since I didn’t go opening weekend I felt it to be pointless to go the second one, and now its to the point where I don’t even really think about wanting to hunt.

So after four years of no results I feel like it’s a waste of my time, this by no means has turned me against hunting I just haven’t wanted to take the time. I liked hunting when I went and I enjoy shooting firearms, I just haven’t had the exuberance I did before.