Uncle Ted – The Little Big Things

Another day, another hunt! Hallelujah!

I have to start out a little earlier than the average hunter each hunt because I film every outing and there are a lot of extra little details I have to manage.

I dress into my de-scented Mossy Oak hunt garb and boots, check over and clean out the video camera, check batteries, review the SD card, check the microphone wires, clips and batteries, clean the lens, load up the camera bag and latch the tree-arm to it. Grab my bow, shoot a couple of well-timed, thoughtful arrows, put a fresh bottle of water in my backpack, grab a bag of Big Tine feed, load up the ATV, do one last wind check, and head to the predetermined, ever so hopeful, dice rolling right place right time!

I park the vehicle a good distance away from my chosen ambush spot, shoulder all the gear, walk briskly yet cautiously to my tree, spray a little Signal11 doe pee on my recent mockscrape, put out a little incentive attractant, clip my Mathews to the bowrope, carefully ascend the ladder, hookup my safety strap, pull up my bow, nock an arrow and clasp my release to the string, hang it on the bow-arm, then begin to silently and carefully assemble the SpiritWild vidcam setup onto the ladder rail, double check the camera settings, don my gloves and facemask, wiggle my butt into optimal shooting position and settle in for the ultimate fun, soul-cleansing ritual of another glorious traditional seasonal daily Nugent bowhunting celebration.

Now, there was a time, long, long ago, where my daily bowhunt preparation was but a fraction of such an elaborate, elongated procedure, and once in a while I lovingly reminisce the wonderful simplicity of those easy-going days of past falls when I just grabbed my bow and headed into the woods. That was it!

Knowing the difference between the two procedures, you would think a simple man like myself would just choose the easier route and have another nice day of good old fashioned bowhunting. But it was also long ago that I came to realize the growing culture war raging against our hunting lifestyle, and I decided to take it head-on by constantly promoting the perfection of hunting as the definitive conservation science of proven wildlife management, and the increased workload of videoing every hunt for our Spirit of the Wild TV show 30 years running was how I chose to do so.

We all know the incredible challenges associated with killing a deer with the bow and arrow, and it is surely these exciting challenges that drive us to keep at it. Add on the increased rules of engagement necessary to film each hunt and kill, and what we have here is the ultimate, often exasperating challenge of challenges.

There are times where I momentarily shrug my shoulders and consider all that extra work to be a major pain in the ass, but I very quickly giggle a little giggle knowing damn well how fortunate I am to have this phenomenal hunting lifestyle, and I carry on with vim and vigor.

It is October afterall, and the drive to leave the toxic modern world and escape into the spirit world of God’s miraculous natural creation as an actual participant is stronger for many of us than ever before.

I have recently had to painfully say good-bye to a number of my lifelong buddies and friends as age and the weaponized virus continues to take their toll. I think how lucky I am to have beaten the virus and celebrate my good health and hunting lifestyle each and every day by going afield with mucho gusto, reveling in each and every step of the way, thanking God for it all.

A certain percentage of the deerherds on my properties and all properties must be killed each season, and performing my conservation responsibilities is not only the ultimate fun, but even more importantly delivers a very powerful sense of gratification for balancing the herds, sharing precious venison to people who truly cherish it, and the whole time providing the best diet on earth for my own family and friends.

When we honestly get right down to it, the unlimited minutia and infinite details of what we accomplish as hunters is as vast and important as anything we do here on earth.

Don’t let any of these exciting and stimulating details get away from you. Review and embrace them all and they will cumulatively enhance your sense of aliveness and truly make you a better hunter. Being a better hunter demands such detailed attention that such an overview will meld into every aspect of our lives, making us a better everything!  There are so many little things that go into it all, that we must admit, they are all little big things called life.