Deer family...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4okoJG4nNuc

A buddy of mine sent me the link. I guess Timmy thought I'd be impressed with the shooting as, on the surface, four hits in nine seconds of moving targets is impressive. The guy's a pretty good shot.

What is it about ambushing animals that excites him so? Really, that's what it was. A buddy radios him that the Bambi family is coming towards him and he wipes them out. Well, that's hunting!

I've never been hunting but, have had dozens of friends who are fairly regular hunters, to varying degrees of success. Timmy, for example, grew up hunting with his dad in upstate New York. When we both lived in the mid-south, he was shut out on a few hunting trips but he had killed a deer or two when he was a kid in NY. I've got a brother-in-law who has gotten deer, I guess, and I know he has gone after Big Horn sheep and the like out west. Deer maybe but, why the fuck would anybody want to shoot sheep? I guess the horns make for a nice trophy?

True enough, our ancestors relied on hunting to actually, literally, put food on the table. That's just the way things were before the Piggly Wiggly. Probably most hunters today actually do eat what they kill but, except for those oddballs who purposely live in Alaska in the winter, they don't do this for lack of a Piggly Wiggly nearby. I pretty much understand the thinning of the herd aspect of hunting though some dispute the necessity of that. Evidently the humane thing to do is shoot some so that others may survive the bleak winter so they can be shot the next year. Sounds kinda republican to me. Woodsy death panels. I live in a suburban area that has many forest preserves that provide a natural habitat for deer and their food chain friends. People near those preserves may find deer dining in their yards or dashing in front of their SUV's. I recall six of them doing just that during the morning rush across six lanes of traffic, years ago. Yikes! You think our world changed in the last couple hundred years, what about theirs? Forget cougars and bears as enemies, now there are Ford's and Chevy's.

And guys with pump-action shotguns, sitting in tree-stands, waiting for them to scamper by. This isn't Hawkey and his Indian brothers running through the woods with flintlocks to get dinner. It's a multi-billion dollar business you dress in camouflage for. Deer, and I think all animals, are colorblind, by the way. Why on earth would you want to disguise yourself as the woods when there are other fellas with guns looking to kill things in the woods?! The deer don't notice bright orange but maybe Buck, who has probably been nipping at a flask, will and not shoot at your LL Bean designed subterfuge. Hunting accidents happen. How one dresses surely contributes to that. Errant shots happen, as well.

The guy in the video might not exactly be legal. As I understand, along with kill limits, there are gender specific limits as well. Killing bucks and does on the same day is frowned up. Killing four might be over the limit as well. I'm guessing that after orgasm and a cigarette, the shooter and his buddy got their story straight about who shot whom. "Damn big gubmint..."

Obviously, hunting never appealed to me. I like guns and shooting but, stationery paper targets or beer bottles appeal more to me than living creatures. I know that in a Romney presidency we'll all have to kill and dress our own food as, on Day Two, he intends to turn the reigns over to Paul Ryan and the Tea Party. Mitt's only there for Day One, to repeal Obamacare. His thing is delegating and collecting the cash while underlings pillage. It's going to be a brave new world of individualism, just like the founders intended...

But, I digress. Or do I? In this "us against them" world that current republicans exist in, not hunting (or being snarkastic about it) is the same as being agin it. It, of course, is not but, try telling them that. I suppose my BIL is respectful about hunting. (I wonder if they drank the blood of the deer of their first kill? That's gross and might be why I don' hunt. Of course, with a gun in my hand, I doubt anyone could make me drink the blood. I'd be very disrespectful of tradition, I think) Timmy might be too. They might both be sporting about it. I just don't see lying in wait to ambush a critter as sporting. The fella in the video could have stopped at one or two depending upon the limit. But, how orgasmic ally cool would that be? No doubt he's got a high-dollar fourwheeler to haul out the bodies and a big-ass Chevy to take them from there. Sporting, eh? Well, have you seen the price of meat at the Piggly Wiggly?! A fella has to make ends... meat...these days, right? Evidently, at all costs.