Are you kidding? The first rule of deer camp is “we tell everyone we know whatever dumb thing you did in deer camp”! Like when you lit the pot-bellied stove and didn’t open the flue and smoked us all out of the cabin. Or when you had to walk to my stand to borrow a bullet cuz you “forgot” yours. Or the time when you opened your stand door from the ladder and a ring-tailed cat immediately attached itself to your face and you commenced to screaming and flailing about til you and the cat fell to the ground below (true story). Yep. You’d better believe that at least three generations of young hunters will hear that tail around the campfire. I’m still laughing many years later.
But isn’t that part of the fun of deer camp? This will be my 50th season and it’s not the wall mounts that we gain from deer camp. It’s the experiences and the memories. I do wax nostalgic about how things used to be because I wish everyone could experience a bit of the good old days. It’s where every 12-year old wants to be like the older men…like their dad. And, where dad and the older men want to be 12 again. Deer camp is where boys become men and men are reminded how they became who they are.
True deer camp for you younger folks was a tent, a pop-up camper, an old travel trailer, or a wood floor cabin with no running water or electricity. Maybe it still is. I hope so. Roughing it is not “no wi-fi”. There is much to learn from being cold, wet, uncomfortable, and inconvenienced. We learn to think critically from adversity. You learn to be prepared and efficient when you’re forced to. There is something bigger and greater at work in deer camp.
I learned to peel a tater in one continuous piece from one of the older men betting me he could do it better. Loser peeled twenty pounds. I never did win the bet, but I can peel a tater like nobody’s business. And, I still have all my digits. I learned why it’s not good to swallow tobacco juice. I even learned to poke holes in a quarter at 100 yards. When I finally got it perfect, they mounted it on a dog tag chain for me and I wore it til I went to boot camp. I shoot pretty good now.
If you’ve never used an outhouse, you’ve never been to deer camp. I can recall running out at night in my long handles, barefoot, freezing, and sitting in the privy playing with my flashlight. Dreaming about the morning’s hunt to come. Shivering, teeth chattering, and thinking "it can’t possibly get any better than this"!
Deer camp is also where we learn not to close our eyes when we finally get a shot at our first deer. I had a year to relive that miserable experience over and over. It taught me humility, patience, and lots of anger management.
I think I learned how to be a good human being. How to be a righteous man. Don’t take the last piece of meat when someone is still out. Pick up after yourself. Don’t slam the door when you head to the outhouse. Close the cattle gate behind you. Put a log on the fire before you head out. Many important lessons on interacting with others. Respect, courtesy, and common sense.
My first thoughts about God came in the nights out under the stars, hearing the older men speak about the majesty of space and such. Belief came to me out there. Something so vast and amazing couldn’t possibly just happen by accident. Even as a kid I saw that.
I learned to overcome fear when my dad left me in my stand til well after dark one night. I didn’t know at the time that there weren’t lions, tigers, and bears in the woods of Montgomery county, Texas. In fact, the men went well out of their way to reinforce that notion. I was terrified but remained resolute in my dad’s instructions to not leave my stand til he came. He finally did, and it instilled a bond of trust between us that lasted many years later. He always showed up when I needed him to most.
Being teased, taunted, and generally messed with as a kid was part of a right of passage. You learned not to be so thin-skinned. To take it in the spirit it was given. Even to dish out a little. The whole process was a hide-toughening. A test of who I was and who I would become by men who had been through it with their dads. Good, solid, upright men. Hunters! 50 years later I am the man I became in those camps of old. My sons and grandsons are as I am. Pretty sure they want to be me, and I, them!
The moral of this verbose rant is simply…take a kid to the woods…to deer camp. Because there is no greater place on this planet.

Well said sir.

Amen

I try my best to pass on/duplicate as much of the above to the other, younger guys on the lease...when we're not in a seminar on trophy management.

Thanks for posting.

That is publishable. Well done.

Very well said, have to believe most have experienced the above.

Well said. Can relate to a lot of what was written. A person could not relate to any of that unless he lived it.

That was a wonderfull read and I could feel the things you spoke of,just with different faces and places I'm sure.Ditto what Searcher said.I would but the book.Happy trails.

tsasunkawitka,

Wish you could create a deer camp training course to "de-millennialize" or "millennial-proof" some of our youth.

Pertnear,

If only there were such a place. I do appreciate all the kind support here. Was trying to convey some things I see are sadly missing. I have clients who will spend a hundred grand on renting a luxury lodge for a week. In my mind, the guy sitting around a campfire with friends eating dinty moore stew from the can is far wealthier!


"The finest thing I've ever smelled is coffee percolating and bacon frying over the fire on a cool, crisp, Texas morning"!

Coming in from the hunt in the evening and everyone participating in preparing dinner. Peeling the taters, cooking the meat, setting the table, stoking the fire. Clean up then some drinks and bs till wee hours. Greatness.

Sounds like you grew up in the same camp as me. I loved every minute of it

“It’s where every 12-year old wants to be like the older men…like their dad. And, where dad and the older men want to be 12 again. Deer camp is where boys become men and men are reminded how they became who they are.”

Places that are “male only” have become few and far between. And to even speak of them is taboo in many circles.

I started hunting with my future FIL and my wife’s uncles soon after I met her. I couldn’t have imagined her or any other woman being in deer camp during all those years. It wasn’t a matter of exclusion but simply a place and activity where men took an interest. Even today, there are only men in my hunting circle and our wives desire no part of it. That’s not to say that women shouldn’t be hunting, but simply that many men have something in them that creates a desire to pack together. It can probably be traced back to our earliest ancestors. IMO, only time will tell the impact of the changing role of men in our society.

Very well put ! Sounds like the camp I grew up in. Wouldn't trade it for anything....

I remember a woman in our camp(in fact it was her camp) way back in the day when we were hunting in the Davy Crockett Natl forrest.It was my Ain't Joyce and she dipped and snorted snuff.When you heard that old Rem 1100 of her's sing you knew meat was on the ground.She was tougher than many a man and didn't mince words.Times have changed quite a bit since those days of sittin around the fire down in the woods at night.I miss that old woman with all my heart.Back in those old days she took more deer and caught more and bigger catfish than any man I knew cept maybe Uncle Shirley(her old man)
Thinking bout them has brought tears to my eyes so I'm gonna sign off now. Good Hunting to all and to all good luck.

That was awesome to read. Posts like that are my favorite part of this forum. I guess now I'll get back to daydreaming about opening day from the comfort of the office... *sigh*

One of the best posts I have ever read!!

Well said

X2