Deerbuster.com

I can only speak for myself. I resist the concept of stereotype, anyway. In movies and media the Animal Activists would foster the rambling redneck image, most hunters I know are like most people I know. They are reasonable, responsible family-oriented people. I am a medical professional, specifically a Physician Assistant specializing in plastic and reconstructive surgery. I hunt often times with a fellow who works at a water treatment facility, one is an attorney, one is a police officer, one is a paramedic and yet another is a plastic surgeon. Drunkards do not flourish in a bow hunter society, and I don't know or hunt with any. Yet I am aware that it is part of the aforementioned stereotype.

I love the feeling after a hunt, especially if I viewed wild life. I hunt to "have hunted". A hunt is a quest. Seeing game is a discovery. Bagging game is an achievement and a celebration of the natural way of things. From it I get a serene and invigorating boost that no other avocation provides. First and foremost on my hunter's agenda is to be safe. Second is having fun and lastly, to quickly and cleanly kill a deer. I enjoy making some of my own equipment and using it in the field. During parts of the year I have taken on the additional challenge of using more primitive bow hunting equipment ( as opposed to modern ). I took an eight point buck from 9 yards with a single arrow of my own manufacture, propelled by a long bow. The arrow was made of Ash (yep, the wood) which I cut, sanded and stained and was steered my natural turkey feathers I picked up in the woods.

I feel fortunate and grateful to have the opportunity to explore and seek out deer on private property in Fairfield County. With written permission that is renewed each year, I spend as much spare time as life allows to pursue Whitetail deer with a bow and arrow. My profession, fatherhood and husbandry duties curtail my efforts to about twice a week. But in that limited time span I was able to take nearly a dozen deer in 1999 and hope to match that this year. Only two of those deer were bucks, and the rest were doe deer ( the ones that make the biggest difference in population control ).

I follow an ethical code that is mine alone. Some hunters are "bow hunters" and use only that mode of weaponry. I am better described as an "opportunistic hunter". I hunt with a long bow most of the time, yet I use a more modern compound bow when the days go short and limit my practice time with the traditional gear. When and where it is allowed, I use an old fashioned muzzle loader gun during the season for primitive firearms. I also hunt during shotgun season in an effort to fill all the deer tags I relieve from the state Department of Environmental Protection. But in Connecticut, I only use the bow on properties of less than 10 acres.

Included in my agenda is to carry the message of a hunter. I am a man who takes responsibility for myself on this earth. We are consumptive beings, living off the earth. We all take up space, and support the destruction of the deer habitat one road at a time, one house at a time and one supermarket at a time. We do these things at the expense of our Mother Earth. When I take a deer, I process it and I eat it myself or donate it to the food bank, I am living with the earth, not off of it. I am in sync, not in conflict. I am part of, not in spite of. I choose not to have someone else ( for example: the cattle industry ) do these things for me. I kill the deer, I use it up. One for one. It's like a dance with nature.