I wrote this little Story after my Season had ended for the year.  I posted it on Realtree.com forums.  I hope you take the time to read it.

Reflections of a Deer Hunter

I was reading a post that Rangerclay (Joe) posted in the Deer Hunting forum entitled "The last weekend of Deer Season". It made me smile to see someone so bummed out about the end of the Season. Before I explain why it made me smile, let's sit back and think about this for a moment.

What is it that each and everyone of us here at Realtree have in common? The answers simple, whether it is Whitetails, Mulies, Blacktails, Pronghorns, or Elk, we all share a love for deer and have a passion for the Outdoors.

What is it about deer that intrigues us so much? Is it the challenge of the hunt? Is it the satisfaction of a perfect shot and the nurishment we receive from it? Maybe it's the adrenalin that screams though your body when you outsmart that big buck that you have spent countless hours scouting and hunting. Maybe it's a way for you to escape the everyday problems that we all have. Maybe it's just sitting back and enjoying what a beautiful job Mother Nature has done. To many of you, it's about spending time with family and friends. Everyone of us can relate to some or all of these things. We are deer hunters.

So, we all know what we have in common. We all know why we deer hunt. What is it that bums us out about the end of deer season? Take a moment and sit back, close your eyes, and think about all of the days you spent in the deerstand. Some days were great, while others we would probably rather forget! One things for sure, something happened to you that brings a smile to your face. For some it might have been dropping something out of your stand and wondering, how could I be so clumsy?  To others it may be putting the smackdown on a great deer with a perfect shot! Something happened. For me, one of the things that really sticks out in my mind was, I had a squirrel fall out of a tree while it was trying to jump to another branch and missed!

Deer are very special creatures. Some of you may be asking, what makes them so special? I think Bill Jordan himself summed it up by saying "Family, Friends, and the Outdoors."

To make things a bit easier to explain, I'm going to put a few of you "out there"!  Mr. and Mrs. wtnhunt are the first to come to mind as an example of how deer hunting affects a family. I don't personally know either one of them yet, but what I do know, is that they truly love each other and enjoy spending time together sharing their passion for deer hunting. To others it may be spending time with their children or their fathers, one way or another, deer hunting affects all of our families.

Friends. This is the really neat part!! LOL What are you doing right now? Reading this lame post on RT right? Sit back and get the whole picture. Why did you come to the RT forums? Let me guess? You wanted to either share a story about deer hunting or you just wanted to talk about deer hunting! So, now you've talked Deer hunting, Turkey hunting, Fishing, you've seen Andrea with a "high humidity" hair day, you've even seen a beauty pageant!!  You have talked about everything that has to do with the Great outdoors and made some very special friends in the process! At this point some of you probably think "sheesh, Randy bumped his head"! Well, I may have but, the truth of the matter is, the deer brought us here. I almost get choked up thinking about Buckee's Christmas Present and some of the disabled kids that have had a chance to go to Wyoming and hunt with Stevebeilgard. How so many of you pulled together when David (Exturkinator) died in a terrible accident and raised money for his family, whether it was carving turkey calls or making arrow wraps, we have all made friends that will last a lifetime!

So why do we get bummed out at the end of deer season? It's the memories, our families, our friends, (new and old) and enjoying quality time with them in a beautiful place that only Mother Nature could have created. For some of us it's the last time we will see some of our friends or family until next season.

Now is the time to reflect on your season and remember everything about it, there really is so much more to it than just killing an animal. In fact, it really isn't even about the kill. It's about Family, friends, and the beautiful outdoors. So the next time you are down because the season is over, take a look at Tominator's signature. "Don't cry because it's over, smile because you were there!"