By: James Hudson
Lets go back for a second, back to a simpler time. It’s a summer Sunday afternoon, you’re at your childhood home, you just finished dinner and everyone is relaxing. You’re in your routine of life, not a care in the world; the comfort of your home has you and your mind at ease. Now…snap back to the present. You’re older; maybe you have a family of your own, a new house, new routine, and a whole new life. You’re doing whatever you need to achieve that comfort you had at your childhood home. Some get lucky and find an almost similar feeling and are able to call their new home…well…home. As hunters, a “hunting home” is something we long for as well.
Not all, but most of us that currently hunt, grew up in a hunting household. Whether that was with a grandparent, parent, or maybe it was just an older friend of the family that was there to show you the ropes. This was your first hunting home, your comfort of hunting. Maybe you’re new to hunting and still looking for a home. You’re looking for a place to be accepted and find comfort. No matter the background, as hunters and outdoorsman, a “hunting home” is a special place to find. Sometimes it’s very hard to find.
If you consider yourself a hunter, living and breathing hunting is what you do. The urge to talk about and converse is an itch that can never be settled till those conversations actually spark. The Internet and social media have made that easier to do. It has become a great place to connect and cure that itch to talk about hunts. To reminisce on past hunts and think about all the future endeavors. But, as we all know, it absolutely has its downfalls. Between platforms monitoring your words and the social media gods ready to ban you over a picture they don’t find fit, you can barely share your joy in the sport. Then you have every “Joe Blow” on the Internet that’s ready to chime in and give inaccurate advice, or try to belittle you if your hunting style doesn’t match theirs to a tee. Open platform sites and hunting talk is a dangerous game, and it will truly never give you that “home” feeling your looking for in a group.
Acceptance, advice, and genuine conversations in a group setting can surely be a beautiful thing. Most hunters are lucky enough to have a few friends or even a hunting club that they can call home. But even as great as those friends or clubs can be, they are not going to be able to offer you new adventures, new ideas, or new opportunities. It becomes mundane and can put you in what some call a hunting rut. This ultimately begins to make you loose your drive. It stops feeling like a home and feels more like being at a job you enjoy. Essentially, you love what you’re doing, but it’s more forced rather than being at your free will. So, you begin your search for something more. To keep that drive and to reignite that passion you felt in the beginning.
Since joining Cervicide, that spark, that passion, that at home feeling, has came rushing in. As a hound hunter, open talking about running dogs on game is normally instantly shunned at the first mention of that style of hunting. Especially in the predominately “still” hunting locations. Not once has that happened since joining the Cervicide family. Sparked conversations and other members showing interest in understanding the different ways of hunting have given off that “at home” feeling. It gives hope for the avid hunter that hunting of different styles can unit and work together to protect every form of hunting. My hunting passion and the need to learn more has brought me to a new hunting home and given me a welcoming feeling. So to all the members, staff, and owners of Cervicide, I would like to express this gesture from the bottom of my heart from a humble houndsman…
