urban ku # 137 ~ a pre-hanging event
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 12:32PM 
Nature's bounty • click to embiggenI went out today to try and shoot a turkey but had no luck so I shot this deer instead. Turkeys are not considered to be amongst nature's brightest but they do prove to be, at least during hunting season, very elusive game.
Turkeys, unlike deer, are blessed with very keen eyesight which is certainly partly responsible for their ability to remain unshot. It is also totally responsible for the adage amongst hunters that goes something like, "When a deer sees a camouflaged hunter, it sees a stump. When a turkey sees a camouflaged hunter, it sees a stump with a rifle."
Of course, the shoot/shot I am referring to is of the picturing variety. Not that that should be construed as any kind of anti-hunting sentiment because I don't have any problem with hunting within the rules.
In any event, even if I did have a problem with it, the hunting harvest is pretty hard to ignore in my little part of the planet. Our local 'dive' bar, 20 Main - a place where you will see some skanky people and may be served a skunky beer - sponsors a deer-hunting contest. I don't know all the conditions for victory but one of them involves weight. I know this because right there on Main Street, right next to the front door of the place, is a hanging weigh-scale and, at any given hour of the day or night during the season, the latest kill is on prominent display.
It adds are real touch of reality and class to a trip to the bank, the theater, the hardware, the grocery, the tanning salon, and Sandy's Hair Hut. I am not aware of anyone caring all that much about the display. It's just a part of life 'round these here parts.
gravitas et nugalis
Featured Comment: Don wrote; "You have captured the perfect picture of stereo typing of us north country folks. A dead buck in the back of a 4WD pick-up of a volunteer firemen with two Jeff Gordon stickers and one sticker permit to hunt terrorists...........it says it all."
my response - need I write any more about 'truth' in photography?
FYI check out James Robinson's post-hanging event in the Wildness Close to Home gallery
Reader Comments (9)
You have captured the perfect picture of stereo typing of us north country folks. A dead buck in the back of a 4WD pick-up of a volunteer firemen with two Jeff Gordon stickers and one sticker permit to hunt terrorists...........it says it all.
It sure looks familiar to me too! Right now, I have twice the traffic on my little dirt road due to out of state hunters "road hunting". Makes me crazy! They even eyeball my horse to make sure he is not a deer in the yard.
did Don mean us or U.S.? I'm confused?
Michelle - there's no denying it, there is such a thing as hunting fever. Lock up the animals, big and small.
Aaron - that's us - as in us north-country rubes.
I think turkeys are probably "elusive" during hunting season, rather than "illusive". Unless, maybe, you're hunting turkeys somewhere that turkeys don't actually exist?
Thanks Stephen - that's one of the problems with spellcheck - it lets you know that you've correctly spelled the wrong word
Still, I kind of liked the idea of intently hunting non-existent turkeys. Had a kind of "Zen" air about it.
Here in Austria any picture of a motor vehicle which is shown publically is blanked out. Something to do with privacy rights. Hope you're covered.
Mike - here in the US of A, as long as you are standing on public property - streets, sidewalks, parks, etc., everything is fair game.