Back Cast

I took hunter safety more than half a century ago in a cramped, portable classroom that would be considered too small nowadays as an elevated deer stand if you were to attach four long legs to it.

While I recollect the smallness of the venue, I also remember the enormity of it all, the self-inflicted pressure of not fumbling on test day. If I didn’t pass, I wouldn’t get to hunt in the coming deer season. Simple as that. The pageantry of watching Dad buy my first deer tag over the counter, something I’d long envisioned carrying in my back pocket in one of those colored, plastic license holders that advertised the local sporting goods store on the front in white lettering, would be lost.

I shot my first deer, a small buck, that year. It was 1973. Like a lot of firsts, I’ll likely never forget it.

This year, with North Dakota’s deer gun season opening in about a week as I write this, I notched another first (with an asterisk). This is the first year in 50-plus that I won’t be carrying a deer tag around in my back pocket. Just one of the unlucky many who, not surprisingly, didn’t land one of the roughly 39,000 licenses made available across the state.

I say this with pause (here’s the asterisk) because while I didn’t draw in the unit where I’ve long hunted with family, I picked up a doe tag in the second drawing in southwestern North Dakota. I figured I could sneak down there sometime after hunting opening weekend with the kids if my work schedule and other stars aligned.

Yet, with the implementation of conservative strategies earlier this fall to safeguard an already slow-to-rebound whitetail population that was hit by an EHD outbreak in that neck of North Dakota, my back pocket, like some hunters who have already returned their deer tags to the agency, will likely remain empty.

When I was informed sometime in summer with the “unsuccessful” deer lottery notification via email, I wasn’t surprised, nor was I bummed which, well, sort of surprised me. Maybe because two of my kids and newly minted son-in-law all drew doe tags, which is plenty. Or maybe it’s an age thing. I’ve pulled the trigger during 50-plus consecutive deer seasons and now it’s someone else’s turn.

Yeah, I’m not buying that, either.

My desire, my want to participate in North Dakota’s deer gun season with purpose — to shoot, skin and quarter what I eat — hasn’t changed any since 1973.