Last Rites---Your Rituals

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HGUNHNTR

HGUNHNTR

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In the current issue of Outoor Life there is an article about rituals performed by hunters around the globe to honor game they had taken. The article has gotten me thinking about my own rituals, although not very formal, after taking game. I typically just give pause and thanks. I also frequently feel reverence for the animal that gave its life to feed myself and my family.

I wish I had a link to the article, but sadly I do not. It is possible you could find the article online.

I did notice that several rituals commonly practiced by American hunters focused more on the hunter and less on the game.

What are your rituals if any, and your opinions?
 
Much like yourself I pause and thank the lord for the animal that I had just taken. Most always I feel a little bit bad and a little bit glad for the experience. After that I take as great of care as possible during the feild dressing and butchering of the animal. I have always told myself that if I get to the point where the taking of a animal gives me no feelings of reverance as you said. That is the day I stop hunting.
 
I think a lot of it boils down to the respect you have for the animal you have taken. It annoys me when I see people dress up their mounts with ball caps and cigars.
 
JDMorris said:
with squirrels? a toss into an open field for Mr. Hawk. he never lets one by.
Click to expand...

...around here, that is considered wanton waste and is illegal.

I too take the time to thank the Lord for my success and try to show respect for the animal I have just harvested. From my observations, most of those that I see showing no respect for game animals after the shot, have little respect for anything else in life.....whether it be other game animals, game laws or their neighbors property.
 
My ritual? First I grin. Then I do all the field dressing and later the skinning and butchering. All through that, however, is a sort of, "Thankee, Lord," emotion.

It's the following years, every time I look at the horns nailed to the rafters in my garage that I think about a particular hunt, bringing back memories of that day.

In a way, I never quit appreciating the whole package that is hunting.

But, no, no particular ritual at the time. Like I said, to me it's a total package deal, and the kill is just part of it.
 
I thank God for helping kill the animal cleanly, and If for some reason I didn't have a clean kill, I curse myself for whatever mistake I made...


After that, its a matter of cleaning, cooking, and eating
 
After the shot, I field dress the animal and go on my way. After all, I took the shot, not "god" and I'm pretty sure the animal would rather be alive, than have me thank it for giving it's life (that I took without his permission in the first place) to feed me and mine. I'm happy that I have the animal, and that's all there is. I don't waste any meat if I can help it either.
 
CoastieShep,this is a thread asking what YOU do after a successful hunt. Not to ridicule someone else's actions or beliefs.
 
I give thanks to Spirit and to the animal that chose to give its life for my sustenance. I might say a small prayer of thanksgiving for a successful hunt and to honor the life that has just ended. Even for a little squirrel.

Josh
 
HGUNHNTR:

Cool thread idea! This will be fun reading for me, because I have no real rituals.

Me? I simply admire the animal and am simply appreciative that I live in a country where I can hunt, own firearms, and share the cultural richness of it all. I also don't think that it is bad or improper for folks to have rituals.

I'll stop back and enjoy some more reading here. Thanks for starting the thread! Great idea!

Geno
 
I didn't realize I did it until I had my oldest boy along for the first time and he asked me why I talked to the (dead) deer like one of the horses.

Superstition? Sure. But I still tell the animal what a good looking animal it is and what I'm going to do next. It's pretty much out of appreciation. I tend to think out loud a bit anyways.
 
Does anyone eat any part, like a bite from the heart, raw right then and there? I know folks who do. I know folks who drink some blood and take that animals life-force into their bodies immediately and thankfully.

JOsh
 
CoastieShep,this is a thread asking what YOU do after a successful hunt. Not to ridicule someone else's actions or beliefs

I didn't ridicule, I simply stated what I do and do not do. And this thread asked what people do after the shot. The OP did not ask for people to share their opinions on other people's posts. Thank you.
 
Do I need to type slower for you Jimmy? If you want I can ridicule, so you can see the difference. Just remember, if you don't like what somebody wrote, scroll on to the next post. It's super easy. Now, please drop it before this thread gets locked and everybody else has to suffer from the lack of this thread because you lacked the ability to move on.
 
I think that the tone of your post seemed mocking and made it seem like those who do perform some ritual are superstitious/religious crazies.

"After the shot, I field dress the animal and go on my way" doesn't sound like any sort of ritual. It seems like the response to your post was essentially, "if you don't have anything to add, and are going to make what could could be interpreted as offensive comment, then there's no need to post."

Josh
 
I always check the animal for where my shot landed. I do thank the animal for it meat if I intend to eat it, If it was a pest I (for lack of a better word) console the animal and wish it a fair journey. But then again that's me.
 
Much like yourself I pause and thank the lord for the animal that I had just taken. Most always I feel a little bit bad and a little bit glad for the experience.
Click to expand...
DITTO, maybe with an exception to HOGs, then I'm just glad I killed it.
 
I used to freedive and spearfish, and that crowd tends to get all metaphysical about it. Many of us had a ritual of admiring the "spirit" of the fish and thanking Gaea (or whatever) while cleaning the fish and eating little nibbles of raw flesh. Eventually that sort of thing got to seeming a little silly to me, and these days I prefer my animals cooked and no longer thank anyone but John Nosler. I don't have anything against the folks who invoke their deity of preference, but I'm personally not too sure about it for myself. I get a kind of "Hail Mary, full of grace, help me win this stock-car race" feel about the whole thing...
 
Oh, and Ruark wrote that it was "proper to cry at the taking of one's first elephant". That sounds pretty reasonable to me...
 
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