every skilled hunter......
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 2:29 pm
Be Still
Every skilled hunter knows that in order to be consistently successful, requires being still while on the hunt. Hours spent quietly glassing hill sides, watching for movement, listening for movement, and yes even using the sense of smell to wind the musky order of deer or elk, are essential for taking big game in the vast wilderness areas of the Rockies. Though evry year more and more hunters come into the woods with four wheelers, hand held radios and yes even, aaaargh!...cell phones, trying to somehow give themselves the advantage over their prey...or perhaps victims should be a better term, still the age old methods employed by our ancestors, both red and white, seems to me the most rewarding, both in actual results and to the spirit. Hunting for me has long since stopped being a "competition", and the actual "bagging" of a game animal is less important now than the hunt it's self.
Last year I had applied for elk and deer tags in the pre season drawing, being successful in receiving both. As the hunts approached, I was acutely aware that the possibility of an elk hunt was remote at best. I returned my tag for a refund, but decided to go for my buck anyway. Part of the problem was that, I would have to hunt alone and though I enjoy stalking alone, spending the entire hunt that way has little interest for me as I enjoy the fellowship. Also I had drawn in an area I was not familiar with and expected the first day or two to be just scouting. That first day was cold and windy, and though it was said that there was a nice buck in the area, by day's end I'd had decided that it was time to move on. That for me it was a waste to be there alone, in an area I didn't know with little game. The next day found me still hunting but with out a gun in an area outside where my tag was valid. I had discovered some doe that were grazing along the edge of a small clearing. For the next thirty minutes, I carefully and quietly snuck within 15 feet of one big doe, that even when I decided to expose my position, was so startled and uncertain of what I was as to hesitate long enough for even a full draw bow shot, before she bounded away. Oddly enough just the short stalk was sufficient, to redeem what became the some total of my 2001 hunt.
For those who may not understand, it's all about tuning senses to the environment....sounds kind of new age when I say it like that, but being quiet, being still allows all the small critters around you accept your presence, without raising the alarm to all the large four legged ones. It's settling in so that everything that stopped moving when you came into their world, will start to begin their life again as though you weren't there. If you've checked the wind when entering, you are all ready at the advantage, as long as your movement is slow and quiet and your ears and eyes are trained to hear and see movement.
Once my older son Young and I on the first morning of rifle season, at about seven in the morning, had just entered an area that just the year or two before I had killed a bear. It is a somewhat secluded spot, even though it is only a few hundred yards off the main highway that comes into our small mountain town. Once again we had checked the wind to see if it was with us, and were quietly moving to the very spot where I had shot the bear, when a very faint sound was heard coming from just over the small ridge we had just climbed. At first it was an indistinct muffled noise. No snapping limbs or brush, more like movement in dry grass. Question was, was it a small rodent like a squirrel or gopher, or something larger. Suddenly movement revealed the tine of an antler. A bull that no doubt met the legal requirement for having at least four points or tines on one side. At first, all I saw was antler. Deciding that a proper shot would require getting into a better position, we carefully advanced another 10 yards or so, bringing us to within twenty yards of the bull. As we were standing in the open it was my hope that the bull, would himself, walk a couple more feet from behind the spruce where he was grazing. Finally he did, revealing no more than his head and neck. Concerned that the wind would change or that he would see us standing so close, I decided to take a neck shot. As I was carrying my single shot Sharps 45/70, one shot was all I got off as the bull suddenly bolted down the hill, but as Young was hunting with a bolt action repeater in .308, he managed to hit the bull a couple of more times before he disappeared from sight. A huge blood trail revealed he was mortally wounded in the neck and within an hour and a half we were field dressing and dragging him down the hill to our truck.
There are many more similar stories, but the point is, as I have always hunted somewhat primitive with muzzleloader, bow or single shot Sharps without the aid of a scope, stealth in seeking game and getting as close as possible, has always been the order of business in my hunting. It has usually paid off with, what I consider as success, but recently has been a reminder of how important "being still" is in an even more important area of my life...seeking the face of God!
Jeremiah 29:11 is probably as well known as any other scriptures, at least from the Old Testament. The New American Standard Bible says, "For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." Praise God, we all want a future and a hope....maybe it will be a good one...maybe I'll be rich! But then it goes on in verses 12 and 13, " Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." Stop! Before you go on to the "restore your fortunes" bit, consider this. God knows when we are new in the Lord, we will discover if there is anything we need, we just need to go to the Lord. In time we discover, if there's anything we want we just go the Lord. And in the beginning God is often very cooperative to "bless us", but in time it seems to me that some of our most desperate request seem to fall on deaf ears. Could it be that God continues to allow us to come seeking His hand because he eventually wants us to seek His face. And the longer we seek desperately His hand, in time we will get to the point where we will either give up on God or realize it is intimacy with Him that we really seek and need. God wants us to know that He has a plan for our lives. He wants us to know that He has a plan for good not bad. And if by getting us to merely seek after the good, He has at least accomplished our seeking Him, if only for what He can give us. But if He withholds the answer to our request, it is in order to test us as to whether we will in time, "be still" and have intimacy with Him alone. Have we not found the better part of "finding Him, because we have searched for Him with all our heart.
In the past when I prayed, I always launched into what I needed from God. Now I wait, silently, being still, waiting to hear Him. After all I've entered His Kingdom, His neck of the woods, His dominion. I know so little of Him because I've been so busy shooting off my mouth. Silently I enter His presence. Listening for sounds, looking for His movement. Waiting! "Those who wait upon the Lord, will renew their strength. They shall mount up as wings of eagles"....eagles are among the greatest hunters. And yet all they do is catch the wind and soar, rarely flapping their wings, only looking keenly for God's provision. You almost never hear them. They slip silently through the air, surveying all below them. "And their Father feeds them!"
Intimacy with God....learning from observing, by listening, by reading the sign. "Be still and know that I am God." I want intimacy with God, more than anything I desire or need. Took a long time to get here!
Be Blessed! Leatherstocking
Every skilled hunter knows that in order to be consistently successful, requires being still while on the hunt. Hours spent quietly glassing hill sides, watching for movement, listening for movement, and yes even using the sense of smell to wind the musky order of deer or elk, are essential for taking big game in the vast wilderness areas of the Rockies. Though evry year more and more hunters come into the woods with four wheelers, hand held radios and yes even, aaaargh!...cell phones, trying to somehow give themselves the advantage over their prey...or perhaps victims should be a better term, still the age old methods employed by our ancestors, both red and white, seems to me the most rewarding, both in actual results and to the spirit. Hunting for me has long since stopped being a "competition", and the actual "bagging" of a game animal is less important now than the hunt it's self.
Last year I had applied for elk and deer tags in the pre season drawing, being successful in receiving both. As the hunts approached, I was acutely aware that the possibility of an elk hunt was remote at best. I returned my tag for a refund, but decided to go for my buck anyway. Part of the problem was that, I would have to hunt alone and though I enjoy stalking alone, spending the entire hunt that way has little interest for me as I enjoy the fellowship. Also I had drawn in an area I was not familiar with and expected the first day or two to be just scouting. That first day was cold and windy, and though it was said that there was a nice buck in the area, by day's end I'd had decided that it was time to move on. That for me it was a waste to be there alone, in an area I didn't know with little game. The next day found me still hunting but with out a gun in an area outside where my tag was valid. I had discovered some doe that were grazing along the edge of a small clearing. For the next thirty minutes, I carefully and quietly snuck within 15 feet of one big doe, that even when I decided to expose my position, was so startled and uncertain of what I was as to hesitate long enough for even a full draw bow shot, before she bounded away. Oddly enough just the short stalk was sufficient, to redeem what became the some total of my 2001 hunt.
For those who may not understand, it's all about tuning senses to the environment....sounds kind of new age when I say it like that, but being quiet, being still allows all the small critters around you accept your presence, without raising the alarm to all the large four legged ones. It's settling in so that everything that stopped moving when you came into their world, will start to begin their life again as though you weren't there. If you've checked the wind when entering, you are all ready at the advantage, as long as your movement is slow and quiet and your ears and eyes are trained to hear and see movement.
Once my older son Young and I on the first morning of rifle season, at about seven in the morning, had just entered an area that just the year or two before I had killed a bear. It is a somewhat secluded spot, even though it is only a few hundred yards off the main highway that comes into our small mountain town. Once again we had checked the wind to see if it was with us, and were quietly moving to the very spot where I had shot the bear, when a very faint sound was heard coming from just over the small ridge we had just climbed. At first it was an indistinct muffled noise. No snapping limbs or brush, more like movement in dry grass. Question was, was it a small rodent like a squirrel or gopher, or something larger. Suddenly movement revealed the tine of an antler. A bull that no doubt met the legal requirement for having at least four points or tines on one side. At first, all I saw was antler. Deciding that a proper shot would require getting into a better position, we carefully advanced another 10 yards or so, bringing us to within twenty yards of the bull. As we were standing in the open it was my hope that the bull, would himself, walk a couple more feet from behind the spruce where he was grazing. Finally he did, revealing no more than his head and neck. Concerned that the wind would change or that he would see us standing so close, I decided to take a neck shot. As I was carrying my single shot Sharps 45/70, one shot was all I got off as the bull suddenly bolted down the hill, but as Young was hunting with a bolt action repeater in .308, he managed to hit the bull a couple of more times before he disappeared from sight. A huge blood trail revealed he was mortally wounded in the neck and within an hour and a half we were field dressing and dragging him down the hill to our truck.
There are many more similar stories, but the point is, as I have always hunted somewhat primitive with muzzleloader, bow or single shot Sharps without the aid of a scope, stealth in seeking game and getting as close as possible, has always been the order of business in my hunting. It has usually paid off with, what I consider as success, but recently has been a reminder of how important "being still" is in an even more important area of my life...seeking the face of God!
Jeremiah 29:11 is probably as well known as any other scriptures, at least from the Old Testament. The New American Standard Bible says, "For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." Praise God, we all want a future and a hope....maybe it will be a good one...maybe I'll be rich! But then it goes on in verses 12 and 13, " Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." Stop! Before you go on to the "restore your fortunes" bit, consider this. God knows when we are new in the Lord, we will discover if there is anything we need, we just need to go to the Lord. In time we discover, if there's anything we want we just go the Lord. And in the beginning God is often very cooperative to "bless us", but in time it seems to me that some of our most desperate request seem to fall on deaf ears. Could it be that God continues to allow us to come seeking His hand because he eventually wants us to seek His face. And the longer we seek desperately His hand, in time we will get to the point where we will either give up on God or realize it is intimacy with Him that we really seek and need. God wants us to know that He has a plan for our lives. He wants us to know that He has a plan for good not bad. And if by getting us to merely seek after the good, He has at least accomplished our seeking Him, if only for what He can give us. But if He withholds the answer to our request, it is in order to test us as to whether we will in time, "be still" and have intimacy with Him alone. Have we not found the better part of "finding Him, because we have searched for Him with all our heart.
In the past when I prayed, I always launched into what I needed from God. Now I wait, silently, being still, waiting to hear Him. After all I've entered His Kingdom, His neck of the woods, His dominion. I know so little of Him because I've been so busy shooting off my mouth. Silently I enter His presence. Listening for sounds, looking for His movement. Waiting! "Those who wait upon the Lord, will renew their strength. They shall mount up as wings of eagles"....eagles are among the greatest hunters. And yet all they do is catch the wind and soar, rarely flapping their wings, only looking keenly for God's provision. You almost never hear them. They slip silently through the air, surveying all below them. "And their Father feeds them!"
Intimacy with God....learning from observing, by listening, by reading the sign. "Be still and know that I am God." I want intimacy with God, more than anything I desire or need. Took a long time to get here!
Be Blessed! Leatherstocking