My journey into suburban hunting has begun. A wonderful priest I know took up this amazing sport (lifestyle...) and encouraged me to start. My grandfather was an avid hunter, and hunted all the land around this area. However, in his day, there were no deer, but lots of other game. There were also acres and acres of open space that have now been developed. I have always wanted to hunt. It has been a dream of mine to do this since I was child, but the opportunities were never there. My father was not around, and even if he was, he was not the sort of man to be interested in things like hunting.

Enter my amazing priest friend who took up the sport. We were speaking about hunting and he said "I have some extra Scent Lok and some other things I would be happy to gift you. Why not take the course and get your license?" So I did. As is typical of me, I also began reading... voraciously. The first book I read was the classic "Hunting with the Bow and Arrow" by Saxton Pope.  This is an amazing book (but highly dated). It is an incredibly important book though in the history of bow hunting in this country, and it is in the public domain, so I strongly recommend reading it. The link above after all is free!

I watched tons of videos, read more and more, and prepared. As I watched and studied, it occurred to me that if I was to be successful, I would have to come to grips with the fact that I live in a very suburban / urban area and state, and that there are few places to go with tons of acres of wilderness. To be successful, I was going to have to learn to hunt suburbia, and hunt private land, and small parcels of it at that. I would hunt the same land my grandfather hunted, even if now it was much more developed, and even if now White Tail were plentiful and everywhere, whereas in grandpa's day the only place to see them was upstate New York. This re-population, by the way, has taken place thanks to the hunting community. Would that so called environmentalists would understand what they so frequently criticize.

I have pursued this lifestyle for one year, and because of good mentorship, preparation, and reading have been successful right from the beginning. I have decided to keep this blog about my hunting adventures so that others can comment and teach me, and so that we can have a conversation about this lifestyle which has quickly taken over most of my thoughts and dreams outside of faith, family, and career (hunters will know what I am talking about). It is my intent to blog about every trip, to keep a diary of my adventures, so that you can benefit from my experiences and learn from my mistakes, and hopefully teach me in the comments section. I do hope for readers, I do not want my hunting be entirely solitary. Like most "moderns" I long for true community, and I hope we can be one here.

My next entry will tell the story of the beautiful doe above, and how I know am blessed with a freezer full of wonderful, healthful, lean, organic, grass-fed meat.

Happy Hunting!
The Suburban Hunter.