This is just so wrong

If you were wondering when deer hunting season starts, well, here in Pennsylvania (and elsewhere, probably) it starts when hunters start putting out bait like this to attract deer to their deer stands. The back of the bag recommends that the bait be put out at least two weeks before hunting season. The local Tractor Supply already has the stuff on the shelves, and deer hunting season doesn’t start until November 25, but it appears there is no time to waste when killing deer is the goal.

What is called deer hunting these days resembles shooting at targets on a carnival midway more than it does any kind of pursuit of wildlife using guns I ever encountered back in the day when my father was attempting to introduce me into the male-bonding spirit of the hunt. Back then, in the early 1960’s, hunting meant carrying a firearm or a bow and arrow and walking through the woods in search of something to kill. Usually, during my brief introduction to this example of what used to be called the manly arts, we would walk through the woods, occasionally scaring up a rabbit, who was gone before either me or my brother could get our 16 gauge single-shot shotguns to our shoulders. We were also permitted to shoot at a deer if we encountered one, but we never did. Deer, who lived in those woods while we only visited them, were wise enough to stay well away from us. We often went hunting for an entire morning and never had an opportunity to pull the trigger. The wildlife won while we bonded.

That is not the way deer hunting is done today. Wealthy hunters who own or lease land on which to hunt build elaborate deer stands or buy kits that can be assembled into deer stands and erect them in the woods, usually at the edge of a clearing. Then they bait the clearing with the stuff pictured above, or sometimes they plant the clearing with a grass or grain that deer are known to like. They station themselves in the deer stands in the early morning when it’s still dark, and when the deer come to feed at dawn, they peer through the camouflaged openings in the deer stands and shoot them. Sometimes, the deer are as close as 10 or 15 feet from the deer stands, unaware as they dip their heads to eat, that hunters are looking down on them from above — thus my previous reference to carnival shooting galleries.

“Pack in Pouch” on the label is a reference to the size of the package — just right to carry into the woods to your pre-built deer stand, or if you are less economically privileged, to the tree-stand you can pack into the woods and erect against a tree, on which you stand in your camo-outfit waiting for deer to come to the spot where you have packed-in your portable sack of deer attractant. These days, many hunters don’t even walk through the woods to their deer stands, because places like Bass Pro Shops and other sport retailers will sell you a gas or electric four-wheel drive camo-painted vehicle, either a side-by-side or one you sit on astride like a motorcycle, that will carry you into the woods to your stand. You should see the walls of hunting boots in these stores like Tractor Supply and Bass Pro Shops — row upon row of camouflage calf-high boots, advertised as waterproof and extra-warm. I guess many hunters buy them to climb the ladders up to their deer stands, because riding their four-wheelers and sitting in their heated deer stands, they sure as hell aren’t trudging through mud and undergrowth to get there.

The stuff pictured above is wrong on so many levels, it’s hard to know where to begin. But let’s begin with the whole idea of baiting an animal in order to shoot it, which practically guarantees you a target and a kill. Then we have the clear connection between hunting and alcohol — “Buck Bourbon” that is called “110 Proof” which is advertised as so powerful as an attractant of deer, all you have to do is “Take your shot.”

I hardly need point out that firearms and alcohol do not mix, but here is this company using the macho connection between men and bourbon and drinking shots to put together what they hope will be an irresistible combination for man and deer alike. I looked up the Pennsylvania Game Commission report on firearm-related hunting accidents for 2022. There were 14 in all. Six of them happened while deer hunting, seven while hunting small game, and one while hunting a “fur bearing” animal. The Commission did not report how many incidents were alcohol-related. Fifty percent of those injured by a firearm during hunting had 10 or more years experience hunting.

So there you go. Not only is deer hunting alive and well in the state of Pennsylvania, and a major element in the state’s tourism I would wager, but so is macho-man marketing connecting guns and alcohol and deer hunting, when what they’re selling isn’t even hunting at all.