Hunting in the new year
Happy New Year! Wishing good health, prosperity, and fabulous hunting and fishing.
I’m looking forward to the fishing and the hunting of 2024. I’m not looking forward to the politics, political ads, and the political shenanigans of a major election year. I’m tired of hearing about it all already, but hunters simply cannot trust or count on politicians to do the right thing by us, wildlife, or wild places.
The voting this November holds the potential to affect the future of wildlife management, hunting, and fishing for Wisconsin outdoors people and those of every state. And if that voting goes the way the self-proclaimed enemies of hunting want it to, we will witness the beginning of these changes in 2025, in Western hunting destinations that many hunters from our area hunt every year. I’m not looking forward to that part of 2024.
The public may side with hunters in states with ballot initiatives containing language seeking to alter the future of wildlife management, classification, and funding. The defenders of our way of life and our values started their fight several months ago. They proved themselves effective already, but our enemies countered immediately. They seem one step ahead.
We hunters need to take charge of telling our story, instead of letting those that want to end hunting, tell their version. The lesson that we must learn means learning how to tell our story effectively.
So, I’m going to start telling my hunting story. A venison roast sits on the stove top thawing. A little later on I’m planning on ringing in this first day of the year by rubbing it with Kanas City Championship BBQ Rub that I got in the form of a birthday gift. After letting that sweat down, I plan to cook it slow and low on the pellet grill to about 120 degrees and let it rest to medium rare. I haven’t decided on the sides yet but I have a few hours.
I might start a campfire in the fire pit this afternoon and sit beside it letting the dogs rip around the yard and toast the new year. Or I may sit in my easy chair basking in the heat from the woodstove and read a book.
I plan a hike this afternoon. We call it a walk around here. The DNR encouraged everyone to get out on the first day of the New Year and hike at a state park. I find the country roads and trails work fine. I don’t plan to start a project on this first day of the new year. I intend to savor life today.
Tomorrow morning I’ll simmer up a pot of either pheasant or rabbit soup for the week. Friday holds a strong chance of a fish fry of northern filets. Next weekend will either bring grouse in alfredo sauce, duck fricassee, or venison meatballs with rib gravy. The major story of the hunt food. The part about the effort, the hard work involved, the early mornings, walking out of the forest in the dark, and short nights of sleep gets lost. The part about dragging a deer for some distance as your sweat soaks through your clothes, needing rest to catch your breath and let your muscles stop burning, gets lost too. And most especially, the part of hiking long distances in search of game or sitting hours in the cold observing the natural world and what goes on in it gets lost. If someone doesn’t hunt for whatever reason they don’t know these things or need to think about them. It’s our responsibility to tell that story and not let others twist it into something it’s not.
In about a third of the state the archery deer season runs until January 31st, for instance, west of Highway 27 in Eau Claire County and in Jackson County remains open for archery deer hunting until January 31st. Those areas are part of the select metro and farmland units that remain open for archery longer than the rest of the state. Consult the regulations if you hunt those or most of the southern Wisconsin counties and several eastern Wisconsin counties; you might still get an archery hunt in.
Around here, one weekend of archery deer season remains and my dogs look forward to this final week of grouse season with our odd mild winter, we hope to get out one last day. Good luck if you get out! Happy New Year! But please remember, Safe Hunting is No Accident!
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