- Outdoor columnist Ben Smith says his favorite deer camp tradition might even be considered the grossest one.
There are all sorts of strange traditions practiced around the world. Some are religious in nature, some superstitious, and some are so weird that I don’t have a clue why they are practiced. For instance, there is a Hindu tradition in India where they smash coconuts on people’s heads. Apparently, even in a modern world, this is a thing that’s still done in hopes of receiving good health and success. To me, having a Hindu priest hit you in the head with a coconut seems like it would be more detrimental to your health rather than beneficial.
Other cultures have some strange traditions, as well. Take lip stretching in Ethiopia and Sudan for instance. Another one I can’t wrap my mind around, oftentimes women in certain tribes will have a “lip plate” inserted into the lower lip ahead of their marriages. This stretches the lip out to lengths greater than a local redneck stuffing an entire can of Skoal into his mouth. Fortunately, bodily mutilation isn’t a tradition that I think I’ll have to worry about in the near future. American’s have some weird traditions too, with the most recent being electing representatives that can’t tie their own shoes, but that’s a column for a different day.
With all of the different traditions practiced around the world and here at home, even deer camps have their own traditions that are passed down from generation to generation. Some camps have traditions of certain days everyone hunts. Some have traditions using the same weapons as family members before them. Some are a little weirder, like hanging the genitals of a recently killed buck from a tree as a way of letting everyone else know they killed a buck. My apologies to any of my more squeamish readers for that last part. I am almost just as disgusted as you… almost.
My favorite deer camp tradition might even be considered the grossest one. This is the one where you must put blood on your face after killing your first deer. I think this tradition is pretty standard throughout deer camps in the South. Some of my favorite stories are of people talking about their first kill and getting “bloodied” by a family member, or camp member. For me, I avoided this tradition because I was with my great uncle when I killed my first deer, and he had no interest in seeing his nephew covered in blood. My oldest daughter, however, was not as fortunate.
When my oldest killed her first deer, I think the excitement probably ran dry on the ride back to the camp when I told her what was coming. I could have let it be a surprise, but that might have made it worse. As I was skinning the deer I could see the dread all over her face. To her credit, when it was time to smear some blood on her face, she was a trooper. She took it like a champ, smiled for the camera, and quickly exited to the house to clean up. For me, it was a proud moment watching her receive her right of passage into the hunting community. The flip side of this story is that neither of her sisters have expressed a great desire to kill a deer since they know what is coming afterward. But hey, it could be worse. Some camps require hunters that kill their first deer to eat a piece of the heart raw. I just don’t have the stomach to watch someone do that, so we’ll pass on that tradition.
Another deer camp tradition, and less gruesome one, has nothing to do with killing a deer. It actually is the polar opposite. I’ve known several deer camps that will cut your shirt tail when you miss a deer. Once I walked into a camp in north Mississippi and there were more shirt tails on the wall than there were actual deer mounts. I’d heard of this tradition before, but these guys took it a step further. Not only did they hang the tattered shirt tails up, but they had a small golden placard underneath each one that had the name of the hunter and date of the missed shot.
This is another tradition that I’m grateful to miss out on. Camouflage clothing is way too expensive these days, and I’m way too bad of a shot, to be in any club that cuts shirt tails for missing a deer. If our camp did this, they’d turn me into a liar really quick. I’d deny shooting each time I missed with a rifle and never say a word if I missed with a bow.
Speaking of missing with a bow, I finally got to hunt last weekend. Our land is a dustbowl right now, but our food plots are up and looking good. That might change since there is no rain in the foreseeable future, but for now the deer are hammering them. I climbed a tree on the edge of one of our plots and had several deer come into bow range during the hunt. I picked a doe out and she finally gave me a shot opportunity right at the end of legal shooting light. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t really see the pins on my sight and took a shot that I know better than taking. The good news is that I missed the doe entirely and instead of wounding her, I just educated her.
To add insult to injury, instead of running away, she would run about ten yards into the woods then back into the plot all the while blowing. I’d never seen anything like it before. She just wouldn’t leave. This went on for a solid fifteen minutes before I gave up and shined my light from the tree to force her to leave. There was no use in looking for my arrow because I’d heard it bang all through the woods for about a hundred yards. There went thirty bucks. The good news is the Mississippi youth season is just around the corner. Maybe I’ll get to bloody another kid this year.
