PA Rut Report Blog

Get a lot of folks that don't hunt ask me why I do..... My immediate reply is to ask "When was the last time you sat by yourself for five hours straight without a sound or outside distraction all while immersed in nature influenced only by your enhanced senses?"... Knowing the answer for most would be never without having to even ask the question. They often reply "I don't think I could do that, sit still for that long". To which I reply, in a non-judgmental manner, "That's your problem." ... Life nowadays gets faster and faster. Every thing is immediate. Anxiety and depression go hand in hand with burning out which everyone will experience if you don't willfully slow yourself down sometimes. "Take pride in yourself for that." The woods and its subsequent silence works as a natural filtration system for your mind and body. Couple that with the adrenal boost that comes with hunting and it becomes one of the most efficient me...

I've experienced what in my mind is the most amazing thing in the world.... watching the birth of both my boys takes it. It was a time where absolutely nothing else that ever happened in my life really mattered, just that exact moment.... All else was silent. My second, and it relates, is watching the woods wake up around me on the first day of archery season. The heightened senses gained by sitting in the pitch black of the forest as a twig cracks 60 yds down the hollow yet feels like it's 5 feet away.... The solitude of that exact moment. The seeming dip in temperature right before the sun opens it's eyes coloring the sky. The fullness of the moment when the most and the least are going on all around you simultaneously. And that's all before you even set eyes on the silhouette slinking silently at 35 yds and realize that it will be broadside at 20yds in 40 seconds and its got a rack..... that particular type of solitude runs a close third.