The Positive Influence of Hunting, Part II

In the last installment of this series, we explored the story of Todd C. from Ontario, Canada and his plunge into hunting in his 30’s. The goal in this series is to explore the positive effect of hunting on the hunter. When a person takes up hunting, it can be a life changing experience, as Todd showed us.

This time around, we’re going to get to know Dillon W. Growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey, and without a formal introduction to hunting in his youth, Dillon took it up on his own at the age of 37.

According to Dillon, “I believe many Americans take up hunting and discover the outdoors late in life, for a wide variety of reasons, but many more are too intimidated to ever take the first step.”

Growing up he had an affinity for the outdoors, as many children living in the suburbs do.

“When I was in grade school, I read My Side of the Mountain, by Jean George, and regularly watched Grizzly Adams on TV. As a boy I dreamed about the wilderness and what it took to survive in the outdoors. I spent countless hours in a small strip of woods in a local park, imaging myself in the harsh wilderness away from all human contact.”

Perhaps he might have taken up hunting in his youth, but tragic circumstances intervened.

“Sadly, the dreams and imaginings of my youth were the extent of my outdoor expertise as a boy. At the age of 11 my father, who was largely absent because of his job as a merchant seaman, had a massive heart attack and died between sea voyages. Two years later my grandfather also died. The result of this was devastating – at the onset of my adolescence I was left totally without a male role model. The chances of fulfilling my dream of experiencing the outdoors had vanished in two short years.”

After some time spent serving in the Navy, he came home after Operation Desert storm and his life strayed off course a bit.

“Upon separating from the Navy, I found myself without many options living at home with my mother and working part time jobs. In the Navy, firearms were a mundane part of everyday life, in my mother’s house they were the ultimate taboo. I grew my hair long and decided to try all the things that my schoolmates had done in college. I started playing in a rock band, experimenting with drugs and sleeping the daylight away. I learned that drugs weren’t my thing, but I was attracted to the attention I got from the hippies I was running with. A long haired war veteran who played rock and roll was quite a conversation piece, and I was a big hit at parties. Six or seven years went by in a blur of heavy drinking and darkness. And then a wonderful thing happened – I met the woman I would raise a family with. We got married and began our new life together as a family in less than a year. My whole life changed.”

Once his life began to get back on track, he and his wife moved into an old farmhouse that they rented. Finally the hunting seed would be planted. According to Dillon, “I was fascinated with having livestock all around me and took every chance to help the farmer with his work. Finally, I was getting close to the land and learning skills that were commonplace 100 years ago.” He goes on to add, “It was during this time that I met my first hunter and had my first taste of venison. The seed had been planted, but it still needed time to grow. We found a house in the NJ Highlands, surrounded by State Park lands and lakes. Our new neighbors on both sides were hunters. The seed soon began to sprout.”

It was during that time that Dillon and his wife became close with their neighbors and often received various game meats as gifts. At a barbeque next door, he got his first taste of back strap and decided then and there that it was time to learn how to hunt. Soon after that, he got a gun and a hunting license and was preparing for spring turkey season.

“The day of my first hunt arrived and I couldn’t sleep the night before. I had scouted a good spot and knew there was at least one gobbler in the spot I was heading for. As the glow of first light hit the chilly woods I began to hear the sounds of the woods waking up. Pileated woodpeckers, crows, squirrels and birds whose calls I have yet to identify began chattering all around me,” Dillon says.

He was already gaining a heightened sense of awareness.

He continues, “I made my first tentative yelp with my box call and was immediately answered by gobbles from 2 directions. Two of them! The hair on the back of my next stood straight up and my body went into survival mode as the adrenalin started to pump. I kept up the conversation for a few minutes with both toms getting closer to me. Then disaster struck – the birds were getting farther away.”

“Noon came, and I went home with an empty game bag that day. But my brain was full. I had gotten the equivalent of a college education on a single chilly spring morning in the woods. The seed had grown and was in full bloom. Every detail of that day is burned indelibly in my mind from the smell and sounds of the predawn woods to the primal adrenalin ride of that first gobble.”

His first hunt may not have resulted in a meal, but it started to produce a much more meaningful change in Dillon.

“After several days of hunting, I began to notice things that had never drawn my attention before. I walked differently than I did on a sidewalk – each step carefully considered and placed. I took notice of things like deer sign and easy paths to water and clearings. Most significantly, I realized that no one had ever taught me to do these things – I simply did them instinctively,” he says.

He goes on to say, “As I walked through the woods I was aware that I was using all of my senses simultaneously: I noticed signs of the presence of wildlife that I didn’t know to look for, I heard bird calls that I have heard all my life and never distinguished from the noises of the world, I smelled running water and felt the changes in the terrain under my feet. I felt more alive than I had ever felt in my life. I learned that the harvest is not the only reward of the hunt.”

Overall, his first season was a success with 1 turkey hen, 32 pheasants, 12 chukars, 36 squirrels and two rabbits in his freezer, and one unsuccessful encounter with a wily, eight-point buck. Even though he didn’t get the buck, it still added to what had become a completely life-changing experience. According to Dillon, “I had already begun to sense that I was becoming a different person as a result of my journey.”

So what now? Now that he has embarked on the spiritual journey of hunting, what’s the next step? Surely the next logical step is the same that any father would take.

“My daughter, thus far our only child, is now four years old. She looks forward with great excitement to this spring, when I have promised her that I would take her scouting for turkey”, Dillon says.

He adds, “Hunting has given me the tools to raise my children with opportunities and experiences I never had. This makes me mourn the absence of hunting heritage in my own childhood, but appreciate and celebrate it even more with my own child. That doing so will ensure that future generations continue to carry on the hunting heritage gives me a sense of immense pride in having made the world better and more perfect place. Being a parent is the most important job anyone can undertake. It’s been said that children are the future. I go further than that – parents are the future, and children are the bricks we’ll use to build it. I have a clear picture of the world I want my children to raise their own children in, and hunting, fishing and trapping are the tools I will use.”

For countless centuries, the traditions and skills of hunting, fishing, trapping, and the outdoors have been passed from generation to generation. Dillon had no one to show him the way, yet he found the desire and determination to embark on that journey alone. He learned the skills necessary to become a successful hunter, and he continues to engage in the learning process. His spiritual growth and new-found connection to the wild are undeniable, and he has already chosen to pass that on to his young child. Hunting has given him a key to a door that once opened, changed his life forever. He’ll pass that gift to his daughter and thus a new hunting-aware lineage will be started, equipping subsequent generations of Dillon’s family with the skills, desire, and appreciation for hunting that will have the same positive effect on their lives that it has had on his own.