after your shot?

[edmondshunter]

How do you pay your respects the the deer you just shot? 

I put foliage and a cedar sprauge in the deers mouth, like a last meal.  I also spend a little time thanking the deer for feeding my family.

[Houndhunter]

i cut off his stuff and hang it in a tree nearby

[robodad]

I used to leave the tip of the heart as a "thank you" but now I leave the whole gutpile  

[edmondshunter]

i cut off his stuff and hang it in a tree nearby

Wow Hound,not sure that is showing respect, but to each there own

[NRA4LIFE]

A simple Thank You Lord.

Then the Mmmmmm Backstrap chant.

[DeKuma]

i cut off his stuff and hang it in a tree nearby

Man, that cracked me up!!

[TheKid#10]

I am not a religious man, more spiritual I guess. But I always say a "prayer" if you will, thanking whomever or whatever created this wonderful animal that I love to pursue so much. And let him know the animal was not taken in haste or for sport but to satisfy my natural born hunting instincts and feed my family as well. In my opinion, for what it's worth. If you don't have tremendous respect and maybe even a sliver of remorse when you kill one of these awesome creatures you're more of a killer not a hunter.   This wasn't always the case. As I grew older and matured I started my "prayer" tradition. It really stated after I shot a cow years ago that ran off and started screaming, crying almost. As I ran to the noise to finish what I started I saw her talking to her calf, which I had not seen with her when I shot. The calf just stood there looking at her lie there and cry about 10 yards away. I couldn't even shew it off. I shot her again and the calf still stayed there. Then some guy comes running through the woods, attracted to the noise, asks me what the hell was that noise. I show and tell him the story and point out the calf and he blasts it before I even finish my sentence. Several people in my camp heard the cow dying and we all agreed probably the worst noise we ever heard. Left a bad taste in my mouth and added a whole lot more respect for my prey.

[Muleyslyr]

I don't really have any specific things I do to pay my respects......but I do usually take a few minutes just sittin' next to the animal and taken the whole experience in.  Just take 5-10 minutes to reflect on what just happened and the circumstances that lead up to that point and how fortunate I am to be sittin' right there with an animal I've been persuing and dreaming about since the previous hunting season.

[dbllunger]

I always yell as loud as I can "FU*%&^ING AYE".  Lets god and everyone else who can hear know that I killed another good animal.

[Cougeyes]

Same as Muleyslyr.

[billythekidrock]

How do you pay your respects the the deer you just shot?

By quickly and properly gutting, skinning and butchering with minimal waste.

[GEARHEAD]

Tarzan howl.

[Hunting Cowboy]

I don't really have any specific things I do to pay my respects......but I do usually take a few minutes just sittin' next to the animal and taken the whole experience in.  Just take 5-10 minutes to reflect on what just happened and the circumstances that lead up to that point and how fortunate I am to be sittin' right there with an animal I've been persuing and dreaming about since the previous hunting season.

You pretty much nailed my feelings on the subject Muleyslyr. Exactly what we do!

[bucklucky]

DITTO!

[popeshawnpaul]

I have done everything from cry to whoop and holler.  I'm not a religous man, so I don't do any ritual per se.  I do sit down and relax for at least 15 minutes to enjoy the situation and let it sink in.  If there is a beer around, I like to pop one of those as I'm usually exhausted and it's the end of the day.  When i shot my moose this year, for an hour I sat there and just stared at it.  Shooting the animal isn't my favorite part of hunting.  In fact, it's my least favorite and right up there with dressing the animal.  I like remembering my hunt and the stalk the best.

[coonhound]

I don't really have a ritual, but I do always give thanks to our Lord for the experience and the gift.  This years deer was very tough and hard earned, I made a marginal shot with by bow and I had to track him for an hour before I recovered him.  I think I put a little extra effort into my thank you, I was really getting discouraged with myself thinking that I might have wasted the deer.

Coon

[robb92]

I sit and thank the lord for giving me the chance to harvest the animal. Then I gut and clean and butcher the animal. 

[ICEMAN]

What Muleyslyr and BTKR said. I honor the game by taking care not to waste, by enjoying the animal. I honor the game around the fire with good drinks and good friends.  Pictures.

[edmondshunter]

My buddies back in Montana, take a bite of the heart.  We also wear the blood of the animal on our faces like war paint. 

[cohoho]

Growing up with whitetails in WV, we always had just a quick moment, normally while Dad was catching up to us to reflect the hunt, most of the time Dad said "hurry the heck up, your brother has one down too..."

As I got older, it kind of developed into a brief thanks for the animal sacrificing for us type deal and a way the knives would fly.  It wasn't until the first Moose my son (11) killed, a little spike fork bull, (it was in a draw YOUTH SPIKE FORK ONLY area) he made a great shoot, it didn't go down, he had to hit it again, it still didn't go down and started moving away.  I had to hit it with a .338 as it was going to the timber, a bit tramtic for him at the time, seeing all these shoots into the animal at about 70 yards..  When we approach it, my son was very uneasy looking at the small bull that was down. He never batted an eye over the couple of Black Bears he had by this point in his life, so I kind of shrugged it off, said our stuff and got to work........   Later that night in camp, he awaken me to proceed to tell me about his dream of how the young bull keep looking at him from the laying position and the bull kept asking "why me?"  I think in his mind he related to the young bull as an equal somehow.  From the point on, everytime he and I harvested an animal, we did an extra moment of silence and reflected on the reasons why it was a good hunt and how the animal would be utilize within our household and how all the other animals will benefit from it being down also..... 

[RightPlace-RightTime]

After my shot I feel the success of the "Thrill of the Kill".  I hunt hard and long and after the success of downing an animal I am proud of my accomplishment.  Just admiring the animal when you walk up to it after to shot is something special.  Of course making it back to camp to tell the story next to a fire and beer in hand comes to mind.  After the shot, captures another memory for the books.  Backstraps on the same day kill in camp could'nt get better.  After the shot knowing you will have a freezer of meat is the best bonus.  Trophy or not, its always good to get an animal down.
My Dad started me hunting when i was 13, Me killing a deer at 14 for my first.  It was the best even when i was young,  His tradition after a shot was a shot of belly warmer that he would always carry in his pack,  He would have a bottle for years.  That only taking a drink after a kill.  Something special my dad and i do still when we are together,  Then a beer when we get back to the truck.

[PolarBear]

 I dont waste any time in getting it gutted, boned out and packed out as cleanly and efficiently as possible.  That is my form of respect.  I ususlly hunt alone so there is no gawking or picture taking involved, just work.  When I was younger, we use to sit around the fire the night of the kill and get piss drunk with the head of our new "buddy" sitting on a chunk of wood beside us.

[Skyvalhunter]

When you get "Piss" drunk is that where you get so drunk you end up pissing yourself? Or is that because the rest of the night all you do is piss? When I hunt alone I prefer to hunt by myself!!

[ICEMAN]

Yeah, I have wondered about that phrase too.... I get pissy drunk when we have an elk in camp. Maybe it is because I end up peeing a bit closer to camp that night.... 

I will have to try it again, and look into that.....

[catwithboost]

Yeah, I have wondered about that phrase too.... I get pissy drunk when we have an elk in camp. Maybe it is because I end up peeing a bit closer to camp that night.... 

I will have to try it again, and look into that.....

Ok thinking about that it is Funny. LOL

[PolarBear]

I always took it to mean that you have drunk enough that you pee it out as fast as you drink it in.  We always had a 5 gallon bucket in the corner of the tent for such occasions.

[dbllunger]

"Piss drunk" I was told it meant you got so drunk you pissed yourself either awake or asleep.

[ICEMAN]

... . We always had a 5 gallon bucket in the corner of the tent for such occasions.

Yummy, nothing smells better than an open vat of urine in your tent....   

[rosscrazyelk]

I normally get back in my truck and come back after dark and wait til the land owner is a sleep.. LOL Just kidding.. I thank the lord for the privledge to hunt and thank him for my bounty..

[mossback91]

I run in circles yelling hey ya ya ya hey ya ya ya then Ill scream aaaaaaaoauuuuao. Then I chuck my tomahawk at the nearest tree.

[Coasthunterjay]

How do you pay your respects the the deer you just shot? 

I usually like to do a little bit of what i call the happy dance followed by a round of high fives from me to my dad(My hunting partner) And then we sit there put our heads together and pray to God thanking him For making this wonderful world that he has created and allowing me to harvest the animal that has just ran in front of my bullet while i was target shooting......

[Broken Arrow]

I like to say a special prayer for giving me this opportunity. I to have have had a couple of times where i have been involved in some horrific deaths. Listening to some very unnerving Cries that were quite gut wrenching, and once i actually did the Nugent and sat with the animal and stroked its neck until it took its last breath (looking back i think how stupid as it could have gored me) buts that what youth does to you. Any how, every animal i take is special, and all though not religious....it is very spiritual and emotional for me.

[Dman]

 I generally am focused on getting the animal cleaned up and out of the woods until it is hanging and the work is done, though when I first knock it down and walk up to it I usually take a minute or two to admire the animal and reflect on the hunt. Not a religious person, but I think anyone who hunts reflects on and respects every animal they take -if their doing it for the right reason's. I have known people that don't show a natural regard for the game they've harvested and it's pretty poor in my opinion, either in the way they care for it afterwards,  or wasting the meat, etc.. My gramps engrained that in us, if we ever missed even a scrap of useable meat in the woods when we were kids first learning to hunt, he'd gripe us out until we wouldn't ever forget again.

[Cougeyes]

We take great care of our meat after we butcher it up in the field, we pack heafty game bags (thick pillow cases) and bone the meat out and make sure to not let it touch the ground because it'd just get full of dirt.  Back at camp we lay all the meat out on a bed sheet and let it cool off then piece by piece pick off the little hairs that got on it from cutting it up..  Saves a lot of time for the butcher and the quality is that much better of your finished product. I hate seeing people dragging an animal out whole and seeing all the dirt and crap that gets stuck to the animal, not to mention the hide is mostly rubbed off. 

[BLUEBULLS]

I usually sit down and have a moment of silence, wondering how i could have bumped my scope, or when my buddies adjusted the sight on my bow then i kick some rocks, go find them again and throw them the direction the animal went.

actually, i usually walk a couple of circles around whatever it is and think to myself "damn, the fun part is over" then I start thinking about who i'll invite over to share the heart.

[WDFW-SUX]

I mark where I was standing when I shot and the direction I shot then I go find where the critter was standing and look for blood then I start looking for it I really dont do anything else other than listen for the animal to fall down or the direction of branches breaking and such

[jstamp]

I usually shut the spot light off, go cut the head off, and run back to the truck and drink more beer  . No just kidding, I usually sit there and relax and then think about how to get it out of the hell hole I just shot it in.

[robodad]

Houndhunter, what do you suppose you would do in this case ?? 

[Houndhunter]

somthin like that i'd have to save to hang on my christmas tree!!

[jstamp]

I'm jealous 

[Houndhunter]

Jealous??

your crazy, i dont think i could handle 20lbs in between my legs. i can hardely handle the 10lbs in between them right now 

[jstamp]

 

Maybe I'm tougher than you...
It's not so much the weight that bothers me, it's the fact that it hits the ground every time I unzip.

[robodad]

 

[M_ray]

Ok back to the original question,
I do take a few minutes to take in the moment and also to give thanks to the animal and thanks for being able to feed my family ... then my ritual of breaking out the airplane bottle shot of Pendleton that I carry and I make all who hunt with me carry so we can have a snort before the work begins! 

[PacificNWhunter]

Usually I will just sit there for a minute and enjoy the moment. On occasion I have hooped and hollered but don't make a habit out of it.