Zenhunting

Back in the day, we all wore suits to work. I had eight, some of them custom made by a diminutive Middle Eastern tailor who fitted all the execs right there in our offices with a tape measure around his neck and pins in his teeth. Ah, those were heady days, big corporate expense accounts, company cars (mine was a red corvette), and cocktails at lunch. We put corporate awards on our walls and hunted big deals and bonuses. I can’t imagine now what I found satisfying about those days.

That was in the 90s, and looking back on it now, what passed for excitement and triumphs then is nothing compared to hunting big deer. I can’t say I ever daydreamed about making a big sale.

Nowadays I have no use for sports cars or 2-drink lunches with raucous colleagues. I need 4 wheel drive. And a place to throw that strap of dead ducks, that fat wild pig, or the venison that’s destined for the grill. I prefer a cocktail in the evening with Danielle and the dogs on our deck, talking about the day or quietly enjoying the whisper of wind in the oaks and pines that surround us.

The 90s may have been heady days, but the 2010s are days of the heart, and the soul.

One difference is that I left the corporate world behind 10 years ago and started my own business creating branding, packaging, and marketing graphics. Now I wear shorts and a t-shirt to work, which is conveniently located down the hall. The bedroom-to-office commute is a matter of seconds – no LA traffic jams, no screeching brakes, no fuel bills. The other luxury of being my own boss is that, when I’ve worked enough 10 hour days and 7 day weeks to permit it, I can take a little time off without a special request to Human Resources.

The other difference is that 10 years ago I started hunting, and that’s when days off began to change. They used to be spent at some resort, doing whatever was prescribed, planned activities and excursions for the tourists. Being poolside has been replaced by being in a snowy barley field in Canada, following hoof tracks in the Arizona desert, or up in a tree in Iowa in the fall.

When you hunt, you never know what will happen, nothing is scripted. There’s no tour departing promptly at 9am, just the fervent hope that sometime between dawn and dusk, some wild and wary animal will bestow upon you an experience that will teach you, a challenge to be met, something to laugh at or cry over, the chance to venture deep inside yourself to see what you’re made of, and maybe, just maybe a memory that will last a lifetime. If you hunt with a son or daughter, the gifts are even more abundant and surprising. Watching my son get his first duck was like watching him score a goal, times a thousand. The years we’ve hunted together are filled with those moments.

Between making a living being creative, and hunting whenever I can – and having two fine sons and the love of a wonderful woman – I am indeed blessed. Yes, life has changed a lot, gotten a lot richer and more rewarding in unexpected ways.

But sometimes, I still need to wear a suit. And a tie.

No, not that kind of suit, not for a job but one that has a job to do. At least I’m hoping it will, this November in Iowa. You see, the three Scentblocker® suits I bought on eBay arrived this week. Along with the safety harness that will “tie” me to the tree.

I’ve always made an effort at scent control, since deer have a very keen sense of smell. Depending on who’s talking, you’ll hear it’s 20 to 100 times greater than humans. I’ve also heard that deer have about 300 million olfactory receptors, dogs 200 million, while we only have about 5 million. I think Larry the Cable Guy has a couple million more though. We saw him live a couple of weeks ago in Sacramento – he spent a lot of time talking about smells. But back to deer, to make matters worse, it appears they have a second “nose,” in the roof of their mouth, though that one is mostly for mating-related odors.

The Matrix Series, along with the Outfitter and ProtecXT, are going into my suitcase this fall.

Mostly I’ve concentrated on wind direction – blowing from them to me, rather than me to them – and an occasional spritzing with some scent killer or scent masking spray. But my Iowa hunting partner, Mike, has been wearing Scentblocker clothes since they first came out. And his wall of bucks is pretty impressive. So I decided to finally get serious and get some Scentblocker for myself.

Of course the true test will happen in Iowa. But I’m already amazed with these new “suits.” The quality seems great, everything snaps or zips with solid authority (wimpy zippers is why I’ll never buy a fleece jacket from Columbia® again) and they feel really substantial when you have one on. The material is pretty quiet, and we’ll see if they are indeed wind- and water-resistant, come November. There are a lot of cool hunting details, too  – plenty of pockets, and some with rings to clip things to and non-slip shoulder patches for carrying a pack or sling.

I know it’s up to me to close the deal, but I’m sure hoping these suits work and help me get that buck into bow range. One thing is sure, I’ve never gone into a hunt better dressed.

~ by SpeakingZenaphorically on August 7, 2014.

Posted in Deer hunting, hunting, iowa, whitetail deer
Tags: eBay, insigneo, neil beltran, scentblocker