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 "The very first rule I remember my father telling me when he took me out hunting was "never name your game". What he meant was that even though you must give your game the absolute respect for their spirit and courage and grace… you can't get too emotionally involved with it!
When I started to hunt myself, that became somewhat easy to do with birds, like quail, pheasant and wild turkey (which I really respected to the max, since they are so amazingly smart and beautiful, and harder to catch than a date on New Years Eve!)… but in my few outings for deer and elk, I had a harder problem with that rule. That really came to a head about ten years ago in the wild's of the Missouri Ozarks, where I'd go every year for the
Missouri Invitational Celebrity Wild Turkey Hunt a wonderful charity event in Warsaw, Missouri which raises money for
Children's Mercy
Hospital. I've totally fallen in love with the place and the cause.
One year while wild turkey hunting, we found ourselves, as we sat all camoed against the cottonwoods… surrounded by hordes of deer… since they knew they were safe! But for several years one amazing buck would always appear right at sunrise… which is an usual time to see such an animal. One of my guides, who was part Osage Indian, would stop everything when this magnificent animal would appear and begin a chant. He said this buck had the most courageous spirit he'd ever seen. Many a time, during deer season, this buck would appear to protect other's in his herd, standing face-to-face with more than one hunter… with such power in his eyes, that they'd put their rifles down and let him pass! And if you know deer hunters… that is something you'd have to see with your own eyes to believe! This buck was known as "Hunter"… a name given out of extreme respect. The first thing I thought was what my father would think… here was a great Indian hunter… breaking my father's carnal rule and "naming his game"!
Unfortunately the next year I was told that the deer "Hunter" was found dead in the forest. It showed no signs of being hit with bullet or arrow… but had obviously been through a great fight of some kind. Perhaps it fought another great buck or a predator animal to protect its herd. One story even went that he fought a bear to protect a hunter who had broken his leg.
That story was never substantiated, but I hoped it was true! My friend told me that since Hunter was found still warm, he was ceremonially "dressed". His meat was saved and frozen, and is only eaten at the most sacred days. No part of him was wasted, skins, horns… everything had been crafted into great pieces of clothing or jewelry. Since we had shared together Hunter's spirit in the woods, he gave me this leg bone. He had given me several other naturally harvested "spirit bones" to make knifes from, but this one held something really special.
I had never made anything like this before, and when I found some ANTIQUE DAMASCUS which came from a blade of a hundred-year-old-skinner knife… used in those very woods… I decided to make my homage to the deer named "Hunter". And to give it extra exceptional style, when I finished the blade and handle, I gave them a special stressing applied to the entire knife to give it an authentic "Mossback" finish.
I am selling this, as you will see, at a very special price, especially for Damascus. To the buyer I ask your promise that you will buy this only if you take it out at least once into the woods to help release the spirit of Hunter.
I promise a bit of his majestic courage will rub off on you as well!"
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