Modern Day Hunters. by Bob Brown

We are not looked upon with favor lately; we may just be a remnant of the past. Some call us poachers or thieves. Some of us hunt for sustenance, others for sport. Tom calls it providing for his family, I just call it hunting. Tom and I argue this point all the time, but we still hunt together, we just do it for different reasons.

Tom and I head to one of our favorite hunting spots, a valley in the hills, it is a natural funnel point. The fundamentals of hunting have not changed over the years, find a natural choke point and wait out your prey. They don't fly over the hills, but take the path of least resistance, by flying through the valley. We are only following years of tradition and tactics taught to us by our father, passed on from each generation, since the beginning of time. We spent the morning building up the remnants of our old blind. We had good luck here in the past, but it is also filled with lots of old memories shared only by brothers.

Their eyes are sharp, from the sky, they can see everything, concealment was key to success. If one spotted us it would take months before they would return. Wounding one, meant trouble…big trouble. My brother being the more practical one, wore Camo clothing and a head net, all the latest high-tech stuff, I went native.

Some claimed that they could spot your eyes as you looked at them, covering your face is always important to evade detection. As an old-fashioned hunter, I use a Ghillie suit and face paint, resembling a fern bush, with a thick layer of war paint on my face...I blend right in. Each time I put on the suit, put on the face paint...I am ready to hunt...ready to kill.

Tom thinks I am just a little too gung ho or over the top. I've spied him out of the corner my eye more than once, just shaking his head and muttering under his breath, after he looks me over. I just love hunting and think it brings us back to our roots. I also get a kick out of getting a reaction out of him, there is something special about pissing off your brother.

Tom and I settled into our blind to wait out our prey. Sitting there with my brother on a warm sunny day in the fall, the warm air, the blue sky and the sounds of the birds getting ready for winter, this is what hunting is all about.
We settled into a practiced silence and waited.

Tom spoke to me from behind his head net, “Are you crazy, or just messed up?”

I had no idea what he was talking about and responded with the required “Huh.”

“Around your neck...!” he whispered in disgust while shaking his head.

“Just showin the world what a great hunter I am.” Jutting my chin out for effect.

“With a necklace?” Tom looked down in obvious disapproval…a scowl on his face.

He believes in only the purity of hunting, take what you need, no trophies. I on the other hand, I love hunting and hacking off part of the prey after a successful kill... It seems only right, only natural.

We sit back and wait… listening.

Tom perks up. His hearing is better than mine. “We got one coming.” He raises his binoculars to scan the valley, “It’s just a small one let’s let it go.” I agree with him. I want a big one too. We settle back in and wait. A few smaller ones make their way through the valley.

It is almost peaceful to just watch them come and go, flying with a purpose and without a care in the world, their destination their only goal. The warm sun is getting to me, I started to doze off when Tom nudges me.

“We got a big one comin in Bob!”

We both raised the barrels of our shotguns slowly... so as not to spook it away. When it gets within firing range we both opened up. It hit the ground with a thud, the life gone out of it.
We smiled at each other. Cautiously we crawl out of our blind towards our downed prey just in case there are more on the way. We are both excited.

Tom is anxious to see what it was carrying, I go over and cut one of the propellers off of the drone to add to my necklace. Tom looked over at me in disgust as he opens the package from Amazon, to see what we have bagged. Is it something we can either use or sell? He is all about the sustenance of the hunt. I'm proud as all get out over the new piece of plastic propeller from the delivery drone, which now hangs from my neck with the others.

I am a killer.



I hope you enjoyed this, just something I wrote to pass the time on a winters day.