"Maybe you're a natural-born killer. I am not. I've long been city-dwelling, animal-positive. But all of a sudden, I felt the urge to reconnect with the great outdoors from my childhood, to commune with nature, to, ya know, maybe shoot guns at some animals."
So begins Rosecrans Baldwin's very well written piece in GQ of all places. Lately every publication has to have a "hipster goes hunting for the first time" type story to show that they too can be slightly edgy. Mother Jones, Atlantic, The New Yorker, and a couple from the Times. For someone who hunts these stories are often tedious at best, insulting at worst. Stories often with behaviour some would call unethical, others trite, some downright dangerous, this latest piece by Rosecrans is all or maybe none of them.
For background Rosecrans just finished a book on being an expat in Paris. Yet cynical old salts on hunting forums give him good reviews on his piece. How? He's honest, sticks to what he knows and describes it well.
Rosecrans goes out to see his bigoted uncle Cy who lives in Montana and voted for Obama. If you hate guns there's plenty of drinking while handling them and other dumb stuff for you to abhor. If you've lived in the rural Rocky Mountains you've no doubt known a Cy or two yourself. Rosecrans actually gets some pretty good advice and if hunting mags had writers with half his ability they'd be read more often.
The URL that GQ gave it has "life/manhood/deer-hunting-camp" in it's gibberish, good grief. http://www.gq.com/...
Best line among many, "At Hunting Camp, you will never wear orange or camouflage anything during activities where they aren't required, for these are the signs of the recreational hunter, the weekend warrior, Californians, and other assholes who plaster "i'd rather be hunting" bumper stickers on their trucks. People for whom hunting is a lifestyle, not a way of life." Except for the mention of Californians, (some of my best friends are Californians) pretty funny, and I agree.