Why Deer Camp Traditions Are Important For Youth Hunters

There are certain experiences in life that determine the type of person you become. An occurrence you don’t think much of at the time can become one of the most important moments in your life. This story revolves around one of those experiences for me: deer camp.

I was a sophomore in high school, 15 years old and going through a difficult period of my life. At this time my parents had just gotten divorced, and trying to help my younger brothers understand the situation better was difficult. Enter deer camp, something I had never been to before. I had deer hunted here and there in the past, but I had never experienced a true deer camp.

That fall, my best friend, Kale, brought me to the deer camp he attended for Minnesota’s rifle opener. He went with his dad, Terry, to a cabin owned by Drew Frielund. I figured I was just going for a weekend to hang out with Kale, maybe do a little hunting and I’d never be back. Little did I know, those few days would have a life-changing impact on me.

Upon arriving to deer camp, the camaraderie blew me away. There were maybe 15 to 20 guys there, all hanging out and enjoying everyone’s company while bonding over one thing: deer. I spent the weekend enjoying myself more than I had in a long time. There was something special about the people I was around, and I could not care less how the actual hunting was. I had such a good time I even took Monday off school to hunt an extra day. And that Monday was about to be the day that sold me on deer hunting more than I could have ever imagined.

Prior to then, I had never even walked in the woods alone in the dark. After getting Monday off school, it was decided that I was going to sit in Kale’s dad’s deer stand, but I had never been to it. So that Sunday night in the dark, Terry four-wheeled me the mile or so ride to the stand to show me how to get there. It would be up to me the following morning to figure out how to get there on my own. That next morning came, and I don’t know if I could have been more nervous. I was scared I would get lost or not find the stand.

I made the trek with no problem and found myself in the stand alone in the dark, waiting for the sun to come up. And as it started to get lighter out, what transpired around me was mayhem. A deer running behind me, one grunting in front of me, it felt like there were deer everywhere. The morning couldn’t have been any better of a hunt, and it ended with me tagging my first-ever buck. Talk about a gift from the deer Gods! Before the recovery, I went back to camp and met up with another camper and Drew. Drew helped me find him, and as I walked up on that buck, I knew I wanted to deer hunt as much as possible.

Fast forward 13 years and I’m sitting here writing yet another article for the very magazine that I became infatuated with after killing that buck. From that moment on, I became obsessed with deer hunting and everything about it. In fact, I built a business around it. However, over the years, I’ve realized it wasn’t the buck I killed that hooked me, that was just the final piece. What grabbed me and sunk the hooks was something you can’t capture with a trophy image. It was the allure of deer camp.

Being able to reflect on deer camp now and looking back on all the fond memories I’ve made in the last 13 years, when I say it changed my life, that’s no hyperbole. It’s truly difficult to put into words, but between the fires at night, conversations with the guys, laughter, and everything in between, it became a place for a boy to turn into a man. And I’m so grateful that it came into my life when it did.

Yes, deer camp is a place to gather and hunt for deer, but it doesn’t make any difference if the hunting is excellent or terrible. Either way, it’s going to be a time you know you’ll enjoy with great company, and that camaraderie is something that can’t be matched.

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In fact, that camaraderie has the power to make a 15-year-old look at deer hunting as something more than just chasing deer, and it can alter his life forever.