runs the gamut. Some are cruel fuckers that just like to see stuff in pain. me, I hate to see an animal suffer, and work extra hard to be able to take that shot when the time comes, put the animal out of it’s misery, put it in my freezer.

Birds and squirrels and rabbits and such are such small beasts that their lives end quickly at the behest of some small shot. Larger game, of course, has to be approached differently.

I have always been partial to Psalm 22, Davids’ “Deer of the Dawn”. In it, David speaks of abandonment by The Lord; this is the psalm Jesus quotes while dying of his wounds- “Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabacthanii”, or ‘My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me!”

David also speaks- or sings, really, of his trust in the Lord, that the Lord will deliver him from the bull, dogs, lions. That’s the line, in fact, that sings most clearly to me, Psalm 22:19. “be thou not far from me, O Lord” It’s actually a misquote, the line is actually “Be not thou far from me” but I’ve been using it the other way so long now it’s stuck for good.

The moment when David’s fear turns to trust, and he draws strength, and begins to praise the lord.

For this reason, since I started hunting, this is my hunting prayer. When my finger touches the trigger, I say this in my heart: Be thou not far from me, O Lord. It reminds me how small I am. It reminds me how powerful the Creator of the universe is. And it helps me to calm myself and marshall my strength for the task at hand.

When I heard Private Jackson use it in Saving Private Ryan, i was at first a little stunned that someone else used it as well, even as a line in a movie. I guess i thought there was only just me that felt like this, and prayed before taking a shot. Then I began to talk to other hunters, and it dawned on me, that almost all of them- certainly all of the deeply spiritual ones, anyway- they all had their own prayer. Some too personal to share, but they had them, they’d freely admit it. What’s your prayer? You don’t have to leave it in comments. Just think about it.