By: Ted Nugent
Well get on bended knee and thank the Good Lord Almighty like you mean it! We are here but by the love and grace of God to celebrate yet another glorious, wonderful October!
Say glory, glory hallelujah and give me a minute to catch my predator breath!
Anytime we can make it to another October we should look to the heavens and say a prayer of ultra-thanks for the blessed gift of another hunting season!
I know many sporters have been at it hard for over a month in numerous states and provinces, but nothing says huntseason like the magical, mystical month of October!
When the sumac starting turning red and orange and yellow and the geese began increased movement and visibility, you knew darn well that a very special time of year was upon us.
I suppose most people like sunny, warm summertime best, but for me and all the hunters in the world that I know, the cool fall October air brings a tangible physics of spirituality that arouses the most powerful of primal instincts in the souls of functioning predators everywhere.
Though I am a die-hard advocate who fights relentlessly for earlier seasons and increased hunting opportunities, nothing quite compares to the special seasonal changes that stimulate our spirit like the autumn winds of October.
Many of us get out there and hunt hard no matter how muggy and warm the temperatures may be, but I think everyone will admit that nothing kicks up our instinctual predator urges quite like a cool, frosty October morning.
As I excitedly, yet calmly and stealthily enter my 70th October, I thank God and my dad everyday for making me a hunter. Way before my mushy youthful brain could figure out much about the mysteries of life, as a young bowhunter I naturally appreciated the sensations and spirit of my woodland surroundings, finding peace, tranquility and powerful stimuli whenever I walked and stalked the wild.
Mom always raved lovingly (lamented?) how I was a wild, fidgety, high velocity kid, destined someday to become the Motorcity Madman.
But as we know, a beautiful, even magical transition occurs when we enter a wild place, and even the most downtown, modern city-kid comes to grips with the Spirit of the Wild.
In my chosen American Dream, I plunge maniacally in two very different worlds. I cannot think of any two things in life more extreme opposite than silent, stealthy bowhunting as contrasted with the firestorm of high-energy, crazy-loud rock-n-roll like mine.
Good Lord how lucky am I!
I’ve always rocked out like a firebreathing animal on tour all summer every summer but came to grips with the much needed healing powers of nature participation very early on in my rock-n-roll life.
My first self-healing, life saving decision was to take off October way back in the 1970s.
Rocking a different city every night hundreds of nights in a row pumped a tsunami of adrenalin throughout my being and I did everything in my power to get back to my little farm in southern Michigan to cleanse my soul.
A day here and a day there recharged my batteries and spirit to overload and kept my energy level way up and my fiery passion for my music unbridled.
It didn’t take too many years for me to realize that a day or two hunting now and then just didn’t cut the mustard, and before I knew it, I got smart enough to take off all of my favorite glorious October to bowhunt like I mean it.
Not everybody can take this entire wonderful month off, but as October throttles on and wildlife activity increases exponentially, nothing says Happy Fall like October weekends in the deerwoods, bow and arrow in hand and spirit soaring on high.
Happy October 2018 everybody! This is it!
Get out there and take in every precious minute you can, for the month of October is the gateway to the greatest time of year and she is calling your name.