After I filled my deer tag at the tail end of the first week of deer season, I was once again reminded of how hunters such as myself have played a great part in the advancement of medicine. Much like how the first hammer-wielding carpenter provided study material to advance the treatment of thumb injuries, we hunters have given doctors ample opportunities to delve deeper into the problems created by hauling out a deer, bear or moose.
For instance, the morning after I dragged my 160-pound deer a mere 65 yards to where it could be accessed by a smarter hunter using an ATV, I immediately realized that there wasn’t a single part of my body that did not require medical treatment, or at the very least, its own aspirin.
This is on me. For the standard advice is that hauling all that dead weight out of the bush is unwise and could lead to serious medical complications – and it’s even worse when you are dragging a deer.
