By Steve Knight outdoor@tylerpaper.com

It seems like just the other day we were talking about the opening of dove season and now we are facing the closing of deer season.

Time flies when you are having fun. It goes even faster when it is a good year like this one has been for almost all types of hunting across Texas.

Now, as the saying goes, the work begins. It will soon be time to clean and store guns, put up the camo and start planning meals of venison steak, maybe fried quail or who does not like dove wrapped in bacon with a jalapeño. The goal is to have the freezer empty by the time it all starts again next fall.

Not everything closes Jan. 7 when the North zone deer season shuts down. Deer hunters in South Texas and with Managed Lands Deer permits have more time, as do waterfowl and quail hunters. After that it is quiet time until turkey season opens in March.

It may be a little difficult to explain where hunting fits in the 21st century. It doesn’t, and that may be the allure. It is a throwback to the beginning of mankind in an era of technology. While most other old customs have fallen by the wayside, hunting and hunters continue on.

It is not clear how many hunters there are in the U.S. Based on license sales the number is about 14-15 million. There are an equal number who consider themselves hunters, but don’t buy a license every year.

In Texas, license sales remain healthy at over a million, but as a percentage of the population hunters have declined. That is not necessarily due to an anti-hunting attitude or disinterest. Costs and a clear gateway into hunting for newcomers are also limiting factors.

Hunting itself has continually evolved over time, and, in fact, has little in common with what it was like a hundred years ago. No one today has to hunt for food, but maybe more so than just 50 years ago that is an important reason why they do. Today’s hunters are just as proud of the dinners they bring to the table as they are the antlers, beards or whatever they collect.

But make no mistake about it, hunting today is sport, and along with that comes conservation. That is the one thing non- or anti-hunters have trouble conceiving. How can hunters call themselves conservationist when they are killing the animals they claim to be saving?

Hunters play an important role as predators in helping maintain wildlife populations. Whether it is through a management plan based on selective harvest, harvest numbers that take into account habitat quality or hunting within statewide limits, hunters are important to wildlife health especially for mammals like deer and elk.

That may not be exactly the case for others like ducks, but there is no arguing the importance of hunters’ license fees, lease fees and gear purchases when it comes to funding habitat or maintaining landowners’ desires to provide habitat.

In a lot of cases those things are done subconsciously. The fact is those that hunt enjoy it. Whether it is collecting food, learning and practicing game management, the gadgets, the skills required, maintaining friendships or outings with family, hunting provides an escape hunters cannot get somewhere else. Again, those who do not hunt will probably have a thousand suggestions of ways to get away, but it is not the same for those hard-wired to hunting. Waiting on the game at sunrise or until the pending sunset, group meals, the years of camp stories and the first-ever experiences or latest triumphs with a child, parent or friend are things that just cannot be duplicated elsewhere.

But in the blink of an eye another fall has slipped away. That does not mean hunting fever is put up in the closet for eight months. It only means it is times to square things away. It also means it is time to start looking toward the next season. That deer you let walk because it was too young, that marsh you wanted to venture into for mallards or maybe schedule an extra hunt for dove or sandhill cranes.

It is time to enjoy the bounty of this season, to look forward to the trophies and work on those stories so they get just a little funnier or sound like a bigger adventure than they were.

Nope, the door on hunting is not closing. The next one is just opening.