RE: Ritual - Do you do anything symbolic after the kill
The first thing my dad told me when we recovered my first buck was that I needed to put the nuts up in a tree for good luck. I've followed this tradition on ever buck since and I know he has too. I'm assuming it came from Grandpa to start with. I'm starting to think it's more of a Wisconsin thing the more I read in this post. I know I have come upon gut piles multiple times during gun season and found them hanging in a tree nearby... so I'm not the only weird one :-) Outside of that, just a simple thanks for the opportunity to have experienced a successful hunt.