Question?
 

For as long as I can remember whenever a member of my family, including myself, killed our first deer the other person we were with at the time would dip three fingers in the blood and smear them across our cheeks.
Is our family the only ones who do this? We'll be taking my little cousin on his first hunt soon and if he does get anything I'd like to be able to explain fully to him why we do this as I put it on him.
I've always just thought it was a way to say thank you to the animal for the food, because to myself I'd always say a prayer of thanks as I did it in my head. Is this not actually what it is? I don't want to give him false information.
And on a side note, nothing has ever happened to any of us, but is this unsafe now? Because if it is maybe we should stop.

Nope, sounds like the same family tradition that my family has always had. I hope he gets one!

I think it may have become unsafe about the same time all the neighbor kids started wearing bicycle helmets.

I think the prayer and the blood stripes make a healthy impression on a kid. We also cut the shirttail off for a miss.

My upbringing was not very PC.
Thank God.

C. Davis

Never heard of that. We just take a picture....

In my opinion, hunters need to be more respectful to the surronding community. Especially, to the ones that don't hunt. What do you think people are going to think when you pull up to the gas station or convience store with blood smeared all over your face and truck? This is one of the topics that was touched on when I went through hunter safety class. The instructor told us that he once saw some hunters driving down the road with "WE GOT ONE!" written in blood. It's behavior like this that give hunters a bad name. Just my opinion.

As pc and annoying as that is, you are right,
Hunting groups have worked hard over the years to protect our rights,
Big strategy has been to clean up the image of the hunter with the general public,
One can make fun of pc nonsense, but when it comes to politicians making laws and regulations on hunting pc aspect has a lot to do with it

It a pretty big leap to go from a prayer and a little blood on the face to driving around town with "got one" written in blood on your truck.

I think that as long as you don't tell anybody that you prayed, you will be fine.

C. Davis

Ceremony
 

and tradition have their roots in ancient times.
Something to be said for honoring the Hunter and the Hunted.

My indoc. into my first kill involved a quick meal of the heart with onions, peppers liberated from a neighbor's abandoned garden and butter on a camp iron over an open flame at the campsite.

It was also accepted practice to dress the deer on the hood or roof of the car for the trip home. Stopping in town for a coffee usually drew folks to come admire your kill along with words of encouragement and congratulations.

Nowadays, I'm sure the same display would involve looks & words of scorn. I don't really care what others think in that regard. I do not think it a misrepresentation of hunting or hunters to do so either.

Being PC is not a joke either. Some people choose to honor that while others choose to embrace time honored traditions.

It comes down to what's important to you.

I would like to point out that this would not at all be something to be paraded around in public. It's simply something the person would have for the remainder of the day It is not at all an every time one of us hunts thing, this is only for the first time that a person gets their first deer.

When I got my first buck my dad and uncle just smeared the blood stripes on my face. I left them on while we dressed it, but then washed them off when we started cleaning up. It's not like I went out to eat like that, LOL. I still have the picture of me holding the rack up in the back of my uncle's truck.

My dad said back when he was young and someone got their first they did the same thing, but they would also cut the testicles off and hang them around their neck. When I got mine he said he wouldn't make me do that because he always thought it was kinda weird.