Lucky Charm

[Kyle Wright]

Anybody carry a lucky charm on a hunt? I stuck my dad’s hunting license in my wallet after he passed last year. Hoping it brings me luck in the turkey woods this spring.

 

[Al "Shifty" Schultz]

Anybody carry a lucky charm on a hunt? I stuck my dad’s hunting license in my wallet after he passed last year. Hoping it brings me luck in the turkey woods this spring.

I don't carry any "lucky charms" but decades ago, when I lived in GA, I had a couple close friends that were Cherokee.. the one was an elderly gentleman and quite versed in the history and traditions of his people. He would take me to special, culturally significant places asking me never to share the locations with anyone else.
He took me to a stretch of the "trail of tears" that had been trodden so much it was like a ditch worn into the hillside... Along it were several 6 and 7 ft long mounds that he told me were graves along the trail...
The other Cherokee friend was younger and told me about "Gitli" which he said was the Cherokee name for "the Great Spirit"... He told me that I should "give thanks" to the great spirit after every hunt and place the liver or the heart high in the crotch of a tree or branch, to "give back" to nature and the Great Spirit, and I would be blessed going forward in my hunts.
I ain't going to lie.. been doing it ever since (sometimes silently) but always reverently.
I don't know if it's ever brought me luck, but I damn sure have been blessed...