Don’t Let Jealousy Eat You Up This Deer Season

Realtree’s Tyler Jordan killed the No. 2 typical bow buck for the 2022-23 season. The Harris County buck scored 157 4/8 inches.

I knew it was gonna happen.

Tyler Jordan, son of Realtree President Bill Jordan, kills the No. 2 typical bow buck of the 2022 Georgia season and GON releases the story earlier this week.

Here’s two of the comments that came from the GON Instagram page:  “Privileged hunter in a controlled hunt. Definitely not fair chase” and “Are bucks killed inside high-fence farms still added to county records? Or is it only natural deer that get listed?”

Tyler responded to the comments: “I’m not special and I’ll be the first to admit that. But that land is a labor of love for dad and I both. We do a lot of work to make that property better for the last 20+ years. These deer are free range or otherwise it wouldn’t have been posted here. Managing the land the way we have has made not just our property better, but neighboring lands as well. We do what we can to stack what we can control in our favor, but often that isn’t enough. Part of it tho. That’s why it’s called hunting!”

I’m not arrogant enough to speak for those who made the negative comments on Instagram. I don’t know them, their hearts or why they felt compelled to say the things they did. However, as I read the comments, I shook my head. Those comments brought me back to a dark place where I used to be a number of years ago.

There was a period in my life when it would eat me up inside when someone around me killed a good buck and I did not. That inner feeling was one I never shared with anyone, and it sprouted a burden that led to some miserable moments in my hunting career. I always wanted to be on top, and success from others around me meant that I was not. Plain and simple folks, it was jealousy.

So as I read the negativity about Tyler’s buck, I genuinely felt sadness for any of my hunting brothers and sisters who experience jealously toward another when they find success. I think it hurts me now because I know that jealousy, even in our innermost hunting circles, is a very real battle with the flesh. I believe social media has accelerated the issue for folks who face the struggle.

Are you one of those who feels even a tinge of jealousy toward someone when they kill a nice buck? If that’s you, let me encourage you with one of my favorite Bible verses: “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (James 4:14, English Standard Version).

Whether you’re 9 or 99, there’s no time in this very short life on Earth to waste. Compared to eternity, life really is a mist, just a tiny fraction of time. To waste it with painful, negative feelings toward a hunter who kills a buck is not only wasteful, but it creates a burden that’s too heavy for you to carry. It’s certainly not what you want to be doing in your mist of time. 

I urge you to take action and don’t let jealousy eat you up this deer season. Pray, put the phone down or get rid of social media if that triggers it.

Go climb a tree. Without the heavy burden of jealousy, I’d bet that you begin to find new hunting successes. And as your mist dissipates a little more, you may decide that successful moments in hunting don’t always start with a blood trail, which could mean you see yourself as the most successful hunter in the woods.