During the fall of 2017, I spent several months with Tim Ferrell, documenting the everyday life of a man who holds on to and cherishes the Appalachian past time of bow and rifle hunting. We would wake up hours before sunrise, smoke out our clothes with his wood stove in order to rid ourselves of our human stench, and head out deep in the woods of South East Ohio, desperate, and quietly searching for a kill. Through the miles hiked in the woods, to the days spent in hunting stands, just below the canopies of massive trees, every minute of this adventure felt primal and instilled a new connection in me to the forest and the food chain that persists.
Tim Ferrell, a West Virginia native, walks through South East Ohio woods early in the morning on November 11, 2017. Ferrell, 39, has been hunting since he was nine years old
Ferrell attempts to set up a new tree stand in a spot he has never hunted before on November 11, 2017. Ferrell leases most of the land he hunts on including this particular spot.
Once settled in the tree stand, Ferrell tests all of his shooting angles on November 11, 2017. “You need your bow ready at any time, even when you’re walking in and out, you just never know what could walk up on you” said Ferrell.
Ferrell sits in his tree stand on November 12, 2017, trying to avoid even the slightest movement or noisy breath. Even the smallest sound will alert a deer of something out of the ordinary, which will start a chain reaction of warning grunts to other deer in the area.
Ferrell and Macky enjoy thanksgiving dinner with Macky’s parents, Robert and Margret Macky on November 22, 2017. Ferrell and Macky have eight hunting dogs who have all been trained to thirst over the smell of deer meat.
Ferrell walks into a new plot of land on November 27,2017, the first day of gun season. Unlike bow season, Ferrell sets up a camouflaged blind for gun season, which is hidden amongst thick trees that overlooks an open field.
Ferrell sits patiently in his blind listening for a sound and looking for a sign of deer on November 27, 2017. “Hunting with a gun is pretty different than hunting with a bow, we have a chance to be more comfortable” said Ferrell.
Ferrell checks out a suspicious shadow through his rifle scope on November 27, 2017. His scope can magnify up to 200 yards.
A two-and-half year old, six-point buck hangs in Ferrell’s garage on November 22, 2017 and will stay hung for a few days before skinning and harvesting the meat. This buck was Ferrell’s largest kill with a bow.
Ferrell sits with his old friend Kevin Yant on December 2, 2017, and talks about past problems and family ties before heading out to collect Yant’s kill from earlier that morning. Choking back tears, Ferrell said “my dad never shot a deer… never, and shit man, we’ve been trying to get one together for 15 years… it finally happened.”
Ferrell and Yant wash the blood off of their hands in flood section of an ATV trail on December 2, 2017. Still gleaming from the kill, Yant added that he and Ferrell are “washing up how our ancestors did, probably in the same water too!”
A pair of deer hearts sit in a bowl and wait to be cleaned on December 2, 2017. The hearts belong to a Mother and daughter combo, killed one day apart in the same location.