11-12-2023 Harford Mag - Flipbook - Page 46
Mason Hall, 12, left, looks out over the field as Troy Hutchins, 13,
prepares his rifle.
BY MIKE KLINGAMAN Harford Magazine
here’s something about hunting with his mom
that trips Troy Hutchins’ trigger. Perhaps it’s
rising before dawn on a frosty morning in
Pylesville and going deep into the nearby woods,
.22-caliber rifle in tow, exploring nature’s bounty beside
a woman who was practically raised outdoors.
“It’s peaceful out there; you can hear the leaves fall,”
said Troy, 13.
Or maybe it’s huddling with his mom in a tree stand,
the two breathing quietly in tandem, watching for deer
that might bound past in a flash.
“When it’s freezing cold, and windy, the tree stand
starts to sway back and forth. That’s pretty cool,” Troy
said.
With luck, their target appears, lifts its head, sniffs the
air. The boy draws a bead, takes his shot. Supper tonight
is on Troy; his family hunts deer for dinner.
Does he like venison?
“Sometimes, it tastes like steak,” he said. “Except it’s
better because you know it’s not from the store, and that
you got it yourself.”
Though statistics from the state Department of
Natural Resources show the number of licensed
Maryland hunters in decline (83,555 hunters in 2022,
down 8.7% since 2010), the activity remains strong in
locales like Harford County, where hunting is often an
ancestral tradition in families who see it as both a means
of kinship and of putting food on the table.
For six years, Troy and his mom Chrissy Hutchins
have hunted game on their 12-acre farm. There is a
pheasant and squirrel that he bagged in the family’s
freezer, awaiting a trip to the taxidermist. There are deer
bologna sandwiches in the lunches he takes to Harford
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| Winter 2023 | harfordmagazine.com
Christian School.
“Troy gets excited when I’m fixing supper,” Chrissy
Hutchins, said. “He’ll say, ‘Is that my deer?’ He’s proud
that he’s providing dinner for the family.”
It’s a self-reliance that will hold her son in good stead,
said Hutchins, who learned the same from her father, an
avid hunter. She was Troy’s age when she began tagging
along with her dad, studying the flora and stalking the
fauna. On raccoon hunts at night, they kept track of
their own whereabouts by observing the stars, not a GPS
device.
“My dad taught me a lot about nature, and life, on