Hanover
“I have a different philosophy about hunting than a lot of modern hunters do, I guess,” the Hanover resident said. “I don’t really care for the commercialism of it. It’s a spiritual experience.”
In that vein, during muzzleloader season, Diener hunts with a flintlock. He made his own powder horn and clothes, and casts his own lead shot.
“I feel like I’m actually part of the process instead of buying everything,” he said. “It makes it more real.”
Diener, 62, author of the book Revelation from Creation — True Tales from the North Woods, credits his interest, in part, to the time he and his wife spent as 18th century historical re-enactors.
“You learn how to pour powder and shot, and how to load a muzzleloader, what’s the idiosyncrasies of a flintlock ignition system,” he said. “You learn little historical facts that people tend to forget over the years.”
While Deiner acknowledges that every time period in history has had difficulties, it seems like the country was better back then.
“To me it was a more (pure) era,” he said. “You run into hunters in the woods (today) and they look like they’ve stepped out of a Cabela’s catalog.”
He is particularly in agreement with the way Native Americans view taking the life of an animal as “a sacred thing,” he said, in line with his belief as a Christian that the animals come as a gift from God.
“I’m part of life. The way it ought to be,” Diener said. “Not some cellophane-wrap, buy-at-a-store type of thing.”
And his love of tradition extends to his home business of repairing and restoring clocks.
“It’s back to the traditional, the way it should be,” Diener said. “I just have a fascination with that.”
Geoff Hansen can be reached at ghansen@vnews.com. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com
