A recent post over on bowsite, had me once again analyzing my Hunting style and preference.

Some time back a homeowner we were remodeling a house for said to an employee... " I keep trying to text Steve but he never gets back with me"..

he laughed and said.. "You'd be better off sending him smoke signals"...

And that sums it up in a nutshell...

I'm not opposed to change..but I'm slow to accept it, unless it's really a change for the better.

And there are some things that frankly you could try and beat the change into me or hang me....and I'll still never accept.

Peer pressure can be a very damaging thing if it leads masses in the wrong direction.

I look at hunting as a whole, and while I'm not ready to point fingers or criticize....I'm not sure I want to totally embrace the modern mentality.

I am traditional in many respects, not just my archery gear. but it has very little to do with, challenge, mojo, or , "cool"...

I can build anything from a dog house in your kennel, your custom kitchen, or the bridge over your interstate highway...but you set a computer in front of me, and I'll be a one finger pick and poke, haven't a clue how to totally use this thing...

And while I do respect those that choose to use a more modern approach, or trophy hunting, I at times do as well....I have very little time for criticism directed toward those that dont.

We can sometimes be our own worst enemy...

Hunting trophy animals is a worthy and challenging thing until the "horn porn" mentality effects your ability to share in celebration of a forklorn taken by another hunter. Because when that happens you have drifted from being a trophy hunter....to a selfish hunter, when masses begin thinking that way we are heading in the wrong direction.

Hunting is an age old practice...for some It has become a hobby, a sport no longer necessary because of modern grocery, And that is fine....until you scoff at the hunter that still hunts for meat not recognizing the fact that for some hunting is still a way of life, an age old practice ,and skill as it always was.

Hunting is not so much threatened by the equipment we choose, or the game we seek, but by what goes on between the ears of you the hunter.

Well said!

It's not so much the technology as it is how we approach the value of it to our personal lives. Some of it is life saving, some is fun to have, some is just totally unnecessary but it is what it is as technology goes. I sure love my digital cameras, my gosh they have saved me a fortune in film cost and development. :) All in all though, we life much like we did in 1965 when we were married; still garden, still can vegetables and meats, still have a large pantry to fall back on.....still hunt and fish.

"live" not life. Anyway, my guitars are the same as what was around sixty years ago....so that strumming is the same. :)

I hear ya!

The guys who beat their chests over the P&Y score of a farm-raised deer that they have had under 24-hour surveillance for the past 3 or 4 years or one that they sniped from up in a tree sitting over a trail that leads to a feeder....Yeah…

Nope.

I’m not so deluded as to suggest that anyone else has any obligation to buy into my ideas about what a “trophy” should look like or what a Hunt is supposed to be, but I do have a strict personal policy against ridiculing anyone for being adept at something that I personally cannot do, and that extends to not ridiculing anyone for having “failed” at something which I personally haven’t even thought (or had the cojones) to attempt.

But you kinda have to wonder how the hell questions about herbicides and “to disc or not to disc” ever became “hunting-related”....

Hunting to me has never been a sport or a hobby.

It is a cultural tradition that has existed for millennia and goes to the core of fulfilling our human needs in many ways.

It is made wondrous by the places you do it in and sometimes by the people you do it with.

I like some technology but not to the point it becomes the end and not the means. I love the simplicity of a trad bow but also enjoy firearms.

Killing means less to me now than hunting...I am always ready to take an animal, but it has to feel right.

I wouldn't call killing a animal a sport or a hobby. On the other hand there are sport Hunters that do just that. I'd have to say fishing is more of a sport because I don't keep any fish I catch. I just call myself a fisherman and a hunter.

The word “ Sport” is only in there to distinguish what we do (bound by standards of ethics and sportsmanship, etc.) from what the market hunters did and by which they wiped out the passenger pigeon, the Buffalo, and very nearly all of our deer and Elk as well. So it’s Sport in the same sense that all of the classic Olympic Sports are; competitions among warriors to see who was the best without actually killing each other.

In this case, the idea was to give the critters a “sporting” chance while conceding home-field advantage.... not just raise them for slaughter by inefficient means.

I don’t need to hunt to live. Can’t imagine living in a time when you had to. But I wouldn’t be using a trad bow either. I do eat what I kill. Or share with someone that will eat it. I like technology. Can’t imagine not having electricity or a phone. I guess I am guilty out of making a sport out of limiting myself with a bow instead of a gun. But won’t bad mouth anyone that hunts with one. I did at one time. And even if I did not I would not look down on anyone that did. Never kick a dog turd. It might be your grandmother. I do for feel bad for people that can’t fix anything because they rely on technology

Well said Steve.

Excellent post. I’m a meat hunter and make no apologies for it. Hunting is entrained in me. We live off the land to the greatest extent possible. I’ve never taken joy in killing an animal but treat it with reverence and respect and above all, thanks.

“ It is made wondrous by the places you do it in and sometimes by the people you do it with.”

Well put.

Well said Pdiddly, my thoughts exactly!

Sport, hobby, passion, lifestyle, obsession, etc. etc., I've heard it called all the above and more.

I don't 'need' the meat, and frankly after spending 40 seasons sitting in the cold waiting I dam' sure don't obsess about it. I don't need a label for it at all. It's just one of the things I do.

On the flip side, I don't feel the need to label myself either. 'Obsessive hunter,' 'fly fishing junkie', yadda yadda yadda. The only 'label' I acknowledge is the name my parents gave me. You want to know more? Pull up a chair and grab us a couple of beers.

I'm slow to change. But a little faster now than before. So before i was, extra slow. I think i stopped going inside to pay for my gas when pay at the pump had been around a few years, maybe somewhere between five and seven years or more, no kidding.

IRS refund to my bank took a while for me to accept, then paypal. Cashapp took a little coaxing from my son, if not, i'd still not be on that.

I don’t use much of that online stuff either when it comes to money. Lol. After having 2 million dollars embezzled from me it makes me a lil skidish lol

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