This is not just pointed at elkmagnet, but everyone on this forum or anyone who reads this thread.
My father is 62 years old(63 in a few days) and still runs our ranch almost single handedly. He has been working on our ranch(mostly minus some military and other years but still working on a ranch) since my grandparents bought it when he was 10 years old. Now I'm talking back breaking, hand blisterting type of work. He is still one of the few people that uses horses for gathering cattle. Not only for himself, but for other ranching families in the area. He has had many, many second jobs to support a family, including a guide(not an outfitter) for quite some time, a miner, a janitor, a horse shoer, and many more. All of this while being a supportive son, faithful and loving husband, great dad(and yes, I got my fair share of spankings, but not one I didn't deserve) of three, and an amazing grandfather of 6. This is where I get a lot of my information from. He is way more knowledagle than any report, any survey, any study that has been done! Hands down. No, I am not saying he is right 100% of the time, no person is. And yes, he and I get into some extreme arguments. But, he has 50 some years in the field doing studies, and reports and surveys on a daily basis 7 days a week 52 weeks a year(for the most part, very few vacations in my family). There is NO person in the world I respect and admire more than him. And you will have to do some serious convincing to prove to me lots of the things I know are wrong. Trust me, I am the type of person to try to do that, even with my father. Not many times to I catch him with misinformation. He is well liked and a person many others come to for information. Now, for some on here to throw out some of the statements they do, that tries to discredit what my father and for that matter, my grandfather, and great grandfathers and so on. I am going to take it very, very personally! And yes, I am going to be biased on the situation. Tell me how you would feel if someone did this to your family? Show me any hunter/sportsman that has this kind of history of knowledge? Remember this when throwing out hated words. Farmers and ranchers have this as their livelyhood, their job, their life. Hunters, sportsman, recreationalists, etc. , this is their hobby(for the most part, I understand there are some on here that have wildlife livelihoods). Not many are being paid for their hunting experience. The most successful on this site, Big Fin, still has his own CPA firm! Take some of these things into account before you decide to be a keyboard cowboy!