HuntSleepEatDream
New member
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2019
- Messages
- 4
The first time I went hunting was at the age of 12. My father was having his 20th reunion of his elite all boys high school class. My father, a Baby Boomer, did not grow up hunting and only incidentally killed squirrels and varmints playing with guns in the woods. His father, the son of the town drunk and the town diner waitness, looked at hunting as a chore in the Great Depression and took no interest in having his family hunt in the post-WWII prosperity.
It was the opening day of dove hunting at one of the classmates' estates. I had fired a shotgun for the first time a few months before at Boy Scout camp, scoring a break on only two of the 25 trap targets thrown for me. I still remember the shock of firing a 12 gauge for the first time and the bruise that remained on left my shoulder for weeks. But I loved it. All those times growing up playing soldier with friends using plastic and finger guns had culminated to that moment. It was one of the first times as a boy that I felt I was doing something that a man would do.
"Bird!" they called to my father and I, sitting on two folding stools. Him using a borrowed Winchester 1400, and me using a borrowed single shot 20 gauge.
"Shoot it!" he called to me.
I fired the 20 gauge for the first time, noticing it was considerably softer to shoot than the shotgun from boy scout camp. The dove fell in front of me in a strip of sunflower stalks.
"You got him!" he said with joy as the bird flapped in front of me. A chocolate labrador then ran to the bird, picked it up with his mouth, and retrieved it to the dog's owner's hand.
"Got your bird!" said the dog's owner.
"Keep it for us! That's my son's first bird"
Since that experience, hunting has played some role in my life for 25 years. My main game has been duck, with annual trips to hunt liberated and wild pheasant and quail. I have two hunting dogs, a labrador and a pointer (aka English Pointer). My big game experience is limited, having only been on a few deer and black bear hunts. I spent a season hunting turkey, with success limited to a jake. That lack of big game experience will likely change. My diet that helps me thrive despite a very complicated medical history of chronic diseases is paleo, which attempts to emulate the diet of our hunter-gatherer-horticultural (pre-agricultural) ancestors in a way that is convenient for 21st century society. In addition to standard fare of beef, chicken, pork, turkey, and fish. I respond well to consuming non-domesticated meat such as venison, reindeer, bison. For this reason, I will be hunting more for food. My goal for the 2019-2020 hunting season is to have 10% of the meat that my wife and I consume to be sourced from my hunting activities. For this reason, I will be using the most effective weapon for the hunt and, where legal, I will not be passing up shots on females in favor of males.
Typical so far? Not so fast. I do not fit within either the right wing or libertarian view of politics that most hunters I have encountered on the internet and in person. First of all, I voted for Trump mainly because I hated Hillary. I also figured it would be hilarious to see what it would be like if Archie Bunker had a billion dollars and became President, which is it is indeed hilarous. I don't think he's done an effective job, rather I think his ineptitude has resulted in a laissez faire style that's happened to mostly benefit America between 2017 and now. I have two viewpoints in particular that probably run contrary to the opinions of most hunters that I believe to be essential for the survival of the hunting tradition:
Looking forward to the discussions ahead.
It was the opening day of dove hunting at one of the classmates' estates. I had fired a shotgun for the first time a few months before at Boy Scout camp, scoring a break on only two of the 25 trap targets thrown for me. I still remember the shock of firing a 12 gauge for the first time and the bruise that remained on left my shoulder for weeks. But I loved it. All those times growing up playing soldier with friends using plastic and finger guns had culminated to that moment. It was one of the first times as a boy that I felt I was doing something that a man would do.
"Bird!" they called to my father and I, sitting on two folding stools. Him using a borrowed Winchester 1400, and me using a borrowed single shot 20 gauge.
"Shoot it!" he called to me.
I fired the 20 gauge for the first time, noticing it was considerably softer to shoot than the shotgun from boy scout camp. The dove fell in front of me in a strip of sunflower stalks.
"You got him!" he said with joy as the bird flapped in front of me. A chocolate labrador then ran to the bird, picked it up with his mouth, and retrieved it to the dog's owner's hand.
"Got your bird!" said the dog's owner.
"Keep it for us! That's my son's first bird"
Since that experience, hunting has played some role in my life for 25 years. My main game has been duck, with annual trips to hunt liberated and wild pheasant and quail. I have two hunting dogs, a labrador and a pointer (aka English Pointer). My big game experience is limited, having only been on a few deer and black bear hunts. I spent a season hunting turkey, with success limited to a jake. That lack of big game experience will likely change. My diet that helps me thrive despite a very complicated medical history of chronic diseases is paleo, which attempts to emulate the diet of our hunter-gatherer-horticultural (pre-agricultural) ancestors in a way that is convenient for 21st century society. In addition to standard fare of beef, chicken, pork, turkey, and fish. I respond well to consuming non-domesticated meat such as venison, reindeer, bison. For this reason, I will be hunting more for food. My goal for the 2019-2020 hunting season is to have 10% of the meat that my wife and I consume to be sourced from my hunting activities. For this reason, I will be using the most effective weapon for the hunt and, where legal, I will not be passing up shots on females in favor of males.
Typical so far? Not so fast. I do not fit within either the right wing or libertarian view of politics that most hunters I have encountered on the internet and in person. First of all, I voted for Trump mainly because I hated Hillary. I also figured it would be hilarious to see what it would be like if Archie Bunker had a billion dollars and became President, which is it is indeed hilarous. I don't think he's done an effective job, rather I think his ineptitude has resulted in a laissez faire style that's happened to mostly benefit America between 2017 and now. I have two viewpoints in particular that probably run contrary to the opinions of most hunters that I believe to be essential for the survival of the hunting tradition:
- Climate change is real and is primarily caused by human carbon emissions. However, extrapolating a chaotic system like climate is full of flaws and leads to bad science, which unfortunately complicates the debate for people who are prone to following pro-business views. Global regulation and enforcement is needed now if we don't want to see earth's ecosystem damaged that will take multiple generations to recover from. Damaged climate means a damage ecosystem means that nearly 2 million years of hunting culture by humans is impossible.
- America has both a mental health problem and a gun problem. The mental health problem, I'm beginning to fear, is a public health crisis that is intractable. The gun problem is not intractable. I am in favor of slightly amending the Second Amendment so that the right of able-minded persons to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Able-minded being the key phrase. I like shooting guns, especially for the character and mechanics and adapting my marksmanship to the unique nuance of each. I even enjoy shooting the "modern sporting rifle", which is a neologism from propaganda for a battlefield rifle that has been made into a consumer product. The color of the rifle does not scare me. The gun does not scare me. The insane future criminal scares me. So why give the insane criminal a weapon that is objectively more dangerous in most situations than a handgun in every respect? Why are violent criminals let back on to the streets? What I would like to see are regulations to be confident that most gun owners are able-minded: federal mandate to require local officials to perform rigorous background checks, character references, training similar to what's done with our licensure of many common professions.
- I believe much of the fault with America's gun problem is actually with the actual gun community for allowing the NRA to have a generationally impotent board of directors that allowed the organization to become a propaganda scheme to line the pockets of executive management and their buddy lawyers. The NRA is not a proper member-led organization. A new organization is needed to stand up to the rights for gun owners who are focused on protecting their families from criminals and preserving tools to hunt. Any slippery slope argument about gun bans from assault weapons being extended to handguns or hunting rifles is a fallacy.
- I am making no claims that my thoughts here are complete or perfect. It isn't, which is why I'm joining a forum to discuss and round out my ideas by reading from others.
Looking forward to the discussions ahead.
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