ORIGINAL: rybohunter
Good post, however I feel slightly different.
While I wouldn’t trade the memories made growing up and rifle hunting with family, I certainly wouldn’t continue with a “tradition” solely based on those memories.
Over the years I’ve come to have a different appreciation of hunting than that from which I started. I don’t think I could return to those past states of mind, and hunt that way in the present day. Although I will hold dear those roots that have made me into the person I am today.
I was fortunate to hunt a lot with my Dad. No other hunting partner will ever compare. He’s older and less inclined to head out these days so we don’t hunt together as much anymore. If/when we do get out together, I still hunt under my own convictions, or sometimes I am not even carrying a weapon, just there for the company and hopefully to be the workhorse during a drag. Traditions and old memories aren’t why I am out there, but sharing the present day moment is.
I guess I don't take deer hunting as seriously as some of you do ..... I love it, don't get me wrong, but if I had to choose hunting with all those other things previously mentioned, and the standards there in, against all this modern day, gotta get the biggest buck "conviction" that I see in deer hunting today, gimme those old paths ..... but that's me ....... back in the day, a good deer was measured by # of points and body size .... now we have grown our own and manipulate the geneticsso the deer fit into the mold we want them in ....... If that's how some of you like, I am glad that you can hunt that way ...... but there is something missing in all that IMO ...... simplicity ......