ORIGINAL: Team Virginia
Answer me this, were has it gone? I mean the sport, the tradition, absolute thrill of harvesting one of Gods most elusive creatures. I feel evermore each season that people who hunt are getting more commercialized and the people that dont hunt are against it more and more. Ive been hunting since 81 with my father and have been harvesting animals on my own shortly after. And every year I have to explain myself or defend myself to people I meet more and more each and every season. Is it thehow people are perceving the way people hunt or is it the way we are portraying ourselves as sportsmen in the field. I think people do things that are trendy in thier homes or community, be it against it or for it. I had a guy lable me as a redneck earlier today that sparked this for me. Not only do I try to be an ethical hunter each time I put my boots on I try to be a example of how I want people to atleast understand the sport.........give me your thoughts
Have you ever judged a book by it's cover? Sure you have... I have. Same thing, for too long now people look at hunting as something that rednecks from the hills of Kentucky and West Virginia do. What they don't see is the wildlife management that myself and lots of other hunters do out here on a daily basis. Nor do they see the VERY LARGE amount of money that goes back into wildlife habitat that is generated by those of us that hunt and fish from purchasing our Lic, tags and equipment. Nor do they see or know that a lot of their family doctors that hunt, lawyers, co-workers, supervisors, managers etc...from all walks of life. I was at a little get together the other night when one guy said to the crowd, "Just like those uneducated truck drivers out there getting in my way, they are such rednecks!" And of course I spoke up, quickly and loudly, so I had the rooms attention. "Yeah, I'm an uneducated truck driver that has a bachelor's degree, that is home everyday, off on Saturdays and Sundays, I have time with friends and family, I hunt and fish, and I make $100,000+ a year!" "I guess your right Rick, if I only made $72,000 a year, I would be calling names and blaming people too." My point is this, we as ethical hunters, can only change that image one person at a time. Inever defend my actions and/or passions such as hunting, I throw it back at them to show them how idiodic that truely sounds and how they are the ones that sound like a fool for judging others without getting to know the person.