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Old 10-31-2009 | 08:54 AM
  #15  
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turkey guide
Fork Horn
 
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 338
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From: Eagleville Missouri
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I agree also, first hunting has to be interesting enough to try and then hopefully it will be fun, to keep that interest going. I can't think of anything less fun than peers and older folks that you may consider role models criticising your freedom to hunt within the law, however you wish.
Also, new hunters whatever age, will make mistakes, cut corners and sometimes break laws and camp rules, not realizing their importance. Taking the hardline on this, saying you are a poacher and you don't deserve to hunt with me is wrong. Zero tolerance rules don't do anything to teach people right and wrong, it's just a lesson in intolerance.
If we don't give folks a chance and teach them why and how we do things they will never learn. In my experience young folks especially need to learn how to play for the team, and that may take some time and training before they get to be good or even acceptable at it. I didn't start out as a good hunter, or everyones idea of an ethical hunter and had to learn how to become one. Obviously, everyone does things differently and each hunter must adopt their own set of ethics from their own experience and training, and what is acceptable where they live.
When talking to someone who has just broken a rule or even a law, whether intentional, or in ignorance of the law, or maybe you just don't agree with their methods, you shouldn't make them feel bad about the experience. They may have just had the best time they ever had hunting and you should praise everything they did right, before even mentioning where they might improve. With time they will become the type of hunters we all teach them to be.
Don't make them resent asking your opinion, and possibly ignore you because you made them feel bad by being an ass, or because you called the game warden and tried to cause trouble when you could have just as easily taught them to stay out of trouble. You may be creating a monster.
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