Originally Posted by
Mickey Finn
I'm trying to wrap my mind around your post here. I think we look at hunting differently. I admit I'm more of a do it yourself guy. But I've been to a few camps over the years. I don't look at hunting as a bang for your buck venture. So much as an adventure all of it's own. To me trips have a life of their own which starts with the planning, and organization of gear. And ends when I'm through cleaning and repacking my gear. So to me driving to Alaska, setting up camp, and hunting a Caribou would only be the first part of an excellent trip. Having a PH lead me around, and point out animals to shoot would seem less of an adventure, and more like a guided tour. But different strokes I guess.
Then there is the spending your money at home argument. This is about helping Americans in their struggle for life. It has nothing what so ever to do with foreign aid. Which by the way the United States is shamefully below it's agreed upon .7% of GNI.
ATB
I don't know that we look at hunting all that differently. I started hunting the last 8 years that I lived in Colorado. Deer, elk, bear, and pronghorn antelope -- all DIY hunts. I moved to Montana in 1975 and have been doing DIY hunts here every year since, hunting for both mule and whitetail deer, elk, both black and grizzly bears, antelope, mountain lions, and multiple hunts for bighorn sheep, shiras moose, and mountain goats. I killed somewhere around 100 of these animals -- all DIY hunts, and some of the bear, sheep, moose, and goat hunts were solo hunts -- just me or me and my horses. I also packed out and processed all of those animals myself.
The Alaskan caribou hunt that I mentioned was total DIY, except for the flying. We brought out tents and all camp gear from home. Yes it was a great adventure, but my total hunting consisted of a 200 yard stalk from camp the morning after we flew in and one shot. I also mentioned that trip because our travel time our camp in Alaska took longer than my travel times to Africa.
The Canadian hunts that I've done were guided -- Canadian law requires non-resident hunters to be guided. But on none of those hunts did the guide "lead" me to an animal and tell me to shoot it.
A DIY hunt in Africa would be very difficult both logistically and because of the difference in languages. In South Africa most of the game animals belong to the landowners who are either outfitters or lease their land to outfitters. Africa has something like 1/4 of the species of animals of the world and a guide or PH is invaluable in identifying the various animals and judging the trophy quality. Plus they have the staff to retrieve and process the animals.
Any guided hunt is what you, the hunter, make it to be. You can either hunt
with the guide, or you can sit back and have the guide do everything for you.
As for spending your money at home, I'm all for buying American and supporting American businesses, but there's a huge world on the other side of our borders, and to experience it involves spending some of our money there, whether we are on a sightseeing vacation or hunting. Our politicians have gotten our country in over $18 trillion dollars in debt, yet we are still supporting the rest of the world, so I don't see how the foreign aid that we give to other countries is "shamefully low."