TNDeerGuy
Well-Known Member
I want to share a thought with the group and I apologize in advance for the length—it is a tad long. It is no secret that I was, and still am, against the changing of the buck limit, but that really isn't what this post is going to be about and I certainly don't wish for it to turn to yet another debate over the issue. Instead, I wish that it creates a thought-provoking look into the future of the sport/pastime that we all love.
I have started to post this several times since this incident occurred, but found myself deleting it before I finished. You see, it is epiphany of sorts this incident was and it left my thoughts stirring in my head for days after. I ran into a friend over a week ago at a local gas station that had just killed a doe and had her strapped to the roof of his crossover suv and we were sharing stories and just enjoying the companionship that is our sport. All of a sudden a middle-aged lady comes walking up to us carrying her cup of half-gone Starbucks, wearing her LL Bean Beanie, Lands End boots and North Face fleece and asked nicely if we were hunters—obviously knowing the answer as we were standing beside a suv with blood streaks going down the side of it, from the body on top, and us wearing our camo. I politely answered "yes ma'am" to her, thinking silently "oh God, here it comes—get your thinking cap on". She then asked in a very polite manner, "why do we kill such beautiful animals?" and I offered her the only response I could, and honest on, "because I eat them and it is a healthier alternative to anything at Publix." She agreed that was fair and honest but then she got to the crux of what I knew she was ultimately digging for, and one that comes up all the time, "do you put what you kill on the wall so you can be proud of it and show it off?" I gave her another honest answer, "yes ma'am I do, but only after I use everything else". I explained to her that hunting to me, and to a significant portion of hunters, isn't about the killing, that is the last thing and a bonus. It is about the hunt and everything that goes with it! I don't have to kill to have a successful hunt and many times don't shoot and instead just watch and enjoy the deer. A successful hunt is seeing the sunrise through the trees or watching it set, hearing the woods come to life, watching the squirrels bounce around (even though I so often want to 10-86 a few of them
), hearing an eagle cry and watching a hawk soar, those times you share with family and friends and getting back home to enjoy your family at the end of the day—that is a successful hunt. She was moved and explained that she wasn't against hunters, she just didn't agree with it and didn't understand why we only kill to put the head on the wall because of its antlers. I explained in detail how the whole thing works and to most it is never about the size of the rack, knowing that was sort of a gray area. However, at the end of our conversation she thanked me and congratulated my friend on his success and she said that if she had land, we would be welcome to come out anytime.
Understand this, she is the majority—she is a member of the non-hunting portion of the population. Notice I said non-hunting, not anti-hunting. The non-hunting part of our population makes up the largest percentage of the entire population and they control the largest amount of the land;however, that group is by far not the loudest, instead they are often too silent. They do not understand what hunting is and do not care by in large. To them we are a bunch of blood-thirsty killers that only hunt so we can brag and put antlers on the wall—they don't understand that it is so much deeper than that. They are affected and see the same advertisements and shows that we see on social media, print media and T.V.. The only thing is that they don't know, nor understand, what they are looking at and don't care because they are turned off because of big antlers and the killing of big antlers is what our sport focuses on—their perception is their reality.
Now I'm going to get to the point! I'm blessed, and cursed I guess, to have hunted the woods of Tennessee for more than 3 decades and I've seen drastic changes over the years. None more alarming than what I've witnessed over the last decade though. When I started, finding land to hunt on was almost harder to find places that you couldn't hunt! You could get a bowater permit for a few bucks and hunt various 10's of thousands of acres, just go knock on a door and most anyone would say, "sure...go ahead"—heck you could just find a strip of woods and walk in, most didn't care.
Fast forward to today: the State is not getting anymore public land (if you do find public land, it is often terribly and dangerously over-crowded), you have to ask dozens or hundreds of people to get one yes or you have to join an expensive hunting lease—and some of these leases are ridiculously over-charged! Deer hunting is becoming a rich-man's sport plain and simple! It has changed so much in such a relatively short period of time in cost and there is no end in sight to the increase of the cost or decrease of the land! We are cutting our noses off, in spite of our faces. More importantly, we are cutting the next generation's nose off of their faces....the only thing we are passing down to them is much higher hunting costs and very much reduced hunting land as our population continues to grow and sprawl.
That lady I spoke with, and the others like her, are the landowners the next generation of hunters will be dependent on as the source of hunting land and we as a community must do our part to propagate an image that is beneficial to that growth of obtaining more private land. They see us as a whole only caring about the trophy killing, even though that is a minimal reason for most of us. Look at the comments all of you have seen about the cheerleader on the African hunt and Melissa Bachman's kills and these are women—the comments are always negative about the trophy, it's never about the hunting, but always the trophy and it being on a wall. As I previously stated—their perception, is their reality and they will not let us or the next generation on their land if they believe that hunting for a trophy is our goal and if they do let them on their land it is gonna cost so much it will not be feasible. In full disclosure though, they will not let us on their land if they see us with fawns either. They don't see deer through inches, they see deer as a deer and they do not understand the biology (and honestly don't care) and will never understand our sport and it's really hard to change someone's mindset when you have people and an industry that has become driven by inches of a buck's antlers.
If you want a glimpse into the future of our sport in 50 years, look at Europe! By in large, only the extreme upper-class elite can hunt in Europe and Europeans have hunted for far longer than we have! Hard-working, middle-class Joe European can forget it. What is shameful is that it took a Starbucks drinking yuppie, that pre-judged me just as I had done to her, to make me come to that conclusion of where we had come from, where we are at, where we are going and the effects of our actions on the next generation that will desire and is entitled to experience the same beauty that each of us get to enjoy now every time we step foot into the woods and fields of Tennessee.
Sorry for the length, I just wanted to get that off of my chest!
I have started to post this several times since this incident occurred, but found myself deleting it before I finished. You see, it is epiphany of sorts this incident was and it left my thoughts stirring in my head for days after. I ran into a friend over a week ago at a local gas station that had just killed a doe and had her strapped to the roof of his crossover suv and we were sharing stories and just enjoying the companionship that is our sport. All of a sudden a middle-aged lady comes walking up to us carrying her cup of half-gone Starbucks, wearing her LL Bean Beanie, Lands End boots and North Face fleece and asked nicely if we were hunters—obviously knowing the answer as we were standing beside a suv with blood streaks going down the side of it, from the body on top, and us wearing our camo. I politely answered "yes ma'am" to her, thinking silently "oh God, here it comes—get your thinking cap on". She then asked in a very polite manner, "why do we kill such beautiful animals?" and I offered her the only response I could, and honest on, "because I eat them and it is a healthier alternative to anything at Publix." She agreed that was fair and honest but then she got to the crux of what I knew she was ultimately digging for, and one that comes up all the time, "do you put what you kill on the wall so you can be proud of it and show it off?" I gave her another honest answer, "yes ma'am I do, but only after I use everything else". I explained to her that hunting to me, and to a significant portion of hunters, isn't about the killing, that is the last thing and a bonus. It is about the hunt and everything that goes with it! I don't have to kill to have a successful hunt and many times don't shoot and instead just watch and enjoy the deer. A successful hunt is seeing the sunrise through the trees or watching it set, hearing the woods come to life, watching the squirrels bounce around (even though I so often want to 10-86 a few of them
), hearing an eagle cry and watching a hawk soar, those times you share with family and friends and getting back home to enjoy your family at the end of the day—that is a successful hunt. She was moved and explained that she wasn't against hunters, she just didn't agree with it and didn't understand why we only kill to put the head on the wall because of its antlers. I explained in detail how the whole thing works and to most it is never about the size of the rack, knowing that was sort of a gray area. However, at the end of our conversation she thanked me and congratulated my friend on his success and she said that if she had land, we would be welcome to come out anytime. Understand this, she is the majority—she is a member of the non-hunting portion of the population. Notice I said non-hunting, not anti-hunting. The non-hunting part of our population makes up the largest percentage of the entire population and they control the largest amount of the land;however, that group is by far not the loudest, instead they are often too silent. They do not understand what hunting is and do not care by in large. To them we are a bunch of blood-thirsty killers that only hunt so we can brag and put antlers on the wall—they don't understand that it is so much deeper than that. They are affected and see the same advertisements and shows that we see on social media, print media and T.V.. The only thing is that they don't know, nor understand, what they are looking at and don't care because they are turned off because of big antlers and the killing of big antlers is what our sport focuses on—their perception is their reality.
Now I'm going to get to the point! I'm blessed, and cursed I guess, to have hunted the woods of Tennessee for more than 3 decades and I've seen drastic changes over the years. None more alarming than what I've witnessed over the last decade though. When I started, finding land to hunt on was almost harder to find places that you couldn't hunt! You could get a bowater permit for a few bucks and hunt various 10's of thousands of acres, just go knock on a door and most anyone would say, "sure...go ahead"—heck you could just find a strip of woods and walk in, most didn't care.
Fast forward to today: the State is not getting anymore public land (if you do find public land, it is often terribly and dangerously over-crowded), you have to ask dozens or hundreds of people to get one yes or you have to join an expensive hunting lease—and some of these leases are ridiculously over-charged! Deer hunting is becoming a rich-man's sport plain and simple! It has changed so much in such a relatively short period of time in cost and there is no end in sight to the increase of the cost or decrease of the land! We are cutting our noses off, in spite of our faces. More importantly, we are cutting the next generation's nose off of their faces....the only thing we are passing down to them is much higher hunting costs and very much reduced hunting land as our population continues to grow and sprawl.
That lady I spoke with, and the others like her, are the landowners the next generation of hunters will be dependent on as the source of hunting land and we as a community must do our part to propagate an image that is beneficial to that growth of obtaining more private land. They see us as a whole only caring about the trophy killing, even though that is a minimal reason for most of us. Look at the comments all of you have seen about the cheerleader on the African hunt and Melissa Bachman's kills and these are women—the comments are always negative about the trophy, it's never about the hunting, but always the trophy and it being on a wall. As I previously stated—their perception, is their reality and they will not let us or the next generation on their land if they believe that hunting for a trophy is our goal and if they do let them on their land it is gonna cost so much it will not be feasible. In full disclosure though, they will not let us on their land if they see us with fawns either. They don't see deer through inches, they see deer as a deer and they do not understand the biology (and honestly don't care) and will never understand our sport and it's really hard to change someone's mindset when you have people and an industry that has become driven by inches of a buck's antlers.
If you want a glimpse into the future of our sport in 50 years, look at Europe! By in large, only the extreme upper-class elite can hunt in Europe and Europeans have hunted for far longer than we have! Hard-working, middle-class Joe European can forget it. What is shameful is that it took a Starbucks drinking yuppie, that pre-judged me just as I had done to her, to make me come to that conclusion of where we had come from, where we are at, where we are going and the effects of our actions on the next generation that will desire and is entitled to experience the same beauty that each of us get to enjoy now every time we step foot into the woods and fields of Tennessee.
Sorry for the length, I just wanted to get that off of my chest!
