“We shall seek debate without division or rancor” Johann Lamont
I have never been what you would call a great big fan of golf. I know many people think it is just the greatest thing since sliced bread and four wheel drive. I have several buddies that play golf and evidently love it, or at least they profess to. Sometimes when I hear them talk about this sport I wonder if throwing clubs and hitting golf balls into lakes is something they enjoy.Even though I may think that a golf course is the waste of a perfectly good cow pasture, my point in this ramble is this. What I think about golf is not really important. If you like to play golf and are not hurting anything by doing so, have at it. Keep that in mind and stay with me for a minute.
Disagreements among hunters are nothing new. I think it is safe to say that most arguments are among hunters, not fishermen. Fishermen are more laid back and are usually too busy trying to get their outboard motor running. For some reason hunters seem prone to argue with each other over things that at the end of the day, don’t really matter. Remember that I have told you before that as hunters we have a bad habit of thinking we are experts on different facets of hunting because we love to do it and we have been doing it for a long time. Neither one is really guaranteed to make us an authority on anything.
At the risk of having to answer a lot of emails and phone callsfor people who will read this wrong, I will use crossbows for one example. Here in West Virginia the use of crossbows for archery deer hunting seems to be a hot debate. Many bow hunters seem to find it necessary to bemoan the use of crossbows and talk about how it “isn’t really bow hunting”. We could debate the use of crossbows until all the bovines come home, but I won’t. There is evidently a large group of bow hunters that preach the evils of using crossbows during archery deer hunting. My brothers in camo, I must tell you, I honestly do not understand that. Let me make my point about crossbows and then I will move on.
The state has an archery deer season, right? The DNR and it game managers decide how long the season is, and how many deer you may legally take with a bow and arrow. OK, during this time when I can legally kill these deer, does it really matter if that arrow comes from a compound bow, a recurve, a stick and string I built myself, or a crossbow? I humbly and with respect do not think so.
Will the general public being free to use a crossbow get more people hunting and increase license sales? The states that have opened it to their use tell us yes.
I did not start all of this to discuss the merits of hunting with crossbows, although we need to do that at another time. My point gentle reader is this. The hunters and fishermen, trappers, those who hunt with dogs, and all of the outdoorsman (and women), need to get your act together. We waste all of our time and energy fighting among ourselves. The gun hunter doesn’t like something the bow hunter wants, the hound hunter wants to argue with the deer hunter, and everyone, it seems, wants to beat up on the trappers. Again, my brothers, if we want to preserve and maintain our heritage in the outdoors, this has got to stop.
I want you to consider two things before I leave you on this. One, if we are constantly fighting among our own ranks, who do you think just loves this and benefits from it? That’s right, the many anti-hunting, animal rights groups! We are doing their work for them bud! Second, have you ever considered how powerful a united, organized, sportsman coalition would be? All of the deer hunters, bear hunters, squirrel and rabbit hunters, dog people, trappers, and fishermen all with one voice? There is nothing that a group like this could not achieve, nothing.
Alright, there it is. I don’t claim to have all of the answers on how to make this happen. My job is to poke you once in a while, wake you up and tell you that you had better do something. I know that you didn’t want to hear some of this, but it is for your own good. A least I didn’t bring up mountain lions!