My immediate thought after reading was "That, in my mind, is what the Apocalypse would be like". Heaven help us if we all decide to give up.

I feel the hair growing on my back as I speak.

Point very well taken. Some of us still remember the joy of life before gadget-hell broke loose. What did a map and a compass ever do to anyone?

Due to the fact that I/we (wife and I) chose to raise a family on a meager income, precluded me hunting in a society that excluded hunting unless you could afford a lease. Since then, I have relocated to an area that has hunting, (my own land) and other spots available through the good grace of church family and friendly neighbors! The church family has provided me with one or two young men whose parents are in the same situation I was in 10/15 years ago. Since all my old hunting buddies still reside in the state of my previous residence, I hunt mostly alone. These two young men, provided not only an opportunity to see a young man develope into a sporting hunter, they have also provided places that, without their presence, I would have been unable to hunt. One has already assisted me in slaughtering a hog and is a real joy to be around. The other is still a bit shy and though a good companion, doesn't talk much.
I have greatly enjoyed the company of these two promising young men (and their parents!) and I'm looking forward to the fall so that I might get them both (one at a time, please!) into the woods!
As long as I can find young people to mentor, I'll continue hunting!

Bubba

Damn it Dave I had to take a Zanex after reading you today. More and more kids are asking their dads to go to scouts and camping and hunting, the bloody baby boomers and their "got to be loved by everybody" crap spoiled a generation but we are coming back. I live in an Urban area and half the kids last Haloween were hunters and soldiers. The hunter Genes run deep Keep the faith Dave and have a good weekend....

Years ago when I lived back east I had a couple of reliable hunting partners in a friend, my father, and his friend.

Since I've been hunting out west, however, I've often been out there on my own. One thing that is new is that I seem to be more -- errrm --"aware of being aware" -- more into being in the experience in some inexpressably different way.

I think this means I'll hunt until my arms and legs stop working.

The Cro-Magnons killed them Dave... and if men had any sense they would have killed off the blabbermouth women too. Give me good looking and mute and I'll instantly fall in love.

My friends and I had a hunting camp complete with a dilapidated old camper someone had dragged there twenty years earlier and a fire pit and not much else. On the night before opening day there would be anywhere from ten to thirty people pitching tents and playing poker and winching out trucks that had got stuck on the way back there. It was an experience like no other... no women, no rules, just a bunch of rednecks doing what rednecks do. It was basically the only time we were all together and we reveled in each others company. As we got older and married and had children suddenly fewer and fewer were there until I was there with one other person one year. It signaled the end of an era but I didn't stop. In fact I built a muzzle loader and spent more time in the woods and actually began to kill deer. A lot of deer. Hunting to me is about being alone or with my children or brother in law but still sitting in a treestand hundreds of yards away from them and enjoying the wildlife and solitude of nature...

Umm, Dave, do you, by chance, suffer from bipolar disorder? After the last post complaining that parents with young children are too busy with other things to teach their children to hunt, you now complain about those young "pissants" who don't hunt the way we do? You can't have it both ways. I love the traditional ways as much as anyone, but let's face it, unless we embrace younger hunters, it won't be long until there aren't any younger hunters. Maybe, just maybe, we might even learn something from them. GPS and rangefinders and the lot are nice to have around, but shouldn't we be teaching the younger hunters how to survive and hunt in case the batteries give out? Keith was dead on point. It's up to us older hunters to mentor and foster the younger guys and gals and teach them the ways of the woods. Some of my fondest memories of my grandfather are when I would propose some newfangled idea to him, and he would kind of smile, give it a try, and quickly point out to me the limitations of my newfangled idea, and show me how to get by without it, but if it was a good idea, he would wholeheartedly adopt it. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be hunting. Thank God for the old-timers with the patience to put up with all of us when we were the young pissants and teach us to be the next generation of "old guard" hunters!

Hope you’re not depressed and in sorrow, Dave.

Reminiscing about the “good Old Days” is a sign although reminiscing does seem to be a sign of advancing Age. I seem to fall back on memories more and more as I grow older. Many things are gone never to return. i.e. Bird covers, Hunting the Mountains, Good bird dogs, good horses. …But I think it’s a sign of mortality and vanity returning too often to memories.

Neandorthals likely disappeared because as a group they hit the Wall. They lacked an ability to cope and to adapt to Change…the only reality. This is something for all of us to pause upon.

Enough navel gazing.

I "usta" belong to one of them ol' "Redneck" camps. No women, I was the only "kid" there because my dad was primary "leaseholder". He maintained contact with the land owner, collected the annual lease money, paid the lease, allowed/disallowed new hunters to openings, passed on new rules, etc, etc..... Basically, the one that was held ultimately responsible!
Opening day rules, (not necessarily a weekend) Members (it really WASN'T a club, per se!) only, no spouses, NO WOMEN(!), no guests for the first seven (7) days of the season and after the first shot, legal bucks only!
These rules were both good and bad. As a "bachelor" group, no women in camp meant no "monkey" business. No guests meant each paying leasee got his selected spot!
The bad part! Leaving the women at home meant they (IF they were hunters!) couldn't enjoy the most productive and best "days" of the season! The "kids" (well, except me!) only got to hunt "after" the woods had been pretty much stirred up.
I have a wife and two daughters now and they all hunt. No women in camp would exclude my entire immediate family! I ain't doin' that!
Guess I gotta give up somma them ol' Redneck ways!

Bubba

And more challenging! And that's what it's all about! Or maybe you want one to walk up and sit on you...and complain....

On the topic of Neanderthals, note that there is a rule governing all ecology stating that no 2 species can occupy the same ecological niche in the same place in the long run. Starlings push out native songbirds in the quest for food and nesting sites. As the range of the imported American grey squirrel spreads across England, the native red squirrel disappears. Etc.

Neanderthals made artifacts and had a true culture. They were intelligent. So even if Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals started out specializing in different food sources, shortly after those early humans showed up, both groups would have started learning from each other's behavior. It would only be a matter of time before they were competing for the same sources of food and shelter.

Alternatively, let's ask what would have happened if the Cro-Magnons and the Neanderthals eventually learned to communicate and regarded each other as mutually 'human.' We're talking about 2 closely related, yet distinct species. Like horses and zebras. It is entirely possible that Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals eventually began to interbreed, but the offspring produced were sterile 'mules.' Eventually, such intermingling would result in one of the 2 species completely disappearing with it's genes no longer represented at all in the population.

I bet that you could run a computer simulation to find out what the thresholds would be in terms of initial populations and rates of interbreeding to determine how long it would take and which group would die out.

Here's something for you to criticize http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6rKgL75POo