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Why We Finally Stop Hunting
I have an unnatural fascination with prehistoric man and, like a lot of paleontologists, spend time wondering what killed off the Neanderthals. They were around for 260,000 years in the face of some of the worst weather the earth has experienced, but 2,000 to 10,000 years after Cro-Magnons showed up, they vanished. Neanderthals lived in small family groups, and bit by bit, the groups ceased to exist. Finally, it probably came down to one man or woman, and that must have been the loneliest death imaginable.
I'm sure that last Neanderthal's last thought, just before his (or her) heart stopped was "Screw it. Why bother anymore? There's no one left."
And so it is with hunters. Hunting and shooting are intensely tribal. Only another hunter or shooter can understand what we do, and we tend to hang around with hunters and shooters of our own age. The pissant punks who can't remember before GPS and Gore-Tex and laser rangefinders will never understand how older generations view things.
Eventually, you reach the point where you look around and there is no one left who remembers the things you do. Unlike the poor damned Neanderthal, you may not decide to die, but you very well may decide to hang up your guns. If you have no one left to share your sport with, why bother anymore?
Dave
The "good ol' days" will be around as long as there are good ol' gunwriters. Litera scripta manet.
Posted by: Duck Creek Dick | July 28, 2008 at 01:07 PM
Dave
The "good ol' days" will be around as long as there are good ol' gunwriters. Litera scripta manet.
Posted by: Duck Creek Dick | July 28, 2008 at 01:08 PM
Bubba, Bubba, Bubba.... don't mess with my Mongomery (monkey) Wards. They were the only store in town that would sell this twelve year old shotgun shells. The man behind the counter knew my dad and would always wink when he said you're sixteen right?
Posted by: Dr. Ralph | July 29, 2008 at 10:04 AM
so you're trying to get me (a barely 25 year old piss-ant punk) to become more interested in your hunting traditions by addressing me as a piss-ant punk?
Anyway...
Certainly the younger generation aren't the only people using rangefinders and GPS. Plenty of the old guys are too - or else the manufacturers would have gone out of business because college students and entry-level employees don't have the jack to afford this stuff. Additionally, the people - young and old alike - use these products because it makes life a bit easier. I think the difference is that the old guys probably know what to do if the GPS or rangefinder fails and the young folks may not.
Posted by: Ben | July 29, 2008 at 05:48 PM
Nothing wrong with GPS. It helps these tired knees get back to the truck with the fewest steps possible in the dark!
Posted by: WA Mtnhunter | July 30, 2008 at 10:15 AM
My little boy is two. I was raised with no guns, no hunting and no fishing. I've taken to value real sports and real activities that put ones self to the test, and builds character and manliness. Now I've got the task of learning everything myself before I start teaching my boy.
Let me tell you - if you don't have friends and family that do it - it is a lonely and frustrating pursuit and I doubt many men would undertake even if they wanted.
Thankfully I have a neighbor who has taught me how to fish, went with me on my first deer hunt, and we have plans for salt water and waterfowl yet this year. In return he gets my sincere gratitude as I have little more to offer.
A lot of you on this board could be that guy - if you suspect someone has an interest ask them. You might be surprised how willing people can be to learn and try something new.
R
Posted by: Ryan | July 30, 2008 at 01:39 PM
I am new to hunting and I do take a little offense to the piss ant punk comment. I do not think name calling does anyone or the sport any good. I do understand the old school traditions and mantality and there is nothing wrong with it, just as there is nothing wrong with GPS or Range finders or Gore-Tex. It is important that the hunting traditon and culture gets passed down from generation to generation or WE all will be like our dead extinct ancestor. As for the GPS and Rangefinder these are just tools used to have a more successful hunt and to help us directionally challenged and people who have a hard time seeing myself included into those two groups. We need to stick together and never give up. Like Charleton Heston said "From my cold dead hand". Everything we hold dear is under attack from the liberal socialist left. Name calling does not help our cause.
Posted by: Paul | July 30, 2008 at 01:55 PM
PS Since you have an 'unnatural fascination' with prehistoric man you should check out some new resources on the subject other than dusty National Geographic issues.
There is nothing physical about Neanderthal bone structures to indicate that they are anything less than human, in stature, speech and locomotion. In fact they on average have larger brain size than the current global gene pool.
The remains, mostly found in France, were largely considered just stocky-build old men or occasionally humans with specific ailments before Mr. Darwin showed up. And consistent with Darwin science they reinterpreted the facts based on a gross assumption that there is no God and natural causes have to explain everything. The predetermined search for the monkey man connection artificially created the need for the Neanderthal man, complete with early 20th century descriptions about his brutish thoughts and behavior. Who knew they could portend thoughts from a skeleton?
No. The Neanderthal man used tools, buried the dead in graves, took care of the elderly and blind by most indications. There is nothing about his physical structure outside the parameters of what we now consider human. He was a man, like you and me. The Neanderthal myth is just another evolutionary hoax.
Old timer, you are of the first generation that was brain washed into pure Darwinian evolutionary thinking from first grade. Sometimes old way doesn't mean better way, and vice versa.
R
Posted by: Ryan | July 30, 2008 at 01:59 PM
nice waste of time ... now lets go outside...
Posted by: Stan | July 30, 2008 at 02:37 PM
You want to talk about hopeless........try passing on your love of quail hunting in SE Indiana to your children!! Big game hunters have it a ton easier than us Uplanders. Your prey is at it's highest population in recorded history. Even wild turkey numbers are through the roof. There are elk in Eastern Ky. But very few still pursue old bob, and those of us that due spend more time pursuing than finding. Very hard to develop a good dog, nie on impossible to develop a good young hunter.
Posted by: Wags | July 31, 2008 at 09:11 AM
Still thinking about Monkey Wards... I used to hang out at the gun counter in the 60's talking to the old timers and heard an amazing story. Seems the elderly gentleman I was conversing with had shot a German soldier in the head killing him instantly but the bullet ricocheted off the helmet and came back and hit him in the leg. Claimed he could see the projectile coming towards him but just couldn't move fast enough to get out of the way.
Posted by: Dr. Ralph | July 31, 2008 at 12:24 PM
Best living gun writer... I had decided this a while ago but thought it best not to fill the man's head with delusions of grandeur. Reminds me of Twain... tells it like it is, makes fun of people, has an air of superiority that cannot be denied and makes no apologies for his observations which are bitter, hateful and as accurate as that sub-MOA Vanguard he tested last month... we would not be America without free thinking honest men in positions of power with millions of readers such as DEP and Sammy Langhorne. Perhaps the First Amendment is more important than the Second. Anyways just forget I said this crap because tomorrow I will be calling him and his six points shy of genius thoughts idiocy.
Take this one Dave, you'll probably get in the 160's. It's nothing like MENSA's
Posted by: Dr. Ralph | July 31, 2008 at 06:27 PM
Dr. R,
Did you pay a recent visit to the Jck Daniels factory?
Posted by: Jim in Mo. | July 31, 2008 at 08:44 PM
Show me Jim, you can't even get a sniff of the real thing at the factory... Kinda like the D.C. security dude who couldn't have a weapon at home, Old No. 7 is made and aged in a dry county. No free taste and no sales period.
Posted by: Dr. Ralph | August 03, 2008 at 05:38 PM
I lived in a dry county in N. Carolina. Many drunks lived there too.
Posted by: Jim in Mo. | August 03, 2008 at 05:56 PM
Dr. R,
Just read my last post and boy I sure wasn't trying to insinuate anything. Just joking on the original post which caused you to reply and then was trying to comment of the folly of 'dry counties'.
Posted by: Jim in Mo. | August 03, 2008 at 10:13 PM
omg i just spent 2 hours reading all of that touching writing above. i am on the verg of tears and you guys can't even stick to a givin topic. you're treating this like a chat room for the holy ones sake.
Posted by: Skyler | August 05, 2008 at 10:49 PM
Wait here, Mr. Petzal, what are you doing suggesting the Earth is more than 8,000 years old? My neighbor says he's counted back the years from now to Adam, using St. Matthew's gospel, and he believes your numbers don't add up.
My friend also believes those thousand of dinosaur bones being dug up are either clever hoaxes by prosthetic artists in Hollywood, or remains of unclean animals that Noah couldn't bring in the Ark.
Posted by: O Garcia | August 17, 2008 at 04:21 AM
Punch my name to see why Dave has a fascination with Neanderthals... I think I found his great great great great grandpa. One of the theories is that Neanderthals actually interbred with cro-magnons and share a common ancestor a half million years ago?
Posted by: Dr. Ralph | August 17, 2008 at 06:30 PM
Put a set of glasses on that man, a hand to his chin and who do you have? Oh I give up.
Posted by: Jim in Mo. | August 17, 2008 at 06:37 PM
Here's an idea. Instead of sitting around complaining (could it even be whining?), do something productive. I took a kid on a youth day spring gobbler hunt in WV last April. No blind, no decoys, no fields to watch. Just moving by foot through the woods to set up on gobbling birds. The kid took a beautiful mature bird that I took several nice photos of and printed for him. I have also helped young kids, whose fathers are not serious hunters, take their first deer. Some of your articles are taking the tone of not wanting to kill as much any more. I can understand and respect that feeling. But, insteading of pissing and moaning, why not help some young hunter have a good experience in the field while at the same time helping the way of life we love endure.
Posted by: Wade | December 07, 2008 at 07:56 AM