This column is excerpted from a chapter I wrote on the "Values of Hunting" for the new Pope and Young Record Book, "Bowhunting Big Game Records of North America, 2006."
"Man’s being consisted first in being a hunter." When you are hunting you are doing something that has "hardly changed in its general structure since ancient times." These are quotes from "Meditations On Hunting" written by the great philosopher/writer Ortega y Gassett in 1941. Knowing that hunting has it’s roots in the very first glimmers of mankind’s days on earth tells us how important it has been during our time here.
As a young hunter, I didn’t recognize the importance of hunting in my life. I was just excited for the chance to hunt. But as I grew in hunting, aged in the woods, the passion and zeal for hunting grew. Fifty-four years after that first step into the hunting woods, I still have that passion and zeal. Sure, things are different. My equipment has changed a bit. My ability to climb stands, to walk the hills, to shoot a heavy bow, has changed. The urge to harvest a full bag limit has long since waned, but my desire to be out there has not waned. And as Jose Ortega y Gassett noted, hunting is part of my roots. Hidden for those who haven’t experienced hunting, exposed and evolving for those of us who hunt.
When a person hunts, seriously and ethically hunts, life lessons are learned. The more you hunt, the more you learn about life. For most of us, those lessons started when we were young, taking our timid, somewhat nervous, first steps into the woods to hunt. But the values and life lessons learned from hunting don’t stop in our youth. They continue to build and grow throughout life. For many those learned life lessons determine our existence. Almost everything we do centers around what we have learned as hunters.
Even though it was 54 years ago, I remember my first ever day hunting as if it was yesterday. My father took me and my twin brother squirrel hunting on Pennsylvania State Game Lands. For some reason the shooting time didn’t open until 9:00 AM, and we arrived early. So my brother and I went for a short, unarmed, walk near the parked car. We hadn’t gone 100 yards before spotting a gray squirrel and wanting to see more, we quietly found a log and sat down. Within minutes we were rewarded by the sound of rustling leaves. Feeding toward us, now a scant 20 yards away, was an eight-point buck.
Back then deer were not plentiful, and seeing that buck, which subsequently moved past us at five yards, is a memory that is still vividly etched in my mind. To this day the magic and excitement I felt that morning has been the defining reason I hunt—to feel that rush, the thundering heartbeat, the shortness of breath, and the tingling feeling of being so close to such a majestic creature.
In 1979, Dr. Robert Jackson wrote a classic paper entitled "Improving Ethical Behavior in Hunters." In that paper he listed the stages that a hunter goes through as they age and mature. There may be discrepancies; every hunter may not fit the developmental sequences nor the time line for each stage that Dr. Jackson proposed, but many of us will see our development as hunters in what he wrote. We start in the "shooter" stage where we plink and shoot. Then we move to the "limiting out" stage where getting a full bag is important. As we age, we get involved with calling, placement of tree stands, fiddling with our bows, camouflage, and a myriad of other activities. This is the "methods" stage. Somewhere along the line the size of our quarry becomes more important, and this is the often misunderstood and misrepresented "trophy" stage. Finally, we mature to the "mellowing out" stage where the harvest becomes less important than enjoying the outdoors.
It isn’t easy to separate out all these stages of the development of a hunter. In fact, once past the early developmental stages, you can’t separate one stage from another. They all blend together. And you probably won’t fit the model, exactly as Dr. Jackson envisioned it. Some hunters skip stages. Some spend little time in certain stages. Some never grow out of the "shooter" stage (sad but true). A few never leave the "limiting out" stage (sad but true). Even fewer never really understand the "trophy" stage, and because of that, ethical and legal violations occur (very sad, but true).
For sure, at any point in your hunting career, you rarely live in just one stage. For example, the more experience you have in hunting, the more "methods" you learn. Also, the more experience, the more important large animals become. Not for everyone, but for some. Then there are those of us where the "methods," "trophy," and "mellowing out" stages all blend into one. One other important point. There are values of hunting that one gets during these developmental stages. The better your mentoring, the better your ethics, the more knowledge you have about the woods and wildlife, the more value you obtain from the hunt.
Most hunters start at a young age, and I believe that nothing helps a young person "grow" more than hunting. The values that anyone learns from, and while, hunting are many. However, we don’t learn many values during that first "shooter" stage, where we plink away with pellet guns or 22's, or bows. What we do learn is that shooting bows is fun. Someone once said that when you get a group of two or more eight-year-old boys together in the woods, the first thing they will do is build a fort, and next they’ll try to make a bow. My brothers and friends sure fit that model. Shooting, even with our first primitively-made bows, was fun. We’d plink for hours on end, roving the woods, shooting at stumps, flowers, etc. And for many of us, that shooting lead to an interest in bowhunting.
In the 1950's through 70's, small game hunting was much bigger than it is today. Back then the species most kids first hunted were squirrels and rabbits. This led to many young hunters going through the "limiting out" stage. Today that has probably changed with the decrease in small game and the increase in turkeys, deer, and bowhunting. Questions from friends such as "Did you get your limit?" have changed to "Did you get a gobbler?" or "Did you get a shot?" or "Did you get a deer?"
With the switch from small game to deer, the "limiting out" stage has most likely changed a bit, probably to the desire of taking that first deer. And during this time, when seeking that first deer, young hunters need guidance and education from older mentors, parents, or friends to help them maintain a proper balance between ethical hunting behavior and the desire to harvest a deer. In fact, it is at this stage in life when guidance is needed in all aspects of "growing up."
This column is excerpted from a chapter I wrote on the "Values of Hunting" for the new Pope and Young Record Book, "Bowhunting Big Game Records of North America."
SIDEBAR
How Hunting Impacted Man’s Development
Hunting led to the development of our physical skills
Hunting played a major role in the development of our artistic skills
(most early art was hunting scenes in caves)
Hunting was a major reason for exploring new areas
Hunting almost certainly taught early hunters to be stewards of the land and of wildlife
Hunting helped people learn to share and cooperate
An appreciation for hunted animals led to spiritual development
Hunting led to development of father-son relations
SIDEBAR
The Values of Hunting Today
Hunting builds character
Hunting builds self esteem, self worth
Hunting and being outdoors is good for the spirit because it is fun
Hunting teaches one to be patient
Hunting introduces one to the shooting sports
Hunting brings certainty to ones life
Hunting teaches one to appreciate the wild
Hunting teaches one to be stewards of the land and wildlife
Hunting has recreational value
Hunting reduces our fear of the wild
Hunting teaches one about real-world life and death struggles
Hunting teaches one to respect wildlife (non hunters may not
understand this, but most hunters know it to be true)
Hunting teaches one to be observant
Hunting is the major source of funding for all wildlife management
Hunting has tremendous economic value
Hunting is the most important wildlife management tool
Hunting assists us in reducing wildlife disease problems
Hunting brings healthy food into the home
Hunting allows us to share wild game with family and friends
Hunting and sharing wild game food develops family bonding and community values
