My Apologies — A Second Take on the Real Hunter
In a previous post, it occurs to me that I came down pretty hard on the modern hunter who uses all the modern technologies at our disposal. In retrospect, I realize that I grossly overstated my position. The world, in fact, has changed so much and hunting has not been left out of that change. Today, I’m sharing my apologies and a second take on the idea of the real hunter.
What We Gain, What We Lose
More and more, hunters these days are forced into using certain advantages simply because of how hard it is to even draw a tag or find a place to hunt that is not private or extremely expensive — I get it. I also know that as we age, the ability to do certain things physically is just not there any longer and so we find another way to do something we love.
However, I do think there has been a lot lost in what is now become normal. Maybe we just don’t have the time that we used to have to go into the field and actually scout. Maybe we don’t have the time to backpack in, set up camp, and spend the week. It doesn’t make you any less of a hunter, and for implying otherwise, I apologize. It simply means that we’re having to adapt to a time and circumstances that didn’t exist before.
I will tell you that I greatly treasure the experiences I had, especially as a younger man doing the things that I refer to as “real” hunting. They were life changing. But I realize that in many cases, these opportunities no longer exist. It makes me even grateful for those who showed me what it was to be a hunter and for the opportunities I had to do so.
A Different Time
One thing that I remember so clearly is when I quit college and went to Alaska, where I was hired as a wrangler. It was awesome, in every sense of the word, and it’s not an opportunity that a young person could feasibly take today. The very place where I went and spent a year is now a federal park — you can’t even land a plane on the lake. It is virtually inaccessible. Likewise, many hunts today have become so expensive that most people just can’t afford it.
The last hunt that I went on was an elk hunt on the Jarbridge Wilderness area. I didn’t go to get an elk — my sole reason for going was to experience a wilderness hunt one last time. I met my crew at the trailhead. We had 14 head of horses. We rode into the wilderness area, pitched wall tents, and listened to the sound of elk bugling. There were no chainsaws, no cell phones, no trail cams, just a true wilderness experience. I will admit it was expensive, and thereby not readily available to a lot of people. But I still love that type of hunting and it’s a shame that a lot of it is lost forever. Blame it on progress, on technology, but don’t blame the hunter doing what he can with what he has. The truth is, the world is longer set up to accommodate what I call the “real hunters.”