doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A Very Close Call

No, I'm not.

The average Cabela's visitor who hunts will assume they were shot. But the average Cabela's visitor who doesn't - that includes most of the wives, kids, and plenty of men - will look at the scrubbed up, non-smelly, non-breathing warthog and not really make the connection that at one time it was in someone's gunsights. Even if they know somewhere in the back of their mind it was shot they don't really make the connection. Or maybe they assume the warthog probably did something to deserve getting shot. People are experts at avoiding what they don't want to know.

For those critical of trophy hunting, particularly for cats, let me provide you my own most recent experience. I am hardly an expert on African hunting, but I am at least informed on what I personally saw and learned.

I spent two weeks in Namibia during August. Great plains game hunting, and I took a nice leopard on the second to last evening. We ate game every evening, but obviously did not consume all the game we took during the two weeks. Namibia is a land of huge cattle stations. The game animal "belongs" to the ranch owner. Those of you who have hunted in Europe will recognize the formula.

When I shot my oryx, for instance, I retained the cape and the skull. The back straps went on the grill two nights later and the bulk of the animal went to feed the worker families on the station. The tropy fee for the bull was shared between the owner and the government. Other animals we took were sold in the same way they are sold to markets in Germany. In other words, on Andre's 40k acre, low-fenced property, he is "insentivized" to protect his plains game herds - herds which just twenty years ago were largely culled to make way for cattle.

The ranches also have heavy populations of leopards. This is a rather recent result of sport hunting. Again, twenty years ago, a leopard-killed calf was laced with poison. The leopard was viewed as purely a problem animal. The poisoning killed leopards but also, obviously affected honney badger, vulture, jackel, and caracal populations.

Today, the cats are a major cash resource. The trophy fee is again split between the government and the station owner. It is enough to underwrite the loss of several calves. As a result, leopard populations are exploding across Namibia.

I am more proud of that leopard than any other game animal I have taken. And not because he is exotic, but because we worked very hard for him, spending hour upon hour during bitterly cold nights sitting over baits. And though I am 56 this year and not quite the airborne ranger I once was, I am also hardly a overweight rich guy having a cat delivered on a platter.

The ranch owners benefited, the PH benefited, and most importantly the game animals of Namibia are benefiting from sport and trophy hunting. I in no way would ask Greg or Jim to change their personal opinions or hunting choices - merely have an informed and open-minded opinion about the choices others of us make.

'DEAD ON'.....NO DEBATE...!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-hunting. I don't find a lot of distinction between killing a deer or a lion or a rat. Nor do I feel eating something makes it OK to kill it, unless you are depending on that meat to survive.

Sure, the occasional normal guy makes it to Africa but for the most part it's rich guys. And I don't condemn that - but I don't think they're heroes, either.

My interest in this thread is philosophical....Don't take what I 'think' to mean it particularly reflects what I 'do'.

One of my very ignorant employees said of the Obama assualt weapons bill that will be passed soon, " I don't care if they take everybody's AR15, no one needs a clip that holds more than 4 shots". " My bolt action .300 Win Mag only holds 3 shots".
As long as they don't take my gun, I don't care if they take yours".
Don't give any anti anything an inch. They will never quit.

I love the way Joe Taylor put it all into the perspective of market economics. Free supply and demand works to keep everyone happy and actually works at giving value to what has to be protected. The opposite of massive regulatory bans and command style economy to dictate what crops should be harvested or not distorts everything into a horrible wasteland.

Look at what gardeners do. Their job is to turn what is otherwise just weeds into valued growth. How do we make the difference between live plants and bad weeds? You'd think an efficiency commanding horticulturist would go around whacking everything in sight? well no, it is only after the skillful but merciless hacking at the prickly thorn bush that we get beautiful roses.

Imagine that florists were banned on the account that what they do is the horrifying sexual mutilation of the mild mannered (and so-called harmless, never mind allergies) plants, and we'd have a ban on roses, tulips, carnations... - a bouquet is the sort of kinky trophy to make the prudes carve out their eyes - and so, now, we'd have a destroyed gardening industry. No value in the flowers, no value in the thorn bush, and we'd be left with mass weed poisoning programs and acres of waste land and no free markets to lift the world out of the misery of equality. After all, if I can't have my trophy tulips why should a jealous have an impaled bug hanging in his den? Me, honestly, as long as we are erring on the side of freedom, I couldn't care less what anyone does with their time and money. I am truly happy for everyone.

On that note...

I loved Gregsy's Rocky Mountain dreams of waking up erect at the thoughts of a big furry bear and ready to shoot the big gun. Hilarious stuff. Double X rated stuff.

Just funny. Thanks for the grin.

Joe:
I'm not personally finding fault with you just with a video which IMO gives antis additional information to argue for more bans on hunting. I suspect the most common form of Mountain Lion here,running with dogs then shooting while treed, had a lot to do with the banning of Lion hunting here.
My dislike in regards to shooting the big cats and,to a degree,trophy hunting in general, is a personal thing and I am NOT trying to impose my beliefs upon others. I'll leave that to fringe groups like PETA.
Jim

For the Viet Nam combat vets on this forum...Did you eat any of the VC you killed? (Airborne need not answer-HOOAH!)..Amazing the paths these threads take...

I once had a brief chat with a lady who condemned hunting as nothing but 'killing all those poor animals. This was at some sort of function where she had both chicken and beef piled on her plate. I asked her what about that chicken and cow you're eating. She had no trouble replying that 'Oh, those animals were raised to be killed.' Need I say more?

Now this one disturbs me greatly, all those PH's and the lion rips one guy's shoulder open on the charge, and gets up and runs away. Why was the hunter stopped, early on, when he had a clear head shot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7yUZsWUmX0&feature=related

binko