doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Economics and hunting

Like Guy de La Valdene?

Something that is also a big factor is "opportunity ". City mice have none and anymore only a few country mice do these days if seems. So many intangibles...

Marks 21: Fully understand the "Pennsylvania hunting ethic" and reading about the "Pennsylvania Game News" here was a treat ( I always read them at my grandads).

Maybe "hardscrabble" isn't exactly critical but a regional culture might be. Perhaps culture..and then opportunity?

Totally opposite end of the spectrum. When you are born rich enough to do whatever the hell you want without worrying about the time clock on Monday morning, you are a French Baron like Guy. You hire Woody Sexton for the month to guide you bone fishing. Seems extreme, but, he likely never needed a guide to do that the rest of his life.


Il mange’ bien, il boit bien, il baise’ bien.

Best,
Ted

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There are pots of gold, and then there are manure spreader tanks full of gold.

I don't hunt or fish nor am I likely to start. Having said that, I'll add that in addition to how one is brought up and the family's financial status, where they grew up will be a major influence on if they hunt as well.

What your family is brought up doing has much more impact on the activities you engage in than your economic/social status.

Time and place. Dad started taking me squirrel and rabbit hunting at age 5. Deer were something you read about in magazines at the barber shop. We definitely utilized the game to supplement our diet. We weren't hardscrabble but we were poor, just not quite dirt poor. We didn't have running water in the house until I was about 6 and then it was just a galvanized pipe coming up through the floor with a hose bib and a dishpan underneath. A bathroom didn't come along until I was 7 or 8...and we lived in town, such as a town of 1700 souls can be. Times were still tough in the Ozarks in the 50's and early 60's. Dad worked and at times so did Mom. Much to Dad's work ethic and natural intelligence he died a wealthy man. But that isn't the topic.

As has been mentioned there is a lot of factors that influence ones interest. My oldest son loved hunting and shooting growing up on our farm. He's gotten away from it after 9 years in the Marine Corps and taking a job in a city the last 25 years. To use his words, it isn't as convenient to do as when all you had to do was walk out the back door to access hunting ground and two 500 yard ranges.

Availability and, as others have mentioned, being exposed to hunting, fishing and the outdoors in general surely makes a difference today. And, unlike me and no doubt many of you, kids today don't have half their classmates who live on a farm and hunt and fish like I did. It's a whole lot different world from the one I grew up in.

I know a number of people, including two women who are Ruffed Grouse Society members who had nothing to do with hunting or shooting growing up. None are poor. All of them are 25-35 years of age, and keep a dog. They learned what they know as adults.

My hat is off to people who can pull this off.

Best,
Ted

Economic could be translated to mean finding the most efficient path to satisfaction and enjoyment. Grouse with a 28-gauge, brook trout with a dry fly, whitetails with a flintlock. Not practical, but perhaps economic.

There's always some of those...a good friend of mine never shot a shotgun or owned a dog until he was in his 40s.

I know kids today, that have similar economic situations. Some of them are up at o-dark thirty, doing their chores in support of the family, off to school, then more after school, before any fun time can happen. There are similar aged kids, sleeping late, missing school and into drugs, fully engaged in the entitlement mentality. There have been clear cultural shifts.

I believe there will be later comers to game guns and good bird dogs. I suspect they are shooting so called assault weapons today, and will not just randomly stumble on a hedge row with all the gear.