Team Virginia

All good points and examples.....However, some of your most unethical and unsafe hunters are bowhunters..think about it, a bowhunter..is silent, stealthy and otherwise undetectable. Now firearm hunters are going to always have a bad vibe with the public for the simple fact of the "firearm". People associate them with carnage and violence. But some of the worst poachers and killers do there damage with a bow or crossbow. Now I hunt with both, and would rather take a animal with my XI Lagacy over my 3 1/2 remington any day. And if they outlawed gun hunting tommorow I wouldnot loose a bit of sleep over it, but I see were all hunters can improve and evolve to make our "pass time" a little more tasteful.

Jimimac

But it's a long standing tradition, so in a way you are against hunting tradition...

To me, hunting in general ifdone legally and in a safe manner is fine by me. I think it's important that we keep our traditions alive even if I don't particularly care for amethod.

One mans junk is another mans treasure.

virginiashadow

We need to show anti-hunters(who I do not hate) pictures/videos of farmers slaughtering cows/sheep, etc. Most people I live around in northern VA have 2-3 acres of land that has been cleared so that their house may be built. Think about that, 2-3 acres void of trees, unable to sustain animal species that have lived there for thousands of years. Multiply that by 50 years and they have in effect killed 1000 times more animals than I will kill in my lifetime by hunting. Again, people lose their logical mind when thinking/discussing hunting. I prefer to think of the facts when debating. When you circle them in with the facts, they cannot deny that they themselves are pseudo-hunters, eating the meat of other "hunters" that killed for them....it is just frustrating that people do not "get it".

Vabowman

Outside of PETA and other animals rights people, most that do not like hunting actually don't like the hunter. I had a fellow teacher tell me last week that it was not the hunting that bothers him, it was how hunters acted. He used the example of his neighbor. He said he didn't cut the grass, didn't rake leaves, didn't power wash the house, didn't paint, etc...
I thought for a moment and said, " do you live on Loren Dr. ? Cuz sounds like me!!!""

davidmil

The hunting tradition is alive and well in my world. We still kill, drive, and aren't all wrapped up in QDM, food plots, racks, baiting, or becoming TV stars. We don't act like an in your face jerk when we kill something and we call it what it is. We hunt, kill and eat. Ourcelebrations are a couple back slaps and we're back at it. We don't measure, pose for the cameras or feel a need to tell everyone "That's what I'm talkin' 'bout". There are no fist pumps or that attitude of "look at me... I am the greatest". We judge a deer by how much meat we get from it. I haven't seen a deer on top of a car in 10 years I suspect. If everyone thinks about it they haven't probably seen them either, or if they did, one or two. I really feel we as hunters areour own worst enemy at times. All these TV shows have made it a side show. Look at Drury's Dream season and the competitions and all that.And all the phony fist pumps and crap like you get from Stan POtts and the like. It became a circus and almost like a soap opera onday time TV. Give me a break. They've taken it about as far from the traditions of hunting as you can get. I don't have to apologize or explain to anyone that wants to give me some flak about it. I hunt, I kill, I eat it. If I can't eat it I don't shoot it. I've been doing it for 56 years in the woods alone. I'll do it as long as I can walk. It's more my tradition and heritage than it is that of a lot of todays Indians. You can't sway the minds of the antis. All you can do is support those with the knowledge and ability to fight them like the NRA, Sierra Club etc. Do what you can like teaching hunter safety classes etc to ensure those who join us do so with honor and with the future of hunting in mind. Go kill something.

virginiashadow

Vabowman, people like that outnumber hunters 100 to 1 around me. That is why I want to retire early after working my butt off and buy 100-200 acres of land with a nice little white farm house for my wife. I want to get away from them and be around good/solid people who live to encourage/respect others. We are living like crazed people these days, not slowing down in the fastest rat race that mankind has ever known.

Vabowman

I here ya shadow!!!

Rickmur

How'd I know this would turn to gun against bow[:@]

And what pray tell do you have to document that ingenious statement[&:]

Vabowman

What Team Va is stating is true. I know a lot of people that kill with the bow illegally on posted property and /or at night. It is quiet and most people are not looking for a bowhunter. Not all of us do this of course. I don't, Team Va doesn't, you don't Im sure. They see blaze orange and game over. But the bowhunter can do just as much damage to the hunting world as any other.

davidmil

Must be personnal experience Rick. LOL It's just like all these deer riding around on top of cars.... someone saw one once and the story lives on. They even inject it in the hunter safety courses as a teaching point.... but you don't see them on top of cars hardly ever in the past 15-20 years. I equate it to the Vietnamese kid with the shoe shine box that blew up the GI. I don't know if it every happened. Most everyone that lived around the big cities and the big bases said, and the kid blew the guy up with his shoe shine kit. Spent 24 months there and never saw it, heard of it happening from anyone that actually saw it. Still, the story still lives on today. LOL Heck, we didn't shine our boots. LOL