After putting in weeks of scouting just to get one crack at the antlered monster that lurks on the back forty, it is hard to imagine an outdoor experience more sensational than actually harvesting your targeted trophy. However, watching a child that you have mentored take their first game animal, whether it is a squirrel, rabbit, or whitetail doe, is a treasure unsurpassed by any other activities undertaken while participating in Nature’s Economy. This year your opportunity to mentor a child while deer hunting occurs the weekend of October 31 - November 1, the dates of the Missouri Youth Deer Season. A youth hunter may take either an antlered or antlerless deer while being accompanied by a Missouri hunter safety certified adult. It is an opportunity for mentor and youth hunter alike to experience an event that creates a memory for life.
Just prior to youth deer season every fall I assist the Missouri Department of Conservation teach hunter safety to dozens of eager young and adult hunters alike. Every year I hear several anxious young hunters brag about their lever action .30-30 deer rifle. This year was no exception and every year those comments lead the classroom instruction into a very important lesson for them and all lever action shooters.
First, I am in total agreement with those proud lever action .30-30 users about the effectiveness of their firearm of choice. The 170 grain .30-30 is a potent deer cartridge, particularly in the Ozarks, where long shots (greater than 150 yards) are the exception. Over the course of the last 115 years (1894 -2009) the .30-30 cartridge has arguably provided more wild meat to hungry families than any other. Winchester Model 94 lever actions were produced from 1894-2006 with over 7.5 million total rifles produced in various calibers. That number does not even take into consideration the Marlin Model 336 which began production in 1946 and is still in production today. Needless to say, there are a huge number of lever action .30-30s out there, which leads to the second and, without doubt, most important, point of the lesson. The new cross bolt safety system only became available on the Marlin 336 and the Winchester 94 in 1984 and 1992, respectively. In the older rifles there are no repetitive safety systems protecting the lackadaisical or unobservant person who fails to properly familiarize themselves with or properly operate the hammer safety system (this should NEVER be the case when responsibly handling a firearm). Therefore, all the millions of lever action .30-30s produced prior to those years were hammer safety-only variants. This does not mean that the safety did not work. Quite to the contrary, it is actually a very good safety. However, the hammer safety-only variants require extra, extra vigilance and responsibility on the part of the mentor teaching use of the firearm and the hunter using it.
It is vitally important for mentor and youth hunter alike to learn the three position hammer safety of a lever action gun. Position one - the half-cock, or carry position, is located in the middle of the hammer’s travel path. Position two - the cocked or ready-to-fire position, achieved by fully pulling back the hammer, is located at the point furthest back from the bolt in the hammer’s travel path. The only time the hunter or shooter puts the hammer in the cocked, or safety-off position is when a target has been acquired and the shooter intends to immediately fire the gun down range. Finally, position three - the fire position, is located furthest forward in the hammer’s travel path against the bolt where the hammer engages the firing pin. The hammer should only rest in this position after pulling the trigger from the cocked position after you fire the rifle. After firing the gun and then operating the action, thus, chambering another round, the rifle should either be fired again or the hammer immediately put into the safe position. While traversing the woods with a loaded lever action the hunter must take great caution to ensure the hammer is in the half-cock or carry position and not the fire position. The novice or beginning hunter should practice, under the critical and watchful eye of a trained adult, with an UNLOADED lever gun (preferably a newer cross bolt safety model with the safety engaged) to learn how to comfortably attain the safe position. While practicing always employ the paramount rule of firearms handling - keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
In closing, I hope you get the opportunity to experience a youth hunter harvesting their first deer this year. The smile on their face and the twinkle in their eye as they repeat their story to the entire repertoire of family, friends, and complete strangers…over and over again,… is something you and the young hunter will forever remember. It has been my experience that a child successfully participating in Nature’s Economy and learning the lessons of nature’s circle of life makes for an individual who is more able to cope with and function in man’s economy as an adult. This Halloween I hope that candy is the second choice for dinner behind fresh venison for all those with a youth hunter in the family. Be safe, good luck and get a big one!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Reflections on our Sport - Relevance of the outdoor pursuits in the 21st Century
Mountain men trappers Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson, and Jim Bridger, conservationists and hunters Aldo Leopold and Teddy Roosevelt, and trail blazers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to name but a few, 
are all great legends in the annals of our North American outdoor heritage. The great spirit that drove those individuals to hunt, trap, fish, and explore is the same spirit that courses through the veins of every independent-minded and self-reliant outdoor adventurer today, ranging from the casual enthusiast who breaks out the camping gear once a year to the hardcore mountain man who chooses to live completely self-sufficient, acquiring his own sustenance from the land, and requiring little or no assistance from society. Under this bell-curve of outdoor interaction exists a great majority that falls somewhere in between the two extremes, such as an avid hunter, trapper, or fisherman who gets to the woods and water as many times as possible during the year. Moreover, within that majority a collective consciousness exists whose contention is that our outdoor heritage is something much, much more than mere sport. For many of us it approaches classification as a way of life.
Most widely accepted definitions for sport involve recreation, play, and competition. Ball playing, auto racing, boxing, running, and the like, without argument, are all great pastimes and are enjoyed by many of us. Any one of them can provide valuable lessons learned including, but not limited to, maintaining physical health, learning to participate as a team member and experiencing the rules of competition. For those of us who pursue hunting, trapping, and fishing, however, this definition becomes grossly inadequate.
While some sports definitions pertain, others have no real place in the outdoor pursuits. For example, play is a grossly disrespectful description when considering the harvesting of living creatures in nature for food and clothing and, from a safety point of view, play is certainly not an acceptable description of activities involving any lethal weapon, i.e. firearms or bow and arrow. Competition should be accepted only guardedly in the outdoor pursuits. Competition with one’s self to continuously improve skill and ability and thus, take game more often, efficiently and discriminately is desirable. However, unbridled competition and ambition between outdoorsman for more and bigger game unfortunately often leads to desecration and exploitation of wildlife laws and, therefore, of wildlife itself, as we have all seen in historical documents as well as recent news casts.
On the other hand recreation is an acceptable description, albeit somewhat lacking, since outdoor enthusiasts usually enjoy the toil of self reliance. Generally speaking, outdoors folks pursue and enjoy any exercise that preserves their freedom to take responsibility for themselves, whether it is to provide themselves with food, clothing or shelter. It is a way to maintain our connection as an integral part of the whole of Nature and understand our position and responsibility in the Creator’s intricate fabric of life.
Beyond just definitions, in the outdoors the experiences themselves are something much more than sport. They are milestones in a life that are burned into the soul. Experiences such as gazing, from a 9000 ft elevation, across a drainage at the instant the sunlight clears the distant horizon and beams through the mist rising from the meadows below as elk bugle in the distance is more, much more, than sport. It’s like seeing the Creator open his eyes and smiling upon his great creation.
Experiences such as listening and watching as the peepers and whippoorwills make their last calls of the night just prior to the still-roosted tom turkeys thundering their first early-morning gobbles into the dim crimson sky is more than sport. It’s like watching a baby slowly slip into a warm, peaceful sleep and watching a young child bursting awake on Christmas morning all in the same moment.
Experiences such as anxiously anticipating the first strike as you cast into the hazy, early morning steam cloud hanging over a remote river while hearing only the surging water running over the gravel bar on which you are standing, is again, much more than sport. It’s like waiting to hear your name called while listening to ancient voices echoing down the bluff-lined river valley, forever whispering the names of all those souls who have trod there through the ages.
Finally, similar to most sports, the finished recipe for the complete outdoorsman experience would be lacking without true physical expenditure. The further from the house, camp, road, truck, horse or ATV, the richer the overall experience. Exhausted and still working many miles from the nearest portage you feel the burn in
your back and leg muscles as you pull your line after the season’s last bountiful trapping run. The combination of ache, pain, sweat, cold, and wet can seem very close to agony. As you watch the snow softly fall onto the riverbank, your face, ears, and fingers freeze from exposure to the wind and water. Yet, in the solitude you would choose to be nowhere else, for where else can you experience the deep primeval connection with Nature as an integral part of the whole. You stand in awe at the Creator’s design realizing you are just a small piece in the circle of life. You remember the old proverb, ‘success generally finds only those working too hard to realize they’ve found it,’ and at that moment you have an epiphany about life itself. At that moment of epiphany, that singularity in the natural living experience, the only way it could ever be more rewarding is if you were sharing it with a child or neophyte, for that would be to gain favor with the Creator, as you are sharing His great creation. These are soul moving experiences that can approach religious experience.
Thoreau summarized it best when he wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." While seemingly hardcore and raw, alienation of the casual enthusiast is not the intention. The intention is, however, calling attention to all who hold our way of life as something more than a playtime definition. There are those of us who are far enough back in the hills, up in the mountains, out in the swamps and out on the prairies to think we are beyond the grasp and influence of our detractors. We are not. Ironically, our way of life, which is the foundation of our world society, needs and invites all walks in order to survive the onslaught of anti-trapping, hunting, and fishing ideologues who haven’t a clue of the cycle of life and the reality of life and death, which is exactly what Thoreau was trying to convey.
Our aforementioned forefathers: the mountain men trappers, the explorers, and the hunters who first settled this country, did a masterful job laying the foundation that enabled the greatest society in history to grow and prosper. They left us with wonderful tales of adventure that have inspired many, the wanderlust spirit in adventuresome children and adults alike. However, one respect in which they and all the rest of us since have seemingly fallen short is the instilling into our social consciousness of the individual’s responsibility of conservative consumption of our renewable wildlife natural resource. Much like affluent parents who unintentionally spoil their children, our society has bestowed more resources and fewer responsibilities on the younger generations for want of a better future for them. As a result, however, we have allowed the progeny to marginalize us, swinging the pendulum of trapping, hunting and fishing from individual personal responsibility to sport. Human beings, although residing at the top of the food chain, seem to have become completely oblivious of the fact that we are still today, and always will be, completely encompassed by Nature. No matter where you live, your occupation, your wealth, or your governmental protections, Nature, proves time, and time again, that it is still at the helm. It seems the idea of personal self responsibility and the importance of comprehending and maintaining a balance in Nature through conservative consumption, is lost on those who have become too comfortable and have chosen not to actively participate.
The time has come to begin reclaiming those who have become lost to their comforts. Independent-minded and self-reliant outdoor citizens need to stand up and proudly remind all of what our forefathers set in motion. We must reeducate those who have fallen victim to the abundance our societal foundation has provided. Don’t just participate but proudly proclaim and teach to society what we do is more than sport. Rather, it is an essential societal building block that is a substantial contributing factor for successful human society. Without doubt, the outdoor pursuits of trapping, hunting, and fishing have proven to be a major building block upon which the foundation of all mankind’s prosperous life and society is built.
No, the outdoor pursuits of trapping, hunting, and fishing are NOT merely sport. The experience is somehow diminished if ‘play’ or ‘competition’ clouds the mind. Anyone who insists on seeing it only in that light simply chooses not to fully embrace the levity of the undertaking. Therefore, when reflecting on our sport, only cautiously acknowledge the label. At best, it is dangerously allowing for the slippery slope of future marginalization and, at worst, it is sacrilegiously desecrating the greatest gift ever presented to the human race.
are all great legends in the annals of our North American outdoor heritage. The great spirit that drove those individuals to hunt, trap, fish, and explore is the same spirit that courses through the veins of every independent-minded and self-reliant outdoor adventurer today, ranging from the casual enthusiast who breaks out the camping gear once a year to the hardcore mountain man who chooses to live completely self-sufficient, acquiring his own sustenance from the land, and requiring little or no assistance from society. Under this bell-curve of outdoor interaction exists a great majority that falls somewhere in between the two extremes, such as an avid hunter, trapper, or fisherman who gets to the woods and water as many times as possible during the year. Moreover, within that majority a collective consciousness exists whose contention is that our outdoor heritage is something much, much more than mere sport. For many of us it approaches classification as a way of life.
Most widely accepted definitions for sport involve recreation, play, and competition. Ball playing, auto racing, boxing, running, and the like, without argument, are all great pastimes and are enjoyed by many of us. Any one of them can provide valuable lessons learned including, but not limited to, maintaining physical health, learning to participate as a team member and experiencing the rules of competition. For those of us who pursue hunting, trapping, and fishing, however, this definition becomes grossly inadequate.
While some sports definitions pertain, others have no real place in the outdoor pursuits. For example, play is a grossly disrespectful description when considering the harvesting of living creatures in nature for food and clothing and, from a safety point of view, play is certainly not an acceptable description of activities involving any lethal weapon, i.e. firearms or bow and arrow. Competition should be accepted only guardedly in the outdoor pursuits. Competition with one’s self to continuously improve skill and ability and thus, take game more often, efficiently and discriminately is desirable. However, unbridled competition and ambition between outdoorsman for more and bigger game unfortunately often leads to desecration and exploitation of wildlife laws and, therefore, of wildlife itself, as we have all seen in historical documents as well as recent news casts.
On the other hand recreation is an acceptable description, albeit somewhat lacking, since outdoor enthusiasts usually enjoy the toil of self reliance. Generally speaking, outdoors folks pursue and enjoy any exercise that preserves their freedom to take responsibility for themselves, whether it is to provide themselves with food, clothing or shelter. It is a way to maintain our connection as an integral part of the whole of Nature and understand our position and responsibility in the Creator’s intricate fabric of life.
Beyond just definitions, in the outdoors the experiences themselves are something much more than sport. They are milestones in a life that are burned into the soul. Experiences such as gazing, from a 9000 ft elevation, across a drainage at the instant the sunlight clears the distant horizon and beams through the mist rising from the meadows below as elk bugle in the distance is more, much more, than sport. It’s like seeing the Creator open his eyes and smiling upon his great creation.
Experiences such as listening and watching as the peepers and whippoorwills make their last calls of the night just prior to the still-roosted tom turkeys thundering their first early-morning gobbles into the dim crimson sky is more than sport. It’s like watching a baby slowly slip into a warm, peaceful sleep and watching a young child bursting awake on Christmas morning all in the same moment.
Experiences such as anxiously anticipating the first strike as you cast into the hazy, early morning steam cloud hanging over a remote river while hearing only the surging water running over the gravel bar on which you are standing, is again, much more than sport. It’s like waiting to hear your name called while listening to ancient voices echoing down the bluff-lined river valley, forever whispering the names of all those souls who have trod there through the ages.
Finally, similar to most sports, the finished recipe for the complete outdoorsman experience would be lacking without true physical expenditure. The further from the house, camp, road, truck, horse or ATV, the richer the overall experience. Exhausted and still working many miles from the nearest portage you feel the burn in
your back and leg muscles as you pull your line after the season’s last bountiful trapping run. The combination of ache, pain, sweat, cold, and wet can seem very close to agony. As you watch the snow softly fall onto the riverbank, your face, ears, and fingers freeze from exposure to the wind and water. Yet, in the solitude you would choose to be nowhere else, for where else can you experience the deep primeval connection with Nature as an integral part of the whole. You stand in awe at the Creator’s design realizing you are just a small piece in the circle of life. You remember the old proverb, ‘success generally finds only those working too hard to realize they’ve found it,’ and at that moment you have an epiphany about life itself. At that moment of epiphany, that singularity in the natural living experience, the only way it could ever be more rewarding is if you were sharing it with a child or neophyte, for that would be to gain favor with the Creator, as you are sharing His great creation. These are soul moving experiences that can approach religious experience.Thoreau summarized it best when he wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." While seemingly hardcore and raw, alienation of the casual enthusiast is not the intention. The intention is, however, calling attention to all who hold our way of life as something more than a playtime definition. There are those of us who are far enough back in the hills, up in the mountains, out in the swamps and out on the prairies to think we are beyond the grasp and influence of our detractors. We are not. Ironically, our way of life, which is the foundation of our world society, needs and invites all walks in order to survive the onslaught of anti-trapping, hunting, and fishing ideologues who haven’t a clue of the cycle of life and the reality of life and death, which is exactly what Thoreau was trying to convey.
Our aforementioned forefathers: the mountain men trappers, the explorers, and the hunters who first settled this country, did a masterful job laying the foundation that enabled the greatest society in history to grow and prosper. They left us with wonderful tales of adventure that have inspired many, the wanderlust spirit in adventuresome children and adults alike. However, one respect in which they and all the rest of us since have seemingly fallen short is the instilling into our social consciousness of the individual’s responsibility of conservative consumption of our renewable wildlife natural resource. Much like affluent parents who unintentionally spoil their children, our society has bestowed more resources and fewer responsibilities on the younger generations for want of a better future for them. As a result, however, we have allowed the progeny to marginalize us, swinging the pendulum of trapping, hunting and fishing from individual personal responsibility to sport. Human beings, although residing at the top of the food chain, seem to have become completely oblivious of the fact that we are still today, and always will be, completely encompassed by Nature. No matter where you live, your occupation, your wealth, or your governmental protections, Nature, proves time, and time again, that it is still at the helm. It seems the idea of personal self responsibility and the importance of comprehending and maintaining a balance in Nature through conservative consumption, is lost on those who have become too comfortable and have chosen not to actively participate.
The time has come to begin reclaiming those who have become lost to their comforts. Independent-minded and self-reliant outdoor citizens need to stand up and proudly remind all of what our forefathers set in motion. We must reeducate those who have fallen victim to the abundance our societal foundation has provided. Don’t just participate but proudly proclaim and teach to society what we do is more than sport. Rather, it is an essential societal building block that is a substantial contributing factor for successful human society. Without doubt, the outdoor pursuits of trapping, hunting, and fishing have proven to be a major building block upon which the foundation of all mankind’s prosperous life and society is built.
No, the outdoor pursuits of trapping, hunting, and fishing are NOT merely sport. The experience is somehow diminished if ‘play’ or ‘competition’ clouds the mind. Anyone who insists on seeing it only in that light simply chooses not to fully embrace the levity of the undertaking. Therefore, when reflecting on our sport, only cautiously acknowledge the label. At best, it is dangerously allowing for the slippery slope of future marginalization and, at worst, it is sacrilegiously desecrating the greatest gift ever presented to the human race.
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