Hunting is to all, whatever they wish it to be..........some prefer gentlemanly hunts where breaking a sweat is unlikely and some prefer long arduous treks through the hinterlands. I have done both and find each has it's attributes. I have walked more than 100 kms (as one young fellow said he did this whole season) on a single 6 day Dall sheep hunt. I have literally walked the soles off my feet in the sands of Botswana, following elephant tracks. Getting back to camp to remove my boots and find them full of blood, and yes I hunted the next day........I have packed out 12 miles with a pack that weighed 6 lbs more than I did at the time, I have packed until I have passed out and woke up face down under my pack on the side of a mountain. I returned to my canoe one day after a 4 day goat hunt with my pants literally hanging in tatters from the waistband with gashes in both legs that should have had stitches, but alas no nurses on the goat rocks.
I have also learned that when God presents you with an animal, that falls within your expected parameters, in the first hour of the first day hunting............take it!!!! Occasionally one is entitled to a "GIMME".
I am of the age where my arduous hunting is pretty much over now (turned 60 a week ago) and I don't regret it. I have done all the grueling hunting that I wanted in my 20s-30s-40s and find little pleasure left in that that kind of hunting. Hopefully I have now reached the gentlemanly phase of hunting and have done some of it in the last decade. With Argos and campers and the like, my hunting has become less strenuous and equally productive. I do not feel as though I am short changing myself with these modern conveniences as I have, shall we say, worked up to them. I know that goats will still be safe from me and anyone else who hunts in this fashion, as will most sheep and I will know that those out there who have attained these animals and many others have done their work and suffered at least a little in order to say I am a sheep hunter or I am a goat hunter.
I do not denigrate the meat hunters, that use any method within their legal constrictions, to fill their larder for them and their families. Let's face it, this IS the origin of hunting and any legal pursuit is just fine with me. The point of this type of hunting is to fill the larder in the most efficient and least costly way, in both money and time invested. This genre of hunting is entirely different from my chosen hunting path, therefore entirely different tactics are employed. I may not understand the methodology or execution of this type of hunting, but then they probably don't "get" me either.
Hunting has always been as difficult, or as easy as one wishes it to be. I don't think this is a new concept, I just think that as the membership gets older here on CGN, we use our resources differently and possibly better to make our hunting experience less arduous and possibly more enjoyable. If one finds they are becoming bored with the ease in which they are able to fill their tags, then there is always bows and pointy sticks or possibly more challenging game, elsewhere in the country or planet.
