Like the Spank, I answered this thread a few years back, and my feelings on the question have only gotten more solidly entrenched. But in the past couple years, thanks mostly to Covid, I have done no travelling to hunt. I usually try to get away for a week or two each year and go somewhere to do some hunting that is different from what I can experience at home, but between closed borders, screwed-up schedules at work and general paranoia encountered at various stages of travel planning, my hunting has been limited to deer/grouse at home, along with a wee bit of waterfowling.
This type of hunting has always been important to me, but when it's all I have its importance is magnified ten-fold. So when a friend at work finally evinced some interest in taking me up on my long-standing offer of coming to my place to take a whitetail doe, I was cautiously optimistic. He had hunted in years past, even took a single deer many years ago, but was long out of the game. For several years he had commented on perhaps trying it again; he wanted only the meat and the experience, didn't care about "trophies", so I told him he could come out, spend a day, knock down a nice meat doe and generally leave me to enjoy the rest of the season in solitude.
I enjoy fishing with this guy, although our attitudes towards the game are quite divergent in a lot of ways. So I was willing to take him out for a day of hunting, even though that day would be essentially ruined for me simply because I wouldn't be alone. He has no PAL so I need to sit with him the whole time...but if truth be told I wouldn't feel comfortable letting him...or anyone else...loose on my land without supervision. He is one of those fellows who shot a rifle years ago so obviously doesn't need to practice shooting (I hope my sarcasm is evident in that sentence). I tried all summer to convince him of the need to brush up on his marksmanship and gun-handling, and he even took his PAL course/test but that process is a long one. As of now he hasn't even seen or touched the rifle I intended for him to use; the season opens in 3 more days.
But the kicker for me occurred a few weeks ago when he very casually mentioned that he had re-considered and would prefer to take a "nice buck". Oh, really? That's my personal goal every year, and it sometimes isn't met despite hunting hard all day every day of the season. Never mind time spent setting/checking trail cams, clearing brush and shooting lanes, building and maintaining blinds, hauling hay and deer feed in the winter, etc. It's only a back-forty deer hunt, but it is still a Big Deal to me. My buddy sounded like he was changing his regular burger order by getting onion rings instead of fries.
I explained to him that he would be having a "management" hunt, meaning that the land-owner (me) would accompany him to control what he shot...and also what he didn't shoot. Want a meat doe? We can squeeze you in, early in the season. Want a trophy buck? Sorry, we are all booked up for the foreseeable future. But, with the zero amount of shooting he has done, even a meat hunt is not on the table anymore.
Others at work...I'll call them acquaintances rather than friends...heard about our developing plans through the summer and made suggestions regarding coming out to my place for similar action. I announced, with my usual tact, that I take time off during hunting season "to get away from you a$$holes, not to spend more time with you!" The lunchroom was nice and quiet after that.
My granddaughter, in another province, is at this moment sitting in a deer stand for the first time alone. Her boyfriend is a capable and trustworthy mentor who is only a stone's-throw and a cellphone call away and I'm not worried, but I would give anything to be there. We are already making plans to hunt together next year. If I even carry a gun or bow when we do it will be only so that she doesn't think she is being babied; I will gladly give up all my own hunting to make hers better...not for any nebulous notion of the continuation of hunting as a lifestyle, but for her. But she is a special case to me and she has been shooting for years, is very capable and trustworthy with a hunting weapon, and she takes it all much more seriously than many adult hunters and shooters that I know.
I get that we should all do our part to introduce new blood into the hunting game. I may do it again, but I'm afraid that I'm just not selfless enough to give up most or all of my very limited hunting time for the cause.
, and will often come along... We enjoy each other's company. We never really considered the "danger" aspect of it, we think we have a pretty good idea of what we're doing and are not taking any unreasonable risk... Sure, I could have a heart-attack or something else... in which case, alone in the wood wouldn't seem that bad of a way to go.
