JPbowhunter
AH fanatic
One of my favourite things to do is get new hunters into the game. I grew up in a pretty heavily game meat focused house. We never had much so it was the best way to get meat too I suppose. Venison steaks, rabbit stew, braised duck, boiled yabbies were pretty standard day to day. When we moved onto the farm it was a lot more beef and mutton but we certainly never stopped eating game, including a few things the old man kicked me up the arse for shooting.
I've always been writing since I can remember but when I was in my early 20s I was invited to write for one of Australia's hunting mags, which I did for a little while. It was there and immersed in social media (facebook) that I witnessed the dark side of hunting i.e. stag culture. I'd never before seen guys that would shoot 5 or 6 stags, lop the heads and leave the rest to rot, the typical jealousy surrounding big deer etc. It was an eye opener and one I didn't care for. I quickly faded out of that area and decided not to share trophies again socially.
Anyway few years later and through this forum I've started sharing a few again, I've also begun to really enjoy getting new people into the passion and making sure they are given some direction.
This year I got a good friend of mine onto a nice public land buck in peak rut which he was absolutely wrapped with (only shot his first deer late last year). Took the meat out to mince and will euro the head.
Have another friend who I've shared meat with at work for the last couple of years until he got interested enough to ask me for some help starting. I helped him pick his first rifle (mauser m18 270W) which is due any day now and then I'll try to put him on a deer too.
I know hunting can be a very selfish past time, people don't want to share their spots or knowledge which I understand. But I also believe that if we want it to continue into the future we need more people doing it and doing it properly. I figure if that's the case I'm better off heading people in the right direction so they're focused on harvesting meat and respecting the animal, not just spotlighting off a public road and lopping heads. And in that respect I can justify taking guys to some places that previously I would have guarded jealousy. The only thing I ever want in return is to see the look on someone's face when they take their first deer, pretty magical whether they be a kid or an adult I reckon
Anyway, here's my mate with his public buck using my sako A7 30-06 with norma 150gn soft points. On that note he shot my last of them so I need to load up the TTSX i have for it.
Will update this thread when my next mate takes his first.
Would love to hear what folks think of this attitude and whether you help others out be it Australia, USA, europe, africa or wherever and what drives you to do so.
I've always been writing since I can remember but when I was in my early 20s I was invited to write for one of Australia's hunting mags, which I did for a little while. It was there and immersed in social media (facebook) that I witnessed the dark side of hunting i.e. stag culture. I'd never before seen guys that would shoot 5 or 6 stags, lop the heads and leave the rest to rot, the typical jealousy surrounding big deer etc. It was an eye opener and one I didn't care for. I quickly faded out of that area and decided not to share trophies again socially.
Anyway few years later and through this forum I've started sharing a few again, I've also begun to really enjoy getting new people into the passion and making sure they are given some direction.
This year I got a good friend of mine onto a nice public land buck in peak rut which he was absolutely wrapped with (only shot his first deer late last year). Took the meat out to mince and will euro the head.
Have another friend who I've shared meat with at work for the last couple of years until he got interested enough to ask me for some help starting. I helped him pick his first rifle (mauser m18 270W) which is due any day now and then I'll try to put him on a deer too.
I know hunting can be a very selfish past time, people don't want to share their spots or knowledge which I understand. But I also believe that if we want it to continue into the future we need more people doing it and doing it properly. I figure if that's the case I'm better off heading people in the right direction so they're focused on harvesting meat and respecting the animal, not just spotlighting off a public road and lopping heads. And in that respect I can justify taking guys to some places that previously I would have guarded jealousy. The only thing I ever want in return is to see the look on someone's face when they take their first deer, pretty magical whether they be a kid or an adult I reckon
Anyway, here's my mate with his public buck using my sako A7 30-06 with norma 150gn soft points. On that note he shot my last of them so I need to load up the TTSX i have for it.
Will update this thread when my next mate takes his first.
Would love to hear what folks think of this attitude and whether you help others out be it Australia, USA, europe, africa or wherever and what drives you to do so.
Perhaps you could start an Australian version of DSC or some such organization. I'd like to say SCI but unfortunately I'm afraid their focus on record books would take you down the wrong path...
