AUSTRALIA: Lend A hand

JPbowhunter

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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.
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Sir you have done a wonderful thing in helping someone experience hunting! Good for you and we all need to do the same.
 
Sir you have done a wonderful thing in helping someone experience hunting! Good for you and we all need to do the same.
+1
I have taken lots of guys on their first big game hunts. Some never went again because they didn’t want to follow me through the mountains. Some stuck with it.
Took a young lady lawyer on her first pheasant hunt a couple of seasons back. She loved it!
Now I’m introducing my granddaughter to hunting and so far she is loving it!
 
Very nice!! So great to see new hunters!
 
In the USA there's a group called First Hunt Foundation. basically it consists of two groups: Mentors & Mentees. The Mentors are volunteer hunters that are skilled in their particular hunting method. The Mentees are people that haven't hunted that particular but would like to. The administrator pairs a Mentor with a Mentee and sets up a location for them to hunt. the most common are turkey, pheasant and waterfowl hunts. One reason they are the most popular is that they have the most action (rather than just sitting on a deer blind, the mentee is involved with calling in a turkey or geese, or following a well trained pointer through a field). Several of us Mentors are also Hunter Education Instructors (I've been a certified instructor for over 30 years) and while the main emphasis is safety, there is a great deal of Conservation, Wildlife Management, Sportsmanship and Ethics that has been added to the curriculum. Be it USA, Australia, New Zealand, Africa or Europe and Asia it is necessary for the future of hunting that we all do our part to be the best ambassadors for hunting that we can be.

thanks for all that you are doing!!
 
@JPbowhunter you have the right attitude and I suspect you also have an uphill battle. But one well worth fighting!

I definitely felt a different attitude in Australia towards hunting than we have in North America. At least from my perspective.

In admittedly limited discussions regarding the Salt Water Crocs is where it really came to light. While I was there last August I heard talk of plans to have another croc cull. Both from the hunting Outfitter and from the Croc tour operators. Now I don't live there so I may not have all the facts correct, but I want to present what I took away from it.

There seems to be a recognition that croc numbers need to be managed and their numbers controlled. However it seems to be universally accepted that it can only be done properly by government culling operators. Hired assassins in other words. The reasons I was given are that it must be controlled and not over done. The right age classes need to be taken out in the right numbers, etc. And the only way to do that is to employ people to do it according to protocol.

I inquired as to why a model such as North America's regulated hunting with tags for the animals would not work. The reply was basically because people would disregard any rules and pretty much just shoot everything and anything they wanted.

If that is indeed the case, then the root of the problem is that society and especially hunters must have more respect for the rules. An important part of that is that the rules need to be fair, just, and make sense. And then communicated properly. This day in age Hunters especially need to hold themselves to a higher plane. Good on you for recognizing this;) 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...
 
@JPbowhunter you have the right attitude and I suspect you also have an uphill battle. But one well worth fighting!

I definitely felt a different attitude in Australia towards hunting than we have in North America. At least from my perspective.

In admittedly limited discussions regarding the Salt Water Crocs is where it really came to light. While I was there last August I heard talk of plans to have another croc cull. Both from the hunting Outfitter and from the Croc tour operators. Now I don't live there so I may not have all the facts correct, but I want to present what I took away from it.

There seems to be a recognition that croc numbers need to be managed and their numbers controlled. However it seems to be universally accepted that it can only be done properly by government culling operators. Hired assassins in other words. The reasons I was given are that it must be controlled and not over done. The right age classes need to be taken out in the right numbers, etc. And the only way to do that is to employ people to do it according to protocol.

I inquired as to why a model such as North America's regulated hunting with tags for the animals would not work. The reply was basically because people would disregard any rules and pretty much just shoot everything and anything they wanted.

If that is indeed the case, then the root of the problem is that society and especially hunters must have more respect for the rules. An important part of that is that the rules need to be fair, just, and make sense. And then communicated properly. This day in age Hunters especially need to hold themselves to a higher plane. Good on you for recognizing this;) 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...
That is interesting regarding your experience with crocodiles, respectfully I'd disagree with what you were told, but at the same time agree unfortunately. I believe it's more to do with the fact that 95% of Australia's population is on the coast mostly in urbanised areas. The government/and city folk hate the idea that we enjoy hunting and essentially would rather pay someone because they're only doing it for the money(!?). I recall a greens member of parliament that was publically opposing deer hunting in my state when it came out he had a permit to hunt them on his own property. His excuse was "yeah but I'm doing it for conservation not enjoyment" as if they're mutually exclusive. We also have save the kangaroos from extinction groups and greens politicians going overseas on tax payer dollars telling countries like germany that buying our kangaroo meat is leading them to oblivion. They fail to mention that the commercial harvested species total around 50,000,000 individuals (yes 50 million). Really the only native species we can hunt are ducks and quail the former is being banned slowly across the country.

Then again we have bred a culture of apathy regarding game in recent years. It may be coincidence but I don't recall it being as much an issue prior to social media and hunting magazines pushing nothing but trophy hunting. It's become a kill the biggest thing you can anyway you can and if that means cutting locks, cutting fences, spotlighting or fence jumping so be it. We had poaching on a block we hunt last year which I reported to the game warden along with pics of boot tracks, tyres, gut pile and kill site. They never even followed it up, so what kind of message does that send? With introduced game which I guess differs from most of your game, folks here justify not harvesting meat, or harvesting females for that matter by saying "we're controlling ferals" with no notion of conservation mind you. The government in my state has already started doing culls and have met with (you guessed it) Anger! They can then essily turn around and say to these guys that a dropping deer just to cut heads off "but you said they were feral!"

Anyway, these are the types of reasons why I think stuff it. I want others to be able to enjoy the bush in 100 years the same way I do now so is it really that much of a sacrifice to be helping people find an ethical foothold in this contemporary world where it is so easy to be lead astray.

Just to be clear I have no false notions of grandeur regarding myself, I'm just a guy trying to do what's right. I think it more speaks volumes for the times when people are surprised by this, to me it should be the norm. That is how we ensure hunting in the future.

(P.s. apologies for such a long reply, I'm wont to get carried away at times!)
 
In the USA there's a group called First Hunt Foundation. basically it consists of two groups: Mentors & Mentees. The Mentors are volunteer hunters that are skilled in their particular hunting method. The Mentees are people that haven't hunted that particular but would like to. The administrator pairs a Mentor with a Mentee and sets up a location for them to hunt. the most common are turkey, pheasant and waterfowl hunts. One reason they are the most popular is that they have the most action (rather than just sitting on a deer blind, the mentee is involved with calling in a turkey or geese, or following a well trained pointer through a field). Several of us Mentors are also Hunter Education Instructors (I've been a certified instructor for over 30 years) and while the main emphasis is safety, there is a great deal of Conservation, Wildlife Management, Sportsmanship and Ethics that has been added to the curriculum. Be it USA, Australia, New Zealand, Africa or Europe and Asia it is necessary for the future of hunting that we all do our part to be the best ambassadors for hunting that we can be.

thanks for all that you are doing!!
Now that is something that makes sense to me! I really like that concept.
 
I've been able to introduce, or help introduce, several folks to hunting over the past couple years. Every person introduced is one less anti-hunter, or more likely one less "on the fence" person to oppose sustainable hunting as a conservation practice.
 
Hey JPBowhunter it is a great thing you are doing introducing people to hunting. There is nothing more rewarding.
I am a fellow Aussie and also enjoy taking out first-timers and teaching them to hunt. The Hunting Club that I am involved with has programs in place to mentor and teach new or inexperienced hunters. We have club hunts where new hunters are taught bush skills and safe hunting techniques. The Club promotes ethical, legal and sustainable hunting for both trophies and meat.
Bear in mind that AH has members from all over the world and we don't want them to think that ALL trophy hunters in Australia will do anything to shoot the biggest trophy, such as you mentioned cutting locks, jumping fences, spotlighting etc. I am sure there is a minority element that would do this but the vast majority do the right thing.
Keep up the great work and continue to introduce hunters to our passion.
 

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