Re: Beast Mode Training & Hunting
Sorry, but I'm going to have to call bull**** on that one. Trophy hunting did not almost starve your family....trophy hunting threatened this way of life.
I gather from some of your recent posts that you and your family have been through some very trying times of late, and for that I am sorry and empathetic. I can't imagine how frustrated, angry and bitter I'd feel if we had to let up our dirt that was settled many generations ago. As you may or may not know, I spent a fair amount of my youth working (child slave labor) on the ranch putting up hay, riding colts, feeding, irrigating, etc. and come from many generations of agrarians. It's in my blood so to speak and I plan to eventually return one day to that way of life. And there is no denying that it's a tough life, but it is a life choice like any other. My grandfather was one of the last real cowboys. He was slow to adopt new, more efficient ways of doing things and was, admittedly, a poor businessman. If not for a family intervention of sorts (an aggregate better choice if you will), we would have surely lost it to creditors when beef prices where in the crapper a few decades ago. And I don't mean to callous or insinuate anything, but in my experience, those that harbor romanticized notions that operating a farm or ranch is anything more than just a business that should be run like a business, typically don't get to keep the dirt in the family name for very long. Just because farmers and ranchers perform hard manual labor doesn't mean that they are somehow removed from the responsibility of having to make good business decisions.
As for killing only what you eat, I'd urge you to seek a better understanding of where a huge amount of "excess" meat goes if it isn't given to family and friends who appreciate it and/or to charitable organizations that help feed people that are in a bind.
I'm curious as to what you consider, and how you define, "trophy hunting". I'm also curious as to why you abhor the generally accepted game management practice of selectively harvesting older animals that are at or beyond their peak years?I like these type of people more than I do trophy hunters.
And so we're clear, to my way of thinking, a trophy is merely the physical manifestation and evidence of a very special achievement that demanded a fair amount of effort and skill. Someone's cow elk that they busted their butt for...trophy. A 10 inch Golden trout caught on a homemade fly after a brutal 15 mile hike...trophy. Any African critter you had to put the sneak on without spooking it and every other living critter around you that instinctively is always on the lookout for predators...trophy. Etc., etc., etc. I can appreciate inches of skull/hide/tooth/tusk/antler/horn as much as the next guy, but they are largely irrelevant to me if zero skill, luck or passion were involved. While I can appreciate the genetics and craftiness of a large-bodied, mature free-range mule deer that was able to grow a 200+ inch rack, I have zero appreciation for the drunk bastard that lucked out and shot it on someone else's private property off the hood of his truck after randomnly blowing holes in it after shooting an entire box of ammo through his new bore sighted rifle. On that I think, and hope, we can agree.
And, as I'm sure you noticed, Cameron ain't shooting 500" elk or 300" whitetails over feed troughs in small enclosures. That is not at all what he is about. Sure, he's taken some really nice animals. Anyone that hunts as much as he does, and as hard as he does, is bound to kill some dandies. But most of his stuff is pretty average when it comes to the measurements, but they are all trophies nonetheless. He's a hardcore, DIYer that is consistently successful.
And yes. He is most certainly a badass. People like him have the ability to motivate and challenge others to strive for more out of themselves and to do better. I'd challenge you to try and keep up with him, in just his average every day work and family life, for a week. Then try and do the same in the hills on a remote wilderness backpack hunt for a week. After having done so, if you could, I think you'd have a profoundly different view of the man and what you yourself could aspire to achieve with your own life.
Regards,
Allen
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Originally Posted by sreekers
