Posted on 09/17/2005 9:08:12 PM PDT by neverdem
GREEN MOUNTAIN NATIONAL FOREST, Vt. - Chomping wad after wad of Bubblicious Strawberry Splash gum and giggling as she tickled people's necks with a piece of grass she pretended was a spider, Samantha Marley could have been any 9-year-old girl.
A couple of things set her apart, though. She was cloaked in camouflage from boots to baseball cap. And propped next to her on the seat of a truck was her very own 20-gauge shotgun.
Samantha, a freckle-faced, pony-tailed fourth grader, was on a bear hunt. Not the pretend kind memorialized in picture books and summer-camp chants, but a real one for black bears that live in the woods of southwestern Vermont and can weigh 150 pounds or more.
She had won a "dream hunt" given away by a Vermont man whose goal is to get more children to hunt, and she had traveled about 200 miles from her home in Bellingham, Mass., and was missing three days of school to take him up on his offer.
"Almost everything you hunt is pretty fun," said Samantha, grinning and perfectly at home with a group of five men, the youngest of whom was nearly three times her age.
At one point, as the group crossed a wooden bridge, Samantha's father, Scott, who had accompanied her - and had filled out her application for the hunting contest - teased her that trolls lived under the bridge.
"Dad," Samantha said with bravado, "I got a gun."
The dream hunt - all expenses paid, including taxidermy - was the brainchild of Kevin Hoyt, a 35-year-old hunting instructor who quit a job as a structural steel draftsman a few years ago and decided to dedicate himself to getting children across the country interested in hunting.
His efforts reflect...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I would want my children to learn gun safety because my dearest has guns. If the gun grabbers cared about gun safety, they'd allow the Eddie Eagle program but they don't.
Hunting is a key to survival. I no longer enjoy hunting animals - but will do so if hungry and unable to reach a store.
Starving to death is "creepy". As well as stupid.
Hunting people, OTOH, is FUN.
Someday I am getting a shooting lesson from my fiance. Won't happen till I love though because I live in NY.
It wouldn't be my choice. Maybe with a rifled slug and a 9 year old girl, it's the best compromise you can make. I haven't hunted bear with dogs. Maybe those guides have seen it done.
I know what you're saying, killing an animal is something I wouldn't want my 9 year old to do.
I was "plinking" with a .22 by 10 and dad gave me a shotgun for my "Sweet 16" birthday.
I went on hunts with him as a kid and to this day I can still walk in the woods without so much as crackling a leaf.
The "hunt walk" has become second nature to the point that it drives hubby nuts because he says I keep "sneaking up on him" and freaking him out....:))
One person understands what I'm saying. Thank god.
Did/Does your nine year old walk around the street with a loaded gun? I don't think so.
Hunting isn't for everyone I agree.
As said here, there will always be hunters. Vietnam cured my blood lust, I hunt with a camera now.
I regret that I never took mine.
Hunting is not for everybody, though. It's a traditional rite of passage in much of rural America, and an experience from which many young people learn valuable lessons about nature, life, death, and responsibility.
She probably still believes in Santa Clause. Now, maybe some kids like target practice, okay, I'm not going to enroll my kid but fine. But I'd be hesitant sending my little girl off on a Bear hunting trip.
Martial arts would be more effective for a young child. I just don't see how a child could carry their own firearm. Isn't that against the law?
There was no Eddie Eagle program when I was a kid, just a very strict and caring father who taught me how to use firearms responsibly as soon as he thought I was ready. The happiest times of my youth were hunting and fishing trips with my father. I wish he were alive today to see the contents of my gun safe. I hope he would be proud.
They're Plott hounds.
Excellent for bear and hog.
/jasper
Are you a vegetarian? Personally, I don't like shootin critters unless folks eat the meat. There's nothing wrong with that, IMHO.
Black bears are slobs. The dogs tree the beast, and then you walk up to the tree and try to miss the dogs.
It is a pretty easy hunt. Good to start kids with it. Some folks use pistols.
My dad, who as a child saw his father and brother executed by the Reds during the Russian Revolution, bought his sons rifles (.22 at age 10, 12 guage shotguns at age 12) and taught us how to shoot, hunt and defend ourselves should the need arise.
It was a helluva good education and came in handy when I was drafted into the Army.
Oh, one other thing. I have never shot anyone and neither has any of my guns.
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