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 ...
no to college in brooklyn, i drive.
I might have been a tad too harsh with "blood lust" but after the war, I no longer wished to hunt. Simple as that.
It's just an example of the previous sentence - (...I admire parents that teach their boys to be boys, their girls to be girls, and to respect and appreciate the differences in the other.)
Cool. Thanks. I'm a person who reads a fair amount of military history but has never fired a gun.
All quite interesting to a city boy.
"In the 50's, when probably only two coyotes existed in all of Guadalupe county, after 2 hours they would start catching off their dogs so the dogs wouldn't be able to catch the coyote."
I do not understand this sentence. What does "catching off" mean?
"That's what I meant in an earlier post about "respect and reverence" for the beast you had to kill."
Well spoken post. I'm a capitalist at heart (and a wage slave in reality), but I'll admit the process has its downside.
What about your SUV? It ever run anybody over?
"I'm not *even* gonna start on the whole "sausage" issue....LOL!"
That's one issue I grew up understanding. My dad owned a butcher shop, would not eat sausage, and told me why.
"I wish you could've tasted the tomatoes my one grandfather used to grow."
So do I.
"
Unfortunately, the frankenfoods that pass for "vegetables" these days are probably not what He intended....:) "
Indeed. More likely originated from the other place.
In a one on one battle, a coyote will kick most dogs butts. Only for a few, ("legendary " to us) hounds does that not apply. So the "Catch" is done by sheer numbers. Catching off reduces the pack number to where a "catch" will not happen.
In the vernacular of the hunt. there are the following dogs;
1. Cold Trailers. These are the first dogs allowed out into the hunt area. They find a cold spoor and work it into a hot trail. They can be trusted not to get on the trail of a rabbit or coon.
2. The Pack. This is the rest of the pack and let out once the cold trailers are "hot on the trail".
3. The Catch Dogs. These are the dogs in the pack that are actually willing to grab a coyote with the intention of killing it.
4. The Bayers. These are the dogs that stay around after a catch and brag, whether they helped kill the coyote or not. Their baying provides a clue to where the catch was made and helps you find it.
Finding the catch, Now that's the real catch. LOL
These hunts happen at night. Most of the farms are no larger than 200 acres, and the actual hunt area extends miles in every direction. You keep track of the dogs by simply sitting and listening. These farms are cross fenced with barbed wire into smaller areas. Areas not used for crops are allowed to go to "pasture." Pasture in Texas is not some nice open area. It is mesquite trees with underbrush, so thick you can't get through it, except for cattle trails, one cow wide.
Underbrush consists of cactus, prickly pear, jumping cactus, chapparel, cat claw, and huisache, all of which have thorns. On larger ranches consisting of thousands of acres, the pasture is cut through with little drivable trails called "sinderas". Not sure of the spelling.
Then there is the wildlife in the brush. Javelinas, feral hogs, fire ants, chiggers, ticks, rattlesnakes all of which have a nasty disposition.
Since moving back from NYC, I live about 15 miles from the center of San Antonio. Still very rural where I am, though I can see downtown from my deck. I listen to all the different sounds, and it provides a great deal of pleasure. Lot of coyotes out there these days.
She's a cutie. Big time kudos to Kevin Hoyt, I wonder if he's a Freeper?
It's a good thing that meat grows in those little plastic packages on trees to be picked with migrant labor and sent to grocery stores.
Without training 9 year olds, adults don't grow up knowing how to do things.
Good thing that Uguroc the Caveman trained his 9 year old to hunt, or we might not be here.
I'm fine with that. I still think it's a good idea to teach your kids to be somewhat familiar with a gun. Uneducated curiosity can be dangerous.
why not? there's a at least as much power in a 20ga slug than in a .454casull. winchester actually makes a slug that uses a .454 bullet that duplicates .454 ballistics. imo it was a lot easier to shoot than a regular 20ga slug.
besides, a 150 pound black bear is about the same size as a average whitetail- of which 3 of my last 5 were in the 150 pound range and all were dropped easily with a 20ga.
Try as I might for the last couple of years, I still can't grow bacon out in the backyard.
I think the soil is too kosher or something.
LOL!!!
No...my SUV is too young to go out riding by itself and I won't allow it to get a Drivers License until she is at least 18 years old.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.