Tally ho.
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 ...
YEAH! I's not even bait.
Looks to me like a pointer of some kind, maybe German.
Somebody identified them as Plott Hounds.
Google it.
They're magnificent...:)
Agreed. Target shooting is ok though.
two
You Vegetarians all think that way.
Tally ho.
"Is hunting bear with a 20 gauge advisable?"
I was wondering the same thing.
Peabody Coal has some reclaimed open pit mining land in Western Kentucky they turned over to the Kentucky National Guard for training that has excellent deer hunting. Since I still have some connections in the guard it looks like that is where son, son-in-law and I are heading this fall.
One of our security guards in the building I work at makes his own summer sausage and always has a plate nearby. If you sort of loiter while signing in for work you get samples. This past week he had some with a little extra garlic, didn't have to worry about the vampires coming too close. A couple of weeks ago it was smoked with fresh green apple wood. Excellent!
The posts from the non-hunters here are enlightening. At least they are not the venom we see from the likes of PETA.
I bought my wife and I a couple of .38's a few weeks ago. She couldn't wait to shoot hers. We finally went and she loved shooting. Should I be nervous?
In all seriousness, I think it's very important for a woman to know how to protect themselves. A gun is a great equalizer for a 100 lb woman versus a determined 200 lb thug.
We have guns but don't hunt. I don't think I'd have the patience to track an animal, but I'm not at all put off with the idea of dressing one. (I have some OLD cookbooks that go into detail about that.)
Mr. Lu lived most of his life on the water, so fishing is his thing. Mostly it's catch and release, but cleaning fish doesn't bother me either.
I learned to shoot when I was 12.
Teaching kids to hunt and be responsible citizens goes hand and hand. I child that can handle a gun responsibly is one that well grow up to be a good citizen
They look like plotts to me. I ran bear with a pair last year.
but a real one for black bears that live in the woods of southwestern Vermont and can weigh 150 pounds or more.
No, actually they wouldn't be. Spse some adult burglar breaks into your home and accosts your child. Martial arts would do ZERO good. Knowledge of firearms and how to shoot COULD save their life. There are incidents on record where exactly that has happened. EVERYONE should learn: 1)gun safety, and 2) how to shoot.
"I just don't see how a child could carry their own firearm. Isn't that against the law?"
In "reasonable" states, no--it isn't illegal, and certainly not if in the "company of a responsible adult". Years ago, it was completely common for youngsters to carry firearms to hunt in every state. It is only the persistent efforts of the anti-gunners to demonize gun-ownership, shooting, and hunting that has caused the change.
20 gauge slugs would be OK if it was a pump. I wouldn’t try it with a single shot without a .44 mag backup.
…it drives hubby nuts because he says I keep "sneaking up on him" and freaking him out....:))
Some people prefer the animal – cow, pig, chicken, whatever – be killed by a stranger many miles away after being stressed by the trip from their home to the processor. They prefer the meat to be well aged and travel from the kill lot to the butchering plant to the packing plant to the wholesale warehouse to the retail center to the meat counter.
I admit I use this meat myself – but during the season I occasionally get some fresh venison from friends.
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