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 ...
My dad was a prison guard for over 30 years.
One day he was talking to a Baltimorean inmate chowing down in the prison mess and dad asked the guy where he thought meat came from.
The guy answered "the supermarket".
Dad then asked him where the meat came from *before* it got to the supermarket.
The guy replied "a warehouse?".
Gun-Proof Your Children / Massad Ayoob's Handgun Primer (Paperback) -- $4.95 on Amazon
"Try as I might for the last couple of years, I still can't grow bacon out in the backyard."
Seeds can be fussy things.
Make sure you aren't planting the Bacon-Bits® upside down....:)
As long as they're with adult supervision, it's OK. I taught my eldest daughter to shoot when she was 6 (semi-auto .22)
Martial arts would be more effective for a young child
Against other young children, maybe. Against an adult pervert, probably not. A good knife (I like either Spyderco or Benchmade), along with some training, would be better
Governments wouldn't have tear gasses and automatic weapons for very long if the purchasing agents in charge of buying them, and the payroll clerks in charge of paying the men using them, had a run-in with resistence elements
Humans are designed to be omnivores. It can be real hard to ensure you get all your nutrients in a pure vegan diet, particularly with young children
Raw goat milk or cheese would be fine. A person doesn't need animal flesh to flourish with good health. My iron/minerals were good last time I checked (which was last year). I think some vegetarians/vegans get into trouble consuming too much starchy carbs (esp. vegetarians who eat junk food).
thanks!
“While the average weight of bears taken in most areas is around one hundred fifty pounds, some bears get very big,” says Brian Bachman, a NABF founder and operator of Arrowhead Wilderness Lodge in northeastern Minnesota (218-828-7079). “Size depends on available food sources and genetics.”
“Most people who pursue bears are looking for ‘The Big One,’” says Bachman, who has been an avid bear hunter since 1978 and guides about 30 bear hunters each fall. “I’m often asked, ‘Where is the next record coming from?’ I don’t know, but I do know where the biggest bears are coming from now.”
Bachman notes that Canada boasts high numbers of bears, but more of the bigger bruins are being killed farther south. “Wisconsin has the most B&C entries in the top one hundred in the past ten years,” he says. “Wisconsin manages its bears very well and limits the number of hunters. It can take five years to draw a Wisconsin bear tag. Minnesota and Pennsylvania are not far behind. Minnesota has a lottery, but tags are easy to get. Pennsylvania does not limit bear hunters. I’d look to one of those states for the next record, and give a slight advantage to Wisconsin.”
My experience with bears is limited to Virginia. The ones I’ve seen up close were about my height but considerably larger around. I’d have to put a good guesstimate at 300-400 pounds.
I have never actively looked for bears, but when we used to camp in the Blue Ridge one or two would occasionally wander through the camp. We gave them a clear berth.
I couldn't if I tried - when I try to do a handstand I usually regain consciousness a couple seconds later with a headache and a nosebleed.
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