In most of Europe, hunting has an elitist tradition. (No offense to European hunters, but the fact remains that the non-affluent population has virtually no chance of hunting as a frequent pastime, right?) Also in Europe, firearms ownership is generally a privilege extended by the State to the individual at the State’s discretion. I have also noted anecdotally that animal rights activists have enjoyed more success against hunting in Europe than in America.
I believe there is a common thread here, and I’ll even go out on a limb and suggest that there is _causality_ here. First, hunting is limited to a select group of people, the upper classes. Next, draconian gun control comes along to limit the access of the lower and middle class to firearms, to some extent under the guise of: “The only legitimate use of firearms is hunting and God knows the unwashed masses can’t do that anyway.” (Is this starting to sound familiar to anyone?)
Finally, with the politically insignificant hunter constituency hoisted by its own petard, the AR people come along and start on the death blows. Viola, hunting as a sport is endangered in Europe. Our European friend, Mr. Spencer, has posted to this effect in this forum before, if I’m not mistaken. America’s hunting tradition is egalitarian. The gun and the hunting license are available to all, under the management of the State but seldom at its discretion.
There are 3 million or so deer in Texas; they are, on the average, much smaller than East Coast deer because the range is seriously overgrazed and the forage can’t support maximum growth size. I have had the experience of showing pictures of Eastern whitetails to Texas hunters and having them refuse to believe that they were, in fact, whitetails, because “…whitetail deer don’t get that big. Them’s Mule deer!.” I’ve seen an 11-point buck shot near College Station that couldn’t have weighed more than 110 pounds; by contrast, the AVERAGE Virginia DOE is about 130 pounds, and buck considerably larger.
In Texas, the schnauzer-size deer that pass as “trophies” are directly the result of not permitting the Game Dept. to do the job of management correctly for many years; and this is the result of lease hunting. There are lot of deer in Texas, and hardly any of them are worth shooting. Landowners who sell deer to hunters aren’t interested in herd quality; all they care about is numbers. Abolish lease hunting, for the betterment of all hunting.
One of the most reprehensible and repressive things about hunting in Texas is the concept of “lease hunting,” which fosters the idea that the landowner owns the game. Game is the property of the state, and it belongs to those who pay for it, i.e., the people who buy hunting licenses. It’s a landowner’s prerogative to allow whom he likes to hunt on his property, but to permit him to charge a fee for someone to shoot native game species is nothing short of legalized theft from taxpayers and hunters.
I believe that more deer are killed under 100 yards than over 100 yards in most parts of the country. This falls right into the effective range of most 12 gauge slugs and .50 caliber muzzleloaders. It’s a safety factor. Many hunting areas have too many people or buildings close by. High power rifle bullets travel too far and constitute a hazard. Shotgun slugs, muzzleloader bullets and arrows can all make a VERY clean kill if the shooter has the skill that he is expected to have before going hunting.
If this knife is to be for deer and down, I have used a wonderful knife. It is the Schrade/Uncle Henry/Old Timer SHARPFINGER series. It will do all the gutting and skinning you need, and will feel like an extension finger, with a slight cursive blade to give you that necessary small incision capability. It is a full-tanged blade, not a handle jammed onto a file-handle type piece of steel. I love the one I’ve carried, and have given a few of the schrimshaw ones as presents.
