Angry Duck Hunters?

M

Mike Trudel

Well-known member
Just saw a post with some young hunter pics, I can't help but notice their poses. Perhaps it is a generational thing and I am just showing my age. I've noticed it in other
sports like professional basketball, most of the players look like they are playing angry. Maybe it is a bravado thing?

"Comm..on man", God has allowed us to enjoy the ritual of migration! Our enthusiasm for boats, guns, dogs, decoys , and misc. waterfowling equipment is a passion for most, and I for one enjoy regularly seeing the smiling avatar pics, of Steve, Tod, and others on a regular basis . Heck, even my chessie smiles when the hunting is good!
 
Just saw a post with some young hunter pics, I can't help but notice their poses. Perhaps it is a generational thing and I am just showing my age. I've noticed it in other
sports like professional basketball, most of the players look like they are playing angry. Maybe it is a bravado thing?

"Comm..on man", God has allowed us to enjoy the ritual of migration! Our enthusiasm for boats, guns, dogs, decoys , and misc. waterfowling equipment is a passion for most, and I for one enjoy regularly seeing the smiling avatar pics, of Steve, Tod, and others on a regular basis . Heck, even my chessie smiles when the hunting is good!
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Oh great Mike, thanks for calling me out. Here I thought I was badass and now I see I'm a smilin' fool like Sutton.

When I see those real tough guy pics, I always think that the grimmace is because they are working hard to hold back a dump that is trying to work its way out.

T
 
Mike, I have noticed the same thing and I also don't understand. A phrase that keeps running through my empty head is " It is NOT a job". If we aren't having fun what the (insert Biden). If it is a generational thing I am happy not to be young.
 
Well, I think it is kind of a "Boo-ya" type thing. I'm 28 and I'm never sure what to do in those pictures. I like the smile but I also kind of like a proud face with a bit of a smirk. As for a generational thing, I think it goes back and forth. Recently Field & Stream had an online photo deal with all these shots from the early to mid 1900's and a good deal of those guys have on the tough face. Also, my grandmother has old pictures of some of her relatives with ducks, coyotes, deer, you name it and those have tough guy faces as well. I think those pictures were taken in the 30's maybe earlier. As long as you don't have a photo that disrespects the animal you just killed I don't really care what you do.
 
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Well, I think it is kind of a "Boo-ya" type thing.
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Ok,
At the risk of exposing my ignorance, I'll be bold and be the one to ask,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Please define "Boo-ya", I am serious and like I said maybe a little sheltered but I really am not familiar with the term and would like a definition please. Please don't read more into this than just a simple request.
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Those non-smiling guys in the photo's from the early 1900's have an excuse. They didn't know when or if the camera was going to snap a photo!
 
Yeah, I've noticed it too, usually young guys trying to look cool, ..or maybe just old enough to shave, :)

It ain't working though, cause you can still see they're boys.
 

Dave,

Looks like Boo-Ya is kind of like knuckle smacking and I never could understand that either. Remember the "Whoo-ah" uttered by Al Pacino in the movie "Scent of a Woman" - that's what I liken it too and, strangely, I understand that perfectly.

Here are a couple from a google search.

I think most would think the second definition is what everyone talks about.

booya 43 up, 64 down buy booya mugs, tshirts and magnets Thick soup made from chicken, beef, potato's carrots, beans,peas, cabbage, barley,tomato's & various secret spices. Generally cooked in large quantities ( 75 - 350 gallons) in huge cast iron cauldron's. Stirred with a canoe paddle. Origin is thought to be Czech. Most recipe's are closely guarded secrets. Not boulibase! You can tell it's going to be good booya if your spoon stands up in the bowl! booya booyah soup stew secret spice bag
by Little Czech Jul 16, 2006 share this 1. booya 850 up, 73 down buy booya mugs, tshirts and magnets "Bam!", "in your face", and "hell yeah", all at the same time. A term that self-congratulates, describes excitement, lets others know the magnificence of the celebration as well as the superiority of the user, and is used as an exclamation of those ideas.
 
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Well first of all I bet nearly every one of us has a tough guy pose hunting picture somewhere in their past. You have to remember that when we were young, way back in the 20th century, cameras were not carried with us 24/7. It isn't a new thing it's just easier to show it now.
I don't much care for it either but it isn't something that I don't expect to see.

One other thing, stoic is different then rambo. Like Andrew says a lot of older photos show hunters in serious poses with not a hint of a smile. There is a very simple reason for this. It's the same reason why Abe Lincoln, a man reported to often be jocular was never photographed with a smile. Slow film and shutter speeds of the past. It's tough to catch a smile with 1/25th of a second shutter, or in Lincoln's time up to 30 seconds.
If you tell a guy to hold still so it doesn't blur and it takes a couple minutes to get your camera set up you aren't going to catch spontaneous joy.


Tim
 
Well said Tim, I'd be lying if I said that I never took the "badass" pose in a pic in my younger years. It's a "cool" thing, most of us grow out of it at some point. I think its just part of the personal growth of a hunter.
 
LOL (Laughing out loud). Well, apparently I have some "personal growth" to do yet;-) The funniest part is the definition of boo-ya. I bet a lot of people who use that word could not comprehend that definition.

I have to now ask, when did shutter speeds reach the speed that one could be captured with "spontaneous joy"?

Also, how often have you gentlemen seen people my age disrespecting the game they pursue with words or actions? I read a post by someone on another forum about biting the duck's head off or something. Some initiation thing? Disturbing to say the least. It really irritates me when young people act like fools because it makes the rest of us look bad.
 
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"Comm..on man", God has allowed us to enjoy the ritual of migration! ... Heck, even my chessie smiles when the hunting is good!
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Geez, Mike, I think you answered your own question...after last season, any smiling duck hunter needs to have his head examined
 
Thanks for the education on "boo-ya". I tend to agree with a lot of the comments made so far. (cameras not being ever present and such) I would also go along with the different stages of development in the life cycle of a hunter and how he relates to his day to day hunting experience.

I know that in the distant past, I personally engaged in some isolated behaviors in the field which I would not repeat today. I did not have anyone to mentor me during my development as a hunter and that is one reason why I am extremely grateful for all you Dads and others who take the time to help out the younger ones among us. It just tickles me to no end to read posts like Brian Ripplemeyer's post of earlier today. (that being just one example of many made here on this forum)

So anyway, "Boo-ya" to all you young hunters. Please consider giving us old farts a smile now and then, the next time you get your picture taken.
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I agree with the stages of a hunters life comments but I also think it is partly how you are introduced to the sport.

When I was a kid we lived in a remote northern community. I can honestly say that we never photographed the results of a hunt. When we took pictures it was a scene we wanted to capture and save. With film and flashbulbs being expensive we didn't waste them on table fare or common activities. Hunting was an integral part or our lives and how you looked or portrayed yourself wasn't something you considered. I would say I carried this approach well into adulthood and the introduction of digital cameras.

Today I live in a city 1000 miles to the south and I view hunting very differently. We often take pictures and the people in them are generally smiling. All of the pictures below are from field hunts in the same location. The field is a DU project managed by the Long Point Waterfowler's Association.

I took a young burn victim out hunting this past fall he was all grins.

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The previous year we hunted the same field with a youth hunter in his first field hunt and second hunt ever. He harvested his first goose and his first mallard.

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Three years ago we had another successful hunt in that same field. That's me on the right, grinning like a fool. We told the photographer to turn around and the second picture is what he saw. Why wouldn't you smile?

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I have to now ask, when did shutter speeds reach the speed that one could be captured with "spontaneous joy"?
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I'm not that much older then you so don't be thinking I'm saying "Sonny back in the day..." I have just gone through a lot of old family photos and done some camera research after buying a 90 year old Kodak. That reminds me I need to get some film for it.

Until probably WWII taking a photo was a very serious thing. People didn't often click away at someone making a fool of themselves. There was too much time and effort into getting the camera set up. When you have to decide the shutter speed and exposure and it would be days if not weeks until you knew if the 8 or 12 pictures on that film turned out you were not as likely to fool around. There were cameras very capable of taking action shots well before that time. Between time, cost and the generations of the subjects being told to hold still when the picture was snapped it took a while for happy people to show up often in family photos.

Tim
 
This made me think and caused me to look through a family album. No Tough Guy photos with food in the first stage of being processed.

There are Tough Guy photos with hand caught snakes, Tough Guy photos on motorcycles. However, I don't find any with the game we took to put on the table. There are a couple where I am squinting into the sun and not smiling.

There is one photo from college before a grouse hunt where myself and two friends are posed against the old Dog Dodge Power Wagon and brandishing our weapons. I am smiling and hardly serious enough to be Tough Guy material.

I was not raised with hunting as a sport. No trophy rooms. Take the first legal buck so that we can get back home or go fishing or bird hunting on the way home. The racks were turned into hat racks.

However, there is one Tough Guy photo in the album and it is not me. It is when my father's mom moved out west and gained residency. Mom and dad took her deer hunting. She was so tickled with shooting her two deer that she made dad take a photo of her standing next to the hanging meat with the 30/30 she used. Old southern woman in polyester pants and a sweater with her serious grandma face on. Too funny now that I am middle aged.
 
This cracks me up! I guide duck hunters all season long and am going into my 6th season of running my guided service, I'm 29 years old and smile in most all of my pictures. I find this funny because in this business you cant always pick your clients and more times than not there good people, but I play a game with myself and I swear this, you can ask my wife, Whithin the first twenty minutes of having someone new on my boat, I guess if there gonna smile in the pictures at the end of the hunt! This sounds stupid but its something I've been doing for about three years now. And you know what? I'm usually right. I really think its a macho thing to put it simply, If you look at ads in most any recent duck hunting magazine, most guys have this face like there wife is making them take out the trash during a football game. In my very humble opinion, these guys need to find a new hobby if thats there outlook. I think quite a few younger hunters dont have the older male figures to teach them about this sport. When I was growing up I was lucky enough to be in a very small town that was a very large duck hunting community, I pumped gas at a full service gas station from the ages of 13 to 18. I was lucky enough although I didnt know it then, to be in the presence of some great hunters that talked openly to each other about there hunts. Good luck with that happening with my generation. Honestly, this is why I like this site so much, its not a mine is bigger than yours mentallity. I do have one quick story of being wrong, I took out a young Marine on leave from San Antonio hunting a few years back, he struck me as a non-smiler if you will. We had a great day and he was smiling like he won the lottery, I was glad to be wrong. He was very appreciative and very polite. One of the best hunts I've ever guided.
Thanks, John Ven Huizen
 
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