So Called Duck Hunters

M

Mike Sanzone

Member
My nephew and I headed out this afternoon with hopes of shooting some Broadbill in the area known as Little Hog Chanel in Island Park.Too nice nothing flying ..plus i thought to myself this point has been getting hunted hard by a bunch of guys....what really bothered me was that the guys that gunned there this am shot two brant one full grown bird and one juvenile which they cut the leg off to take the tag off and then left them on the bank to rot....This is not what Duck hunters are supposed to do.They should be ashamed of themselves.....I dressed the birds and took them home...but this kind of shit gives us a bad name...if I didn't take them they would have been floating down the bay on the next high tide for all the local home owners to see and whom would love to shut down this residential area to hunting.....you guys are not doing the right thing.....if your on here or know who this is please stop the want and waste....Capt Mike
 
Mike It happens off and on at times ,So here is one for the books several years ago some one or persons had dumpped a truck load blue bills and some other types of waterfowl which I can't recall it was in our local news paper that the culprits dumped the birds off on the dikes walls near the delaware and chessapeak canal and till this day I don't think they were caught.Delaware is not noted for large flocks bluebills visiting our shore line so ,I summiized that a hunt club in Maryland was responsable for this act. If anything like this happens or if you see this being done call your Game Wordan on your cell phone some times there is a reward if found guilty.This type of person is not a so called duck hunter he is a murderer plain and simple.
 
Unfortunately, wanton waste has been with us for centuries, if not eons. From Buffalo Jumps to pigeon hunts to crow seasons.

In the midwest the reports of similar behavior are often related to the Conservation Order for snow geese. They have earned the moniker "Sky Carp", and certain parties treat them as such. Don't want to clean that many birds, think they don't make good table fare, etc.

Terry Weiland wrote an article in the December issue of Gray's discussing the likelihood of this behavior increasing as "new" hunters aren't recruited by previous generations as much as joining "the club" for social reasons later in life, similar to playing golf. He used canned lion hunting as an example. E. Donnal Thomas Jr., had a related fiction article in the same issue.

However, this type of activity has been written about for at least a century. In the DU anthology Autumn Passages a story called "Dodie's Duck" sheds light on incongruent treatment of "legal" and "illegal" acts according to regulations set forth at that time which deals with purposeful wanton waste; to such mundane issues as "sky busting" written about by MacQuarrie in the early to mid 1900's.

The two things that seem to affect over harvest are an unexpected abundance of game since game is generally scarce (Swain, Ortega-Gasset), and privilege (ability to arrive, shoot, without exerting effort/work).

The current challenge with the historical issue of wanton waste has become socio-economic. With news, social media, populations shifting to urban/ex-urban, hunters have fallen precipitously as a % of the population. And due to the political allegiances in this country, it may take "privilege" to keep hunting available, which is an ironic juxtaposition if that is a cause of over harvest and dumping.

Sorry, I think about this.
 
Unfortunately, wanton waste has been with us for centuries, if not eons. From Buffalo Jumps to pigeon hunts to crow seasons.

In the midwest the reports of similar behavior are often related to the Conservation Order for snow geese. They have earned the moniker "Sky Carp", and certain parties treat them as such. Don't want to clean that many birds, think they don't make good table fare, etc.

Terry Weiland wrote an article in the December issue of Gray's discussing the likelihood of this behavior increasing as "new" hunters aren't recruited by previous generations as much as joining "the club" for social reasons later in life, similar to playing golf. He used canned lion hunting as an example. E. Donnal Thomas Jr., had a related fiction article in the same issue.

However, this type of activity has been written about for at least a century. In the DU anthology Autumn Passages a story called "Dodie's Duck" sheds light on incongruent treatment of "legal" and "illegal" acts according to regulations set forth at that time which deals with purposeful wanton waste; to such mundane issues as "sky busting" written about by MacQuarrie in the early to mid 1900's.

The two things that seem to affect over harvest are an unexpected abundance of game since game is generally scarce (Swain, Ortega-Gasset), and privilege (ability to arrive, shoot, without exerting effort/work).

The current challenge with the historical issue of wanton waste has become socio-economic. With news, social media, populations shifting to urban/ex-urban, hunters have fallen precipitously as a % of the population. And due to the political allegiances in this country, it may take "privilege" to keep hunting available, which is an ironic juxtaposition if that is a cause of over harvest and dumping.

Sorry, I think about this.
Click to expand...

Rob,that was well written. Thanks for taking the time to write it.

Any time we do not respect what we are shooting, eventually we (hunters) end up suffering for it. It is that silent majority out there that needs to be reckoned with and I'm referring to non-hunters and their number continue to escalate about as quickly as ours diminish. We really need to clean up our ranks and act. Brash statements using words like "slaughtered them or massacred them," only make for trouble.
Unfortunately, we are our own worst enemy.
Al
 
..."new" hunters aren't recruited by previous generations as much as joining "the club" for social reasons later in life, similar to playing golf.

....The two things that seem to affect over harvest are an unexpected abundance of game since game is generally scarce (Swain, Ortega-Gasset), and privilege (ability to arrive, shoot, without exerting effort/work).

.....The current challenge with the historical issue of wanton waste has become socio-economic.
...."privilege" to keep hunting available, which is an ironic juxtaposition

Rob,
You make some interesting points.
Funny you should mention Gray's, as I stopped taking the magazine when I began to see more and more of it's usually fine fiction and features expressing an underlying tone that seemed to put forth the exact notions I pulled from your thoughtful post.
Let's face it, Gray's has always "sold" the outdoor experience as a commodity (advertising from outfitters and services is probably what has kept it alive when other publications have gone under). However, I wonder if that hasn't slowly contributed to the mentality of: purchase gear, arrive at a "destination", & shoot.....An expectation that one can observe filtering down from those with unlimited means to do so (....people who in the past were champions of conservation and "paying it forward"), right on down to the wannabee who picks up a dozen hot-buys, and a "huntin' boat" package at the local bass pro after watching his first season of Duck Dynasty on DVD, and whose behavior leaves us scratching our collective head.
Click to expand...
 
"Canned hunting" is an oxymoron, and we do ourselves a disservice by allowing it to be called "hunting".

And we're not helped much by the behavior of some of the folks seen in public as "spokesmen" for hunters.
 
MLBob,

I don't disagree that the there is a horse-biting-hand in all of this... but such has been the case since John Muir started cruising the West coast on one side, and populist outdoor magazines started on the other. Our "heritage" sports have not been immune to capitalization, whether conservative or consumptive. Nor have these sports been immune to technology. The auto loader over the pump, vinyl records/players/speakers, etc. Each managed over time by social norms influenced by economic achievement. In Minnesota, treaty rights for netting are often tangled in social support for the cultural preservation issues since those exercising them are not using sinew nets and canoes, but 1MM candle spot lights/nylon gill nets/16'+ fishing boats/outboard motors~ then, hundreds of pounds of fish are found dumped in ditches and at landings.

The relative ease created by technology, combined with a smaller total population of hunters, likely contributes to a % increase of bad actors, but may not necessarily be a real increase in total numbers. Here's why:

1) hunters are fewer, but more concentrated in areas they can hunt.

2) 24/7 media NEEDS things to talk about

3) rise in conservation mindset amongst generational/experienced hunters and fishers

4) ease of "assumed" expertise for non-experienced: i.e. gear makes the hunter, limits will fall with XX product.

5) Aggrandizement of "Outlaw" hunters: Nugent, Foiles, Robertson, Belding, etc. (not saying they did anything illegal, well, maybe some did ;-)

6) Multiple profit centers, kick-back, slotting, vertical integration, etc. in the outdoor retail products market.

So, we have less places to hunt, putting the few hunters left in closer contact to one another. A diminishing set with generational knowledge (i.e. the people on this site) and increase in media recognition for the "Outlaw" set as tutorial, with the ability of anyone with a 500 credit score to fly into Bismark, ND, stop at Shcheel's, and be hunting in 3 hours from landing with 4 dozen hot buys, 3 robo ducks, a Benelli SBEII, and if they are so fortunate a 20' flat bottom with a 150hp jet conversion for running shallow~ with an expectation that ducks and geese will fall from the ends of their barrels, just like the video.

If any of this is to make a point, the people that don't care aren't here. In MN they are sitting on the ice right now taking crappies over their limit because a "bite is on", they're pillaging the Elver population because a 5 gallon pail makes them more money than going to work, they just threw out the ducks they kept because they tried to cook one at Christmas and it "tasted terrible".

The crew that causes the damage, the wanton waste, does not care about the resource, does not care about philosophy, nor do they give one rip what a bunch of "old guys" think.

Trust me, I get the getting PO'd part, I ran banquet fundraisers for a few years. But we've lost what voices we had that taught heritage. Now you get fast cut videos to heavy metal music, hunting shows about shooting deer over bait, and a legion of "water fowlers" that wonder why in "H" you'd spend all that time repairing some old Herter's foamers when you can go get 4 dozen NIB in 2 minutes on the web delivered to your door.

There isn't a national voice refreshing old messages. It all sounds tired and trite, like your wife asking why you need another decoy/boat/gun :)

Maybe the questions are, when we are mad enough, what do we do about it? Is it a war against the internal factions that buy duck stamps, or do we start public relations campaigns that personalize hunting/hunters to the general population? Is it working with a local DU Chapter or Boy Scouts, etc., to stick "Rules of Conduct" stickers in public blinds? Do we amass resources to get a "heritage" style show onto airwaves, get sponsors, etc.? Can we make a duck hunting Yankee Workshop show relative to people under 30? Maybe with YouTube?

In my experience, yelling "stop" and raising money for ducks have run their course. We're fighting a concentration of 12,000 years of humanity. Some where, we need to do something different.
 
i would love to do a series that focuses more about the whole picture instead of thirty minutes of boom, boom,boom.

i would look at regional differences in boats, tactics, decoys, habitat, food, people. the actual things that make the hunt more than just killing something. a hunting show like linders angling edge would be awesome.

unfortunatly i dont think many people would watch it.

to get most youth interested you would need action shots, loud music or large amounts of glitter.

our state has the CARE department, which gets kids interested with fishing. i would gladly go from school to school teaching hunter safetly classes to kids/parents and bring them out for a hunt. taking my cousins out for junior day was very rewarding and i would like to give that opportunity to other kids. i gave a talk at a hunting course about duck hunting and its history in america. i passed around some of my dekes too. i had a good time hopefully the kids learned something.

i dont EVER see hunting class allowed in schools so i guess that ideas out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top