As surely as
there are death and taxes, you can bet that however, wherever, and whatever you
choose to hunt that there will be someone out there that knows how to find
fault with the way you do it.
I long ago
got used to the opinions, taunts, jibes, and snide remarks of the taciturn,
illogical anti-hunter or the misinformed and self-assured non-hunter (which are
two distinct sides to the same coin), but it was not until I started this
pseudo-public, completely unprofitable forum for my hunting stories, opinions,
and general bunk that I came to realize how much hunters truly hate other
hunters.
Now before
you send the hate mail which would only go to prove my thesis, hear me out. I’ll also apologize for a moderate use of
salty language in the following.
In observing
this, I’ve found that there are a few ‘classifications’ for this hunting
community ill-will and for lack of a better term, bullying, which I’ll outline
now.
Jealousy
Some people don’t
get to hunt as much as they would like, and others don’t get to hunt the
species or areas that they would like.
Sometimes this is a function of time, occasionally this is a function of
funds, and sometimes it is mixture of both.
Regardless of the cause, jealousy at the opportunity, success, or
enjoyment that other hunters experience can be a catalyst for much resentment. The jealous hunter will scoff at others, and disparage
their skills or outcomes, solely because the jealous hunter cannot or has not
yet had that opportunity themselves.
Consistently successful hunters have to deal with this as well, and can fall
prey to all sorts of accusations of unethical hunting or benefiting from being
in a ‘target-rich’ environment.
Low Self-Esteem
Related to
jealousy, but with its own distinctive patter, hunters that don’t hone,
respect, or value their own abilities often find every opportunity they can to
denigrate and humiliate those with skills, no matter how modest or extravagant
those skills are. This type of hater
calls the seasoned marksman ‘lucky’ or ‘nothing without a scope on their
rifle’. They may have never placed a
decoy in their life, but they’ll tell you how your pattern isn’t working. They tell you you’re doing everything wrong,
or too much, or too little, but they don’t ever do it themselves.
Competitiveness
Competitive
hunters attempt, and are sometimes successful in their efforts to suck all the
joy out of hunting for others. You shot
a 10-point buck? They’ll make it their
life goal to shoot a 12-pointer. Shot a
banded mallard? They shot ten of
them. Trying for a wild turkey Grand
Slam? Well they have five of those and
are working on an Ultra-Super-Extra-Difficult-Intercontinental-Mega Slam. I don’t have any issues with hunters driven
to succeed; I know and hunt with plenty of those and in some ways I’m one of
those myself. But when every personal
goal comes at the comparison of the outcomes of others, I fear you may be
missing the point of hunting altogether, or worse, you are using hunting to
compensate for some psychological deficiency (see Low Self Esteem above).
Anger
Unbelievably,
I missed a deer this year. Several
factors I could not control, and one that I could (my decision to shoot at all),
contributed to this. I don’t get a lot
of opportunities to shoot deer, so I can safely say I was ticked. Maybe even angry. It happens.
But within two hours, a steak, and a couple of beers later, I was
fine. What I’m referring to here is not
the attendant frustration that comes when you make a mistake. No, no, what I’m talking about now is the
hunter that is always mad at something.
They are mad at the weather, they are mad that game isn’t moving, they
are mad that game is moving when they themselves aren’t there, and most of all
they are mad at other hunters for having the temerity to hunt with, near, or
remotely adjacent to them. They want all
the hunting to themselves, and they are visibly and permanently enraged that
anyone else impinges on their ‘right’.
These people are not fun at all to be around, and if you find that no
one wants to spend a lunch hour in a cabin with you, odds are you’re an angry
hunter too.
Puritanism
It is the
job of the puritan to keep hunting elite. Do you use a turkey box call? They use their voice, and think you should too. Do you shoot rifles at deer? They bow hunt and are smug about it. Did you pack mule into an elk or sheep
hunt? Sacrilege, why you should have
been doing it on foot, humping all your equipment in on your own back you lazy
schmuck. See where I’m going with
this? The puritan not only understand ‘fair
chase’ but they feel it is their sole responsibility to define and enforce the
standard.
Now, there
is a difference between adherence to a high ethical standard and puritanical
ways of viewing hunting, and this is often the grey area of the debate. Laser guided scopes, ultra-high quality
electronic game calls, and high-definition camouflage and scent elimination
systems often push that ‘traditional’ envelop, but there is a reason we aren’t all
still chucking pointy sticks at mammoths.
Progress happens and you can only avoid it for so long. Likewise pride is different from puritanism, but
when you value ‘your way’ as the ‘right way’ or worse the ‘only way’, well then
I haven’t really got any time for you.
Hypocrisy
Hypocritical
hunters will criticize and lambaste other hunters for things that, admittedly, they
have no problem with. Their issue and
argument always seems to be that there is only a problem when you shoot a duck on the water instead
of on the wing, when you shoot a big
whitetail over a bait pile, or when you
enlist an outfitter for a trophy hunt.
They like to reserve special privilege to their own situation and
worldview. Again, we all recognize
hypocrisy when we see it, so start identifying it and cutting it out of the hunting
dialogue.
Expertise
The most
insidious of the groups of hunters hating hunters are the “Experts”, both of
the self-proclaimed variety, as well as those acclaimed as experts by
consensus. I would wager that the
‘expert’ class, or the ‘expert’ mindset is responsible for reducing hunter
enjoyment more than any other of the above.
I’m not talking about the benevolent, avuncular mentor that guided you
to your first deer or took you pheasant hunting for the first time when you
were a child. I’m talking about the ‘expert’
that finds fault in the methods, ethics, and outcomes of even the most earnest
and experienced hunters. They are in
your hunting camp and they are in magazines.
They are online and on TV, and part of the hunting ‘industry’ at large
is based on this servile toadying to the “expert” caste. These people hold others to a moral standard
that they themselves have defined, and only they will ever be above their own
judgment. They know the better way, the
secrets, and the overall fashion of how this sport of hunting should be done
because they are experts, and you never will know those things, because you
won’t ever meet their standard of excellence.
They take the democratic equality out of hunting, and they boil it down
to a contest. In short these people are
the embodiment of all the above types of unpleasant person, which makes them
assholes to be around. Avoid them.
I guess all
of the above is somehow tied up in the psychology of the kill in some way;
maybe seeing someone else’s success or enjoyment of the hunting pursuit somehow
diminishes the self-worth of people with the above character traits, forcing
them to belittle others so as to aggrandize themselves.
I don’t
know…maybe some people are just jerks and cannot help themselves. The truth is probably a fraction of both at
play. The worst part about all of it is
every one of the above traits (and I’m sure there are more that I haven’t
discovered yet) is that they all serve the same purpose; to divide hunters
against hunters. It may well prove the
downfall of the modern hunting culture.
I also guess
that there is a bit of irony in me taking the pulpit to sermonize and decry
these types of hunters, but that’s not really what I’m doing with this piece
(or at least I hope it isn’t what I’m doing with this piece). My policy has long been that so long as it is
legal, safe, and that it most importantly does not negatively impact the public
perception of the hunting tradition, then I don’t really care how you
hunt, so long as you’re enjoying yourself, and I’ve been on record in this
forum and other social media with that stance for a long time. I think we all have a bit of enviousness,
puritanism, or self-exalting expertise about ourselves; that’s just how people
are hooked up. The hard part is to set
those traits aside when we’re discoursing and involved with other hunters.
Hunting is
an intensely personal thing, and people forget their impact on others when it
comes to things they are passionate about.
I get it, and I know that it’s a fine line, but it may be the only
chance hunters have to see the common ground between themselves.