Ran across this today: http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/34246/more americans prefer to hunt for photos/
They obviously have never tasted grouse breast over a bed of wild rice with fresh carrots sauteed with butter and dill, or quail jalapeno wraps, or pheasant in a wild mushroom sauce, mallard sliders, or, well you get the picture...
What do they expect when anti hunters and anti-gunners make it all but impossible to be able to shoot! All you have to do is look at how California treats hunters in general to get this into focus. Pity most of these city types haven't yet mastered the art of eating sunlight... From an anthropological point, humans are apex predators, and a silly cultural notion won't alter the physical evolution that's been going on for at least a million years!
I like to hunt!!! With firearms!!! But I must also say that some of the best stalks I've made have been with a camera. The pressure on hunters with firearms is way out of hand. The brain washing our young people get in the public school system, just makes me scratch my head. I can remember when the kid who shot the big buck got his pic in the paper. Everybody hunted, the coffee shop was full of armed men in red shirts with big knives hanging from their belts. Ladies too!!! Damn I love hunting season. Big racks sticking up out of pick up trucks. Deer and elk I could go on and on for another 15 days until grouse season opens, then I'm going hunting.
Yeah, I'm contemplating the change. I now only carry a concealed camera when I'm out (I have my CCP & my Kids will know who/what waylaid me if I fail to return) & there can't be anything more rewarding or satisfying than watching your light meter work in a fine Pheasant cover . . . or not!
Of course, the bigger question is who is going to pay to preserve the resources for all of the shutterbugs? In the near future it will be the hunters, we love it so much we will pay and pay through licenses, taxes, and direct contributions. In the not so distant future I see resources reduced to nothing more than large zoos with tour buses taking folks around to see "wild" animals. Most photographers and other "non-consumptive" users of the outdoor resources balk at a $20 access fee, seeing it as "excessive".
Isn't that the truth! Sportsmen have carried the money ball & have supported widlife for many, many years.
require a license and tags for shutterbugs too, and add camera gear excise taxes to PIttman/Robertson funds... Just sayin`! Although unlike Gary, my best stalk was with a bow, and can't wait to get out there next year once again!
Ya know I didn't even think about the $ value that the hunters and fishers pay to keep the resources alive. One of the reasons I have a fit about the "Discover Pass" We as lic. hunters and fishers have already paid and paid some more. I agree with Alex. Put some taxes on the cameras and like equipment. If ya have a drivers lic. you pay extra if ya don't hunt or fish to keep the parks open etc. O.K. I'll get off the soap box. Thanks for letting me share.
