we are a dying breed

[dave1949]

Re: we are a dyeing breed

Looks like "Sportsmen" need to:
1. Incorporate more electronics to attract the next generation.
2. Many farms will have to allow access to the thousands of kids, that don't have access to open land, and train them how to use guns.
3. Provide government paid transportation, meals and equipment so all disadvantaged children are included.

That's never going to happen. RIP - Sportsman.

:laughing: Good one.

Seriously, hunting, fishing and enjoying the outdoors is just one facet of rural life that is slowly disappearing.

I don't think it's possible to preserve individual slices of a way of life. There may be things that are substituted, but it's just not going to be the same.

 

[NorTracNY]

Re: we are a dyeing breed

Funny that our kids are limited in their computer and TV time and get outside MUCH more than their classmates, but both their grandparents just put the TV on while they are there for them. Sometimes they do planned activities with them, but rarely outside.

 

[simoutdoors]

Re: we are a dyeing breed

As a young parent here is my take. We are all have too many demands on our time!

I grew-up hunting and fishing, but I don't get more than 5 days a year in the woods hunting now. The only fishing I do is drowning crawlers with my girls at our family camp, with an occasional hour here or there for myself. Why? Time! In most households both parents need to work to make ends meet, even if you live a very modest life. Often one spouse or the other has a commute that sucks up even more time. Often schedules are such that a family cannot get all of life's chores done during the "work" week to have our weekend for "leisure."

I also think that Athletics have become so organized and structured that they are too demanding on children's time. If a child is interested in soccer now days, there is tremendous pressure for them to play year round. They have school league, select teams, summer league, etc.... The same happens with young hockey players. I am thankful that my older girl only seems interested in running, which doesn't have all the organized leagues and pressure of many of the other sports. I feel sorry for my friends when we invite them for camping or hiking and they can't because of a summer soccer tournament. Sure the kid may have fun, but they are also missing out on other life experiences.

I hear lots of folks blaming electronics and parents for this. At my home we have electronics, but they are not used as "babysitters." We encourage our children to use them for education and limit there time. We don't have a big TV with hundreds of mind numbing channels that the kids spend all weekend watching. We do make time to get away for family hikes, bike rides, walks, etc, but it is hard to find time for me dedicate to a successful hunt. If I go away for a weekend fishing trip I know I am leaving a burden on my spouse. I dream of the simpler days when a parent could stay home and families could spend more quality time passing down family traditions.

 

[TomSeller]

As a young parent here is my take. We are all have too many demands on our time!

I grew-up hunting and fishing, but I don't get more than 5 days a year in the woods hunting now. The only fishing I do is drowning crawlers with my girls at our family camp, with an occasional hour here or there for myself. Why? Time! In most households both parents need to work to make ends meet, even if you live a very modest life. Often one spouse or the other has a commute that sucks up even more time. Often schedules are such that a family cannot get all of life's chores done during the "work" week to have our weekend for "leisure."

I also think that Athletics have become so organized and structured that they are too demanding on children's time. If a child is interested in soccer now days, there is tremendous pressure for them to play year round. They have school league, select teams, summer league, etc.... The same happens with young hockey players. I am thankful that my older girl only seems interested in running, which doesn't have all the organized leagues and pressure of many of the other sports. I feel sorry for my friends when we invite them for camping or hiking and they can't because of a summer soccer tournament. Sure the kid may have fun, but they are also missing out on other life experiences.

I hear lots of folks blaming electronics and parents for this. At my home we have electronics, but they are not used as "babysitters." We encourage our children to use them for education and limit there time. We don't have a big TV with hundreds of mind numbing channels that the kids spend all weekend watching. We do make time to get away for family hikes, bike rides, walks, etc, but it is hard to find time for me dedicate to a successful hunt. If I go away for a weekend fishing trip I know I am leaving a burden on my spouse. I dream of the simpler days when a parent could stay home and families could spend more quality time passing down family traditions.

Very well stated. I don't know how Sports became so intense, like everyone is going to become a professional soccer player some day.

 

[Circle W]

Re: we are a dyeing breed

As a young parent here is my take. We are all have too many demands on our time!

I grew-up hunting and fishing, but I don't get more than 5 days a year in the woods hunting now. The only fishing I do is drowning crawlers with my girls at our family camp, with an occasional hour here or there for myself. Why? Time! In most households both parents need to work to make ends meet, even if you live a very modest life. Often one spouse or the other has a commute that sucks up even more time. Often schedules are such that a family cannot get all of life's chores done during the "work" week to have our weekend for "leisure."

I also think that Athletics have become so organized and structured that they are too demanding on children's time. If a child is interested in soccer now days, there is tremendous pressure for them to play year round. They have school league, select teams, summer league, etc.... The same happens with young hockey players. I am thankful that my older girl only seems interested in running, which doesn't have all the organized leagues and pressure of many of the other sports. I feel sorry for my friends when we invite them for camping or hiking and they can't because of a summer soccer tournament. Sure the kid may have fun, but they are also missing out on other life experiences.

I hear lots of folks blaming electronics and parents for this. At my home we have electronics, but they are not used as "babysitters." We encourage our children to use them for education and limit there time. We don't have a big TV with hundreds of mind numbing channels that the kids spend all weekend watching. We do make time to get away for family hikes, bike rides, walks, etc, but it is hard to find time for me dedicate to a successful hunt. If I go away for a weekend fishing trip I know I am leaving a burden on my spouse. I dream of the simpler days when a parent could stay home and families could spend more quality time passing down family traditions.

Thats a good point about school athletics eating up kids' time. In my experience, we had a football event 6 out of the 7 days. Practice mon-thur, game friday, film session and scouting reports on saturday. After football season was over, it was straight to wrestling. After wrestling, straight to baseball. Then when baseball is over, it was time to start football again. Such a vicious cycle!

 

[dmccarty]

Re: we are a dyeing breed

Thats a good point about school athletics eating up kids' time. In my experience, we had a football event 6 out of the 7 days. Practice mon-thur, game friday, film session and scouting reports on saturday. After football season was over, it was straight to wrestling. After wrestling, straight to baseball. Then when baseball is over, it was time to start football again. Such a vicious cycle!

Bing Bing Bing

This is the big difference of today compared to my time in school. In 5th and 6th grade, I played full contact football for the school but I rode my bike to school so all my parents had to do was go to the games. This was the only sport offered. We moved to a different state and in middle school, I think there might have been a boys and girls basket ball team. Football was in leagues out side of school as was soccer. Maybe a girls volleyball team but I would not bet on it. In HS, there was football, basketball, wrestling, field/track and maybe girls volley ball.

Today, my kids started playing soccer and basketball when they were 5-6 years old, maybe a bit younger. Middle school has soccer, basketball, running, and volleyball. Kids who play soccer well are encouraged to be on teams outside the school soccer season. These leagues and clinics run year round and consume huge amounts of time and money from the family.

Sports, school based or not, consume much of a families time today and leave very little time for other recreation. My kids have more homework in elementary school than I did in HS. It is really sick what some of the teachers and schools systems are doing to the kids and for no gain that I can see, just stress for the kids and families.

I know I am so busy with jobs, family and chores that I have very little time to hunt as I mentioned earlier in the thread. All I have to do go hunting is put on some clothes, grab a rifle and walk out the door but I often do not have the time, or when I do have the time, I am too tired to hunt.

Later,
Dan

 

[dave1949]

Re: we are a dyeing breed

My kids are 39 and 35 years old, so I am not in touch with parenting these days.

But I wonder why parents don't make some judgement calls on these endless activities. Why can't a parent just say we're going camping together (for example) and if a game is missed that isn't the end of the world? Why should it be? It's a GAME after all. Maybe wrapping your lives around the perceived needs of your children is counter-productive in the long run, even though I'm sure you are thinking of enhancing their chances for success in life.

If work demands are over-running your family life, same deal, make some judgement calls. Work is not a lifestyle, at least it didn't used to be.

I have great memories of hunting and fishing with my Dad. We each had a gun, or fishing rod, and we were doing those things together. Dad wasn't the chauffeur, or spectator, or a coach worried about numerous kids.

I think kids need time to be kids. They need the opportunity to create their own fun. They need time to learn from their own mistakes too.

 

[Jstpssng]

Re: we are a dyeing breed

I guess this doesn't bother me anymore... times are changing and just because I enjoy something doesn't mean somebody else does. I've even had people go so far as to say that they will be glad when we're gone so they don't have to deal with our ideals.
I do believe that the concept of "fair chase" is mostly about reducing overhunting rather than being humane... after all which more apt to result in a humane hit; a shot at a running animal, or ambushing him when he doesn't expect you, and you havetime to take a careful shot?

Just for the record; bear baiting isn't as easy as some would have you think. Guides put a lot of effort into putting out tree stands, maintaining the bait sites, etc; and many of their clients would never be in the woods without those efforts. They are told to "Stay in your tree stand no matter what"... otherwise many of them would become lost. Out of state hunters create a lot of seasonal jobs for these guides and bringa lot of business into the state; because of this we have a stellar bear study team, which was featured on National Geographic a couple of years ago. There are those who say we are exploiting the animal, yet what's the difference between managing the bear population, and managing pigs in a pig farm?

 

[Bird]

Re: we are a dyeing breed

I know a lot of people think going to shoot an animal on a game farm is like shooting fish in a barrel; no sport to it. And I suspect that's true in some cases, but many years ago I visited the YO Ranch that was famous in Texas for hunting 365 days a year back then. But it was sure different from what I expected. They had a bunch of 100 acre "pens" alright where a wide variety of animals were raised, but there was no hunting in any of those. All the hunting was done on the ranch with thousands of acres the animals could roam on. Of course, they've sold off a lot of land since I was there, but at that time they said they had 78,000 acres at the main ranch, and another 18,000 acres a little ways off.

 

[dave1949]

Re: we are a dyeing breed

I know a lot of people think going to shoot an animal on a game farm is like shooting fish in a barrel; no sport to it. And I suspect that's true in some cases, but many years ago I visited the YO Ranch that was famous in Texas for hunting 365 days a year back then. But it was sure different from what I expected. They had a bunch of 100 acre "pens" alright where a wide variety of animals were raised, but there was no hunting in any of those. All the hunting was done on the ranch with thousands of acres the animals could roam on. Of course, they've sold off a lot of land since I was there, but at that time they said they had 78,000 acres at the main ranch, and another 18,000 acres a little ways off.

With that much land, it wouldn't be much different than regular hunting it seems. Sounds like it was quite an operation.