ghostbird beat me to it, but I want David to know I also would be pleased to share a duck club or deer camp anytime with you. And I too say consider yourself an Honorary Southerner! (In times past we would have said "Honorary Rebel")

Regarding living in Zim, while we wouldn't think it's Utopia or Nirvana, we would understand it and in some respects feel at home.

Anyway, regarding the Southern accent, we don't always sound like in the movies. Sometimes we just like to lay it on because we know how much it annoys liberals.

Seriously, Southerners in by-gone times didn't behave like in the movies. No plantation family lived as in "Long Hot Summer" or "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" or that thing that was on tonight, "Baby Doll". They were too busy working at survival to lead a life of leasure. Nothing like the degenerates shown in these films. REAL Southerners of long ago, both men and women, were smart, sharp, tough pioneers. They came with little and built something out of nothing. They led a hard life, tamed the land, suffered and died from Yellow Fever and against impossible odds fought the worst war in U.S. history. Over a million dead on both sides combined. The Southern mystique grew out of all this and is what apparently others find so fascinating.

It's true, just like Bryan27 said, people really are the same everywhere. But, as regards hunting however, I do think it may have held a little bit different place in Southern culture as compared to other sections of the country.

There isn't room here to really go into that, but to cut it down I think it started pre-Civil War with those who brought with them from the British Isles the pursuit of fish and game as a gentleman's sport. The older generations worked hard and played hard and their chief form of recreation was the outdoors, particularly hunting. Wing shooting, especially waterfowling, quail and dove, were favored by the well to do and great traditions and famous clubs well over a hundred years old have existed in the furtherance of that pursuit. Some of these clubs you can only join if someone willed you a membership. We were also the home of bird dog field trials. And I don't know any other part of the country where deer hunting with dogs is a tradition. In other words, this is all a big deal here. Coupled with that is the tradition of near un-fettered gun ownership.

Which reminds me - and I'll wind up with this because it really sums it up - I lived in a small town in Mississippi in the early 1950s and remember seeing a billboard that said - "REGISTER COMMIES NOT GUNS". That stuck in my memory all these years. It was how we felt then and it's just as meaningful today.

ledvm, four out of six ain't bad! The others were Hank Snow and Kitty Wells. As for Jimmie Rodgers he was also called the Father Of Country Music. There's a museum in Meridian MS dedicated to him. I've bought CDs of his music there. Guns are featured in several of his songs like "Pistol Packin' Papa". My first inclination is to say that would sound dated today, but then I thought about some of what is out there in today's pop culture and, who knows, maybe it'd be OK.

This "no division" communal, make love not war, bullshit will destroy hunting in the end.

If we do not police our ranks someone else will. Which do you choose?

quote:

Originally posted by David Hulme:
If I lived in the US, it would be south of the Mason Dixon line, yeeha!!

The last time I was in Chewore South's Chenje Camp...they had a Texas flag bannered on the wall (Rosenfel's camp at that time). I asked them why and they said: "cause we made George W. Bush an honorary Rhodesian". That is the God's honest truth!

I tell everyone that is going to Zim the first time...Rhodesians are just Texans with a British accent.

All of the folks from Zimbabwe I have met are more Texan-like (or Southern) than just about anyone else in the world...for better or worst.

Nigel Theisen, a PH born in Que Que (Kwe Kwe), is one of my best friends in the world. When he is around my family, you would think we were kinfolks! Just that Queen's English that gives him away!

So David, in my book, you are an honorary Texan too!

quote:

I do strongly agree with those who take exception to the "yucking it up" approach after a kill, and the "high fiving" and laughing all around scene, assuming that's what you meant. It's plain distasteful and disrespectful to the game. And it sure doesn't help our image any with the general public, many of whom frankly just tolerate hunting.

I watch very few of the shows anymore because I feel such behavior disrespects the animal. I have great respect for all animals I take and give thanks for their sacrifice.

quote:

I watch very few of the shows anymore because I feel such behavior disrespects the animal. I have great respect for all animals I take and give thanks for their sacrifice.

Me, too.

I have my DVR set for "Tracks..." and Africa with Boddington and watch the shows on that. I watch no other hunting shows.

quote:

Originally posted by x2mosg:
Boy, I tell you what, there are some uptight old bastards around this place. .....
David Walker

Bet Foxworthy could use some new material:

You might be a Redneck if - You tell a some uptight old bastard on their soap box to Kiss My A__.

If you wear your regional affiliation as a costume, there might be a problem. NASCAR clips on a hunting show? Seriously?

As to hollering at the death bellow? I've done it. And I'm in good company. Poke around a bit and find videos or eyewitness accounts of kills by aboriginal hunting parties.

A lot of good commentary on poor taste in current programming. It will mature and work itself out. Huge mistake identifying it as a southern thing. A number of ridulous television shows put on by folks from NY and Jersey have already come and gone. Waddling around on Anticosti Island shooting at deer with a gun you don't know how to reload is also in poor taste. And, where is Tred, the Best and Worst of, From? My experience is that 95% of hunters are respectful and appreciate the privelege. Zip code has little to do with it.

When I see these guys going apesh*t over a kill, I'm reminded of football players over cellebrating a touchdown and the coach saying "act like you've been there before and expect to get there again".

quote:

"act like you've been there before and expect to get there again".

Good quote!

We have a local kid from my town that has just gotten his hunting show syndicated, has sponsors such as Hornaday,, Leopold, etc.,,,You want to see southern,,,, they are "southern" and it is no act. I think it is called "Pig Man" "The Series" His name is Brian Quaca, Keith Rand is in them as well, also a local kid,,, Kids may be a bad term,, young men should be better but I watched them grow up so,,,,These guys love to hunt, they hunt a great deal in Old Mexico and were just persistent in following their dreams to have a show and they have at least made one season. Brian is from Mexia Texas,,, does the town ring a bell? Home of the late Anna Nicole Smith... At least Brians accent and acting is all "real". Just more back slapping and high fives for the big screen.....

quote:

Originally posted by RyanB:
If you wear your regional affiliation as a costume, there might be a problem. NASCAR clips on a hunting show? Seriously?

As to hollering at the death bellow? I've done it. And I'm in good company. Poke around a bit and find videos or eyewitness accounts of kills by aboriginal hunting parties.

As for "hollering at the death bellow" , for myself, it has never happened, will not ever happen. IMHO every critter deserves some dignity.

Stereotyping just doesn't work! In my experience there are good, and bad people of all sorts everywhere. I don't care about a person's accent or the color of their skin; it's only the content of their character, and their intelligence I give a damn about!

I'm southern, and glad of it! George

I was raised on the banks of Oyster Creek just north of Freeport Texas. I am Southern. I can speak with an accent and I speak in terms of intellegence and eloquence. Have southeners had an influence on hunting? I would say yes, but what kind of influence?

There are the far left animal rights groups that will never accept hunting regardless of factual data. There is the far right hunters who hunt vociferously at any and all opportunities. The largest group is the middle who have varying interest/disinterest in hunting as a whole.

I believe that the "southern" approach to television viewing is tailor made for the far right hunting group who respond favorably to high fives and yahoos. Further, I believe that this approach does an ultimate disservice to the hunting community in general as we (hunters) should take every opportunity to introduce hunting to this vast middle group in a favorable light.

We all read about "the vanishing hunter". If we really want to to increase our numbers (and thus our clout) we should endeavor to appeal to this middle group.

quote:

tailor made for the far right hunting group who respond favorably to high fives and yahoos.

I don't believe it is the Far-Right that likes high-fiving!!! I am as far-right as it gets and I can't stand it and think it horribly idiotic not to mention disrespectful!

Lets call them the extreme right.

Let's see. The handshake followed by the thumbshake respects the animal. The high five disrespects the animal. And the old regular handshake must be in a gray area somewhere. Maybe all of the "holier than thou" respect police can publish some sort of bible on how all of us heathans should act when we succeed in a great hunt. And by the way, I always act like I've been there before, because I have. And trust me, I will act that way again because I not only expect to be there again...I will be.

Where one is politically has nothing to do with this. One can be somewhere to the right of Louis XIV and have plenty of class; in fact those go together at least on some level.

The yuck it up crowd would probably have more in common with the Three Stooges and what their politics could be like is harder to say.

That type wouldn't understand many important political issues in the first place let alone have an informed opinion. So I wouldn't waste time trying to figure what brand they are.

Like I was saying earlier, what this really is, is a very bad and unnatural job of trying to act a part for the cameras. And probably it was encouraged by those in charge of production in an ill conceived attempt to create entertainment.

Maybe they should take some acting classes. Who knows, perhaps that would help (I mean that only half seriously). But, something needs to be done.

Yes, something needs to done.....to the first amendment. Then you can get started on the second!