quote:

Originally posted by Dogleg:
I've done a number of cull hunts, trophy hunts, safaris, cull and trophy combined, varmint, predator, and the normal combination meat hunting and trophy that I have as a local/resident in a great hunting area. Its starting to hover around 40 years worth of it now. What I have found is that if something doesn't appeal to you, don't do it. If it peaks your interest best give t a go.

In all hunting; on some level, the hunter is trying to turn a profit on the deal. There are true meat hunters that can look you in the eye and say that "you can't eat horns" and mean it. He's as happy with a gift animal as one he takes himself. Probably happier because he doesn't have to go get one himself. He probably throws horns away and can't wrap his brain around why someone would want them. Naturally since he doesn't want them, someone who does must have a negative motivation like pride or the desire to brag or show off. He is the guy that asks you how much meat you brought back from a safari and is dumfounded when you can't bring any.

The next guy might be fixated on meat, but enjoys the process and doesn't mind getting a big set of horns once in a while. He doesn't get them very often, because he can't walk away from the "profit" of a animal standing in front of him. Although he can appreciate trophies he's not sure of what to make of the trophy hunter that wouldn't shoot the animals he does.
He may go as far as passing up a few if he is confident that there will be others.

The trophy hunter can by-pass smaller animals easily, because he doesn't want them at all. Our meat hunter can't understand that at all, and our second guy sort of understands it but doesn't really feel it. The trophy hunter absolutely can't wrap his brain around how someone could leave horns in a foreign country. How can someone walk away from the "profit"?

The next guy may have been all the above at one time, and under the right circumstances will be all of them again. He has had his share of filled freezers and may have more heads than he has room to hang them. He may have concluded that the price of his taxidermy could have been put to toward more hunts, and that the experience itself was the "profit" he wanted. He doesn't want to take anything home, perhaps because he doesn't have room or doesn't want to or can't live in a natural history museum. There is a chance that he will pass up the largest trophies if they cost more, or perhaps he now feels that that particular animal would make someones else's year or life and be a bit of a liability to him. He may have concluded that a stalk and kill on 10 management animals is a better "profit" than one trophy he doesn't even want. He may be into rifles as much or more than a few inches of bone, or maybe he just likes a big bag and lots of action. He may also have realized that the ability to leave trophies opens up a world of non exportable hunting opportunities at lower prices.

About this time he could be a candidate for culling. Selective culling actually has much in common with trophy hunting. You go through a similar process of hunting, selecting and killing but with the difference being that he lets the big one go to get the old cow that past it. Is the old cow a lesser hunting experience than the nice bull that might be half her age? Now consider that he can just keep hunting, and being selective and using his hunting skills with the only difference being that he doesn't have to quit and go home and pay trophy fees, shipping and taxidermy of some thing that he doesn't even want. He just picks up his empties and continues hunting.

That's selective culling, there's also herd reduction hunts that you try to kill basically everything you see. There's a lot of appeal for the guy who likes a large bag, and its tailor made for the guy that considers himself as much a shooter as a hunter. In addition to the volume of shooting there is the added attraction of multiple target shooting scenarios. Do you know the feeling of taking three or four geese out a decoying flock, or a triple calling coyotes? Well, make that six or eight and make them buffalo and swap your 22/250 or 12 gauge for a .458. For a guy hunting for experience that's different one. So is killing a whole herd of something.

Starting to get it yet? People have their own motivations for hunting, and its not important that we all want, agree on or appreciate the same thing. There are some hunting experiences that don't appeal to me much, or don't seem to be worth it to me. Maybe its something I've done a lot of and I don't think that the "profit" is there anymore. I just assume that those who do seek out those hunts and opportunities see the value for themselves. Its all good, and its all different and much of it isn't for everyone.