Hunting- By Messor- Part Five

[Messor]

Hunting- By Messor- Part Five

Then and Now

As luck would have it, most of us would be here today because there are plenty a folk that came before us. Some are born in a lab, no shame about it, and some are made the old fashion way, that is where the luck comes in. Now the reason I start off like this, is for someone to know his own identity he must know the identity of those who came before him. One cannot measure one’s own knowledge matrix against yourself, you must measure it against others. Humans are no different to any other species regarding the following fact, the people whom we measure ourselves against most is our close relatives, or indeed our parents. For young people it’s often a mirroring effect, meaning they adjust their own values not according to the things they learn, rather they adjust their own values according to that which they mirror, or call it mimic. For us as hunters to understand ourselves we need to look where we came from, and such are the merits of this article.

Let’s start with the obvious, where does most learn to hunt? Well to be honest the question is simple, most learn hunting from their parents. There are a few adults who only start hunting as adults, but that is the exception rather than the norm. Now when I say parents, let’s be brutally honest and say the father. Or for those who did not have a father perhaps a grandfather or an uncle. I seriously doubt anybody of good age here have been taught by their mothers. In the ever changing world more female hunters are joining in, and as such I expect that to perhaps change a little over time, perhaps to the benefit of hunters, as woman sometimes have greater influence in the more subtle teachings of young minds. I still expect men to rule the day, and woman to rule them from behind the scenes, so no harm done, everybody have their place.

That said, what are such teachings? Well to be blunt I cannot tell you, I don’t know what you have been taught, have you been taught, have you been taught the proper way, what is the proper way? Strange questions, but truthful ones, and unfortunately very sensitive ones. I say sensitive because like it or not, what people teach us is not always correct. My oldest daughter always gets home from school and she always amuses me with the wonderful facts her teachers taught her. Problem is, MANY things they teach her are just wrong. She would come home and tell me the most poisonous snake on the earth is a black mamba, I would say no, that would either be the inland taipan for land snakes, or some see krait for the aquatic versions(just an example). And folks, when someone teaches my children wrong I get upset, perhaps sometimes wrongfully so. I have no problem in telling my child her teacher is stupid, and my wife would hit me over the head with an inherently hard object I should have hidden away from such foul purposes. The fact remains, you as hunter, were you taught correctly, or are you just under the impression that you were taught correctly?

It’s a tough one, one I do not want to be the judge of, but certainly in my lifetime I have seen a lifetime of hunters who cannot hunt, who doesn’t know how. Hunters who cannot shoot, hunters who cannot stalk, hunters who cannot do anything remotely related directly to hunting properly in any way, yet they reserve the name “hunter” for themselves. Should I be the assho… person who tells them that they are stupid, that they have been taught wrongly, what do you think? Diplomacy have never been my strong point when it comes to hunting. You either know how, and I give you credit for such. You either don’t know how admittedly, and I give you credit for admitting such. Or you don’t know how but think you do, and then my credit limit is far exceeded much like my bank balance. Whatever the case may be, and this must be becoming a bit of a cliché by now, you guys are wondering where I am going with this, and how can I possibly teach people about hunting with this line of thought. Well as always bear with me and I will enlighten.

My father, what a man, may I grow up to be a person of such caliber! Problem is, and listen to what I tell you know, having the worlds respect for him also caused me to be drawn into his likings, HIS decisions. If he liked a certain car, man that car was good, if he liked a certain drink, man that drink was good, etc etc etc. Many of us are made that way, many of us unknowingly inherited a certain love for a certain object NOT for the logical workings of the object, rather because of the man who’s object it is. Let’s break this up into 2 categories, hunting itself and hunting equipment.

Hunting itself, well that is how you hunt, if a father never set a foot outside of a vehicle there is a very good chance that a sibling of his inherited that trait. And that person will not know anything else than that, and as such that person cannot be judged on that, can he? Take the father who only took his son walk and stalk hunting, such a person can most definitely grow up doing the same, and might have some resentment towards people who doesn’t do that. I for one am certainly a person who frowns upon people who “hunt” from vehicles alone, willingly, but alas, the older I get the more I let people do what they want, perhaps I am getting…….more open minded? Remember that last few words, open minded, we’ll run into that again near the end of this article. Now I can name many things related to hunting that is taught specifically to certain people, like some people hunt but cannot skin, some people skin bus doesn’t work meat, some people shoot and give the meat to a butcher to do both. Truly I cannot see a problem with such but it remains something that you might not have decided to do, instead it’s something you learned to do, from mimicking. That is all I will say about that, there are too many things people are taught for me to name them all.

Hunting equipment, ha, here things become interesting. Please do tell me what is the best caliber out there, please do tell me what is the best scope out there? And if you answer that question, please do tell me how you came to that conclusion. My friends, it’s like sitting at school and listening to the debate between some 10 year olds. My father’s car is twice as fast as yours, best- best. My father is twice as strong as yours, my father can run twice as fast, and when it comes to hunting? Well, to be honest when it comes to hunting there is a very good change that either you will have a similar caliber as your father, hold a certain caliber in high regards because of your father, or indeed inherit the damn thing from your father or grandfather. And as such we fall on the Achilles heel of myself, indeed most of you know that I despise a 30-06. And perhaps after this article you would understand why. The 30-06 is the most used hunting rifle in the world, not because it’s the best at anything, no because READ THIS ARTICLE! People really don’t like change, they like the tried and tested. And indeed the 30-06 can do many things very well. But for ALL, and listen I did not say “almost” all, I said for all hunting applications we have in SA there is a better caliber out there. So why don’t people use better calibers, well people, especially grownups doesn’t like change, doesn’t like to be told what to do by others, and simply don’t like to be told they are wrong. Let’s forget weapons for a while, you can talk scopes, binocs, the type of clothes we wear, a knife we use, man you just name it, some things you chose because of reasons beyond your control.

Ok, let’s settle down and try and make sense of the whole thing. If humans cannot decide what’s the best for themselves, then surely the world must be a very interesting place? Well my friend, this whole predicament really does make the world a better place. I guess many of you like to visit online firearm manufacturer websites, or sites that sell firearms, etc etc. If so you would know that there are some many products out there that without any guidance nobody just starting in the business would have a clue as to where to begin. There are hundreds of makes, hundreds of calibers, hundreds of scopes, hundreds of powders(not in SA), thousands of bullets, the list is endless. Surely there cannot be that much, surely the need cannot be that high, surely most people can do with only the minimum. Well, can you? Yep, you can do with precious little, you can do without that which others cant, you can use the products they don’t like, and vice versa. The world of the firearm enthusiast is a wonderful place. And on that topic I must make a bit of fun with our handgun brothers. You know every time I read a handgun debate I think to myself SHEESH!, these people are crazy!! Don’t you know you should just buy a glock , practice a lot, and get on with your life? What’s the big freaking deal, much ado about nothing, see even Willem Wikkelspies knew these handgun folks are crazy.

Alas, it’s easy to point fingers, I myself am a good illustration of that, and so the only thing I can teach anybody is to………..think, think upon you choices. Don’t come to me and say this is the best because Mr X says so, don’t come to me saying this is best because your father said so, don’t come to be saying this is the best because your firearm instructor said so. Be aware that last example is probably the most important one, because people with no experience must learn from such a person. The crux of the matter is should you just take the word of such an instructor you would also fail, because any instructor worth a damn would answer a question should you ask him. The question is simple, can you explain to my why something is better, and how it compares against other things, and can you demonstrate the difference to me. THAT my friends is how progress are made in life, not by blindly accepting the things we hear, no, by asking questions and testing products and techniques.

Back to hunting, do you test things out, and do you study things in order for you to better yourself, to better educate yourself in your said hobby, perhaps even work? Do you know the workings of a specific action, do you know the difference between controlled feed and push feed for example? Or do you use a “mauser” type action simply because you were told it’s the best. Do you use 10-100 x 70 scope because your father was a sniper, or do you use a 2.5-7 x32 simply because you were told you can hunt any animal on any terrain with it?

Let’s stop the current topic there, and reflect upon our fathers, or grandfathers. Tell me exactly how your father did things in his day, tell me exactly how your grandfather did things in his day. If you have never sat down and talked to them in depth about this topic then read on. Look, your grandfather probably was no sniper, and your father no special ops, yes yes some “might” be but statistically your folks would be ordinary folks. Unless your family is blessed with a REALLY long lifespan then probably none of your living family ever saw the huge migrations we just read about in books, they never shot wild lions while off springbok hunting and they did not use the voorlaaier during the battle of bloedrivier. I think if you ask them how they grew up their story would be similar to yours. They actually had to work for a living, they hunted a few times a year on farms ,not wild land, they also loved a new shiny weapon, some new line of ammo, or the brand spanking new “Weaver” telescope, a 4-40 best in the world class scope, and so forth and so forth. Indeed my friends I think our parents were much the same as us, before they had us that is. They liked new innovation, like that new car or colour TV, that new scope or wildcat cartridge. Today we are blessed with truly many choices, but many of us are not blessed with the correct information to make the correct choice, and as such my teachings.

Ok, today I did not teach you anything hunting specific, that is not always possible, if the only thing I taught you was to have an “open mind” then a victory it was none the less. There is only one thing in life we HAVE to live with, and that is our own choices. If it is indeed as serious as that then we owe it to ourselves to understand our choices, and those made for us. Those made for us is those as explained in the article, those we make ourselves is those made out of studying and homework, research into a given subject/object to best make an informed decision.

Lets end here for today. Please reflect upon your past, as it will also be your future. Many things you were taught will also be passed down to your children, or indeed others under your guidance. You owe it to them to make sure that your teachings are correct, up to date, and in the best interest of those you teach. You need to approach all subjects regarding hunting with an open mind, tolerance (Ja-Ja), and most importantly, logic. Logic governs informed decisions, not sentiment. We cannot change the past but we can change the future. If you cling onto the past for reasons you do not understand then you are in the wrong, if you cling onto the past for reasons pure and uplifting then you are in the right. Think.....

Because, Then and Now , all started out as Tomorrow’s

[Theron2033]

👌

[Messor]



Theron, I just see a square box, nothing else.

So, either you are mad or enjoyed it :)

[Theron2033]

Theron, I just see a square box, nothing else.

So, either you are mad or enjoyed it :)

I enjoy it. Haha. On my phone it's a thumbs up. :)

[Messor]

[NarcSap]

Very good read Sir................

[DaavG]

Messor, I've thoroughly enjoyed your articles on hunting!! Very well written! I'm very new to this game, you call hunting. My old man didn't hunt but my father-in-law does and he's introducing me to the world.

Would love to know your favorite calibre since you despised the 30-06?

[Messor]

Messor, I've thoroughly enjoyed your articles on hunting!! Very well written! I'm very new to this game, you call hunting. My old man didn't hunt but my father-in-law does and he's introducing me to the world.

Would love to know your favorite calibre since you despised the 30-06?

David

I grew up in the karoo so hunting distance and target animals sort of automatically made my favorite caliber the 270win.
I would understand that a person growing up in the bushveld have little use for such a cartridge, and his environment would require a different one.

I would like to think that had I grew up there(bushveld), and studied all the requirements, shooting distance, target animals etc etc, I would have chosen the 308win for all my general hunting needs.

[Antlion]

Good read, thanks for bumping this up David.

[CZ Fan]

I think this hunting series from Messor should be made "stickies"?