“A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience, rather than by a mob of onlookers. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this fact.”
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
My quest to become a hunter started in my early 20’s when I was looking for a middle ground with the man I hoped would one day become my father in law. I had always loved the outdoors and appreciated the hunting way of life, but for one reason or another, had never pursued hunting myself. After dating my now wife for almost a year, dove season was right around the corner and I had made little headway on “bonding” with her dad and decided to throw up a hail Mary. I indirectly invited myself on his annual opening day dove hunt which he traditionally goes on with business partners and close friends. After admitting that I did not own a gun or know more than the Boy Scouts teach you about shooting one, we had our first outing planned.
He arranged for a shooting lesson and provided a 12 gauge Remington pump shotgun for me to practice with. I was tested for eye dominance and then shot on paper so I could see where the gun was hitting in my field of view. From there we went to an open field with several clay launchers connected to car batteries and a shooting stand made of half rotten 2×4’s. We practiced crossing shots from the left then the right, we shots clays going away and some heading straight at us. The whole thing lasted less than an hour but I had a great time.
Two weeks later we were in a harvested corn field before sunrise. I was sitting on a bucket along a fence line, more nervous than I had been since my last high school football playoff game. Partly because I was worried I would be terrible but also worried I would do something to permanently damage my chances at marrying this man’s daughter. The short version of the story is I shot my limit and only made a few small first timer infractions that the men in the group were willing to overlook despite some initial harassment.
Since that first outing I have been blessed with more days afield than I can count, a tremendous relationship with my father in law and a community of hunters that I consider friends. My goal for this blog is to bring preparation for hunting from all of the areas that I have come to appreciate as important. I will discuss physical preparation from workout plans to equipment selection and reviews to how to pick an outfitter or plan a self-guided hunt. Finally, I will highlight how to travel the country and the world, all in the name of Hunt 2 Travel.
Scott
Hunt 2 Travel 