Gun Dog Forum

Just came across this beauty during a re-read of "The Bobwhite Quail Book" by Lamar Underwood, the quote is actually from an entry written by Gene Hill "My Respects to Mr. Bob"

“I felt strange and somewhat rude as I walked in behind the point and honor – I was a man walking into what was so much like a famous painting that I almost had to laugh. But, if you’re lucky, that’s what a lot of quail hunting is – a series of lovely paintings that we walk into and out of all day long.”

Anybody got any of their favorites they would like to share?

It was either Bob Wehle or Ben Williams (or maybe both) who said something to the effect of "I enjoy the pursuit of game much more than the taking of it." I really like that. Wish more people practiced it, maybe we'd have more birds.

"If I could shoot a game bird and still not hurt it, the way I can take a trout on a fly and release it, I doubt if I would kill another one. This is a strange statement coming from a man whose life is dedicated to shooting and gun dogs. For me, there is almost no moment more sublime than when I pull the trigger and see a grouse fall. Yet, as the bird is retrieved I feel a sense of remorse for taking a courageous life. About the time I passed fifty I noticed this conflict becoming more pronounced...
"How then, can you love a bird and kill it and still feel decent? I think the answer is, to be worthy of your game. Which boils down to a gentleman's agreement between you and the bird, never forgetting that it is the bird that has everything to lose. It consists of things you feel and do, not because someone is looking or because the law says you may or must not, but because you feel that this is the honorable way to do it."....George Bird Evans

Mountaineer wrote:"If I could shoot a game bird and still not hurt it, the way I can take a trout on a fly and release it, I doubt if I would kill another one. This is a strange statement coming from a man whose life is dedicated to shooting and gun dogs. For me, there is almost no moment more sublime than when I pull the trigger and see a grouse fall. Yet, as the bird is retrieved I feel a sense of remorse for taking a courageous life. About the time I passed fifty I noticed this conflict becoming more pronounced...
"How then, can you love a bird and kill it and still feel decent? I think the answer is, to be worthy of your game. Which boils down to a gentleman's agreement between you and the bird, never forgetting that it is the bird that has everything to lose. It consists of things you feel and do, not because someone is looking or because the law says you may or must not, but because you feel that this is the honorable way to do it."....George Bird Evans

I don't think I understood all of the second paragraph, but the first paragraph is really phenomenal. I was surprised to find out that a whole lot of hunters and birddoggers don't like to kill the bird, what they enjoy is the pursuit. Running dogs is like living poetry.

"Hunting is the noblest sport yet devised by the hand of man. There were mighty hunters in the Bible, and all the caves where the cave men lived are full of carvings of assorted game the head of the house drug home. If you hunt to eat, or hunt for sport for something fine, something that will make you proud, and make you remember every single detail of the day you found him and shot him, that is good too." Robert Ruark

"One does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, one kills in order to have hunted"

-Jose Ortega y Gasset, from "Meditations on Hunting"

"When you have shot one bird flying you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first."

-Ernest Hemingway, Winner Take Nothing

"The average hunter doesn’t have time to work out at a gym. Instead, he must slave away at two or three jobs in order to pay for all the expensive paraphernalia that makes serious hunting possible – jewelry, furs, fancy dresses, and the like. Otherwise, there’s no way his spouse is going to let him spend all his spare time out hunting. " -- Patrick McManus

campbellj21 wrote:"One does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, one kills in order to have hunted"

-Jose Ortega y Gasset, from "Meditations on Hunting"

One of my favorites.

nikegundog wrote:"The average hunter doesn’t have time to work out at a gym. Instead, he must slave away at two or three jobs in order to pay for all the expensive paraphernalia that makes serious hunting possible – jewelry, furs, fancy dresses, and the like. Otherwise, there’s no way his spouse is going to let him spend all his spare time out hunting. " -- Patrick McManus

Ah, the sacrifices we make

Watching 60 Minutes' story on hunting and African big game conservation and species recovery on Texas game farms, the part hunters have played in that process and how the Fund for Animals is fighting that effort in court, reminds me of a quote by one of our greatest presidents Teddy Roosevelt,

“Game-butchery is as objectionable as any other form of wanton cruelty or barbarity, but to protest against all hunting of game is a sign of softness of the head, not soundness of the heart.”

We need to clone Teddy and have him run again.