How to keep the tradition alive?

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FirearmFan
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How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by FirearmFan » Tue Feb 11, 2014 11:04 am

This weekend I was out training the pup with the training group that I am a part of. Afterwards we were eating lunch and some of the guys (all avid field trialers) were talking about the current state of trials and also how they were back when they started trailing. They mentioned about 5 people who quit this year due to their age and how one gentlemen who was 40yrs old is one of the younger guys in the game. They also reminisced about back when they started how there was so many people that they had to add an extra day to the trial to fit everyone in. In this case I am referring to spaniel trials but I would imagine this is fairly consistent with retriever and pointer games as well.

I don't trial yet as I am on my first dog and he is still a pup but I would like to get into it but this is a problem with hunting as well. I'm an avid hunter (not just birds) and it seems like more people are retiring from hunting than starting it (this is just from observation, I don't have any hard data on this). Obviously there are less wild birds than there used to be but with less hunters to fight for the cause I only see the problem getting worse.

I'm 27 yrs old and I hope to have many more of hunting and great memories ahead of me. What do you do to help introduce new people to hunting and keep the hunting/trialing tradition alive? I'm looking for some ideas because I know I can do more than I currently do.

I try to educate people on hunting and gun safety and I have introduced many friends to hunting and shooting over the past 6 years. When I met my wife she was fairly anti gun and somewhat anti hunting. Now she enjoys shooting and has gone grouse, duck, and deer hunting with me. She even got her first buck this past season. I think this year she will also come turkey and pheasant hunting.

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RoostersMom
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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by RoostersMom » Tue Feb 11, 2014 12:06 pm

I would suggest joining your local Pheasants Forever or Quail Forever chapter. They aren't just about those species, they are about the whole system improving. That means youth and women hunters - and more of them. The "No Child Left Indoors" initiative by PF/QF is all about getting youth introduced to the outdoors. Join a local chapter...don't have one? Start one!

Our local Quail Forever chapter does a youth rabbit hunt, youth pheasant hunt, youth coon hunt, youth dove hunt, etc...... We also do a habitat day for the youth (they plant covey headquarters shrubs for habitat), and a family fun outdoors day (700 high of attendance a few years ago). And a family fun trial (but we don't get a lot of kids at that). And a pollinator planting day is in our future. We couldn't do any of these things without volunteers that care about getting kids outdoors. I am of the opinion that getting involved is the best way to really make a difference.
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Chukar12
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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by Chukar12 » Tue Feb 11, 2014 12:28 pm

I suppose like all traditions the overwhelming factor is the cultural motivation of the populace. Instant results, if not gratification is the enemy of dog training and can be the dark side of harvesting fish and game. Technology and an ever increasing desire for faster and constant entertainment may be conditioning a series of generations with habits and perspective that renders this tradition we speak of to impotency. If this isn't a losing battle and we must assume it is not; I think the solution lies within the grass roots steps described in your original post. Individual actions create a collective effort and this and only this changes culture.

If you can indulge my rambling there are a number of challenges to this. First, perception is reality. When you are a minority within a "democracy" it appears your rights are subject to the whims and interpretations of a majority or the benefactors of the majority. The Constitution does allow for amendment and lobbyists make a living off it. We have the right to do many things still in the sporting or hunting world however, how we do them makes a difference. The vast majority of the populace is apathetic regarding hunting as they once were guns in general, does it appear that way now? The nefarious side of things is of great human interest and frankly it feeds the media machine, rarely if ever is the mainstream exposed to anything other than tragedy or perceived blood thirst as it relates to guns or hunting. Moreover, it likely never will as the media centers are not a bastion of shooting sports enthusiasts and it does not appear they will be. We cannot feed them human interest and shock value material: If you care to see a precursor of the results, reference hound hunting in California. An emotionally motivated, ignorant majority can and does set policy. So all the tough guys who are exercising their rights by cramming things others find distasteful down folks throats take heed as to what you are doing.

My personal theory on field trials in general is that while it may be aging in this cultural change, it has always been a sport of shall we say the mature? The barrier to entry is time and money and its my experience that any excesses of these occur a bit later in life. We must adapt within the organizations to accept, embrace and guide some of the newer venues. Breed clubs and competitive organizations divide because enthusiasts and competitors focus far too much of their energy on personal perspectives and needs and not near enough on the bigger pictures. The challenge is to find a common objective and feed that collectively through a set of core values.

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GrayGhost
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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by GrayGhost » Tue Feb 11, 2014 12:50 pm

I've been thinking about this too since I saw the 'What would you pay" post that was going around a few weeks ago. I'm a young guy like you, 28, so I'm still new to all of this. But like was said earlier the barriers to entry for upland hunting can be pretty high if you don't have any help. I was lucky, I've hunted elk and deer my whole life but never did any upland hunting. When I was in college I was lucky enough that a buddy of mine and his uncle invited me to go with their dogs, and from there I was hooked. Being in college and living in apartments getting and training a hunting dog was completely out of the question, and again lucky on my part that we have some wild birds around to use, because I don't know if as a college student eating ramen and mac and cheese every night, if I could have justified going and paying for birds at a preserve. Lucky for me the stars aligned and people were kind enough to let me tag along for those first 6 years. But they got me hooked and the first thing I did when I had a house was go find a bird hunting puppy that I could train.

Because I was so fortunate to have been helped out along the way and I want to help keep upland and bird hunting alive and well, I really try to help out as many people as I can. If someone is interested in coming out with me I'll invite them along. There's a younger kid in my neighborhood whose parents don't hunt at all, but he is really interested in hunting and saw the dog and I training one day and stopped by. So I let him come by and help with the dog and told him next year if his parents okay'd it, that he could come hunt with me. In my opinion if we can just help people get started they'll get hooked, but its always hard to break into something new, and considering how much help I received, it would be pretty ungrateful of me not to try and help someone else out.

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Sharon
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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by Sharon » Tue Feb 11, 2014 2:41 pm

How did we get into it? Probably from Dad etc. taking us out as kids. 10 tracked generations of hunters here. This is what parents need to do ... if you can get them away from computer games. :(

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ezzy333
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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by ezzy333 » Tue Feb 11, 2014 4:01 pm

I started on my own. No one in the family even owned a shotgun. My folks bought me a plastic stocked 12 guauge side by side when I was 12 or 13 for my birthday. Since no one hunted I went by myself.

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RoostersMom
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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by RoostersMom » Tue Feb 11, 2014 7:23 pm

I did not grow up hunting at all, never went until college (boyfriend took me). At the PF State Meeting in Nebraska last weekend the National rep working with kids presented a program in which he said the average youth spends 7 and a half hours PER DAY on an electronic device. Ouch...

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Sharon
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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by Sharon » Tue Feb 11, 2014 9:21 pm

ezzy333 wrote:I started on my own. No one in the family even owned a shotgun. My folks bought me a plastic stocked 12 guauge side by side when I was 12 or 13 for my birthday. Since no one hunted I went by myself.
So what made you want to get into it? Must have been some prompt.

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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by Wildweeds » Tue Feb 11, 2014 11:18 pm

I grew up in a hunting family on both sides, my paternal side were from mississipi,my grandmothers job on their plantation was as a young girl to head afield and get supper with a dog a mule and a shotgun,my grandfathers family were cotton farmers as well and hunters.My maternal side is butchers/slaughterhouse owners, avid big game hunters with an almost relative like connection with a cattle rancher who they bought livestock from.The inaugural deerhunt on that 15k acre piece was in 1936 and continues today.I hunted birds with my paternal grandfather from the time I was 5 years old as a tag along,I started deer hunting as a tag along at 10,I started carrying a gun on my own at 13.With no kids of my own I get to live vicariously through my nephew(he's only 5 but his day is coming) and my cousins boys who are 12,14 and 15,I take them rifle shooting and just last weekend I helped give them a lesson on shooting skeet/sporting clays.The older boys are from the maternal big game side and as such are allready accomplished big game hunters with a 320 class elk and a 200 class mule deer on the wall.This year they found the love of ducks which are not my favorite but I used to hunt quite a bit.It's actually alot of fun to just go make sure their decoy spread is right and run the call for them and signal when to start shooting.They are also part of some interscholastic clays program that I'm going to help them with,surprisingly enough they listen well to instruction.Perhaps it's because after 4 direct misses,and then some instruction that lends itself to 5 breaks works.My paternal granny had a saying she said often "Anyone who can use a shotgun and drive will always get by"

jimbo&rooster
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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by jimbo&rooster » Wed Feb 12, 2014 7:50 am

Sharon wrote:
ezzy333 wrote:I started on my own. No one in the family even owned a shotgun. My folks bought me a plastic stocked 12 guauge side by side when I was 12 or 13 for my birthday. Since no one hunted I went by myself.
So what made you want to get into it? Must have been some prompt.

I don't know about Ezzy, but I was drawn into the sport by the books I read. My dad had bird dogs but they were old and on their way out by the time I got old enough to go.

I read "Drummer In the Woods", several books by Zane Grey, and knew Teddy Roosevelt was more than a president. I always have been drawn to dogs, I started in hounds, but Burton Spillers stories have always drawn me to pointing dogs as I have read and re read Drummer in the woods.

I find that even the kids who do want to be in the woods hunting are only there for the kill, they have been ingrained with the High Fence rock star image of the out door channel. They watch duck dynasty, and they think a camo under armor shirt and a pair of john deer cowboy boots they buy at rural king and tuck their boots into makes them country.

I teach middle school shop class, and these kids like to hear stories about my dogs, and they want to see pictures but they can only relate through the video games they play.

My 7yo nephew decided this winter he wanted to tag along for a couple hunts..... until he realized it was cold, and muddy, and was more work than sitting at home watching TV. When I was 7, I had my own hound and we scoured the bottoms behind dads farm chasing anything with fur. I fear that each generation will have fewer and fewer hunters and even fewer sportsman among those ranks.

Jim

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ultracarry
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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by ultracarry » Wed Feb 12, 2014 9:46 am

I think chukar pointed out why it's a sport that is mostly attended by the crowd that is about 15-30 years older then myself. Time and Money!!! If I wasn't single with a decent amount of expendable income I couldn't afford to compete with one dog let alone two. Then you have to get birds to train with, food, gas, entry fees, etc. most people can't spend over a thousand dollars a month on dogs. Let alone have a string of 8 or 9...

I was the bird dog for my dad when I was younger, flushing mountain quail from manzanita so thick an adult couldn't get through. But it's pretty cool looking back how we would make a fire and cook some birds on a stick while it was snowing. But starting field trailing I got hooked with a derby win :/

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whatsnext
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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by whatsnext » Wed Feb 12, 2014 10:33 am

I would love to start trialing and hopefully next fall or next spring at the latest i will but just getting divorced and getting back on my feet i just do not have the money or time because i am working every weekend. I have always wanted to try trials ever since i got my first britt at 13 but have never had the time or money. I think chukar 12 is right on the money and you see this in many hobby's, i saw the same thing with drag racing all the older guy's usually had the nicest and fastest car's and if a young kid had something his parent's were footing the bill or something illegal was going on.

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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by fuzznut » Wed Feb 12, 2014 12:01 pm

Worked for a guy who had dogs he trialed and I used to go and watch. Bought a puppy and figured if I am going to own a bird dog, I better learn what they are supposed to do. No one in my family hunted so was never exposed.

Hubby hunted deer and birds, but with a friends spaniel. Not much help there.

Got talked into entering that little brown puppy in a puppy stake and came away with a yellow ribbon! Can you say "Hooked"? Luckily we had a great pro who lived very close and took me under his wing and taught me what a bird dog should do. Denes Burjan got more young folks into trials... he was great! We had a great gang of people that would get together every weekend and work our dogs. Denes encouraged us, trained us, brought us all along.

I was all of 20 when I got that first ribbon, still at it 30 some yrs later.

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Re: How to keep the tradition alive?

Post by AlbertaChessie » Wed Feb 12, 2014 12:14 pm

I think you unintentionally stated the reason behind the decline in trialing folk yourself! Seems nowadays the trialing community has developed an old boys club type mentality and whats worse, trials are no longer about the viability of the dog and handler in the field and moreso about lab catered 'drills' and showmanship (speaking in terms of retriever trials). Gone are the days when I would ever gauge a dogs true hunting and field potential based on his trialing lineage. In fact, from my experience, I tend to stay away from trialing lines when it comes to selecting my dogs. I equate trials to pro sports combines before an entry draft. How many players have you seen that dominate the 'show' that is a combine, that fit the 'prototypical mold' of what an ideal athlete should be, only to flop or have an undrafted un tested athlete come in a fill their spot on the roster. Ive said it for years.....when a trialing or hunt test begins to include the ability of the dog to break ice over moving water in -20 degrees Celsius I MIGHT consider worrying about that facet of its lineage.

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