Since the beginning of time the human race has hunted wild game to provide for their families, communities and themselves. In 2023 a very little percentage of the population in America relies on wild game to fuel their families throughout the year. Of that population little live in the lower 48. By the end of the 19th century a variety of game animals were on the brink of extinction due to market hunting and over harvesting. In 1906 The Boone & Crockett Club had made their first efforts to manage the wildlife they coexisted with.
The Boone & Crockett Club members soon realized that the overwhelming constant pressure between market hunting (The killing of an animal for the sale of its meat & pelt), the pressure from settlers/indigenous people, and natural causes were negatively affecting their most prized possession in America, food. In 1906 the club decided to create the term trophy hunting. Trophy Hunting by their definition is -- the selective taking of mature male animals. This decision was made along with a few others (bag limit & seasons dates) to put fourth the best effort possible to enhance and improve their herds' population. With this effort their main goal was to eliminate the harvest of adolescent game/females and to only harvest mature male game after they have reached their breeding age/peak. This decision was absolutely not made for hunters to shoot an African Safari animal like any google search will tell you. This was a group decision made by hunters in efforts for themselves and for those who followed after them. To this day you can find statistics from the early 1900’s and onward. Why would a group of “bloodlust individuals” put fourth their best efforts in maintaining a healthy and breeding population of game if all they care about is killing?
I, Brandon Olson, as a lifelong hunter since the age of 8 consider myself a trophy hunter. From the time I was permitted to wield my own firearm by my mother, I hit the woods. At that age it wasn’t about filling the freezer for the months to come, it was about spending time in the most natural world you will find today. My first whitetail buck was killed in 2010, I was 13 years old. The buck was a nice mature 8-point U.P. buck (they don’t get much bigger) and from that day forward I told myself that I didn’t want to shoot anything smaller (female deer included). Does that make me a horrible person? In my childhood when the season came around 20 vehicles would line my family’s camp property hoping to stake a spot on Commercial Forest Land. Most of those adult men would take the first thing they saw. As a young teen I still had more of a moral standard then most adult men. From that time until now I have passed on more legal bucks than I have shot due to my trophy hunting morals. Moving onward my lifelong dream has been to be a guide; hunting, fishing, backcountry travel or hiking. This journey seems to be a never-ending battle as opposing views are trying their best to strip us of our rights to provide food for our families due to their hurt feelings over the matter.
Why do we even have to discuss this? The vast and drastically differentiating population of the U.S. is to blame. In 2023 2% of the American population is farmers or ranchers. That means 2% of the American population feeds the 98% of the population. To put that into perspective, 1% of the population of each state provides the food for the rest. Of course, when it isn't outsourced by countries like New Zealand and Australia. Which under the Biden Administration a law was placed which companies can now sell beef as “product of the U.S.A” as long as it was cut in the U.S. That means I can ship over a full steer carcass from Australia, cut one steak off of it and label it as a product of the U.S.A. This ties into this subject as majority of the citizens of the U.S. live in either city or suburb environments which they have never gotten their food from anywhere but the supermarket. This leads them to believe that everyone should do the same... I've never seen a whitetail deer stand and live in knee high feces, but I guarantee you that the beef you’re eating has been or the veggies you're eating has been in fields fertilized with tons of manure over the years.
A war of nothing. That is what I consider this battle. This fight that outdoorsmen/women face against the anti-hunting movement is unfathomable. What happens when the next pandemic hits and our beloved toilet paper is off the shelves? Beef? Veggies? These same people are those who flaunt that eating a veggie-based diet is that answer... What happens in a bad crop year? What happens when most of the U.S.’s produce is genetically modified? I’d personally rather eat a possum than Bill Gates’s waxed apples. Yet this is why our ancestors chose America in the first place, a land of freedom. Free to eat what you please, spend your time freely, vote for what you believe in but please don’t vote against something that means nothing to you and everything to your neighbor.
Brandon Olson
Lone Wolf Adventures
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