Helen Kranitz’s complaints about hunters being “real men” in the Oct. 7 Beacon shows one can live around here and yet know little about the area.
As it happens, our ancestors also used camouflaging scents, luring scents and game calls, and it is amazing she could live around here and not know this. She wants today’s hunters to be “real men” and hunt like our ancestors did? Maybe she does, but most of us who hunt today don’t think fair chase includes setting snares and pit falls for deer and elk, or running a herd of game animals off a cliff so we can take whatever we can manage to handle and leave the rest to waste. In fact, if Ms. Kranitz bothered to look at our hunting regulations, she’d realize all of that is – rightly – illegal today.
As for calling on hunters (including women like my wife apparently) to be “real men,” perhaps she should take a shot at getting and preparing her food, clothing, etc., like a “real woman” from the same era. No hitting the local box store for her. The idea of her snaring and gutting rabbits and chewing the left over fat off a raw deer hide to soften it and prepare it for tanning has a real visual appeal.
Rick Lowe
Whitefish