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Here’s what’s worth reading today, Tuesday, December 1, 2020:
Texas deer hunting enjoyment not just about pulling the trigger
‘Just amazing’: 7-year-old shoots 21-point trophy buck in Wisconsin
The period for hunting deer with guns is coming to a close in Wisconsin, but one 7-year-old boy scored a trophy buck that could keep him smiling until next season.
“For him to be able to shoot an animal that size, and everything else, it was just amazing,” said the young hunter’s dad, Eric Manske.
It happened on an Oconto County deer ranch.
“I didn’t really get a good shot at it, but I got it in the throat then out the shoulder,” said Jericho Manske, who shot down the 21-point buck.
“It’s always been one shot. He hasn’t ever taken more than that at an animal,” his father added.
Northern Minnesota hunter fatally shot after being mistaken for a deer
A Bemidji man is dead after he was shot by another man while deer hunting last week in Beltrami County, according to authorities in northern Minnesota.
Officials identified the victim as Lukas R. Dudley, 28.
Last Wednesday evening, the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office received a report from the FBI and Red Lake Tribal Police that they were investigating a hunting-related fatality that occurred on or near the Red Lake Nation boundary near Puposky. Puposky is about 15 miles north of Bemidji.
Dudley was deer hunting when he was shot by another hunter, who was identified as Rain Stately, 33, of Redby. Stately and Dudley were not hunting together, the sheriff’s office said.
Near dusk, Stately said that he noticed movement of what he thought was a deer and fired one round from his rifle. When he discovered Dudley, he immediately called 911 and has been cooperating with the investigation.
As times change, hunting cohort needs women
Few activities are as universally practiced across cultures and age groups as hunting, and perhaps big game hunting especially. This is true whether in South America, Africa, Europe, Asia — or Minnesota, where, long before statehood, youth joined their elders to pursue elk, woodland caribou, moose and deer.
So it remains today, with an asterisk that draws attention to what is believed to be an increasing interest in hunting among women.
This is important, as is greater participation in hunting among minorities, because the hunting population is dominated by baby boomers who are aging out of the pastime. If their numbers aren’t replaced, the thinking goes, by the traditional hunter cohort — white males — in addition to greater numbers of women and minorities, hunting and the funding it provides for conservation are doomed to further diminishment.
A review of current Minnesota deer license sales underscores that girls show a strong interest in hunting relative to boys. But the data also indicate that something happens as girls age that causes some of them to drop out of hunting.
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