Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 54

Thread: trophy hunters

  1. #1
    walk lightly on the earth wildWoman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Yukon River Watershed, Canada
    Posts
    1,126
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default trophy hunters

    Hi again to those who still know me - hope everything's fine in your neck of the woods or city! Everything's okay here, except for a crazy amount of mosquitoes this year.

    I'm currently writing a thriller that features an illegal bear trophy hunt as a side plot, and thought you guys might be able to come up with some insight into the motivation of people who trophy hunt. I guess for illegal trophy hunts a criminal mindset is part of the mix, but I would think the basic interest would be similar to legal trophy hunters.

    Is it an attraction to danger, is there a thrill or enjoyment in killing a large animal? Is it an adrenaline rush that's impossible to get any other way?

    ****I do not want to start a huge discussion about trophy hunting here. Those who remember me will have an idea what my views on this are. I'm merely trying to portray the characters in my book as real people.
    FYI, we hunt for meat and live in a fly-in location in northwestern Canada. I make my living as a freelance writer.****
    Actions speak louder than words


  2. #2
    One step at a time intothenew's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    WV
    Posts
    1,139

    Default

    Testosterone, tongue in cheek.

    Type A, must have the recognition, the prestige.

    A subset of type A is the challenge, the challenge being extremely proficient with a weapon.

    A biological/natural obsession/curiosity of the particular creature.

    Burnout on just whacking and stacking.
    "They call us civilized because we are easy to sneak up on."- Lone Waite

  3. #3
    Senior Member BENESSE's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Gotham
    Posts
    9,676

    Default

    Check out Teddy Roosevelt. Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde when it came to wildlife and wilderness/national parks preservation.

  4. #4
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    SE/SW Wisconsin
    Posts
    26,866

    Default

    From the beginning of time, the best hunters, prospered, were important, got the best females, ate better and were the in the upper class.
    Involves the risk, difficulty, skill, physical prowess......bragging rights.

    Hunting trophies has evolved and is the same as.... to:.... making the most money, being the best race car driver, doing the most dangerous jobs, being the "first' at anything,

    While seemly a outdated and barbarous way of life, the fact is man kind wouldn't have evolved much, if they just layed around and said......Ahw, that's good enough........No need wheel, too much work.
    Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
    Evoking the 50 year old rule...
    First 50 years...worried about the small stuff...second 50 years....Not so much
    Member Wahoo Killer knives club....#27

  5. #5
    Senior Member BENESSE's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Gotham
    Posts
    9,676

    Default

    It's smoke all and mirrors of being a BMOC. Shooting an elephant doesn't require courage or good marksmanship but it sure sounds impressive to that ever shrinking and distorted mindset of people who'd pee in their pants if someone challenged them to a kick boxing match in a ring.

  6. #6

  7. #7
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Central Indiana
    Posts
    58,832

    Default

    You surely have any number of hunters in your area that have trophies mounted for display. Probably some of your friends. Ask them why they display the heads. You should be able to extrapolate some character traits common among them. Talk to some taxidermists and ask them what kind of customers they have. Again, I assume you know one or two in your area. Not having done any of the above I can't help you other than offer some suggestions of where to turn.

    Welcome back and good luck on the book.
    Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.

  8. #8
    walk lightly on the earth wildWoman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Yukon River Watershed, Canada
    Posts
    1,126
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default

    Thanks, those are some really good points ... weapons, of course! That would be another big interest.

    Thanks so much for digging up all those threads, Crash - duh, the search function

    Hi Rick, I just know meat hunters who see about as much point in mounting their kill as city folks would with the carcass of their barbeque chicken. But yes, there is a former guide I can ask and also check assorted forums It won't be just based on the answers from here!
    Actions speak louder than words

  9. #9
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    North Florida
    Posts
    44,846

    Default

    Since Sourdough guided so many hunts over the years, he may be able to offer some insight from the perspective of a client paying big $$$$ for the hunt.
    Can't Means Won't

    My Youtube Channel

  10. #10
    Senior Member Winter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    SE Alaska
    Posts
    3,171

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by BENESSE View Post
    Check out Teddy Roosevelt. Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde when it came to wildlife and wilderness/national parks preservation.
    He loved the outdoors and hunting so much that he preserved areas so these pastimes could survive.

    Many people can't wrap their heads around the fact that elephant hunting provides the money to save elephants, feed whole villages, and provide health care to same villages.

    Hunters licenses provide the funds for huge wild areas to exist and for game management.

    I've never met a pure "trophy" hunter.

    I should have steered clear of the thread.
    I had a compass, but without a map, it's just a cool toy to show you where oceans and ice are.

  11. #11
    Senior Member Sparky93's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Southern Indiana
    Posts
    1,434

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Winter View Post
    He loved the outdoors and hunting so much that he preserved areas so these pastimes could survive.

    Many people can't wrap their heads around the fact that elephant hunting provides the money to save elephants, feed whole villages, and provide health care to same villages.

    Hunters licenses provide the funds for huge wild areas to exist and for game management.

    I've never met a pure "trophy" hunter.

    I should have steered clear of the thread.
    You beet me to it, my sentiments exactly. I think they also only hunt the management animals in this case as well, but I am not for sure...
    "Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing."
    Thomas Paine

    Minimalist Camping: Enjoy nature, don't be tortured by it. Take as little as you need to be safe and comfortable.

  12. #12
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Central Indiana
    Posts
    58,832

    Default

    From what I've read on the subject Winter appears to be correct. Poaching, as opposed to trophy hunting, is what threatens large game species in Africa. Opinions aside.

    Trophy hunting where only the horns/antlers are taken, for example, is prevalent leaving the full carcass behind. Sort of like scalping.
    Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.

  13. #13
    Senior Member ClayPick's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Nova Scotia
    Posts
    706

    Default

    In my neck of the woods Black Bear trophy collecting is all about setting out bait and bragging about it. Either that or selling it off to the highest bidder.

  14. #14
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Central Indiana
    Posts
    58,832

    Default

    I suppose, too, there are those that collect parts of the animals that are used in "medicinal" concoctions. Big money in that.
    Tracks Across the High Plains...Death on the Bombay Line...A Touch of Death and Mayhem...Dead Rock...The Griswald Mine Boys...All On Amazon Books.

  15. #15
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    KY bluegrass region-the center of the universe
    Posts
    10,360

    Default

    Truphy hunters kill selectively by the rules. By that I mean that they kill animals tha meet certain standards and refuse to kill anything beheath those standards.

    Poachers kill for profit and do so outside the legal boundries. While some "poachers" kill out of season game for food they are not in the same class as the ones that kill for profit. Trading game meat for drugs has become a big problem in the southeast.

    That is your deviding line;
    pays fees-follows rules=legal hunter
    does not pay fees, does not follow rules=illigal poacher

    Back when the WMA was being set up in this area there was a code. If a warden caught someone with one out of season rabbit or squirrel he let them go, they were hunting for food. If he caught them with more than one they were hunting for sport and got a citation.

    Wildwoman, you will find that poachers for profit are not very well respected in any area they frequent. Most are reguared as the scum of the woodcraft world. Please do your research thoroughly and do not use poaching as a general term for all hunting. There are millions of us out there paying our fees and following the rules. Past that, if someone wants to pass up shots at 50 deer to get the one single "trophy" he wants that is his business as long as he eats what he kills.

    I have heard of elephant kills feeding whole tribes for weeks.

    Even grog the caveman picked specific animals out of the heard, young, stragglers, easuiest to kill. The difference between them and us is they did not necessarily want an old tough bull, but there is evidence they placed "trophy skulls" in prominant places in their dwellings.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

  16. #16
    walk lightly on the earth wildWoman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Yukon River Watershed, Canada
    Posts
    1,126
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default

    @kyratshooter - no worries; as I mentioned, we hunt our own meat. But since the novel is set out in the woods and needs some bad guys, somebody will have to be "it". There's actually a number of "its": also a pilot with a gambling habit, a hiker gone missing, ineffective cops and a killer, apart from the bear poachers.
    I just want to be sure to understand what the attraction is in shooting trophies, since it's a totally foreign concept to me and poachers presumably get some sort of enjoyment out of what they're doing. Why are they poaching and not dealing drugs or robbing banks, for instance? If I have no clue what motivates the characters in my book, it doesn't read true. And I don't want to write a book that sucks.
    Actions speak louder than words

  17. #17
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    KY bluegrass region-the center of the universe
    Posts
    10,360

    Default

    They are just like any other theaves, degenerates or scum, they just happen to be dealing with wildlife.

    I delt with all kinds of perverted minds while I was working in the detention system. Yes, we had "poachers" too. Rest assured, if you are normal you will never understand their minds, and you would not want too! Of course there is a difference between the scumm that illigally shoot a deer every couple of weeks and a "trophy poacher".

    If you are dealing with a trophy hunter that is in quest of his quarry illigally I would place that in the arena of a meglamaniac, narcisistic, sociopath who feels the rules should not apply to him. Trophy hunting is expensive, and bribing a guide to break the law and support such a hunt would be even more expensive.

    I would make this character a rich, powerful, narcisistic former PITA or Greenpeace executive, for whom laws have no meaning. A rogue ecoterrorist.

    That would be a real twist.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

  18. #18
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    SE/SW Wisconsin
    Posts
    26,866

    Default

    Also be aware that trophy hunters aren't just in the wild life world......It just different trophies....mind set is the same.
    Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
    Evoking the 50 year old rule...
    First 50 years...worried about the small stuff...second 50 years....Not so much
    Member Wahoo Killer knives club....#27

  19. #19
    Senior Member BENESSE's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Gotham
    Posts
    9,676

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by kyratshooter View Post

    I would make this character a rich, powerful, narcisistic former PITA or Greenpeace executive, for whom laws have no meaning. A rogue ecoterrorist.

    That would be a real twist.
    I would think a rogue ecoterrorist wouldn't do a 180° but rather cross the line into serrially killing the poachers and making it look like the hunted animals did it.
    But then, who can predict rogue behavior?

  20. #20
    Senior Member karatediver's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Kalifornia
    Posts
    219

    Default

    I've never met a pure trophy hunter. I have met lots of hunters that have animals mounted and displayed on their walls but they were from hunts that included using the meat of the animal or they were managment hunts used to manage game populations for animals such as predators that could not be eaten. Population management hunts are not only legal but necessary in many places. I shoot coyotes because too many of them around and they start to go after the easier food such as newly born calves we are trying to raise. If I save the hide and tan it does that make it a trophy hunt? Hardly. State wildlife managers limit the numbers of animals that can be taken like bears. While the number taken is limited they don't want it being zero because an over population results in younger animals being pushed into more populated areas where they cause problems. It's all about carrying capacity.

    Your poacher is much more likely to shoot and take a piece as a trophy while leaving the rest of the animal to lay and not your legal hunter.
    If you can keep your head when all about you, are losing their's and blaming it on you. -Kipling

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •