Captain Tred Barta - HUNTING: Tech Hunt

[Steve_Montana]

I say "promote" the heritage of hunting... don't dictate it.

Personally I have made the decision to hunt with a long bow next season because I like the idea of the challenge after watching Tred do it the hard way.

...BUT... when it comes to rifle season from antelope to elk... they are going down with my 338 win mag. Why... because all three species I shot this year dropped dead... fast. Archery season is fun time... rifle season is meat in the freezer... period.

...I feel the same way about morality... it has to be taught and promoted... not legislated.

[mlp1985aggie]

I say "promote" the heritage of hunting... don't dictate it.

Personally I have made the decision to hunt with a long bow next season because I like the idea of the challenge after watching Tred do it the hard way.

...BUT... when it comes to rifle season from antelope to elk... they are going down with my 338 win mag. Why... because all three species I shot this year dropped dead... fast. Archery season is fun time... rifle season is meat in the freezer... period.

...I feel the same way about morality... it has to be taught and promoted... not legislated.

I hear ya!! archery and espechially with the long bow is more of an experience and something to challenge yourself with. and the rifle hunts are for nothing more than providing for your family and putting some meat in your freezer!! i like how you said it!!

[Fairchase]

I can remember, as a kid, wandering the woods with a bb-gun or youth longbow and a handful of mis-matched arrows. No one would even blink an eye or cast stern words, maybe just smile and say,"have fun" Now, a kid goes out in the neighborhood woods to stalk tweety birds or chipmunks and we get "flower sniffers" calling the authorities about a reckless kid endangering everyone and how he must need a therapist and how he could possibly be a future "Columbine" kid since he is trying to snuff out the life of a living creature. Yet, the same people telling him he is wrong have steaks cooking on the grill and mouse traps in the garage - where has reality gone?

Let me tell you where reality has gone - right in the trash with yesterday's fast food wrappers! We are such a make believe world that has forgotten all the blood, sweat and tears that have been shed to get to where we are today. Our ancestors got us where we are by "doing it the hard way!" Today's society wants everything now and with no efforts. That is why everything is thrown away or given up on so quickly if one fails. Gadgets that make hunting easier and remove the personal skills from the task are being invented at an alarming rate - all to take the human element out of the equation.

This my friends, is why hunting is in jeopardy - it is no longer "hunting" for most. It is managing technology to the fullest to ensure an end result - a dead animal. In states like Michigan where baiting deer is legal, hunters are learning the fine art of staring at carrots and proper placement of the carrots in front of their stands. They are losing the ability to read sign, interpret sign and hunt the sign that deer leave in the woods. They aren't passing on the proper skills to be an effective hunter, beacuse they aren't learning them! As states are forced to ban baiting due to diseases and viruses spread by the deer, we are losing hunters at an alarming rate and success rates plummet when the baiting element is eliminated. The plain and simple truth is that most "Hunters" have forgotten how to actually hunt.

Want to ensure the future of hunting? Teach our youth how to embrace the "challenges" that hunting brings. They need to embrace failure as much or more than success. Teach them to embrace the traditions and the processes involved. Get them away from their video games and teach them how to build their own wooden arrows and how to shoot at targets with their traditional archery equipment. Buy them Fred Bear adventure books to read and take them camping. They will learn that the entire process and adventure is as much or more fun than the hunt. Teach them respect for their quarry. Teach them that a true trophy is not something you keep on the mantle, but a fine memory one keeps in their heart. Teach them courage, patience and perserverance. Then and only then will they become a true hunter and strive to protect the future of hunting.

[nauti dog]

i am with you 100% fairchase. We hunt as a family here in PA. Although we are all life members of SCI the trophy is the time we spend afield with our friends and family. check out my post under the hunting section 2008. here is a buck my new hunting buddie took this year on opening day. Dereck is 12 years old and this is his second buck he took with his mother and me.


hunt with your kids..........not for them!

[Joseph Anastasi]

Tred-

I agree wholeheartedly. To me it is about choice. I have recurves, a longbow, and compounds. This year I chose to use the Recurve for these reasons:
1. Me brother just got his bow license and I let him use a bow
2. My nephew doesn't have a bow
3. After 2 years of banging arrows of my basement walls instead of the target I felt I could ethically and quickly kill an animal with my recurve( No sights, off the shelf, no release, no letoff, and arrows that I cut and fletched with feathers).

This years results:
1. My younger brother is now hooked
2. My older brother got his first deer with a bow after 10 years!
3. I took a coyote on the trot at 23 yards. A quick one shot kill. What I consider to be my best trophy so far. THe sense of accomplishment was overwhelming. It truly is about the journey and not just the destination. Although I can't eat the coyote it will take its place on my wall with the buck I took a couple of years ago. I have only seen 3 coyotes in the 20 plus years of deer hunting. To me it was a huge trophy. 2 years of hard work paying off. What could feel better.
I don't know if anyone else have ever noticed this, but when you talk to non-hunters about hunting and they realize you are hunting with a bow, their attitude seems to change from that poor animal to that's amazing that you can get that close and take an animal. Anyone taking offense to Tred's post to me doesn't understand why he posted it. I got chills when I saw the video. It is the instant gratification society these kids live in now causing them to want more or something else. A kid can go buy a bow have it set-up at the archery shop with fiber optic sights, drop-away rest shooting, one cam, with a release and 85 percent letoff bullseyes in 5 minutes. They go out see a deer shoot it and now what? That's it? I thought You said this was hard.
I don't think anyone can comment on doing it Tred's and others way until they try it. Read Howard Hill's book "Hunting the Hard Way." The guy was a lunatic. Going after shark with a bow and scuba mask. He was an unbelievable shot, and from what I read, he was going to out work and out hunt almost anybody he hunted with. Anyone see the episode where Tred was traing running up sand hills. How many do that before the season? People will question me putting Tred and Howard in the same post, I don't. From what I have seen and read, they outwork and hunt harder than most. How many of you would have the guts to put your misses on TV like tred does.
Enough rambling on
Keep it up Tred you've inspired me
Joe Anastasi

[NY Bearhunter]

Tred: Why are you beating up the hunters who don't hunt the way you think is right,they are hunting the way they like to and they sure don't need your approval. The other side could use that video of yours to show everyone how even hunters can't get along and what your saying supports their views.Most of what your ranting about comes from the tv & video world of your fellow hunters and their hunting shows.All of these so called professional hunters are getting paid big money to promote the products but, would they use it without being paid, likely not.
The truth is, the average hunter hunts each year their own hard way, which is fighting to get time off from work to hunt a few hours and then the real battle of just finding a place to hunt at all.They do it the real hard way with little to no money for gadgets anyway and nothing but dreams to hunt the ways that your tearing apart. It's real hard out there for the average hunter and we hunt the hard way all of the time not like you trying to do something and then you call it the hard way because you use a long bow, you don't have a clue about the hard way.How many people like yourself can hunt a grizzly eight or nine times before they score, c'mon then you tell us all you did it the hard way. Even when you killed the pig with your knife you had the guides holding the pig still, where is the hard part there.
Stop force feeding us with your ideas of what is hunting and what is hard and what is right and pure, we know for sure about hunting the real hard way.Your long bow and wooden arrows with stone points don't impress us at all. How about doing your show like a real hunter doing it the real hard way like us, I know you can't because you wouldn't make any money doing so,it wouldn't be fun watching anyway.
Some where along the line Tred, you lost your way and forgot about the hardest thing about hunting and that is keeping that right for all of us no matter how we hunt and what methods we use, Tred shame on you for sure.

[Joseph Anastasi]

I have learned the only way to judge an experience is to have actually tried the experience. I have hunted with a compound all tricked-out , in fact I just bought a new one. I have now hunted with a recurve off the shelf with no sights. Both I enjoy tremendously, but the hard way was more rewarding. If you doubt Tred, go traditional and prove him wrong. Guys are hating Tred for trying to keep the sport alive. It seemed to me the focus of the video was the decline in hunting numbers and trying to get kids hooked like we all did.

[NY Bearhunter]

Mr. A. Did you read what I wrote? Your reply doesn't reflect such. Tred does refer to kids hunting for a few lines then, it all goes down hill from there, with the picking apart of the methods and hunters that he doesn't approve of. If,that was a recruiting video for kids to start hunting, they will run off for sure after viewing that mess.
I have used the longbow before and in fact I even used wooden arrows, I also used the recurve, cross- bow and now the compound which up to a few years ago I still shot with my fingers.So all of this means what, nothing. You call your way the hard way, I call it,another hunting show.
You said, Tred is hated for trying to keep the sport alive, where are you coming from with that remark? If, some one doesn't like Tred (hate is to out of bounds) I'm sure it is for other reasons then what you claim, maybe it's because he pats himself on his back way to much for the average person.
I think you should listen to the video again and then re-read the posts and lose your tunnel vision, then maybe you will be able to see the sunrise instead of just the sun.

[Gurn]

Well Mr Bear.
I did read what you wrote, and I watched the video again. I can only say is it was very clear to me, and I would say most who read it. The video was about challenging kids more, in order to keep them interested in hunting. He made it quite clear when he first started talking. I guess he didn't keep reiterating, as he most likely felt he had already stated the reason. Any other reason would have to be read into it by the reader. I guess he, the same as many of us were taught in school, redundancy is annoying and unnecessary in written or spoken points. You used his lack of redundancy to somehow try and say it wasn't about his original, and consistent point.

Being that you know how many times Tred missed, messed up, or was unsuccessful on his hunting trips, only shows his transparency.
Like they say "familiarity breeds contempt". Do you think most of these other fellows actually shoot their big buck just like they show it on TV? Guess what, even sitting in the 30ft towers of a fenced hunting ranch, over corn with a 300 win mag, and 4x16 Zeiss. They miss, bad hit, and lose game. Of course your never gonna see that part. Many of them couldn't hold a candle, as far as a hunter to some of the good old boys you have up their in your Adirondacks. The same applies to many of our Michigan hunters.

Tred's shows do have advertising added to them. He is a professional hunter and businessman. There's no magic here, someone has to pay the bills. I would guess he has to pay light, food, and heat bills too. Would you go to work for free?
I really don't see Tread using a lot of hunting aids or gimmicks.

Lets get down to the facts of this, although I can ramble on, and will if you chose.

I shot a approximately 500lb pound black near Lake Placid with a 450 Marlin, 2x7 Leopold, and 300gr X bullet. Was the hunt hard? Hard is a ambiguous word. To get all wound up and take offense over someone else definition of it is a shame. It seemed hard for a old guy like me. Hiking approximately 4mi up in the mountains, sleeping with the bears, tracking after dark, then getting the thing back out to our vehicle at night.
Did I have to spend thousands of dollars, or have a corporate sponsor to do this? We stayed in the mountains, used vacation time, borrowed the Marlin, rented sleeping bags and hiking equipment, drove my old van from Michigan. We ate dried noodles and oatmeal cooked over a pocket rocket stove. I'm guessing my total share was around $500, and came home with a trophy that would probably hold it's own to a lot of professional hunters on TV.

The hunt I described above was great, but without a doubt would have been much more challenging, and rewarding, to me, with a longbow.The average Joe can go on great hunts. This was not my first. We had two unsuccessful trips going to the Adirondacks over the years. Just wondering, do the number of unseccussful trips have something to do with it. If so, I am huge failure at all types of hunting. At that price, I could have kept going every two years simply by putting change in a jar each day.
Most people of meager means spend more than that on cable TV, beer, cigarettes, or lottery tickets for the year. Most anyone in your state could have done this a lot cheaper than myself.
For our bear hunt the rifle was a great hunting tool. It was in no way as challenging (hard) as a compound would have been. A compound would in no way have been as challenging (hard) as a longbow. If Tred feels more of a challenge is what is needed by reducing the number of hunting gizmos to keep youth involved. He's on the right track, as far as making HIS point.
I don't have to agree with him, but opinions are like you know whats. Mine ain't worth much, so I'm glad I have others to take into account. He finds the longbow more challenging.
All things being equal, it is.
As far as patting on the back. I can tell you the first squirrel I shot with my longbow was the most satisfying hunting experience I've ever had. Way more work and skill was required than blasting it out of a tree with a shotgun. It was every bit or more as much a trophy to me as the bear. You can best believe I was patting myself on the back with both hands. If I could have got on TV and talked about it, I would have. I don't mind telling folks about any great hunting experience I've had. Call it bragging, patting, or whatever.
I think in Treds case many people mistake enthusiasm as bragging. I like enthusiasm.
How many other hunters, as set in their ways as good old Tred will you hear say. "I will defend your right to hunt anyway thats legal with my life." A good amount of folks on these hunting boards would not only NOT defend, but actually vote into law things that didn't fit their parameters of "ethical hunting". I see it all the time. They are the cannibals that eat their own, not realizing their next on the menu. Treds not one of them.

And now for a little bragging and patting.

My son with our Adirondack trophy




Me with with a few of my favorite trophies

[NY Bearhunter]

Mr.G:

Hey Nice bear, I take my hat off to you,also sounds like you had a great time to.What good be better.
By the way why, did you leave your longbow home that day.
I'm really not sure just how you can say that Mr. Barta's video is about getting kids into the sport,the video caption doesn't say anything like that, in fact Tred only makes reference to kids a couple of times, stop me if I'm wrong but, he states that kids don't find the sport fun and license sales down 70%. Then some nonsense about credit cards and spend spend spend.
What I hear loud and clear without a shadow of any doubt is, a hunter tearing up other hunters and what they might have or believe in and do, and because why? He rips hunters, guns, methods and equippment not to mention hunting in general... Why? Then he says, he will defend all legal hunting with his life, what we have here is a strong contradiction of terms. I'm sure the anti's are playing that video at there next meeting with real joy.
That's it in a nut shell, everything else is secondary, including this nonsense about the hard way.Look and you will see...