Story Linked Here although you can find it anywhere. I found it on Yahoo’s main page but I didn’t want to link to the video because they can’t seem to get things working in Firefox…
So the kid shot a bear. With a gun. A kid pointed a gun at something and killed it. Big fucking deal. I’m so happy that the bear was shot and killed by this kid. What a wonderful accomplishment. He pulled a trigger from stand way above this animal when it had no god damn clue he was there. He took a high-powered projectile and forced it through some unknowing animal. Congratulations.
I’m a gun owner. Have been since I can remember. I have nothing against guns or hunters. They can be a needed part of our ecosystem and I understand that they aren’t all crazy. I’m also not against eating animals. But these people are just stupid. How the hell was this news?
If he hit that thing with a bow and arror or a REALLY big rock, I’d be impressed. But its a god damn gun. He was sitting down. In a tree, and all the time in the world to line this shot up.
If you are going to hunt bear, I think the law ought to restrict you to a knife. They aren’t hunted for food. They are hunted by small-dicked assholes who need the “thrill” of blasting an animal with a high-powered rifle from a safe distance.
Deer, OTOH, ought to be open to hunting with artillery. Those things are just pests.
I have to disagree with you, to an extent. I have black bear meat in my freezer, and we had some for dinner last week. I have issues about the small-dicked assholes who thrill kill, or take only the head and a few choice cuts of meat off any food animal, but living a subsistence life style I prefer my husband take his bear (and deer, elk, moose, etc.) with a rifle. You want anger, try skiffing the beaches hunting for deer and finding corpse after corpse of dead deer missing their heads and backstrap, with eagles and ravens gorging on the remains, that pisses me off in a big way.
I’m a little surprised that a rifle powerful enough to kill a bear wouldn’t break a 5-year-old’s shoulder, or at least put him out of commission for a while. I mean, it’s not like you can whack a 400 pound bear with a .22. Does anybody know what the kid used?
As I understand the story, an ex girlfriend and her boyfriend at the time took a trip up to the Kodiak Archipelago apparently because they wanted to hunt one of the bears (I don’t really remember the exact purpose, but that isn’t really the point).
The deal is (not with any sort of government, I don’t think) they got to hunt the bear but the thing was, the meat goes to whatever aboriginal folk there are in the area.
I think my ex and her boyfriend wanted the hide and I’m against hunting for sport but I don’t generally get upset if the meat gets eaten. I DID just finish a burger (home made, thank you very much) so who am I to judge.
In the case of the story if they are killing a bear for the sake of killing a bear…not cool. I happen to like bears, cute little [big] things.
Understand, I respect hunters. I are one, or I was. But bear isn’t up there at the top of the “meat for the winter” list. I lived in Alaska for 7 years, and knew a number of bear hunters. Most were after the “hunt,” not the meat. Although we made some great bear meat chili. I have no problem with “eating” hunters. It’s the trophy hunters I take exception to. And a 5 year old downing a bear sounds like “trophy” to me.
Without getting into the usual US gun stuff… Firstly the disclaimer (which I shouldn’t really have to make): “If I have a kid, I’d like to teach him or her to shoot a gun one day.”
But why the fuck is a five year old using a firearm? I don’t give a fuck what side of the gun control debate you are on, but that to me is like letting a five year-old drive a car. Complete and utter WTF territory, that.
I’d be looking at 10 to 12 years of age, with mondo bloody supervision.
Let this be a lesson to the next guy who takes a trophy bear. “Pfft. I heard a five year old got one, big deal.” Of course the next step is the guy you made fun of takes an elephant.
If they were hunting on/around Kodiak, then it was brown bear they were hunting. There have been efforts made in recent years by the tribal governments to have the U.S. government legalize the taking of brown bear for subsistence meat. If the folks doing the hunting were doing so on Native Alaskan land then the deal was most likely that permission was given to hunt on the land in return for the meat. Keeping in mind that most of the Kodiak area is a Wildlife Refuge, with the Natives owning substantial amounts of land, there isn’t much public access land to hunt on, it is probable that they were hunting on Native land.
Brown bear hunting is a strictly enforced drawn hunt; you enter your name and pay the drawing fee, and if your name gets drawn you win a bear ticket. Same goes for mountain goat, Dall sheep and elk. You do not want to get caught with one of these animals without your drawn ticket.
On preview silenus I am not trying to make you out as the bad guy, I have been living here for over 18 years and while I am not a hunter they are all around me. I have respect for the serious put-meat-on-the-table hunters, and when I am presented with wild meat I make meals. We have black bear sausage and burger, some roasts and some steaks in the freezer right now. We had some steaks last week that were tender and delicious. If we ever are allowed to take brownies I would happily fill my freezer and have lots left to share. While I agree that the young boy was probably taken out for a trophy hunt, and we only have the grandfather’s word that it was the boy who took the bear, just maybe they follow the tradition of eating what you kill. One can only hope.
Interesting - yeah I’m pretty sure it was native land. That sounds like something she said. As I understand things, the Brown Bears up there can be bigger than polar bears. I remember some comment by her about the meat lasting whichever small native village it was for the entire winter.
I don’t know why, but bear meat doesn’t strike me as something particularly tasty, not that I’d know.
And American black bears aren’t endangered or threatened by any stretch of the imagination. Along much of the East Coast, they’re pests, just like deer. Reasonable hunting of black bears is and should be legal.
drm bear meat is very good to eat. It has a “dark meat” aspect, as in the dark meat on a turkey or chicken. There is a bit of a wild taste, not gamey, but it doesn’t taste like beef. I have used it in place of ground beef in spaghetti and chili, the sausage makes a good breakfast meat, and the roasts and steaks are similar in taste and texture to elk and moose.
In Alaska in general and Kodiak in particular brownies are everywhere. I would not want indiscriminate taking of brownies, but for those of us who live a primarily subsistence lifestyle it would be nice to be able to take a nice brownie and share it.
As far as the boy in the OP’s age, I know a lot of people begin to learn to handle a firearm at a very young age. That doesn’t mean pointing a weapon and squeezing off a round or two, it means knowing how to take the firearm apart, clean and maintain it, then to shoot accurately, and as a rule kids start out hunting with hares and move up the food chain from there. I have serious misgivings that the boy took that bear by himself, and if he did, it was a fluke.