MIKE BRAUN Hunters hope to pass along tradition, respect of sport

Why do we hunt?
Even before the first European explorers began setting foot here, hunting was a way of life in the area that would become the Buckeye State.
At first, natives had the abundant game to themselves for thousands of years.
Later, settlers took part in harvesting Ohio's plentiful turkey, deer, quail, bear and other animals.
Exploitation halted
After about a half-century of overhunting and commercial exploitation, Ohio got its wildlife act together and today there is more game than ever before. It took sound game management by the Ohio Division of Wildlife and dedicated conservation efforts by sportsmen to get there.
Hunting gets started for 2003 tomorrow when squirrel, mourning dove, Canada goose and teal seasons open across the state. Thousands of modern-day Ohioans will hit the outdoors Monday and continue a centuries-old hunting tradition.
Some, hopefully, will pass that tradition along to sons and daughters so that a younger generation can enjoy what the older one has known all along -- it is not the kill that thrills, it is just having the opportunity to be immersed in nature and take part in the natural order of things.
"I've been hunting since I was 16," said Al Shives, of Springfield Road in North Lima. "Back then, I lived in the country, on the east side of Youngstown in the Coitsville area."
Shives, a longtime member of the New Middletown Farmers & amp; Sportsman's Club on East Calla Road, said he hunted with his dad and older brother then.
'We hunted for pleasure'
"There were lots of rabbits and pheasants," Shives said. "We hunted for pleasure. It's what everyone did and I liked it." He added that he never hunted just to hunt or kill animals.
He did try to pass along his love for the sport to his children. "My daughter, Cherol, didn't want anything to do with it," he said. His son, Al II, did go hunting with him until a love of automobiles took over. "He did go with me until he was 16 or so, then his interest was cars. That's what he does now," Shives said. "I didn't try to push it on them. If they wanted to try it, fine."
Shives said that that is the same attitude he has nowadays when he takes his grandson, Al III, 14, groundhog hunting.
"Kids these days have a lot to keep them interested," he said. "But at least I showed him how to shoot as well as safety tips so he would know what to do."
Shives said that his daughter, despite not wanting to hunt, appreciated and was proud that her dad taught her the safety aspects of firearms and gun handling.
Told that some people said they would never hunt, Shives said "she told them that at least she knew better about handling guns and such," he said. "That made me feel good."
Shives said that when he was younger, access to hunting areas was not a problem. "Then you could hunt almost anywhere." He said it's tougher for kids today: "They can't just go anywhere, there are fewer and fewer places to hunt."
Just going out
Shives, a retired field engineer for area steel companies, said he still enjoys going out hunting, even if he never fires a shot.
"Lots of times, I'll just go out and sit and be with nature," he said. "I'll take my gun along, just in case the opportunity presents itself."
He said he always enjoys the chance to hunt. "It really is just an excuse to go out there and just sit and watch the clouds."
Shives said hunting is a good sport to teach the younger generation. "You need to teach them why they are there and that hunting is not just about killing," he said. "You have to be dedicated. You have to do it to satisfy yourself, not anybody else."
Jim Murphy of Canton also enjoys hunting because it gives him an opportunity to be outside.
"I always said I go out hunting with people, but I don't hunt with people," he said.
Murphy is a grouse, duck and pheasant hunter and trains and raises bird dogs. He is a former officer in the Berlin Bird Dog Club and a member of the Ohio State Skeet Association.
He started hunting with his father as a young child in Vermont. "We had some wild and great times," he said.
Murphy also goes hunting with his son as much as possible and plans one day to initiate his grandchildren into the hunting tradition, when they are old enough.
"To me, it's my therapy," he said. "It's a way of getting away."
Nugent's view
Someone with a strong view of hunting is rocker Ted Nugent. Known as "the Motor City Madman," Nugent is no stranger to the hunt and is basically a walking, talking promotion for all things hunting.
"Why do we hunt? Quite simply because we are hunters," Nugent said in a telephone interview last week. "Further articulation is that as reasoning predators we are driven to function intelligently. We have scientifically examined and concluded that without the harvest of surplus the resultant imbalance would be unacceptable."
Nugent, in concert at Yankee Lake in Brookfield today, had little patience for those who didn't cotton to the hunting lifestyle.
"It is so simple, it is stupid. I've lived this my whole life and in 2003 the simple fact should be -- there are more mountain lions, more black bear, more deer, etc. than in recorded history today," he said. "Because hunters, fishermen and trappers demanded scientific regulation, and we charged ourselves to fund that management."
Nugent, 54, who is as virulently anti-drugs and anti-alcohol as he is pro-hunting, also promotes educating the next generation into the hunting tradition. He offers annual hunting camps for children to teach them about resource stewardship, individual accountability, the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, hunter safety and the law as well as hunting.
Called "Sweaty Teddy" for his perspiration-inducing stage antics, Nugent has a disdain for those who say eat plants instead of hunting animals. He says that raising beans to make tofu isn't an answer because a farmer has to kill animals to prepare the ground for planting.
"Anyone against hunting has to be mentally deficient," he said. "You have to be mentally ill. The antis qualify. We don't have to rationalize or explain why we hunt. We are simply hunters."
braun@vindy.com