Family Vacations On Guided Hunting Trips

By Angela Stewart


One of the most important elements of gun safety is knowing your environment. For a hunter who is new to a region, this knowledge of their environment does not exist. It can help a new hunter immensely when he is taken out on these early morning hunts on guided hunting trips by guides who are familiar with the terrain and know the habits of animals being targeted.

Children are generally new to this type of sporting, and family members are not likely to be familiar with the territory. Guides not only keep the family from getting lost in the dark, but target practice to hone their shooting skills is part of their adventure. Many hunt camps can provide such training for whole families, having special weekends for family excursions.

Having a firm grasp on the environment is a vital part of safety due to the possibility of homes or other hunters being present in the vicinity. If a person is targeting a deer as it crosses the field, they need to know whether or not they can safety shoot in that direction. If there are homes just beyond the copse of trees, then they might have to wait until the animal is pointed in a slightly different direction.

Up until 2011, all safari expeditions in the country of Africa included guides. Not everyone is aware that the African safari is now done with cameras instead of guns due to the proliferation of poaching in spite of this supervised activity. Hunters were duped by some of these guides, and wound up assisting the crime of poaching without being aware.

Even in the United States, it is recommended that families double-check the background of their guides before embarking on their trip. If traveling to a different state, obtaining the proper licenses is a key element to being legal. When speaking with the authorities, the trip organizer trip is encouraged to confirm that they are going to hunt during the proper season for the animal they are pursuing.

Once the notion of hunt for sport took hold, there have been hunters who take animals down just for their fur or antlers. There is a fine line between legitimate hunting and poaching animals for sport. The owners of these hunt camps attempt to negotiate this boundary by ensuring that the animals killed are being eaten by either other club members, or they donate the meat to homeless shelters and food banks.

When the hunters themselves embark in this sport for food rather than trophies and images for their social media sites, any impression of poaching dissolves. Clubs do what they can to avoid looking like poachers, and generally they do not appreciate having the name of their business posted on the web with photographs of trophy animals. A responsible hunter only kills for food.

Anyone who brings their family on a trip is encouraged to set a good example for the next generation. Children should be shown how to field dress their kill, then prepare the meat for eating, and taste their spoils. Having them use the skins, furs, antlers, and bone in creating things for their own use brings the experience full circle.




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