And exactly what does that have to do with the topic at hand? When given the chance, almost all predators ambush their prey. Why should men be any different?
I suppose stalking would appear more "manly" to some, but in many areas of the South, where logging has raped the natural terrain, stalking is no longer an option. The hardwood forests, with their open understory are a memory, and have been replaced with pine thickets overrun with blackberry brambles and thorns of every type extant. Trying to stalk deer amid that man-made mess is an exercise in futility.
Hunting from ambush is almost the only option remaining.
When I was a little shaver, things were much different. Men hunted the way their ancestors had for thousands of years: with dogs, and horses, and men pursuing deer and/or trying to outthink the prey. Many of the hunters were farm boys who were as tough as boot-leather. It was not unknown for one of them to run long distances to cut across the base of a curve that the prey was following to cut them off. You couldn't hunt like that and be a wuss...
Which reminds me of what a unique, symbiotic relationship hunters have with their dogs. Dog hunting for deer is rapidly dying out in the South...because of the work involved, because of social pressures of the sensitve elites of the modern world, and because of pressures by stand hunters who don't want the "natural movements" of their deer disturbed.
The ancient music of hounds on a trail will soon be a memory. It's a damn shame.
For the effete city-boys weeping on these boards about the cruelties of hunting I say...get a grip. You're trying to apply human morality to nature's largely amoral system. Predation is as much a part of the natural environment in today's world as it has been since the beginning of life on this planet.
Leave your concrete environs and return to the real world. You just might learn some age-old lessons: nature itself is cruel; all predators receive pleasure from the hunt AND from the kill; for good or ill, man is a part of the natural world, and has his own niche in it; man must assume the role of either predator or prey, and the modern urban notion of mankind as uninvolved bystander is patently ridiculous.
Now to dispel one last image: All hunters are not drunks, boors, or lazy, un-educated wife beaters. In fact, the opposite is the truth. They ...are one of the few groups of true-indivudualists left in the world. And, as strange as it may seem, it IS possible for a man to hunt and love the natural world and its denizens at the same time....and seek to preserve them.
Try to grasp the concept.
