Story by Tom Claycomb III

For a moment let’s imagine it is 1860 and we’re hunters. We know animals move and feed at night. The problem is, they can see in the dark but we can’t. So, wouldn’t it be cool if humans could also see in the dark like animals do?

Now let’s fast forward 50 years to when flashlights were developed. Suddenly the playing ground became somewhat more level. We could spotlight and hunt at night.

Not that many generations ago, Americans hunted so their families could eat, and some still do. It’s simply called subsistence hunting.

I met an old guy in South Dakota recently that told me about the bad winter of 1951-1952. His family got snowed in on their rural farm. They only were able to make it to town twice that whole winter. They survived that brutally cold weather on pheasants and potatoes.

Somewhere along America’s progression, sportsmen started worrying about the declining numbers of various wildlife species so hunters banded together and game laws were drawn up. It didn’t seem fair for a big wary buck to get whacked at night so spotlighting game animals was outlawed. It may sound strange if you’re not a hunter but actually hunters love the game animals they pursue and through good management practices there are now more deer in America than when the pilgrims discovered and began colonizing this continent.

If you think about it a minute, that’s a profound statement. Today, with all of the subdivisions, highways, schools, malls etc. there are more deer than ever before and it is because of concerned sportsmen like you and me that manage our game populations.

Read some of the old pioneer/cowboy historical books and it will shock you as to how the Indians didn’t have that much game other than the large herds of buffalo. Hunters forced the passage of game laws, controlled predators and managed the wildlife so we now have some awesome hunting opportunities.

A perfect example is Texas whitetails. Since they are managed by individual landowners, and not a bureaucratic government Texas is the whitetail capitol of the world.

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