The overwhelming majority of hunters truly care about and respect wildlife and the game animals and birds we hunt.

The lines between hunting and poaching are being blurred.

What this means is the non-hunting public is increasingly not making a clear distinction between hunting and poaching. Increasingly, the two are being used interchangeably. Even the media is getting it wrong.

Maybe it’s because the media has long taken potshots at hunters. Maybe it’s because social media invites inflammatory, soundbite headlines and unfiltered keyboard terrorists. Maybe it’s because animal rights and anti-hunting groups never seem to let the facts get in the way of a good argument. Maybe it’s all of the above and more.

It would be tough for anyone who hunts not to be disturbed by the rhetoric being put forth by anti-hunting groups.

Yes, people do make mistakes, but there is no such thing as illegal hunting; only poaching.

Poaching is the illegal take of wildlife by kill or capture. Poaching is often defined as unlawful hunting, as if some kind of subset of hunting, which it is not. Poaching is a crime. Poachers are not hunters, nor conservationists.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a bad picture might be worth a million.

Those of us who care about hunting can no longer afford

The Five Stages of the Hunter is a well-documented look at the progressions a hunter goes through as he or she ages and gains experience. As we age and our experiences accumulate, what we get from hunting and give back changes over time.

Hunting is not a sport like basketball, football, or soccer, but there are lessons that can apply to hunting from the coaching of these sports.

Coaches are taught to identify two different personality types in their athletes so they can adjust their coaching style to best benefit both the athlete and the team.

Man-made; adj.