In a recent column, SCI Managing Editor John Geiger admits he relies on modern hunting tech: mapping apps, ballistic apps and rangefinding scopes. Still, he argues that every hunter should sometimes leave it all at home.
Geiger describes sitting against an oak on a ridge near his Northwest Georgia home with only a rifle, a few rounds and a knife. Without screens to check, he noticed turkeys, squirrels and songbirds up close. He even spotted a poisonous mushroom he would have walked past. The trips also took him back to his first hunts, like duck hunting with his father, which had nothing to do with gear.
He doesn’t buy the argument that technology ruins fair chase. Hunters can use modern tools and still respect the animal and the rules. Even so, his advice is to carry only the essentials a few times each season, slow down and remember why you started.
It’s good advice for anyone introducing a young hunter to the woods. That’s a big part of our youth education work.
