I don’t personally hunt. I enjoy stalking though. I’ve stalked a little bit of everything that lives in the mountains by my home and I enjoy seeing how close I can get to an animal before I am detected. I have stalked within feet of both elk and mule deer. I have stalked within yards of fox. And I have even stalked some predators such as cougar, hawks, owls and coyote. For me shooting these animals doesn’t hold any appeal. But in stalking them and getting as close as I can there is much to be learned. I have made a study lately of how man hunts things he fears. In NY City when I lived there I had an uncanny coincidental ability to come upon gathering points where police forces would meet before executing searches. I was able to watch while they geared up, did weapons checks, decided personnel placement etc. Last night on my way home from training, 12 police in tactical gear ran in front of my headlights as they crossed the street from an abandoned parking lot and entered the yard of a nearby house. Police are good at what they do and I respect all persons who risk themselves to hunt bad guys. When man hunts dangerous prey be it bear or cougar or their fellow man they remove as many of the things that make the targets dangerous as is possible. They tip the odds in their own favor having greater numbers, surprise, intel, awareness of the animals habits etc to help keep themselves safe and the prey predictable. The most effective thing the prey can do is not be discovered. The people who strut around with a king of the mountain mentality or a “bring it on” attitude need to understand that if they make targets out of themselves they will not have the luxury of a toe to toe well defined man to man type of confrontation. If they warrant the attention of any skilled hunter they will wish they had kept a lower profile. It feels good to the ego to publicly dominate or intimidate or otherwise do things that superficially make one feel important but its not very smart.

-Caleb Sensei