by John Dowd
Hunting is a Montana and American tradition as old as the country itself. Native peoples lived and hunted in the plains and mountains for thousands of years, and pioneers and settlers learned they needed to supplement their table with produce from the land. For Stephen Lassiter, Stevensville Parks Director and avid hunter, it is more than just a thing of the past, it’s a tradition. “I’d feel like I betrayed them if I just quit,” said Lassiter. He hunted with his father, his grandfather and has been teaching his boys to hunt as well. “I want them to experience the same thrills I have,” he added.
In saying that, he expressed that he is not talking about the killing. “If hunting was just about killing, I would have quit years ago. I mean the sunrises, the weather, the scenery, the chase and just the solitude. Hunting is so much more than just killing something!”
For Lassiter, there is a comradery and a tradition that he can pass on to his kids. He told of numerous hunting adventures and experiences, from hard ethical choices when a friend broke his leg far in the backcountry, to waking up to the cold mornings and simply enjoying nature in a way that few will ever see. According to Lassiter, one of his favorite parts is learning to be there, silently, as a visitor unseen. “Being in a wild animal’s space without them ever knowing you were there, that’s a victory in itself.” Lassiter said a hunter gets to see the real natural behavior that is foreign to many non-hunters.
He told a story of an elk calf that came into a call while he and his friends were moving locations. They had to stand still for over a half hour because they did not want to scare the animal away. Lassiter said they were easily within 20 yards of it and watched it eat something on a stump, the nature of which they never could figure out. It gave them a whole new insight into the feeding habits of young elk. “It’s when you’re in their bedroom and they never know.” Lassiter said, killing is “why we go, but it’s not the most important thing. We’re there for the experiences.”
He also mentioned conservation as a big part. “You can’t be a hunter and hate animals. Not a good one, anyways,” said Lassiter. Lassiter likes to ask people who dislike hunting, “How much money have you ever spent on conservation?” He said that the combination of all his hunting equipment, license fees, guns and ammunition would equal countless thousands of dollars. “I’m glad that a portion of that money goes to conserving the animals that I love.”
He said that for many hunters, that’s a big reason to go, to help contribute to conservation in a way that they can also enjoy themselves in the outdoors. He also believes that today’s world includes a much more conservation-educated hunter. In the past, without regulations and true understanding of the natural world, “they often believed these things were in unlimited supply,” said Lassiter. However, these days Lassiter has experienced that hunters want to preserve the natural world more than anyone.
And back to family, Lassiter is even more optimistic for the future generations of hunters. His favorite part of all of it is teaching new hunters, like his boys. He told the story of his eldest boy’s first hunt. It was in the southeast, and they were using a 12 gauge with buckshot. A big doe came in and Lassiter said he did not know who was shaking more, him or his boy. “The exhilaration for him almost consumed me. I’ve almost never felt that for myself.” The last time he may have felt that was with his first, which was also a doe, in the southeast and with a 12 gauge using buck shot. “I was more excited than he was,” said Lassiter.
For Lassiter, it is extremely important to teach youth to hunt the right way, and to seek the challenge. He said that he must have been 16 when he got his first deer on a bow. He said there was a moment where he thought, “Oh my God, I actually did it!” For him, “that moment that used to be too big for you, but now you can do it.” He believes this is where a person really becomes a hunter. It is more than just a reward for all the hard work, it is a boundary a person meets where the hunting makes sense. It becomes food for one’s family, the overcoming of previous barriers and the touching of the history of man and where we’ve come from. Seeing that in the eyes of his boy is his favorite part of it all. “I’ve got a big bull on the wall, but I didn’t shake for that as bad as I did for my boy.”