spectr17

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'Life at Full Draw: The Chuck Adams Story'

Book entertains and paints honest portrayal of the famous hunter

By James A. Swan, Ph.D., ESPN Outdoors, Author "In Defense of Hunting"

Is hunting a sport?

Some argue that "sport" is not an adequate description of their reasons for hunting wild animals.

According to James Michener in his definitive book "Sports In America," a sport usually is "an athletic activity requiring physical prowess or skill and usually of a competitive nature." However, Michner says that outdoor sports, such as hunting and fishing, are legitimate sports, but are non-competitive. This is an important point raised by a new book about bowhunter Chuck Adams, "Life at Full Draw."

Regardless of its definition, every sport has its stars — people who excel to heights that most cannot even dream of. Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky and Mohammad Ali clearly fall within the superstar category of male athletes.

If hunting is a sport, then clearly for bowhunters, Chuck Adams must fall within that rarified category of superstar. On January 4, 1990, Chuck Adams became the first archer to harvest all 27 species of North American big game — the fabled "super slam."

He has taken more Pope and Young record book trophy animals (more than 100) than anyone else. These include world records for Sitka blacktail, Coues whitetail and mountain caribou, as well as numerous monster African big game.

If you read bowhunting magazines, you cannot avoid being exposed to Adams. He has penned more than 4,000 articles.

And if you attend outdoor exposition shows, you probably have seen him because Adams averages 35 to 40 days a year giving seminars, where he gives away an average of 28,000 free color photos to fans.

Yet despite his fame, few people know much about the man. Gregg Gutschow, a former editor of North American Hunter magazine, has just written and published the biography "Life at Full Draw: The Chuck Adams Story" (IHUNT Communications; $24.95), which for the first time goes behind the scenes to examine the hunter.

It is a book that deserves serious attention.

For starters, it enables us to better understand why Chuck Adams is so successful as a hunter.

We learn is very bright — a high school and college valedictorian. He also is a gifted natural athlete with exceptional vision and eye-hand coordination that could have made him a world-class target archer if he had elected to focus on shooting targets instead of animals.

And, he has the obsessive drive of a person who excels.

Above all, he sees hunting as a challenge, not to beat others, but to test his own abilities.

I have never met Chuck Adams, but as an athlete and later a psychologist, I have known a number of world-class athletes.

They share a burning desire to challenge themselves to perform at levels that push their limits to the maximum. This requires developing enormous mental skills, as well as physical ones.

Such commitment often puts them at risk and requires enormous personal sacrifices. Despite what some may feel, such people are not crazy. Research shows that, in general, they are very sane.

Someone who is not stable, self-confident, extremely focused and inner-directed could not survive for long as a peak performer because the stress and responsibilities associated with the stratosphere of performance would destroy them quickly.

So, what we learn first from "Life at Full Draw" is that Chuck Adams has the right stuff to excel at what he chooses to do, which happens to be bowhunting.

We learn that Chuck is passionate about hunting, has exceptional skills and is an ethical hunter.

When people say they could do what he has done if they had the money, we learn how Adams took out loans to kill many of his trophies. He is one very focused, very committed and passionate hunter with special skills. End of story.

There is a second part to this book, however, and that is the the honest portrayal of Adams. By painting such a picture of Adams and showing us why he has been so successful, Gutschow dispels many rumors, which in some ways is more important to hunting than knowing the details of Adams' personal life.

Whenever someone rises to the top as a celebrity, he has the tendency to spawn two types of potentially dangerous people in his wake.

The first is the blind disciple who can find nothing wrong with their hero. Everyone is human, even superstars. People at the top of their game should inspire us. But if we idolize them and imitate their every move, gesture and deed, we lose track of who we are.

That is neither good for the celebrity or the follower. Critical thinking, not mindless flocking, enables the human species to evolve.

The second, and usually more serious type is a person blinded by jealousy who sees the star as something he or she can never become, and thus seeks to destroy the star's celebrity through rumor, accusations and criticism — or worse.

I have never met Chuck Adams and so I do not know the fervor of his fan club. But I surely have met people who intensely dislike him. They question his motives and methods and spread rumors, sometimes without ever bothering to check their validity or look in the mirror at their own vanity and jealousy.

Gutschow sets Adams' record straight.

But he goes farther to name names of some of Adams' foes and present what they are saying. A good read of this section is a much-needed tonic for the hunting community.

Adams deserves his place in the Bowhunting Hall of Fame, in the SCI Hall of Honor and on the Pope and Young Ishi Award.

Adams is an awesome hunter who plays by the rules and deserves recognition.

However, this book also forces us to ask one question: When the hunting community honors its heroes and role models, should they only be recognized according to how many and how big are their kills?

I hope not.

If killing lots of big animals is the only way that one becomes a great hunter, then the incentives to lie, cheat, steal and poach are being built into the system.

Gutschow describes how the drive to bag trophy elk led one so-called "pro hunter" to poach in a national park.

Hunting already has enough trouble with anti-hunters, loss of habitat, decreased access, complicated game regulations and slob hunters.

Too much competition will kill hunting, because, if the stakes get high enough, people will become "hunters" who make up their own rules to win and the truly ethical hunters will quit in disgust.

Adams has given a lot back to the sport through his articles and seminars that share what he has learned.

But outside the hunting community, Chuck Adams is largely unknown. The future of hunting lies with the non-hunter. And in honoring the modern, living heroes of hunting, let's also recognize:

Rock 'n' roller Ted Nugent, the world's best-known hunter to the general public
NBA superstar Karl Malone, a passionate hunter who does NRA ads and recently donated $50,000 to help kids go hunting
Professor Christine Thomas for developing the "Becoming An Outdoorswoman" program
Country singer Tracy Byrd who appears on TNN outdoor shows because he feels it's important to preserve the sport
Country singer Aaron Tippin, who runs an outdoor store and holds special media days on firearms use
Actor Jameson Parker for hosting "The World of Ducks Unlimited" and "Sports Afield On Assignment"
Actor Rick Schroder for hosting the "New American Sportsman."

Honorable mention should also go to Madonna for speaking up on behalf of hunting as well as becoming a hunter herself, and San Francisco Giant's manager Dusty Baker who supports youth hunting promotions in California.

These folks may not be world-class hunters or even kill that many animals, but they are world-class spokespersons for hunting to the non-hunting public.

Celebrity hunters may risk their necks to go hunting in wild places, but they are risking their careers to stand up for hunting.

That, to me, is as big a risk as taking out a loan to hunt a trophy animal, or tirelessly trekking through the backcountry in search of a monster buck.

"Life at Full Draw" should clear the air about Chuck Adams and force hunters to examine their priorities and the way that the hunting community works.

The scope, thoroughness and balance of this well-written book makes it a definite bull's-eye.

"Life at Full Draw: The Chuck Adams Story" can be purchased by sending a check for $24.95 to: IHUNT, P.O. Box 1148, Chanhassen, MN 55317-1148; or by calling (866) 837-3135 for credit-card orders. There also are a limited number of leather-bound editions autographed by Adams and the author for $84.95.

James Swan is the author of the book "In Defense of Hunting."
To purchase a copy, click here. For more about Swan, visit his Web site at http://home.attbi.com/~jamesswan/James/.
 

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Sounds like a good read, I might check it out.
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