ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 1, 1996 TAG: 9612020090
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-9 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: OUTDOORS
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
Sometime between now and Christmas, at a party or social function, Roger Malouf knows he will be asked to give a moral justification for hunting.
The encounter always begins innocently enough: ``What have you been up to?'' someone asks, making polite conversation.
``My standard reply is, `Working and hunting - this time of year mostly hunting,''' said Malouf, who is a Roanoke Realtor.
With that, the hunter becomes the hunted, he said.
``Why do you kill Bambi?''
``Is this a macho thing?''
``Give me a break!'' Malouf said. ``At a mere 280 pounds, I don't need to impress any one. At age 40, macho isn't even in my vocabulary anymore. I hunt because I am part of the Legacy of the Chains.''
It is the kind of statement that will set Malouf's opponents back a step or two and give him room to explain.
The explanation can begin with the description of a fall morning when Malouf watches from his tree stand as the sun rises.
``From first light to dawn, I watch as the Blue Ridge Mountains emerge from darkness to full majesty in a matter of minutes,'' he said. ``I realize how insignificant I am, one man in one tree on one mountainside of a massive chain of mountains.''
``Chain'' is a word Malouf uses often to express his link to hunting and his affection for it. He views himself as part of a never-ending stream of hunters, from the Indians to the settlers to modern-day sportsmen who have hunted from the same stands, sought the same game, thought the same thoughts, felt the same pride and relied on the same skills.
``All true hunters are forged from the same mettle,'' he said. ``Even through the generations, there is little difference between us. We all possess the same love of the outdoors, the anticipation of the hunt, the skill of pursuing prey and the satisfaction of a successful hunt.''
The Indians believe the spirit of a hunter never dies, said Malouf. It is passed on when a new hunter enters the woods, a concept Malouf embraces.
``I have often looked at the large oak beside my tree stand and would give every penny in my pocket if it could talk for a day,'' he said. ``If only it could tell me of all the hunters who used this tree as a stand, of all the game that has passed by it through the years and the story of each hunt.''
In addition to the chain of hunters, there is another chain, Malouf said. ``It is the chain of the whitetail deer. The never-ending lure of monster bucks and large does that brings hunters back time and again.''
More profoundly than most, hunters feel a close kinship with ancestors and with prey, said Malouf, who isn't one to shrink or whisper around people who would strip him of his heritage.
``Some who least understand hunting would seek to destroy a legacy so steeped in tradition and rich in heritage,'' he said.
Chains can be broken, all you need do is look at the one that once linked Indians and buffalo, he said.
``We killed off the buffalo and reduced a mighty nation of proud hunters to a life on reservations,'' he said.
Now there are those, through attitude or act, who would like to sever the chain of hunting, seeing it as outdated, even crude and cruel. But hunters aren't the enemy of wildlife, Malouf said.
``Each year we destroy more natural habitat and put more pressure on wildlife than hunting ever has,'' he said. ``Perhaps some day hunting will end in this country and the Legacy of the Chains will be lost forever. But not on my watch, and not on my link.''
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB