BACK IN THE 1950s, when I was about 10 years old, my idol was Jason Lucas, Fishing Editor for Sports Afield magazine. I savored every word he wrote, and every word he wrote was law. Not only was he the greatest fisherman in the world (in my opinion, and probably in his own, too), but he was also a dogmatic authority on words and terms. For example, any imbecile should know that pike are NOT northern pike. They are pike. And to call walleyes walleyed pike? Shame! They are walleyes. Period. A person who pursues fish with rod and reel is NOT a fisherman but an angler. Most important of all, a fishing rod is NOT a pole. A pole is a long, one-piece stick. It has no line guides, and you tie the line to the end of a pole. A tool equipped with line guides and a reel is a ROD. NEVER call a rod a pole.

Whether Jason was absolutely correct in all of his assessments, I do not know. But I do know he had strong opinions, he stated those opinions freely, and every word he wrote was law. Jason Lucas had a strong and lasting influence on the impressionable mind of a young boy.

Maybe that partially explains why I have strong opinions about the use of words. As I read some 800 manuscripts submitted each year to Bowhunter and edit roughly 150 features and columns for the magazine, I have plenty of opportunity to see words used and abused. Maybe I'm not right in all of my assessments, but like my boyhood idol Jason Lucas, I do have my strong opinions, and for whatever they're worth, I will state some of them here.

Let's start with the verb "to film." With all the video cameras in the field these days, cameramen often say they "filmed" a hunt. I suppose that verb could be used in a general sense, as it is in Mexico, where people use the verb filmar to mean "to take pictures" or "to shoot a camera." In reality, however, you cannot film anything with a video camera because, by very definition, video cameras contain no film. Film consists of a celluloid strip backed with a silver formula that changes composition in response to light. Video cameras record images on tape or on some form of solid memory. Thus, with a video camera, you can record, tape, or videotape a hunt, but you cannot film a hunt.

Some writers and hunters use the words "antlers" and "horns" interchangeably. For example, writers commonly say they shot a deer with "really nice horns." We all know what they mean, but such statements are not correct because, physiologically, antlers and horns are different structures. Antlers essentially are made of bone, and horns are made of hair. Deer and closely related animals -- elk, moose, caribou -- shed their antlers each winter and re-grow them in the spring and summer. Animals with horns -- goats, sheep, bison, muskoxen -- do not shed their horns. The horns are permanent and grow progressively larger each year until the demise of the animal. (Pronghorns annually shed the horn sheath and re-grow the sheath around a permanent core.)

Continued -- click on page link below.