I am a hunter, yet I do not like to kill animals

[FshTaco99]

I'm also 21. I hunt... to live not for fun. I lease 13 waterfowl blinds on my property and 22 tree stands on a 250 acre farm. I do it because it pays the bills and fills my fridge. God knows how many women I've lost because all I eat is what I kill. Anything from waterfowl, to a 700 lbs. cow. I trap... beaver and muskrat. And also am a competition trap shooter. Men and women I share I blind with do this as a hobby and often times do not keep the meat... More for me. But, either way, it's a way of life for me.

 

[LilKJ]

This is a very interesting thread. I think I share some of the original poster's sentiment as I grew up in a big hunting family. Growing up in rural Alaska I have personally downed several moose, caribou, bison, wolves, bear, sheep, etc.

I reached a point some time ago where I began to wonder why I was doing this and exactly what I was after. (the annual Moose being the exception... it was my red meat for the year) I came to realize that it was the hunt itself that was enjoyable, the stalking, the tracking, the sighting, all of it. THe fun ended when I pulled the trigger and it just became work from there. So I put down my rifle, picked up a camera, and never looked back.

I'm not bashing hunting in any way here... I love it and grew up with it. Once I moved out of Alaska it was no longer "necessary". (plus it's great to see the looks on hunter-friends' faces when they see the pics of ridiculous bucks and elk that I get)

 

[outdoorsaddict]

Hunting seems to me to be a personal thing. I gun hunted until 1978. That year a legal buck came running off a ridge and I raised my .44 Ruger carbine and shot it from about 40 yds. away. It fell dead within a few feet of where I shot it. I waited for the heart racing excitement I had always felt from prior hunts,both when I had won and also when the quarry had won. NOTHING!! No shortness of breath,no adrenalin rush. I realized for myself that the hunt for me was the pitting my skills against the inborn instincts of the wild animal to survive. I saw none of this since the buck was running through an area I was scouting for next year's archery season. I spotted the buck coming, reached over and got the gun leaning against a tree and BAM!! That changed me. I swore I would only hunt an animal in a way that the old excitement level was present or I would quit hunting. I continued to archery hunt exclusively from that time on and I have yet to lose the drive,enthusiasm of hunting game. Every animal I pursue is with a bow. In 1989 I became disenchanted with the way the archery business was going. Compound bows with overdraws,widgets,gadgets,hardware, crap-and this pricey setup was obsolete after 2 yrs. so a person had to practically give away his gear and start over to keep up with the rat race. So that year I went back to shooting a recurve bow, bought a 100 PO cedar shafts and made my own arrows. NOW the excitement is getting the critters within my ethical shot range-under 18 yds. so I'm still in the game 100 percent. I look so forward to seeing Fall happen in the mountains of CO while archery elk hunting. Then I return home and chase whitetails/turkeys with my bow,even through the firearms season. The bottom line is I love being in the woods and Fall and Spring are my favorite seasons. So it is a natural feeling to me to have the warm handle of a bow in my hand while slipping through the woods. Maybe I never got over my childhood days of playing Indian and cowboys or Robin Hood. But it has been the one thing in my life that has been a constant. Golf and other activities just doesn't fill the gap like bowhunting for me. Thank goodness everyone doesn't feel that way--the woods seem too crowded at times anyway!!

 

[outdoorsaddict]

 

[outdoorsaddict]

 

[outdoorsaddict]

 

[snipecatcher]

hey

Love the pictures. I too have started hunting with a Bear recurve and I'm loving it. It requires that I get very close to the animal, which is what I love anyways. It's all about the hunt, not the kill. I know when I finally do take a deer or pig with my bow, it will be worth it. Its much for "fair" this way.
-Dan

 

[Clamp413]

Anybody else feel the same? I know most people go through this later in their life, when they get old and have been hunting for a lifetime, but I'm 21! I've killed many types of animals, and many of them, and I'm good at what I do. Lately, I have been finding it hard to pull the trigger. This past deer season, I hadn't had any venison in over year, as we lost our deer lease and just now got a new one. The first weekend of the season, a doe stepped out at 30 yards and I couldn't bring myself to shoot. I finally told myself, just this once, I want some deer meat so bad! I'm pretty sure I closed my eyes when I shot. It was a clean kill and I ate a big chunk of meat that night that I roasted over the campfire on a stick. I don't have much of a problem shooting birds, but who knows, maybe I will sometime soon. I've got lots of respect for the animals I hunt, and do not kill anything that I cannot eat. I know most of you are probably the same way. Anybody else gone through something similar in your life?
-Dan

You're human. Some people hunt humans with no remorse. Aka. Craigslist. Just be yourself.

 

[plainjaneFJC]

Love the pictures. I too have started hunting with a Bear recurve and I'm loving it. It requires that I get very close to the animal, which is what I love anyways. It's all about the hunt, not the kill. I know when I finally do take a deer or pig with my bow, it will be worth it. Its much for "fair" this way.
-Dan

Fair???, fight em with your bare hands if you think you are fair.

 

[perterra]

Fair???, fight em with your bare hands if you think you are fair.

You use hooks when you fish, or bare hands?

I have friends who look at it as a life is a life, no qualifiers like fuzzy and cute. Everything just trying to stay alive as best it can. No judgement here, we all trying to get thru as best we can.

 

[dwh]

Holy necroposting Batman! Replying to posts from 2008 rocks.



Personally, I've been an outdoorsman for 50 years - started at age 6 in Cub Scouts in Denver - but I've never considered myself a "sportsman".

I hunted and fished quite a bit when I was younger, but only to acquire the skills and become competent; neither one was something I really enjoyed all that much aside from being outdoors.

I don't have any problems with the killing - pretty much every species on this planet survives by digesting other species (recycling molecules). Im one of them. If I get hungry enough, I'll chase Bambi down and beat her to death with a club. Or set a trap to break the little sweety's leg. And to this day I still use my .22 target pistol to shoot cute little bunnies and squirrels if I'm in the mood (and yes, I eat them). Snakes too if they refuse to leave me alone (and if they're big enough, I eat them too). And I do like me some birds, quail especially.

The part about hunting and fishing that really spoils it for me, is the butchering. It's not that I have a weak stomach or anything like that, I don't. No, the problem is, it can feel too much like work.

I don't mind camp chores or dragging a dead log to camp and chopping wood or things like that. Taking small game, birds, or a fish or two, butchering it and making a meal is fine.

But taking larger game turns into something too much like work after you've made the kill. Cutting a deer up into managable chunks and hauling it back home so it can be properly processed and stored (which isn't something I would normally do in camp), and then processing and storing it, is work.

Pretty much the same deal with taking a daily limit of small game or fish.

Oh, if I lived in some remote place, I'd certainly do it to keep the freezer filled.

But I don't, and I do my best to be a lazy bastard as much as possible. So I stick to small game and birds and the occasional fish and only take enough for a meal or two.

And no, I don't give thanks to The Great Spirit or Gaia or the spirit of the animal or any other such foolishness.

I'm a predator.* I don't feel bad about it and I don't apologize for it. But like most predators I'm also lazy, so I don't work at it any harder than I have to.




*(And before some wiseguy gets what he thinks is a witty idea - no, not sexual predator. Being a big tough bastard has usually resulted in women chasing me, rather than me having to chase them.)

 

[perterra]

Holy necroposting Batman! Replying to posts from 2008 rocks.



Personally, I've been an outdoorsman for 50 years - started at age 6 in Cub Scouts in Denver - but I've never considered myself a "sportsman".

I hunted and fished quite a bit when I was younger, but only to acquire the skills and become competent; neither one was something I really enjoyed all that much aside from being outdoors.

I don't have any problems with the killing - pretty much every species on this planet survives by digesting other species (recycling molecules). Im one of them. If I get hungry enough, I'll chase Bambi down and beat her to death with a club. Or set a trap to break the little sweety's leg. And to this day I still use my .22 target pistol to shoot cute little bunnies and squirrels if I'm in the mood (and yes, I eat them). Snakes too if they refuse to leave me alone (and if they're big enough, I eat them too). And I do like me some birds, quail especially.

The part about hunting and fishing that really spoils it for me, is the butchering. It's not that I have a weak stomach or anything like that, I don't. No, the problem is, it can feel too much like work.

I don't mind camp chores or dragging a dead log to camp and chopping wood or things like that. Taking small game, birds, or a fish or two, butchering it and making a meal is fine.

But taking larger game turns into something too much like work after you've made the kill. Cutting a deer up into managable chunks and hauling it back home so it can be properly processed and stored (which isn't something I would normally do in camp), and then processing and storing it, is work.

Pretty much the same deal with taking a daily limit of small game or fish.

Oh, if I lived in some remote place, I'd certainly do it to keep the freezer filled.

But I don't, and I do my best to be a lazy bastard as much as possible. So I stick to small game and birds and the occasional fish and only take enough for a meal or two.

And no, I don't give thanks to The Great Spirit or Gaia or the spirit of the animal or any other such foolishness.

I'm a predator.* I don't feel bad about it and I don't apologize for it. But like most predators I'm also lazy, so I don't work at it any harder than I have to.




*(And before some wiseguy gets what he thinks is a witty idea - no, not sexual predator. Being a big tough bastard has usually resulted in women chasing me, rather than me having to chase them.)

Mmmmm, jalapeno stuffed dove breast on the grill wrapped in bacon.

 

[plainjaneFJC]

You use hooks when you fish, or bare hands?

I have friends who look at it as a life is a life, no qualifiers like fuzzy and cute. Everything just trying to stay alive as best it can. No judgement here, we all trying to get thru as best we can.

I use hooks, high dollar down imaging, top of the line boat,etc,etc. I never want fair when a fight is involved. Then I think as I'm typing, I wouldn't use some sort of big gill net or drag line and scoop a bunch of fence. Every ones different.

 

[dwh]

Mmmmm, jalapeno stuffed dove breast on the grill wrapped in bacon.

Dayum! Now my mouth is watering.

For some strange reason, I just imagined that, but with a nice salty anchovy inside the jalapeno.

 

[mezmochill]

If you were a deer would you rather be taken with a bullet or gutted by a wolf pack?