Hmmm...
For flat dead certain, be it fishing, bird hunting or deer hunting, I go out fully intending to kill something to eat. No maybes about that. When I do decide to kill one, I am just making meat.
When I fish I don't tend to practice catch and release very often, but when I do, it's just something I do. I couldn't begin to explain why some go back in the water and some go in the frying pan.
Deer are sort of the same. I get to pick and choose which ones I kill, and I couldn't begin to say why some don't get shot. All the ones that do get shot are in good flesh. I do look carefully before I put one on the table. By and large I kill fawns or yearling does.
I do take great pleasure in putting prime venison on the table. I don't remember the last time I bought hamburger, and I only buy a whole sirloin the cut the way I want it, and at that, I buy precious damn little meat in the store. I much prefer eating wild meat, and I get a lot more personal satisfaction out of it on top.
I used to kill a lot more. My attitude towards the game, towards the killing, towards the eating has stayed pretty constant through all the years. I never have considered it "sport hunting". It's always been just making meat and there has always been the same satisfaction in the butchering, the packaging, and the preparation as there has been in the killing. The deer I hit with a car and turned into the best she could be last October was every bit as satisfying as the other three I killed with a rifle. Despite the fact that she was really old and really tough.
