Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire As a hunter has your view about killing changed any?

Yes, the views have changed with age, but not dramatically. When I got that first BB gun I was eager and ready to hit anything that moved and some things that did not - and if that killed some small critter I was OK. It was the good aiming and scoring that counted. After the BB gun, there was a long dry period.

When, as an adult, I finally got the time and opportunity and decided to learn (mostly teach myself) about firearms and hunting, those were serious projects. I hunted in order to learn and use the needed skills and to get meat for our family. The actual killing was neither pleasure nor pain - it has been a part of a natural and important activity - but it seems that I always revered the animals and felt the need to stand there quietly for a few moments in respect.

For the past 50 years I have hunted alone most of the time, so all is very quiet. Even those few times when with the two or three great buddies that have been wonderful partners, never has there been a moment of outward celebration about a kill. There is a natural reverence involved.

We no longer need wild game meat. But we do eat it and, except to control destructive varmints, I hunt only that which we will consume. I'm old now, my remaining hunts surely are short in number, but I still rise to the challenge of being way deep out there all alone on their turf and trying to be a good hunter.

If fortunate to draw buck mule deer and/or bull elk tags for this fall, I'll be at it again. At my age the thrill of being successful is quickly tempered by the bigger challenge of getting that carcass to some two track. That task may leave me dead out there some day.

It is about death - a natural part of life - but it is not about the killing.

I"m more laid back these days at almost 50. But we like to eat deer meat and I shoot em for that.

But I don't shoot a buck unless its a trash one, or one that would go on the wall so that has slowed that down on its own just due to the fact I'm looking for old and bigger than I already have. There are plenty of does to shoot for meat and trash bucks.

Those, I pick days when all is good and I feel like cleaning one basically. Years ago I might have shot all my tags in one weekend if it all worked out. Having shot more than 1 deer a few times on each hunt on a weekend, with a bow... I'm not that mad at em anymore.

I think if you read, what I used to teach, hunter ed, about how a hunter matures it makes sense.

I see a LOT of joy watching a young or new hunter get game or helping them is even better yet.

There was this thing in teaching, said you were happy to go out, then happy to go out and shoot, then happy to go out and harvest some game, then happy to go shoot a limit, then happy to shoot a big one, then got back to the point of just happy to go out again..... seems most of us kind of follow that routine.

That being said... we've probably killed close to 300 cowbirds out the kitchen window this year. And I started trapping again to thin out the predators a bit....

I feel relief for the game.

There are only a few ways that animals die in the wild. None of then sound very fun to me.

Of all the ways that they die, getting shot through the vitals and dying quickly seems the least brutal.

Yep, I agree. As I recall he came around to the fact that his statement that day was not correct and that the 2nd did not protect hunting or sporting uses, it was for the defense of ones self and of ones beliefs and country.

I know my political beliefs changed. As a young ignorant child it seemed only right to try to help everyone you could and if they had nothing, to help them best you could.

Then as I grew up I realized, WTF, most that don't have anything don't want to try to work to get there. And why should I work overtime to simply hand them something.

And the government certainly shoudl not take my money to give to the lazy SOBs either.

I'm all for helping someone get stood up on their own and moving forward. But its a fallacy to feed and clothe them for their lives.

I see it all the time at the office. Lazy liberals sacks of .... come in can't afford their electrical bill because they have the AC on 62( I've gone to their houses and witnessed that when they complain why is the bill high) when its 110 in the shade during the day. And while they complain their Iphone rings, they are smoking cigs and have a low rider, fancy rims, on a POS car in the lot. And every last time they'll come back later or the next day with enough cash ONLY when they are about to be cut off. EVERY Fuggin month.

Liberalism is a disease. Most of us lean that way when young, but a lot of us finally get our head out of the stink hole and grow up and realize what a plague on society the liberals are.

I have never understood the expression "Sport Hunting" What the heck is that.

I don't kill any animal that I am not going to eat, except maybe a coyote that thinks my chickens or family pets are his to eat.

I have killed a fair number of prarie dogs, but that being because the farmer wanting them out of his pasture. I never could see the glee in making them red mists as others jump around about. If it was legal I would have poisoned them.

I enjoy getting out and being in the wilderness which is where I usually hunt. I enjoy camping and all that goes with it, although I like the cold less and less. I have killed enough elk in my life that I don't need to kill another one, but once I amount hunting, I do my best to fill my tag. For me,I either spend $800 or so on hunting or about the same if I have to buy a half of beef. I like the elk meat better.

The thing that has changed with me is that when young if I didn't fill my tag, I felt I had failed and was miserable for a month after the season. Now it doesn't bother me.

I have killed farm animals most of my life to eat and killing a elk or deer is about the same to me.

One thing for sure, I sure as heck don't "harvest' them

For me it's more the experience.
Hard to explain but I feel a need to get in touch with something from the past we've lost in our modernized world. I puts me in touch with nature and some long lost ancestral pursuit that was a necessity to survival. I enjoy the woodcraft, skills, camping, hiking, stalking, matching wits against an animal in his element...everything about the hunt. It's about THE HUNT. I don't NEED to hunt for the meat. I just NEED to hunt for the sake of hunting. The actual taking of life isn't something I like, but without it, all the rest doesn't make much sense. I feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment and appreciation for that which has been provided, and I feel a bit of sadness for the animal.

Even processing and packaging all the meat myself is part of the equation.
It's actually difficult to explain, and to a non-hunter, impossible. I imagine some of you understand what I'm having a difficult time putting into words.

In a nutshell, it's not about killing but without the killing it doesn't make sense.

See these guys in this picture? This is from a time that will never be again but for some reason I feel some kindred connectedness to in some manner be like them and hunting from time to time is the closest thing I can do to connect.
I know, crazy huh?

Nope. It means you came from somewhere and your going somewhere and you are smart enough to realize it and the need to fit in as a tooth on the gear that drives things from here to eternity.

Much unlike the case of a libturd [bleep], wasting their life away worrying about CO2 and how to steal a living from you.

wow what a thread, I started hunting when I was about 11yrs old, I would come home from school and grab my Ben Pearson fiberglass bow and my Montgomery Wards wooden arrows and hunt till dark... hunted up till last year ,killed a nice 10pt in Texas and as I walked up to him he was still breathing and I watched him die, I'm a retired LEO and I've seen/ watched people die but something clicked, my brother walked up and was admiring the deer and I told him it was my last and it was.. I just got into traditional archery and when I get good enough I will kill 3D targets and I still enjoy IDPA but for ME hunting is over.

Just an observation but ...

There's a lot of posts I wholeheartedly agree with and it does seem that people's/hunter's attitudes do change over time.

I wish I had the pleasure of hunting with some of you guys rather the crew I'm currently hooked up with. A good generalized description of them would be "sport hunters".

It seems hunting and fishing is part of my DNA. Genesis 1:28 probably explains it best.

One thing I ponder once in awhile is: if I quit hunting and fishing what would I call my cabin? Bird watching camp?

That's not really "hunting", but stone cold killing. There is a difference.

Would be "bird watching camp" be such a bad thing?

The older I get the more I like watching birds.

I used to want to kill 'em all (especially the doves ... figuratively speaking) but now I sit on an the porch and whistle to the robins and coo to the doves.

I know. Call me crazy.

bcraig;
Thanks for the thought provoking thread sir and thanks too for the thoughtful replies provided by so many here.

Like many of us here I started hunting at about 5 or 6 and will be 52 when this fall's season is upon me.

I've never considered meat hunting a sport - somehow when something is dying I've got a tough time reconciling it as "sport" if that makes any sense?

For me the hunt - and by extension - the kill - is very much what keeps me connected with the natural world. By doing so I can remain a participant in the ecosystem I love, not a mere observer that a non-predator must remain.

Somehow I need that grounding, that connection with my food which will sustain me and my family in order to help keep my focus where it needs to be.

As far as feeling joy in killing, well honestly I still do feel a thankfulness and satisfaction in knowing that I am still a participant - an active predator if you will.

When I stop feeling that, I do believe I'll quit hunting alright, but I hope and pray its many, many seasons down the road for me.

Thanks again for the thoughts tonight folks and Happy Easter to you all.

Dwayne

I'm right there with you after 59 years of hunting come this season.

I love to hunt, but the killing part of it is closer to a Hobson's Choice each successive season. Some season in the near future I just might leave that closest horse to the door and walk away.

Faced with creaking joints and a growing aversion to delving into a carcass in the dark, cold and wet, I let a lot more late in day deer walk away now than I ever did. But I am always glad to be there to see them with a gun in hand.

As a rule I don't use tree stands or feed plots or other bait so most of those I see are because I know the terrain I hunt and ambush them where and when they move. Those deer that pop up out of nowhere usually see or hear me as I'm snooping around and go into after burner. That is not me giving them a pass that's just them beating me.

I love that game and recognize the killing as the logical end and point of it all. The whole endeavor would be meaningless w/o the end game mix of sorrow -- not regret -- and elation at taking part in a cycle as old as time and 'truer' than the empty satisfactions of modern gadget-based life. The venison on the table seals the deal.

1B

I still go hunting each year but i don't feel the need to shoot just any deer that comes by.

If MR. big comes out so be it,till the last weekend of the season then i will shoot one for the fridge.
Varmints will get shot when they come on the place and go after our animals.

Doves get the best for a few hunts then i just watch.

Now turkeys are another matter,i would match wits those wiley citters any day.

And the worst is having someone from town throw out their dogs on the farm,would rather shoot them than the dogs.

Seems like after having a near death experience makes one just want to get up early and sit a stand and watch what happens in the woods.
It never bothered me if the tags went unfilled.

1B: """I love that game and recognize the killing as the logical end and point of it all. The whole endeavor would be meaningless w/o the end game mix of sorrow -- not regret -- and elation at taking part in a cycle as old as time and 'truer' than the empty satisfactions of modern gadget-based life. The venison on the table seals the deal."""

This is expressed perfectly. Ive been saying it for years, just never this incredibly well.

Beautiful.

Having shot Kangaroo's for a living for a number of years I can honestly say that I will be very pleased to not have to kill another, I have just recently found that my interest in hunting deer has returned, but only in the mountains on foot, and if I do not shoot any I don't care so long as I am in the mountains.

Though what you said is true, I did see you celebrate a tad when this barking bastard breathed his last.

Or am I remembering it all wrong?

Same here. Your thoughts echo mine. I am a big gun nut/collector, but the killing part is over.