Hunting as a sport

[trinacriabob]

A big "no thanks" for me. I thought it was ok for people who needed it to survive.

It has now become a sport. I couldn't imagine felling a large animal...though if a moose was headed my way, I wouldn't think twice about pulling the trigger in self defense (I got real close to one on a Canadian Highway near Banff in 2003).

There are some people I work with who do it. They don't seem to do it in the Sierra Nevada or in California. They tend to go to Montana or other more remote states. Not for me. Falling asleep on a warm beach on the Mediterranean: now you're talking.

[Lance Truthhammer]

I hunt deer, but for me I hunt dinner not trophies. Many of my friends cannot understand this and think it is barbaric, but they fall into two groups (my friends - not everyone opposed to hunting) that is: those from the city, and those who have never tasted venison. One of my friends often says to me that it is cruel to the animals. Perhaps. I would not want to get shot either. At the same time, Indiana, like other states faces decreasing natural habitats for deer and rising deer population. This means an increasing likelihood of diseases - diseases that could be transferred to cattle and even humans. We can see the dangers of an excessively large population in Wisconsin (wasting disease) where they have had to pay hunters from out of state to kill dear they can never eat.

-E.S. Mail

[RichW5]

No Thanks from this city boy!

A few years ago I gave my Dad's hunting rifles to my brother-in-law in southern Illinois. Jim hunts "legally" during deer season and eats deer meat through the winter. His daughters have been raised "Southern" and can 4-wheel, ATV and hunt with the boys. Jim teaches them to respect the animals they hunt and the land they hunt on.

Before I retired, I had a young engineer working for me, writing AutoCad programs. He lived in Pensylvania and hunted black bear with a bow & arrow and shotgun. It amazed me that bear hunting was so big in an eastern state.

Still, hunting is for folks that enjoy it. The only hunting I might enjoy is to silence the coyotes that wake me up at 3:00am every other night, passing through my back yard.

[Flybrian]

Only if I can shoot my lawyer friends.

[Sixty8panther]

Yes with one stipulation.... I'd only do it in such a way to not put the animal through a painful death.

[Camino LS6]

I think hunting is a fine thing- just not for me. I did it when I was a kid and soon got tired of freezing my butt off for nothing. With the nasty overpopulation of deer and Canada geese I am an advocate of open season on these two species. It is so bad here that in my county (Chester County PA) we have the greatest incedence of Lyme Disease in the nation. People are killed regularly in deer/car collisions and the environmental damage to our understory plants is ruining the eco-system.

Meanwhile the no longer migrating Canada Geese are literally poisoning the local bodies of water with their waste. Hunting won't reduce the populations enough, but it is all we have at the moment until laws are changed. These two species are public health hazzards.

[Sixty8panther]

Given the situation you described Camino, I'd be out there wiht a Shotgun & or Riffle every other weekend.

[NOS2006]

I'll go out and hunt. It's fun.

Just ask Dick, he likes it too!

[CSpec]

No thanks, I'd rather not sit in some bushes for hours wearing a road worker's costume. If I want to be bored, I'll watch the Winter Olympics.

[Drew Dowdell]

I'll take dick cheney on in a fair fight.

[99camaroSS]

im an avid hunter, everything from deer to qual to coyotes, hell my name is hunter. as long aas itisdone with respectfully its great, i cannot stand people who go into the woods for the sole reason of mass slaughter

[tmp]

I don't and I wouldn't, but I don't see anything terribly wrong with it. It's not like the cow that my burger came from committed suicide......

[ToniCipriani]

I prefer not to shoot live animals, but would love to do skeet shooting or IPSC training.

I love guns, BTW. Probably because of playing too much GTA and CS in my early days.

[Cory Wolfe]

It's hard to pick an answer... I do it, my whole family does it. I love guns and I love to shoot things. Deer are a major problem around here... We're sick of hitting them with vehicles, basically. However, I don't find joy in the actual hunting part. I hate the cold, I hate waiting, and I hate actually gutting and skinning the deer. However, shooting them is exciting. I, personally, don't do it for survival (don't eat venison), but my family does (not literally as they could survive without hunting).

[TurboRush]

I go hunting with my family almost every year, but we eat what we catch and is quite good (not just anything... moose, partrige, sometimes bear).... IF we just hunted for the sport, wouldnt feel comfortable doing it. It removes the purpose.

Also, getting out of the city, out in the open air of the forrest is soooo relaxing. Sit by a ravine an afternoon looking down onto a swamp or river, enjoying the view and sounds of nature. Make your lunch right there, sandwich or whatever. Drink your coffee. SEE THE MOOSE CLOSE IN AND YOU SETUP THE SCOPE AND PLACE YOUR GUN IN POSITION. (providing you get him, you have allot of work on your hands and have to cal up the rest of your hunting bddies to come over and help you) Once you get back to camp, let the liquor flow and the good times roll.

If not, then you make your ways down the trails with your quad, going through swamps, over logs, on top of escarpments and boulders, see more sights, pay attention to the kind of birds that rest in your path and if its a partrige, SHOOT IT! BE QUIET!!! MMM!! THATS GONA BE GOOD FO MY BREKFAST!!!

Head on to the camp for a large lunch, a beer and possibly a pop or coffee, depending on how you feel, and go back out in the afternoon. Park your quad somewhere and walk through the woods with your gear, walk through deep snow at some places and enjoy more sight seing and peacefull relaxation. No stress.

Edited February 15, 2006 by TurboRush

[capriceman]

I love hunting.

I dont shoot deer and other animals to fell like the Dominent species. I dont shoot Doe's unless its injured. I dont shoot bucks unless it has 3 or more horns or injured. and yes I eat what i kill. Thats another reason i dont duck hunt or Squerril hunt.

I like to watch deer to. I love fishing too. besides sitting in the woods is actually fun. Bow Season is my Favorite.

[ocnblu]

I don't and I wouldn't, but I support those who do, if they eat their quarry. Deer is tasty, if cooked right. Both of my parents have hunted. My mom used to deer hunt with bow & arrow and gun. My dad has hunted wildfowl.

[thegriffon]

I have nothing against game hunting and some forms of trapping, but I don't consider it a sport. In many ways wild game is better for you than farm-bred (depending on the species and the species), and after all humans are natural predators. Trophy hunting/fishing or hunting for the sport I feel is immoral though. If you need to prove your prowess join a paintball club. As for catch and release, unless you're tagging for research that's just cruel and pointless. If you're not going to eat it why do it. Beating the crap out of a fish and releasing it to do it again later, what kind of respect is that?

[capriceman]

I do respect your opinions. But I hate protestors. if they want to help. buy a licsense so real hunters will not be able to in some areas to hunt legaly.

But I observe more than shoot. When I want to shoot i go to a range and Competion shooting. I love My Browning Hi-power. So damn Accerate. Also I have my CCW permit so dont piss me off.

I hate other hunters than shoot anything that moves. Yes I have violated before but I needed to. Once Was for somthing to eat. (long story) and once becase there was an arrow in the spine. Also Back when I worked on the farm for a couple of summers there we did it to scare the deer since if a couple die they dont stay around. They like Corn. But know i realize that somtimes its more fun to watch. I have scoped so many deer and not pulled the trigger.

The best tatsing animal is Elk. besides the domestic pig and cow.

[turbo200]

No killing animals for me. I might go fishing----I know it's killing, but I'd rather sedate a really large bear or deer than kill it. But I have no qualms with eating it----mmm good protein. I do want to become a vegetarian sometime down the line though.

[thegriffon]

There's no reason you shouldn't be a vegetarian, but I don't think it's feasible for everyone or even the majority of people, just because of the incredible change in farming that would be needed to support it. As for people who protest hunting as cruel in general, I get the feeling that they see it as a soft target since they know too many people are fond of burgers for them to ban killing altogether. I don't know about you but if I was a duck or a deer I'd rather take my chances on the open range than be penned up all my life, and being shot must be far better than disease or starvation. I sympathise with BV and TurboRush. I like wild game and support hunting for meat. Duck, rabbit, deer, antelope it's all good (would not eat bear though). Don't know that I'd like the actual hunting and butchering part myself though. Since I don't think it's much of a sport I'm all for all kinds of unsporting aids, like dogs and beaters and fences; as long as we're there for meat and not a trophy or the thrill of killing.

[Charger4U]

im not looking for the rack.....just the venison.......i love venison!!

kinda like 68 said, i certainley dont want it (the deer/elk/moose/antelope) to die in a painful death...just a quick and easy bullet to the head

[99camaroSS]

im not looking for the rack.....just the venison.......i love venison!!

kinda like 68 said, i certainley dont want it (the deer/elk/moose/antelope) to die in a painful death...just a quick and easy bullet to the head

bullet in the head? kill zone is generally right behind the front shoulder

[Charger4U]

bullet in the head? kill zone is generally right behind the front shoulder

what i menat by "bullet to the head" is killing it wiht a bullet, but i geuss i better go change it...

[razoredge]

Nope, I couldnt take the life of an animal, mice excluded, yet I can eat them (not mice) I guess it shows how soft we have become, only a few generations back we'd be out back with a choppin block and the hen of the day.

Like everyone else that lives in the country has said, Deer are a real traffic problem and the population does not suffer from the hunting. Turkeys are a problem for the farmers and do not suffer from hunting. Deer are abundant and well hunted. We also have a larger Coyote problem* in the past 10 years. Bobcats are rare sighting, like a few in a life time, but damn what an animal, for the second or two they allow you to see them. Now Black Bear is common here and some lonely Moose wondered through this Fall, that was a first.

*since the Coyote population has risen we have less of a rodent problem trying to move into any and all buildings come winter. Something people dont realize, mice are a Coyotes and the Wolves main food source.

[Charger4U]

also never hunt anything to extinction....can mess up the whole ecosytem.

Example: in the last 400+ years we have hunted and killed the wolf with no mercy, the wolf was so close to being extinsct, while the wolf is a big part of the ecosytem (along with most animals). some scientists i think 20/30 years ago realized that...so they started with the reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park/NorthEast WY and in Idaho since then elk and other hooved animals population has decreased (which is a good thing seeing as they were overpopulated), while the elk pop. decreased trees grew back along the river banks b/c there werent thousands of elk eating the starting trees and while the trees grew back the water temapture got tot he idea tempature for salmon tahnks to the tree shadows and as the water tempature got colder the salmon population grew back...and as the salmon population grew, so did the otter/beaver (wahtevr those river critters are that eat fish) population.

Just an example of why not to hunt/poach endangered species or hunt a species to extinction...once you take a predator/pest away you begin to realize what effect it did have.

[balthazar]

Some good reprocussion points here.

I know a few hardcore hunters and I just don't get what drives them. They're nuts, I tell you. Taking mad time off work to sit in a tree in freezing weather, spending mad money on gear & equipment & supplies (salt licks, corn spreaders, seed, etc) *shakes head*. They just don't seem 'all there' to me. Undoubtedly some would say the same of building a street/strip '59 Buick...

I have no problem with a right/privilege to hunt and am not an animal rights nazi that advocates vegetarianism over hunting. But at the same time, I don't see hunting as a 'sport' and I do not advocate hunting to extinction. I guess the bottom line is: follow the law and don't send any bullets thru my property and you can do whatever floats your boat. And thanks for thinning down the deer population.