[Topgun]

"Shooter" includes target, plinking, collecting, and maybe a ....little...hunting.

"Hunter" is primarily that. Maybe some plinking, but MAINLY hunting.

Not trying to be that picky.....just the MAIN trend of your interests.

:confused:

[EghtySx]

Tough question. I like pulling the trigger. Target shooting and hunting are both great to me. I suppose plinking is what we do the most and you shoot a lot when just plinking. Can I choose all of the above? =) Tough question...

[Ankeny]

How about both depending on the time of the year?

[ny32182]

Shooter....

I've never been hunting.

[Bwana John]

By time spent the shooter to hunter ratio is about 5:1
By rounds fired the ratio goes to 1000:1

[yci]

Shooter here, do very little hunting so far.

[LynnMassGuy]

I would hunt. I just don't. Nothing against it. I'd like to hunt Turkey next year. I need to find someone around here to show me the ropes. I'd only hunt something I'm going to eat. I don't like duck, so I wouldn't hunt them. I suppose I would hunt pests if I lived somewhere the population needed to be controlled. Groundhogs on a farm? I guess? I've never set foot on a farm. :confused: I own ferrets and like them more than I like most people (who am I kidding? I love em') so I couldn't hunt anything that looks like a ferret either. :o

John
LMG

[P95Carry]

98% shooter .... but occasional hunting when feasable.

[dakotasin]

i shoot so much because of my hunting. my interest in hunting and hunting rifles spawned other gun-related interests...

my signature sums it up nicely.

[armedcitizen]

My first few experiences hunting consisted of walking around in the woods, often in the rain, carrying a heavy shotgun and not seeing anything to shoot at. It took me only 2-3 such experiences to change me from a hunter to a shooter. Imagine, taking your guns someplace and actually getting to shoot them! Yep, shooting is for me, and God bless the hunters out there.

[bratch]

I shoot alot more than I hunt. I did go a couple times this year but mainly I'm a baby and dont care for the cold and early morning.

[larryf1952]

I used to hunt a lot when I was a kid and a teenager...long, long time ago. All the folks I used to hunt with are long gone now, and no one I know anymore does any of it. Plus, it's a huge hassle to find a place to hunt around a big city, without having to drive 300 miles. I wouldn't use the meat, anyway, so I just sling lead for no reason whatsoever... :rolleyes:

[Vern Humphrey]

I agree that a serious hunter will probably fire a thousand rounds at targets for each one he fires at game.

To give an example, Bigfoot Wallace is my "heavy" rifle -- a custom '03 Springfield in .35 Brown-Whelen. I use it strictly for hunting (.35 caliber Nosler Partition Jackets are expensive), and might put a dozen rounds a year through it -- mostly checking zero before a hunt.

On the other hand, I'll easily burn 5,000 a year in my Kimber M82 .22 LR, mostly in practice, and fire hundreds of .30-06 rounds. I'll also use up about 5,000 rounds of .45 ACP and the same in .38 Special.

But I also do a lot of hunting.

[landon74]

While I do hunt, for the most part I go to the range and shoot.

[Rickstir]

Shoot alot, hunt when I can, on my place in NE MO.

[Wedge]

While I do hunt it is only the major seasons (deer and turkey) and usually only for a few days...so I would say I am a shooter first and a hunter second.

My wife says that if we had to live off my hunting abilities we would be vegetarians...

[larryw]

Hunting is a hike in the woods with a gun. One need not shoot something for it to be a good hunt. So the gun isn't really required either. Hunting is a predatory experience and just sneaking up on a deer or pig or turkey or other game and thinking "gotcha" makes it a GREAT hunt. I hunt a lot, just not much with a gun lately because work is getting in the way (screwed up sense of what's important, I know, tell my wife).

I also work about 10 minutes from my club, so I'm able to spend most lunch breaks there and shoot almost daily.

Where's the "both" button?

[Tom C.]

Although I am one of the hunter safety instructors for my club, I am not a hunter. I am a shooter, and bang away with 15k to 20k rounds per year.

[MAUSER88]

Shooter. Never interested in hunting.

[Vern Humphrey]

Quote:
----------------------------------------
Hunting is a hike in the woods with a gun. One need not shoot something for it to be a good hunt. So the gun isn't really required either. Hunting is a predatory experience and just sneaking up on a deer or pig or turkey or other game and thinking "gotcha" makes it a GREAT hunt.
----------------------------------------

I do a lot of hiking and a lot of hunting. And while I have spotted and stalked game while unarmed, I still say, you need to intend to bring home meat if you are really hunting.

[alwayshungry]

this is impossible for me to answer because there is not an "all of the above" option

i hunt birds mostly...upland birds like quail, dove, chuckar..bird hutning trips are usually less formal and are cheaper and easier to come by (for me)...

that being said, i've probably gone through 10 times as many shells at the sporting clays/skeet ranges

also, i love to shoot and, like it was said above, the number of rounds i fire in just target shooting (compared to hunting) is probably 500:1

so i'm, not sure if i'm a "shooter" or a "hunter"...like i said...all of the above

[Lennyjoe]

Cant reply to the poll cause I do both.

[Dave Markowitz]

Shooter.

I haven't gone hunting since 1992, although I'd like to get back into it.

[mcmoyer]

Shooter since I left Colorado in 1983. I've bagged a few coons and such off the back deck, but not officially gone hunting since '83.

:D

I would like to go hog hunting some day however.

[TechBrute]

Hunting and shooting are definately far different pasttimes. Hunting is wandering around all day and taking one shot. Shooting is the opposite: minimal wandering and lots of shots.

[dairycreek]

For me it has been an evolutionary process. When I was younger hunting was my all consuming passion. As I got older (and hunting got tougher) I found myself more interested in being a shooter.

[JeepDriver]

First I'm a shooter.

I do hunt, but it's a very small part of my life, where as shooting is consumes a large part of my free time.

[tc300mag1]

No selection for Both depending on time of year im one or the other

[CAPTAIN MIKE]

There are only two options (1) Shooter or (2) Hunter. The third option is totally overlooked --- (3) BOTH.

I'm both but there's no place to vote that choice.

[confinedbythecurtain]

Shooter. Not much to hunt in Los Angeles.

[jefnvk]

I started shooting because I hunted. I now hunt because I shoot :rolleyes:

Both for me.

[308win]

I started shooting because I hunted. I now hunt because I shoot

Same here. All I hunt these days are groundhogs and yotes. When I go groundhog hunting I spend more time watching wildlife and enjoying being out than shooting groundhogs. Maybe I am getting soft in my old age but I now understand what my dad meant when he used to say that he quit hunting because he didn't get any pleasure out of killing - on the other hand he was a killer fisherman so go figure. :confused:

[jojo]

How about both?!

I shoot a lot mainly to help me get ready for hunting season, but also just because I like to.

joo

[Bruce H]

Hunter. I've been hunting for the X ring all my life. No matter how much I shoot I still hunt the X ring. Food also.

[PowderBurn]

Perhaps voting with a Shooting/Hunting ratio would be more meaningful:

Pure Shooter = 100/0
Pure Hunter = 0/100 (is this possible)?
On the fence = 50/50
Me: 65/35

It's not necessarily a matter of where you spend more of your time, since you can shoot year-round while the government has placed strict limitations on when, where, what, & how we hunt.

It's a state of mind.

[kudu]

I used to take every opportunity to go hunting, any season any animal. With the onset of family and more responsabilitys I am lucky if I hunt once or twice a year now. But my shooting has picked up some as I can fit it in small time windows and go for it.

SO I am mostly a shooter with a trophy room of game animals. ;)

[psyopspec]

Hunt once every other month or so for various game. Range trips generally occur 4x that. Shooter for me.

[crt360]

Last year I did a lot more hunting than target shooting. The year before I probably did a lot more shooting than hunting. I don't know what I'll be this year. Hopefully, it will involve a lot of both.

[Smoke]

Certainly a shooter.

I just sometimes shoot hogs, dove, quail, rabbits, trucks (don't ask)

Smoke

[Remington788]

Option 3, both.

[BenW]

Another vote for number 3, both. Hunting got me into guns, guns got me into shooting outside of hunting. I enjoy both aspects equally. When I'm out with my dog and my 12 gauge, I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be. When I'm out bouncing milk jugs around with my M1A, I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be. :)

[Hammer&Tongs]

A choice I can't make. So I vte No.3 both.

[SShooterZ]

Shooting is what I do to curb my craving for hunting.

I can shoot clays all day and I have a good day.

I go hunting with my dogs and get some birds and it reminds me of why I work so hard to get there.

Nothing like the adrenaline rush of hunting. :)

[Nitram68]

Shooter. Very little hunting. If I hunt much more, it will be with a bow (season is warmer)

[Dean C]

I had to vote SHOOTER. Because, my success at hunting is such that if it weren't for shooting (during non-hunting time) my rifle "ol' Trusty" would become "ol' Rusty".
Love to do both.
dean

[Thumper]

Both...I wouldn't give up either one.

[SlowStar]

I am a shooter. I gave up hunting when I found that I didn't like to clean what I had shot. I don't have to clean the paper targets. :D
slowstar

[Billmanweh]

I love animals too much to go out and kill things just to be killing them

[Topgun]

That's why I explained the poll:

Not trying to be that picky.....just the MAIN trend of your interests.

I left out "Both", "Neither", "Don't understand question", and "Republican" also.

;) :uhoh: :D

[taliv]

what intrigues me about this is the political aspect. at this moment, the results of the poll are overwhelming 218 shooter to 18 hunter


and yet one side of the political spectrum (perhaps both sides) is SO OBVLIVIOUS to this fact that they cannot even begin to relate to half the country. claiming to be for "hunters rights" is just not the main concern

perhaps Kerry could have helped himself by shooting paper targets or joining a bowling pin or trap/skeet league :) instead of making himself look like a fool trying to hunt

my apologizes for bring politics into an otherwise lovely thread. i couldn't help myself.

[Eskimo Jim]

Shooter due to time, current reading interests and amount of ammunition put down range.

Don't get me wrong. I like to hunt too but haven't in two years.

-Jim

[tall2tango]

After a couple of "hunting" experiences in my 20s, I didn't touch a gun again until last year. Now I'm 59 and thoroughly enjoy target shooting - both paper and clays. :)

I'd hunt again only if absolutely necessary to put food on the table. I'd also do it by myself.

[Kamicosmos]

Shooter.

Only went hunting once.

[ExtremeDooty]

I am a shooter. I gave up hunting when I found that I didn't like to clean what I had shot. I don't have to clean the paper targets.

Same here. I used to hunt just for an excuse to shoot. Once I found out I could shoot for no reason at all, that's what I did. I've even stopped keeping fish just so I don't have to clean them.

[SapperLeader]

Shooter big time. I have gone hunting a few times, enjoyed myself immensly, but the vast majority of my range time is shooting handgun and shotgun with a little bit of rifle.

[chetrogers]

I have never been hunting.I have never had any father type figures in my life to take me fishing,hunging,etc.I basicly learned how to shoot by myself and 3 or 4 NRA safety classes.Hell Im 27 years old and am finally joining a gun club next month.I dont think i would ever go dear hunting Just because i dont know anyone that even likes guns around me.My friends arnt into guns and even a few are anti's..I have no idea why but someday i would love to go cougar hunging...But as for elk ,deer,beer,etc i dont even have the slightest interest..But man i would love to get me a cougar :)

[GaryP]

Shooter 99% :D
Hunter 1%

I fire more rounds during one trip to the range than I ever did hunting over the last 40 years! :uhoh:

Gary
:evil:

[greyhound]

Well, I never went hunting once in Maryland, but since I moved to Alabama it seems to be much more part of the culture.

Since the soon to be in-laws own large hunting lands out in the country its inevitable that I'd start.

Got my first set of camo clothing at Christmas and went deer hunting that same day. Missed on my first shot from the "small deer building" at 150 yards (don't know what else to call it - it wasn't a tree stand but a little shack we had to climb a ladder to get to) but I had a great time (saw some wild turkeys on the way to the building - not turkey season yet though!) and can say I look forward to years of hunting.

But in Maryland I just collected miltary surplus rifles (and shot 'em) and never thought once of hunting.

Now I AM a little nervous about cleaning my first kill - but heck my "hipster-artist" fiancee has cleaned two deer she shot (years ago) so I'll just have to suck it up and do it! :)

[crt360]

Now I AM a little nervous about cleaning my first kill - but heck my "hipster-artist" fiancee has cleaned two deer she shot (years ago) so I'll just have to suck it up and do it!

greyhound, that reminds me of a friend of mine that I hunt and fish with. His house has a bunch of rack mounts on the walls. Every one was taken by his wife.

[Feanaro]

I hunt because I shoot, rather than the other way around.

[Team American]

I grew up hunting in western Colorado with my father and uncles, but drifted toward target shooting and plinking after a hitch in the Air Force.

Still like a good elk steak, though :D

[stevelyn]

Both. Although I do spend more time on the range because I can. I hunt anything I can eat or wear. I even do a little trapping when I can dedicate time to check the traps regularly.

[0luke1]

It would be interesting to break this down further - "sportsman/sportswoman" or "bozo."

I'm not a hunter, but have a great deal of respect for the guys I see at my club who talk about one shot, clean kills and discuss the relative merits of calibers vs. game. Some of my favorite stories are the ones I hear about shots they DIDN'T take. I'd go hunting with them if they were hunting for something I like to eat. I know they enjoy the stalk - and clean and humane kill. It's a matter of character for them and I find it admirable, even though I don't partake in that aspect of our sport.

Unfortunately, I often hear bozos blasting away during deer season. And I see guys who are not club members come in for "sight in days." The club members help these guys not hurt themselves and lower the danger to those around them are really providing a public service. Many of the guys who come in for that one day are bozos. I regularly see people with the wrong caliber ammo, poor/dangerous handling, etc.

Similarly, I shoot competitively and when I'm not at a match, I practice as though I was at one. I get a great deal of pleasure over both improving my skills and beating good competitors. Part of the pleasure is getting beat by better competitors (especially guys older than me) because it gives me something to work towards. I help anyone who has a question or seeks advice - I bring extra equipment in case someone who's just starting out needs a hand.

On the other hand, I see "mall ninjas" (mostly) at the public ranges - guys can't shoot straight, wear inappropriate clothing, etc.

My favorite are the guys who wear semi-military clothing and swagger around when you can see that they've never been in shape in their lives - and the only service they've seen is on TV.

My point is that this board seems to be mostly "sportsmen and sportswomen." But I think it's the "bozos" with firearms which make us an easy "target" for politicians and eliminate our rights in the end.

[smokemaker]

They go hand in hand for me. I shoot throughout the year so my shots are true during hunting season.

[ruger270man]

introduced to shooting through hunting, used to be a "hunter" now I'm a shooter that hunts sometimes.

[Majic]

How about a shooter who does a lot of hunting? :p

[Old NFO]

My wife says that if we had to live off my hunting abilities we would be vegetarians...

Wedge, I "think" I used to be married to her sister.... :)

Seriously, I do both- But my percentage of rounds fired is probably 100:1 target to actual hunting. And yes, it is getting harder to find places to hunt without travel or hassles.

[Mannlicher]

What a dumb poll. The absense of the most logical answer, ie, "both" is surprising.

[worminator]

I have hunted for years and many of those years I have hunted without shooting. This past year I got my CCW and have joined a range and plan on shooting as much as possible indoors with my 16 year old daughter. She's signed up for the NRA pistol class in March. She hunts with me occationally and like me hunts for days without taking a single shot. For us it's the hunt and the time spent together.

[jefnvk]

Not trying to be that picky.....just the MAIN trend of your interests.

The thing is to me, that I cannot hunt anywhere near the amount I can shoot. I can shoot year round, realistically, I can hunt from October to December. So just going by what I do more, it would be shooting, because I have four times the amount of time to do it.

That is not to say that I only enjoy hunting a quarter as much. IMHO, hunting is shooting with results (IMHO. My results are not the same as a target shooters). The whole reason I started shooting more was to be a better shot for hunting. When I seen how cheap it was with surplus guns to just go out and shoot, I started doing that too.

what intrigues me about this is the political aspect. at this moment, the results of the poll are overwhelming 218 shooter to 18 hunter

Again, I think this is the result of what I mentioned above. If I HAD to choose one or the other, it would be shooter, simply because I do it much more, and I would believe that is probably how many of those 218 are.

[carnifan]

I know this is not what everyone in here is discussing but I am just trying to find some feedback.

About a month ago a friend and I were eating lunch in a restaurant when I was overhearing a conversation with the two people beside me. Rude I know, but I could not help it. The guy closest to me says, that a Dr. Crawl had been searching for his brother in law, the guys son and another fella, who went out on a deer lease back in 1999, and only one of them came out. Now the guys voice went up and down but what I gathered was that Crawl, came up missing the next year too only he wasn’t hunting and they think it is all connected somehow. That a sheriff had found some video or audio tapes that had some unsettling information on it (couldn't make out what he said after that) so I thought snuff-stuff but I haven’t seen anything on the news or internet about it. None of it made any sense. I mean were they recording themselves in the woods? Who does that? And why? Has anyone heard anything about this? Cause I got more but I don’t want to sound like a freakin’ idiot in here.

[caneman]

After my third back operation I find it quite painful to walk even 100 yards up or down what I previously thought of as a little hill. It changed me from a hunter to a shooter. I sure do miss the woods work and think often of how much fun it was hunting in Wyomings "Big Horn Mountains".

[S Roper]

The question is what is your MAIN intrest. What do you spend the most time doing? What do you think about the most? What do you read about the most? Which would your friends identify you as?

I'm a shooter. I've never really been hunting, but I have a casual interest in it.

[Jim PHL]

Shooter, here. Most of my friends who hunt, hunt deer. I can't stand to sit around all day with a gun in my hand and not shoot it!

[pezo]

Shooter all the way, maybe even more a gun enthusist. I have never killed anything with a gun before and short of hunting I hope I never have to. I respect hunters rights 100 percent but its not my cup of tea. I prefer to collect firearms and range shoot them.

[Lonestar.45]

I'd say that for nearly all of my years, I'd have been classified as a hunter. I grew up in a hunting family. Dad is a hunter, as are most of my uncles, cousins, etc. Nobody was really into shooting for shooting's sake. If it didn't relate to hunting, it just wasn't really important. Plus, I think Dad got his share of shooting on his 1.5 tours in Vietnam as a Marine, and shooting a lot of rounds at a target just wasn't "fun" for him. As such, he never really imparted the desire in me to shoot a hundred rounds at the range or something. I was lucky to get him to take me hunting, many veterans did not do that with their kids, they didn't want to kill ANYTHING anymore. Dad thought it was important to teach me, and I love it to this day.

However, these days, I'd say I'm more of a "shooter". What changed? Well, since I had a son (whose not quite 2 now), I don't have the luxury of being able to take off and go to the deer lease for 2-3 days at a time, spending all kinds of time away from home hunting. I guess I could make it more of a priority, but I'd rather spend time with my son. Soooo, since I need my gun fix somehow, I'll take off and go to the indoor range by my house for a couple of hours here and there and blast away. I'll get back into hunting again when my son gets older, but for now, I enjoy shooting my SKS's, 1911, and I'll soon be getting an AK variant.

[unixguy]

I don't much care for camping (I like my creature comforts and can't afford to take them with me on a hunt); my family wouldn't eat anything I might bring home so I can't really justify the time/expense/effort to go hunting.

Since they (my family) do eat pork, I've thought that pig hunting might be interesting to try, but there isn't anywhere close enough to actually do that. (And the little I've heard about it suggests that I'd want to be quite a bit more experienced at hunting before I go after pigs-- I hear they fight back!)

[V-fib]

Deer hunter from Nov 15-30th. Rest of the time, target killer. :cool:

[sigman69]

I am a shooter..paper plates, bowling pins, plinking, B27 targets etc...now all my friends are deer and waterfowl hunters....

[cracked butt]

Both. I spend a lot of time and a lot of money on both activities

[mjb]

I am both. I hunt when I can take off work, and I also have to qualify 3 times a year with a S&W model 66 because I work as a armed security officer.