Taking an animals life

I feel good about killing the animal for meat. I have no emotion, except maybe some left over excitement. I only pray that it tastes good in all the meals it'll help make.

i wont shoot something to watch it die. or to show that i can 'make the shot'

if i need food or it is a danger to me; what needs going is necessary.
i may feel bad that a situtation developed in that mannor, but not concerning my actions.

I for one feel both excitement satisfaction and a little sympathy all at the same time. You must remember though that these are prey animals whose purpose is to eat grass and feed the food chain, which i am a part of. I always treat the animal with the respect i feel they deserve by first and foremost care for the meat properly.

It's just part of the overall hunting package. Meat, maybe bigger horns than my buddy's , camaraderie around the campfire--all that stuff.

But I grew up farming and ranching, so killing something for meat has always been just part of life. Mostly, when Bucky is on the ground, I feel satisfaction. I found him and made a good shot and it was clean, quick and ethical.

Some animals get treated like a fly at the dinner table, good to be gone. Others food and some as pets (Friends, if you will), emotional attachment and feelings "putting them down" varies a lot; however, is always done as quickly as I can.

M91/30, seems that maybe you and I are the minority. I dont go so far as saying any words over an animal, but I respect nature, and always feel a bit of sadness when I take something from it. I grew up on a farm, raised cattle most of my life, and have hunted since the time I was able to shoulder my dads old single barrel 12, but taking life isnt fun.

I think about the whole "circle of life" thing and about my intentions to eat well during my own personal circle.

I too have a great respect for the animals I hunt. I feel no sadness though. I wonder if the folks that feel bad about hunting/killing an animal in the field, feel the same when they bite into their "big mac" or "chicken mcnuggets"? Animals all the same.

In the wilderness void of man, most animals will die painful and gruesome deaths either by starvation (presipitated by old age) or at the hands of other animals. If I can inflict death in 60 seconds or less, I feel excitement and gratitude, but no "sadness".

...how do you feel about the act of killing an animal?

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It is very necessary and in fact desired. It's just a part of the work.

What emotions fill you when you see it lying there so still?

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Thankfulness. Joy. Excitement. Thrill. Utter happiness. Gratitude. Humility.

Do you have any rituals or prayers you say?

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No rituals, just prayers. I talked about that here and also here.

Having hunted for over four decades I went from the exuberance in my youth from the kill to my present day older self of feeling a bit sad for the game animal.
Of couse this wont prevent me from taking one of God's creatures for nourishment any more than going to the store to buy some rib eyes to throw on the grill.
But as I age knowing that I am closer to the end than the beginning it just makes me at least appreciate this short life we have.

...thanking nature and the animal for its sacrifice.

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Interesting you say that.
That's also what I learned as a boy.
50 years later, it's what I do every time.

There are many who judge and feel it is not something needed anymore in todays society of supermarket and meals available to you via small business...

If following all the rules and enjoy the task at hand, it is truly rewarding Sometimes you are lucky sometimes not, that is what makes it hunting...

Regards

I usually thank god for the chance. I do get happy because it's usually the end result of a lot of patience. Unfortunately this does not apply to hogs. They destroy what I work so hard for and I take them with no feeling other than got ya. Even in this case I do make every effort to make a clean kill and give the meat to somebody that wants it.

Everything lives by something else dying. I am always very excited to take an animal, and thank the animal, but that's about it. If the animal suffers, I do feel some angst, but a clean, quick, kill is cause for celebration... beats getting torn up by a pack of wolves...

I feel a twinge of sorrow when taking an animals life....be it a mouse in the combine cab, or a magnificant buck, or a fat steer for the freezer.
Animals serve only their own bellies and genitals.....
I serve a Higher Purpose, and have been given dominion over the beasts of the field and the fowl of the air. I am grateful for that.

I have always hunted, starting as a kid. I have always felt sorry and sad from the beginning for the game; it's just me. I don't usually say anything but I do stop and contemplate the event for a few moments. I respect all creatures - except those having 8 legs, that is) I do not eat meat so I don't feel hypocritical. The meat is used by those who want or need it and is not wasted. In my religion I took vows and one was do not kill. It is not a "commandment" in the in the Christian sense, however. I talked with my priest at length about this and feel vindicated. Hunting is traditional and enjoyable as long as part of the goal is to appreciate and be at one with nature.

I feel no remorse when I shoot an animal.
I came from a family that was dirt floor poor and didn't have much all during my school years.
If I could go out and shoot a rabbit or a grouse or a pheasant - that was food on the table for me.

There were no picture taking when I shot my first buck or any other animal - it was just something that you did to provide for your family.

When I shoot a rabbit - I just make sure not to blow it all up.
Then I field dress it and hang it off my stringer.
I always gave the heart and lungs and liver and kidneys to the dog for doing his part - was probably one of the best meals that my dog ever ate while hunting until I started rewarding him with Sheetz Hot Dogs.

When I shoot a pheasant or grouse - the first thing I do is make sure that it is dead - so I can put it in my game bag.
When I get home the first thing I do is hang everything up on the wall of the shed on nails - just like my pappy and my grand-pappy before him did.
I then get to boiling a pot of water so I can pluck all the feathers off the birds and I skin out the rabbits and I clean everything up - so nothing ever goes to waste.

The same thing with shooting deer.
After I get a deer, I get it to the truck as soon as possible and I get it home where I can wash it out real good with a garden hose or a road side spring and then I hang it up and skin it out as quickly as possible so the meat can hang and cool as rapidly as possible.
If it is too warm out for the deer to hang for very long - I will cut it up as quickly as possible into smaller pieces and let it freeze in the freezer for a day or two before I attempt to butcher it for meat.

Anything that I get - I share with everyone around me, even if they are too lazy to hunt or too lazy to process their own meat or too old or too sick to hunt.

The easiest way to make a hunter out of a non hunter is by giving them some meat and letting them decide for themselves if they like it or not.
Then all you have to do is convince them to go along for a hunt.
It isn't necessary for them to carry a gun or kill anything, but to participate in the hunt as a observer.
If hunting is something that appeals to them - then it is easy to get them to go again. If all they want to do is kill something and then leave the woods as quickly as they came - then they usually do not pan out to be a very good hunting companion.

I will not take a unethical shot, I will not ambush deer to the point of where I feel I need a semi automatic rifle - designed for military purposes in order to hunt and I will not shoot more then my share in any given day - even if there is a whole flock of turkeys right in front of me.

Hunting has to be something sacred - where you do it to put meat on the table and not just to justify how good of a hunter you think that you are or how good of a shot you want to be. Anybody can shoot a 12 point buck out the window of the truck. In front of a bait pile or while archery hunting.

But put those same hunters in the big woods of Pennsylvania, in the middle of the week when no one else is out in the woods moving the deer around, in rifle season and I would like to see just how many of them fills their tags with trophy bucks .

That is why all deer are trophy's to me.

During the 2009 deer/gun season, I had 12 point buck run up the side of a steep valley wall to the overhang where I was about to set and eat lunch. 10 to 15 yards away from me, max. I pulled up my rifle, and depressed the trigger.

*CLICK*

Nothing. Misfire. I waited to make sure this wasn't going to hang-fire and cycled another round. The deer was still there, and was foraging through the snow. As I pushed the bolt forward, a couple of crows took off in a hurry, spooking the deer.

There were two days left in that season, and I saw the buck twice more. Each time, I thought back to the day before, and realized the number of times in my own life that I could have been history (car wreck, army accident, etc). I realized that I had already conquered this beast, and that regardless of whether I shot it, I still had a freezer full of meat at home.

As for sympathy, I only kill what I can eat. I'm not a trophy hunter. I may spend weeks before the season opens up scouting areas and determining which animal I'm going to harvest. I have gone up until the last day of a season without taking a shot. When I was a boy, I inadvertently killed a small bird, and I felt horrible about it. I also shot a squirrel that could not be eaten after the fact (died on one of the branches of a tree).

In the end, if I kill something, I'll generally remain silent in respect to whatever beast or fowl has given its life to nourish myself and my family.

I'm very soft-hearted. We live in the country and for months there's been a damned stray tomcat hanging around here. I have nothing against cats, but this b***ard cleans out birds nests, quail have disappeared from around the house....but still, I've lined up on him and have a hard time shooting him. Some day....

As far as game, I at times feel a twinge of sorrow depending largely on what I'm hunting. Deer, not so much as I've been hunting them most of my life and I'm to the point with deer that I only shoot them for meat. Not to say I prefer those with larger racks, but putting meat on the table is job #1 as we largely subsist on venison.

Fact of the matter is I didn't even shoot a deer this year because I killed and butchered two hogs, my wife killed a buck, and my teenage daughter killed her first deer, so there was no need for me to kill one though I had many, many opportunities. I got much more satisfaction out of helping my wife and daughter get there's than I would've killing my own.

Hunting elk is another matter for me. When I kill an elk I always feel a mixture of sympathy and sadness, but most of all a complete sense of awe towards these magnificent creatures and the work my father and I go through to kill and bring them home.

I teach Hunter Education and our curriculum teaches the Six Stages of a hunter. They are in order: Shooting Stage, Limiting-Out Stage, Trophy Stage, Method Stage, Sportsman Stage, and finally the "Give-Back" Stage. Not all people go through these stages as I know grown men who have hunted all their lives who sadly are still in the Shooting and Limiting Out Stages. Sad...they have no idea what they're missing.

I am definitely right smack in the middle of the last two and love it.

35W

There were two days left in that season, and I saw the buck twice more. Each time, I thought back to the day before, and realized the number of times in my own life that I could have been history (car wreck, army accident, etc). I realized that I had already conquered this beast, and that regardless of whether I shot it, I still had a freezer full of meat at home.

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I know that feeling. Several times over the last few years I've been stalking, come up on a deer and caught it completely by surprise. I've had their chest in my crosshairs and had them dead to rights...only to lower the rifle and wave them off. The more experienced you get the less it is about the killing.

When I started hunting years ago I'd say a short prayer over the animals body, thanking my creator for providing the animal for my sustenance. Over the years those types of things passed for me. The more you kill the less significant each successive kill becomes.

I pride myself on a clean kill. I owe the animal a quick and clean death...and I track down every animal I kill. I have great respect for the animal...but after a lot of kills it's really not that big a deal anymore. The first 10 deer I killed had a much different emotional impact than the last 10 I killed...that much is just human nature.

Now-a-days I get most of my pleasure from introducing new people to the sport. I enjoy watching them discover a new adventure in life. It's very rewarding to teach them to shoot, to hunt, to track, to butcher and to cook.

It's probably important to note that the only big game i hunt are whitetail deer. If I were to embark on an elk journey, or perhaps sheep, or some other animal that was new to me I would likely experience some of those early emotions again.

And to think most people consider hunters and gun owners primitive ogres at best.
Even among some of us hard boiled types it's obvious we still have hearts.

when i was younger, i didnt think much about it but over the years the gravity of the situation has started to weigh heavier on me. It's not really a feeling of sorrow or sadness, but more of a feeling of respect.

I was raised to respect and be thankful for the animals that we hunt for food. We have dominion over them but no rights to be cruel or wasteful.

I always ate what I took, whether fishing, or hunting large and small game.

As I grew older I seen very mean spirited humans:young men in my age group and younger that wanted to do nothing more than just kill something! Shoot it, run over it etc. I lost a few hunting buddies and friends along the way with this type attitude, I do not miss them!

As I had kids myself (3 Boys) and bought them BB guns, Pellet guns, Bows and Arrows and on to guns at older ages, I also purchased targets and the like to go with them. I taught them that they were to NEVER aim there firearm etc. at an animal they did not intend to field dress and eat.

And I would see them or hear them with friends that say wanted to kill a Red Robin outside wit a Pellet gun...they would say "Man DAD will make you dress it, cook it, and eat it" I never once had to make them cook one! They had safe haven around the house. My kids would find mice in the garage and catch them and take them out to barn and set them loose!

And further more when Turkey, deer, rabbits, squirrels, etc was brought home in proper season, there was thanksgiving for both the recieving of it from above and thanks to the life of the animal given! It is respect in the whole circle of Life that I tried to teach them, and it stuck with them.

The respect they have and show for wildlife in the world makes me and my wife very happy!