Now I let them walk and I feel accomplished. Maybe I am not conflicted - maybe I am just in a better place - I now just enjoy my time on the hunt, I still carry a rifle and I still chase deer but something has grandly changed when it is time to pull the trigger - very strange to me.
Why is it a "better place"? Better than what?
I've been hunting for 43 years. The only time that I feel bad, is when I'm in the woods and see
zero critters..which is rare and so far only on very cold, winter days. It's sorta lonely, and as though the critters all decided to leave. I've been entertained by chipmunks and birds of prey, and fox, when I was out hunting for something, even though I bagged nothing. I've passed on shots that were poor; just been grateful that I saw some game. I've passed on the large patriarch buck where I hunt, as I don't go for trophies, but for the meat, and he makes more deer, and for some reason likes to keep his harem on the land where I hunt.....so he gets a "pass".
Yesterday I went on a scout. My son at the last minute announced he wanted to hunt with a centerfire rifle this year..., and my state restricts where that can be done, so..., I headed out to the State Forest to scout the area for a hunt, come the first Week of December. I knew squirrels were in season, so I took a shotgun. Didn't bag any squirrels, but it was a grand day. Saw squirrel, and deer, and wood ducks, and even turkeys. So the area that I had scouted by map turned out to be good when actually on foot. So didn't take a shot, but still had a grand time.
I understand that you don't want to deal with a drag nor cleaning and butchering. If you don't feel like that chore, then by all means avoid it.
On the other hand, I may not want to deal with the tracking, the drag, and the butchering, but I think I could or can find a younger person that would like to do it all. So IF that day comes, I should think I would take that person to the woods (perhaps unknown to me today, and will be met tomorrow), and I shall pass on the shot, by passing it to the younger hunter.
With dwindling numbers of hunters, I also wonder that while we may be thinking twice about going out, or taking the shot...,
do we not, with our skills and our opportunities, owe it to the game populations to perform the task of population management? I'm not sure that I can, as a regular behavior, abdicate my role as a "
steward of the land " by habitually neglecting to go to the woods, or habitually not harvesting game. Eventually infirmity will stop me..., that will be the signal for me to stop....
But that's just me.
LD