Shooting for sport...Just cant do it.

[Art Eatman]

The main reason I'm not an active hunter is that my son's in Germany and my wife and I have the lower metabolisms of old age. Hard to eat a whole deer, anymore. And danged if I'm gonna do the post-shooting work of cut-and-wrap and give the meat away.

I've seen cougars. I could bait one in, close here to home. I know from experience they're tasty, just as the old mountain men claimed. But a buddy of mine had money trouble and I bought his cougar skin for the taxidermy fee and it hangs across the back of the couch. So, I don't need to shoot one. Were I in the sheep and goat business, I'd have a different attitude.

 

[MCgunner]

That maybe why I enjoy dove hunting so much, you can clean they days bounty while the AC cools down the truck. Too bad it takes all season for enough to have a cookout.

Yeah, that's a big bonus of bird hunting, isn't it? But, heck, I still have a few dove in my freezer from last season! You should hunt where I hunt, you wouldn't run out so fast. LOL!

I do take photographs of some of my deer harvests..., is it because I am Scottish and frugal (or as some of my friends say, "cheap")??

I'm German/Scottish and can squeeze blood from a turnip. I have several mounts, a mallard, a particularly big toothed old Javelina boar, and a not so spectacular, but a high point 8 point whitetail. I like having 'em in the living room. I have a pair of deer antlers over the fake hearth that hold my CVA Plainsman, too, kinda Texas homey, I think. A do it yourself plaque is only about 10 bucks, ya know.

 

[porktornado]

one could find a reason to hunt about anything. i hunt deer because they eat my corn and beans. i hunt coons because they eat my corn (and poo on my porch). i hunt rabbits because they eat my mothers garden. i hunt coyotes because they eat my deer and rabbits. i hunt dove/ducks/geese because they make a mighty fine moving target, which enables me to fine-tune my skills for when the flying zombie invasion starts.

 

[hang fire]

Wrongo.

 

[hang fire]

Goofed up

 

[caribou]

Up here, in Alaska, we have "Meats" and "Fur".
Both are hunted for named reasons

Theres no 'sport' involved when you hunt for a living, it comes down to Food on the table and $$Money in the pocket to keep the bills paid and the ball rolling. The best $$ is in finished products, so insted of selling a raw fur to a buyer, make a hat outta it and triple the $$.
Gasoline at 7.85$ a gallon demands such.

Small game can be eaten and skins used, such as Muskrats and some have no use in skin but the meats are good, like Rabbit and Porcupine.

Wolves and Fox are hunted for skins alone, while Whales have every bit eaten to the bones. Bears too are good eating.
So it depends on its use and if you would be wasteing such.

Each animal is different, in use and season.

Caribou have both excellent Hides and meats.

Summer skins are great for warm clothing, meats are great all year round, and hides are usefull about 8 months of the year , for various things, from bedding to footwear.
There are times when Meat is Prime and times when Fur is prime. In summer we have a pack of Arctic Grey Wolves that den up and produce pups every couple years. They keep their distance, but we see them often in summer, and know them by sight for many years now. We dont shoot them, they dont killl our dogs, but when Febuary rolls around, Im still looking for them as best I can, and it will end in their Death, someday.
I greatly enjoy watching them and their pack in summer, but there is their part in Nature and My part in Nature, and in Winter they are watching out for me.

 

[dcarch]

I sympathize, OP. It's very hard for me to kill an animal that is presenting no threat to me, even if they are destroying my garden.

 

[MCgunner]

Caribou, you guys are special. Lots of folks here think your life up there is ideal, but me, I don't know if I could handle it. LOL! I'm a wuss in my old age. I do love your stories, though, so KEEP IT COMIN'!

Gasoline at 7.85$ a gallon demands such.

Wow, and we get crazy over 3 bucks a gallon. Jeez, my 15 mpg Chevy Van would get scrapped, let alone my 25 hp Evinrude. I had a pontoon boat with a 70 on it I sold when gas started over a dollar, think got about 2 gallons per mile, LOL! But, I understand WHY gas is that high up there. You guys went any farther north, you'd fall off the edge. LOL!

I guess the old way, dogs, isn't cheap either. I always tell my brother-in-law, a rancher, that his horses eat when they're in the barn. My motorcycles only eat when I'm using them. Too, I'm a decent motorcycle mechanic, worked in shops before and ran my own. I ain't a veterinarian, though, and I don't like animals that are bigger than me, though I do like large dogs. These yappy mutts around here everyone owns (chihuahuas) irritate me, worthless wastes of skin and fur. I like hunting dogs.

And, I mean, if you're going to go down rivers, an outboard is handy, eh? So, even if you went back to dogs, you'd still kinda need gasoline.

I think this thread illustrates the myriad of reasons folks hunt, though. I don't begrudge anyone's hunting so long as it's legal. I might not do it, but I don't begrudge someone else doing it, just so long as it's legal. Everyone likes to berate some practices as "unethical". They need to remember that ethics is a matter of opinion and various regions have various ethics. It's a big world out there and there are many types of hunting and reasons for hunting.

 

[icanthitabarn]

I never hunt but have always been licensed.

 

[rondog]

My conclusion is that most people who don't hunt, don't really care about wild animals. They certainly don't go and view them, they just say things like "I love elk, I could never kill one." The only time they've ever seen an elk is from the highway

I don't hunt, I'm just a gun collector and target shooter. But I LOVE wild animals, love to watch them every chance I can. Saw a spike buck and a yearling bear cub just today. And elk, I could watch elk all day. I just don't have any desire to kill things, other than the squirrels that tear up my bird feeders.

When I was much younger though, I'd hunt quail, doves, and the occaisional duck or pheasant. I wouldn't mind hunting deer or elk, just don't have a place to go, the knowledge of how to do it right and effectively, or anyone to do it with. I DO have the sense to know better than to try it alone, especially at my age and weight. I don't have a horse or a 4-wheeler, how would I get a big dead animal out of the woods by myself anyway? And after two lumbar spine surgeries, I know better than to even try.

Hell, I was brass-picking at the range one night with a flashlight (long story), and a pair of badgers came out of their nearby den all po'd and snapping their jaws at me. My Jeep headlights kinda blinded them, so they coudln't see me, but they knew I was there. I had my .45 on and could have taken both out, but I had no reason to. I just moved farther away and let them be.

 

[Comblocaddict]

Thank you for all the replies to this thread. I have really enjoyed reading through all the different opinions.

 

[Sav .250]

Different strokes for different folks. Keep marching to your own beat!

 

[der Teufel]

I just can't bring myself to pull the trigger on something that hasn't proven on an individual level to be a threat to me or my property.

I fully understand that sentiment, but I've seen dead calves and I've heard cows bellowing frantically at night attempting to fend off a group of howling coyotes.

 

[rondog]

I fully understand that sentiment, but I've seen dead calves and I've heard cows bellowing frantically at night attempting to fend off a group of howling coyotes.

I should clarify that although I'm not a hunter and I do love wild animals, things like coyotes, prairie dogs and wild hogs aren't on my list.

 

[303tom]

I don`t kill something (just because I can "ie;" For Sport) If there is no reason I don`t kill it................

 

[BADUNAME37]

I think some people are just trigger happy and shoot at anything that moves. There was a guide who took a game warden on a hunt and the game warden lost track of all the stuff this guy was shooting, literally right and left! Shooting just to kill and lay there for whatever.

I believe it happened on a guide in Canada, this would have been maybe ten years ago or so.

I also enjoy watching the animals. When I see a rabbit, I just admire it. I don't kill it, as I know I won't want to skin the thing. I will only shoot something if it is either in our garden eating or may attack the cats in our neighborhood, as many neighbors have been commenting over the years about how their cats come up missing. I had one missing for a week and found it a week later, half in a buried hole, half eaten and frozen there in February. A fisher cat was in the 'hood. I got permission to trap him so I did, and ended up with two of them. The thing was so viscious that it was literally eating holes in the Havahart cage trap! Had I waited one more day to check the trap, this thing would have eaten his way out of the steel cage!

 

[buck460XVR]

I fully understand that sentiment, but I've seen dead calves and I've heard cows bellowing frantically at night attempting to fend off a group of howling coyotes.

Yeah, and I've been called out as a First Responder to assist farmers screaming in pain injured by cattle. We best shoot all of those too.

Having been a farmer, and being a sportsman and a conservationist, I understand fully the need to control predators in today's society. But 'yotes, wolves, bears and cougars are not the spawn of the devil, nor are they always killing domestic stock for fun and pleasure. They evolved over millions of years hunting these same prey animals, that we as humans have only recently domesticated and claim to own. They are only doing what God intended for them to do. We are the ones that eliminate their natural prey and replaced it with animals that we have dumbed down with selective breeding. We are the ones that have moved in on their territory and now expect them to leave or to be eliminated. Predators within reasonable numbers still have a place in today's world. They generally do more good than harm by controlling overpopulation and controlling nuisance animals that most of us don't hunt. They also enrich our lives just by their presence and the sometimes rare sight of them doing what they do. Many folks try to justify their love of killing by making their quarry evil and claiming they all need to be killed. This is simply not the case.

 

[788Ham]

I've shot a lot of P'dogs in my life, mostly to help a guy who'd lost cattle, or a horse to P'dog holes, breaking a leg, then coyotes getting them before he could salvage them. Helping clean out some of these P'dogs isn't in my mind reckless, I'm not a trophy hunter either! Most of the P'dogs I've shot were too blown up to have repaired to be up on the wall. YMMV

 

[303tom]

I've shot a lot of P'dogs in my life, mostly to help a guy who'd lost cattle, or a horse to P'dog holes, breaking a leg, then coyotes getting them before he could salvage them. Helping clean out some of these P'dogs isn't in my mind reckless, I'm not a trophy hunter either! Most of the P'dogs I've shot were too blown up to have repaired to be up on the wall. YMMV

That`s a good reason................

 

[grubbylabs]

I am in the camp that if there is a reason (even if that particular critter in your sites is innocent and the present siting) for killing a critter then it needs to be done. should we just go and blindly eliminate a species? No I don't think we should, but we really need to look at the big picture, if fox's are eating a vast majority of the pheasant I want to hunt them I am going to shoot every one I see in pheasant country.

 

[MCgunner]

I shoot starlings and cow birds for the shear pleasure of it. Something to do off season.

They're invasive pests and legal in Texas to shoot as such, but it's fun to shoot 'em on the wing with a pistol, 10" .410 TC Contender.

 

[Snag]

Having been a farmer, and being a sportsman and a conservationist, I understand fully the need to control predators in today's society. But 'yotes, wolves, bears and cougars are not the spawn of the devil, nor are they always killing domestic stock for fun and pleasure. They evolved over millions of years hunting these same prey animals, that we as humans have only recently domesticated and claim to own. They are only doing what God intended for them to do. We are the ones that eliminate their natural prey and replaced it with animals that we have dumbed down with selective breeding. We are the ones that have moved in on their territory and now expect them to leave or to be eliminated. Predators within reasonable numbers still have a place in today's world. They generally do more good than harm by controlling overpopulation and controlling nuisance animals that most of us don't hunt. They also enrich our lives just by their presence and the sometimes rare sight of them doing what they do. Many folks try to justify their love of killing by making their quarry evil and claiming they all need to be killed. This is simply not the case.

^^ Pure awesomeness.

 

[Davek1977]

grew up in rural South Dakota, and although I was taught you don't kill things for fun, there were exeptions to that rule. First and foremost were prairie dogs. When i was younger, there were several dog towns around, and I spent hundreds of hours in them with my .22 rifle. I killed thousands of them, only being limited by the amount of daylight left after school got out and the amount of ammo I could afford or that was given to me. Those afternoons on the dog towns taught me more "real world" info on wind drift and holdover than any amount of time studying basllistic tables would have. Coyotes were also fair game, but were rare opportunities compared to prairie dogs. My wingshooting practice often took the form of wild pigeons that would make our calving shelters home. In fact, the very first shot fired from my shotgun...that I got for xmas when I was 13 and still use today....took down one of these pigeons with the first shot I ever fired from it. Killing to kill isn't something everyone can stomach, and I certainly DO NOT believe in a "shot everything that moves" philosophy. However, I don't have a regret in the world for any of the coyotes, pigeons, prairie dogs or other nuisance critters I've shot. Sometimes, things need to be shot.....just part of life on the ranch.

 

[Dallas Jack]

I live in a suburban neighbor hood with a creeck and green belt leading to a wooded area. The critters come up from the woods and dig up my yard and spread my trash erverywere.

A crafty racoon found a way into my attic. A Havahart trap with some cat food bait and he whent to the pound. The other coons I took to the lake and let go myself. Opossum get a buy, I will just chase them out of my yard. The Squirrels get shot on sight. I do not eat the Squirrels since I have no idea if the're eating out off the garbage.

When I do go hunting it is with a freind on his property. 125 acres in cattle, sheep, and goat country.
He raises chickens and guinnes, so racoon, coyoty, and hog are shot on sight.
When there was a sheep rancher next to him bobcat were on the shoot list. The sheep are gone so we leave the bobcat alone unless one starts some trouble.

We also shoot any dog that can not be identfied as a neighbers. All Feral cats shot with extreme predidice.
Dallas Jack

 

[SleazyRider]

Woodchucks are the bane of my existence, and I will provide an ice-cold beer for each and every carcass of these godforsaken creatures you bring me: