Violent stress relief is counter productive

[Exmasonite]

hehe... i consider myself a pretty level headed person but i'd have been locked up LONG ago if i didn't get a couple hours a week in on a heavy bag at the gym.

 

[springmom]

To hit a target, especially when hunting, you need to put all your emotion into a very controlled pull of one little finger. With most game, it also involves sitting very still while your quarry comes into range. That is concentration and mental discipline, not violence.

I guess there IS physical exertion after the shot to get the game cleaned up and out of the woods, but it's certainly not violent.

The whole hunting experience, or just getting out and enjoying nature, is probably a whole lot more calm and just plain old boring to the current culture than most of these "experts" will ever understand.

Shooting is great stress relief. I get into what psychologists call "flow", where THIS moment, THIS target, with the finger on the trigger and my eye on the front sight, catching that moment between heartbeats to finish the squeeze of the trigger.

Hunting is just as good, for different reasons. I can sit in the woods and watch the light play on the leaves, listen to the birds, watch the spiders spin their webs, and it just soaks peace into the soul. A bad day in the woods beats a great day doing anything else.

How that all is "violent" is beyond me. Granted, shooting the deer involves violence, but people like this "expert" do not (and probably never will) understand that the violence is not the *purpose* of the hunt, it is simply a part of a (successful) hunt.

Springmom

 

[M4inCA]

I have to admit, when I go shooting for a few hours, I have no fight left in me. Same thing goes with punching the bag, or any similar violent activity.

I am just so tired I can't be violent anymore.

 

[bluestarlizzard]

i have noticed that most everyone on this board has compared the act of shooting with meditation or a quite reflextive activty, and when asked what they do for violent stress relief most bring up a very physical activity like boxing or cutting down trees. i have never been shooting and treated it like preperation to do something violent (and thats saying something 'cause everything in this house is geared for self-defense!)
WARNING: somebody may take issue with next statement. Please re-read before flaming.
the first time i shot the ar-15, after emptying a 20 rd. mag at rapid fire my dad asked me, "well, do you wanna go shoot up a mcdonaleds?" i looked at him funny and go "no". he gave me a smile and said good, then continued walking up to the house talking about my groups and stance. i've always considered this a.) some sorta test that i passed with flying colors and b.) a point that my dad made very clearly(if a little oddly). the activity of shooting is not in preperation for violence, but an activity we do for fun. shooting for us was a way to get out of the house, hang out together and my dad could teach me something that he loved. the fact that this activity could someday save my life was not the first priority. the first priority was me and my dad.

 

[obxned]

For some people, stress relief comes from sitting in a position God never intended the human body to assume and repeating a sound like one would expect to originate from a flatulent whale.

Don't think that would work for me. Football and other sports always did, and time spent hunting or at the range.