Why do you hunt?

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Okay, let's not get all mixed up over word usage. For the vast majority of all hunters, "trophy" just means an animal which is above average or even truly exceptional. It doesn't mean just taking the head and wasting the meat.

Let's not get hung up on that small few who are more akin to poachers than true hunters.
 
I didn't mean anything with my comment. Take the big ole bull, but take the meat. I came across a nice mule deer a few years back. Nice body, big, no head and they only took half the backstrap?! What a shame.
 
Nice body, big, no head and they only took half the backstrap?!
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What???:confused:

Out of all the meat to keep you think the full backstrap would be priority!
 
There are a few reasons I hunt.

1). We took the time to kill most of the naturally occurring apex predators in the Eastern US, it is now our duty to manage populations of their former prey items.

2). I love shotgunning.

3). I can't find dove, wood duck, or venison at the grocery store.

4). I just dig being outside.
 
My heart attack slowed down my hunting--I loved hunting season: It got me away from the city, work ,etc. It let me get into the woods with the kids--it was a ball---I hated to come back. I hunted about 36 years.I miss it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Okay, let's not get all mixed up over word usage. For the vast majority of all hunters, "trophy" just means an animal which is above average or even truly exceptional. It doesn't mean just taking the head and wasting the meat.

Let's not get hung up on that small few who are more akin to poachers than true hunters.
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Agree, the term "trophy hunter" to me, as applied to deer, means a guy that will pass on a good buck and not shoot anything rather than shoot one that will develop into a better buck. BUT, I see these hunting shows where they kill a moose somewhere in BFA (that's BF Alaska :D) and the next shot, they're packing out with pack horses and the only load you see is the antlers. I often wonder about that. I have never been on an expensive hunt like that for financial reasons, but it does make me wonder. I mean, too, you fly in to these hunts. Can you take a whole moose home in your carry on? I don't think so. But, I'd wanna feed the locals or the camp or whatever with the meat, I agree, not waste it. Of course, the wolves gotta eat, but it does seem wasteful and unethical to shoot an animal just for the horns, I agree.

But, to say that ALL trophy hunters just take the horns is down right erronious. I don't know ANY whitetail hunters, whether they call themselves "trophy hunters" or "meat hunters" that waste the meat. A lot of 'em give it to charities that feed the needy, two benefits, feeds people and gives hunters good PR. Me, I call myself a "meat hunter" because there are no trophies where I hunt. :D If I owned a managed ranch, I'd practice "trophy hunting", but I hunt on small acreage and nothing around me is managed. So, I'm a "meat hunter" for the time being. :D
 
BTW, HOWARD J, good friend died at 76 years of age in his deer stand from a heart attack. He'd had his first in his late 30s. He hunted from stands, not strenuous, and though he'd been better off if he'd been at home where EMS could have gotten to him, I feel that's certainly the way I'd like to go, doing what I love to do, though in my case it'd need to be in a duck blind. :D I'd CRY if I could no longer hunt ducks, which is a far more strenuous task in the local marsh than deer hunting. But, it ain't like is dislike deer and hog hunting. Me, as I age, I'll find a way.
 
Food. No respect for trophy hunters whatsoever. Wasting meat should be a hanging offense.
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Eat quite a bit of coyote do you? How about hyena?



I hunt because I love it and I have since before I was even able to hunt. It is in my blood. I've written before as to why I love the hunt but it is a deep burning need within my soul that keeps bringing me back. The pictures above pretty well describe it.
 
Eat quite a bit of coyote do you? How about hyena?
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Hahaha

I don't mind trophy hunters as long as they take meat with it. How many guys that see two bucks pass up the 6x7 for the 3x2 that has a better body (more meat).

I have to say two animals I shoot that I don't eat are jack rabbits and ground squirrels. The rabbits aren't like cotton tails, they commonly carry worms because they will eat dang near anything. Ground squirrels also carry many diseases. It's not like eating grey squirrels.
 
I hunt to provide food for my family and do to my part to help manage the wildlife population. I like to put at least one, if not two, deer in the freezer each year.
 
]MCgunner-
Agree, the term "trophy hunter" to me, as applied to deer, means a guy that will pass on a good buck and not shoot anything rather than shoot one that will develop into a better buck. BUT, I see these hunting shows where they kill a moose somewhere in BFA (that's BF Alaska ) and the next shot, they're packing out with pack horses and the only load you see is the antlers. I often wonder about that. I have never been on an expensive hunt like that for financial reasons, but it does make me wonder. I mean, too, you fly in to these hunts. Can you take a whole moose home in your carry on? I don't think so. But, I'd wanna feed the locals or the camp or whatever with the meat, I agree, not waste it. Of course, the wolves gotta eat, but it does seem wasteful and unethical to shoot an animal just for the horns, I agree.

But, to say that ALL trophy hunters just take the horns is down right erronious. I don't know ANY whitetail hunters, whether they call themselves "trophy hunters" or "meat hunters" that waste the meat. A lot of 'em give it to charities that feed the needy, two benefits, feeds people and gives hunters good PR. Me, I call myself a "meat hunter" because there are no trophies where I hunt. If I owned a managed ranch, I'd practice "trophy hunting", but I hunt on small acreage and nothing around me is managed. So, I'm a "meat hunter" for the time being.
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In Alaska you MUST take the meat out before the antlers. In other words do not fly out antlers,or bring them out on your 4 wheeler unless there is a pile of meat sitting there first. You WILL get busted, lose the antlers and ANY gear used in the hunt INCLUDING THE AIRPLANE OR 4 WHEELER. If you wish to give the meat away, both party's must have a signed consent form stating the recipient and the giver.
Shame this turned into a trophy hunters waste the meat BS thread. IMO most of the I just shoot scrag rack puppy dogs because they taste better hunters just don't have the skill to take the older, wiser animals.

Hopefully to get back on the real topic,why do I hunt,In addition to some already stated It helps me learn about the animal. Anyone can spot a deer by chance on a hike or a drive. To get in shooting distance of a legal animal.in a legal hunting area in season requires knowledge of the terrain they prefer,the foods they eat and when, where they travail and rest,when they mate and what their calls mean. More than the casual wildlife observer would ever know.
And yes I agree,there is no finer meal than meat you hunted, shot and butchered yourself,but since I have passed up small but legal bulls on day one of a 2 week hunt in hopes of better, I guess I am a"trophy hunter"
 
That's some pretty country in those pictures. I don't live in such country, but to me, a sunrise over the marsh is a good reason to be duck hunting. Now, if we start getting tar balls and oil, it won't be so nice, but I love being in the marsh on a crisp fall morning. It's a religious experience for me.
 
Okay guys. I have heard people for years get all moral about eating what you kill as some way to justify hunting. It doesn't wash with me. You shouldn't even try to justify it in a moral way.

We hunt because we like to hunt. Period.

Everything else is just a bunch of B.S. Be honest with yourself. Heck, I have seen most of you guys at the Waterfowl check in station. YOU DON'T NEED THE FOOD. Most of you could stand to loose 30-40 pounds and should be hunting celery and carrots if it were about the food.

Man is a hunter. Just hunt.
 
The best reason for me was articulated in a magazine article by Scott Haugen, who lived and worked as a teacher in a remote Alaskan Inupiat Eskimo village. He said that the old successful hunters were not held in high esteem based on the size of the trophies that they took but on how many people they were able to feed in the village.

I operate on the same principle and I'm fortunate that my hunting activities allow me provide food for those less fortunate than I am at my church's food pantry.
 
Why do I hunt?

In the 50's both my parents worked for darn little money. My dad won a .22 rifle, Springfield bolt action single shot, in a raffle. We lived on the edge of Dallas with farms all around. The farmers would let me hunt rabbits and squirrels. I brought home the critters and my mother cooked them. I would collect coke bottles and take them to the store, trade them for .22 shells.

It got us thru some hard times, and I am proud of it.

I grew up hunting, bought my first High-power rifle at K-Mart in the 60's. It was a 95 Mauser in 7mm that some company had sporterized. I shot corrosive ammo in it and trashed the barrel out of ignorance. Live and learn.

I have hunted East Texas and West Texas, taken lots of deer. My kids love venison, turkey and geese...strangely enough in my 60+ years I have never eaten a dove. LOL Now when I get a hog, the kid show up at my door looking for meat.

I have the horns off of every buck I have killed, but they are in the shed, I am not a horn hunter. Don't know why I have kept them.

I hunt coyotes and hogs because they deserve it. I enjoy the hunt and all the time leading up to it. That is just the way I am.
 
Eat quite a bit of coyote do you? How about hyena?
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I would consider those kills a necessary part of Predator Control/Game Management. Didn't realize people would get so rankled by my use of the term trophy hunter. I have seen a lot of waste; all over the western US. Alaska has been the worst. I have nothing against someone who wants a 'trophy buck' as long as the carcass is completely salvaged. Can't imagine why you would want a stringy old buck compared to a nice tender fork-n-horn, though. Haven't heard the term 'horn-hunter' before. That is what we have always equated to trophy hunting. Someone who takes 'the trophy' and leaves the carcass. As kids we were pretty poor, and the little sage-flavored mule deer that came across our table were an important source of meat. To this day the thought of wasting meat just makes me... :cuss:
 
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