Author Topic: Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to kill?  (Read 2193 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline redd7

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 33
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #30 on: January 16, 2005, 04:58:32 PM »
[Considering the tone of your first post and now this one I wonder if you were fishing for a different answer?]


No, I wasn't fishing for any answer in particular. I may be a little skeptical about people in general sometimes. But every time I see or here of some one acting kind or compassionate I am encouraged. It makes me happy to know that many of the hunters on this board have felt as I do. Reading the responses has also helped me to sort out my own feelings better about my own hunting. Many of you are much more articulate than I am. I believe now that I should not have used the word guilt in my posts. What I feel is an appreciation and respect for the amazing world that God has created and the creatures that live upon it.

Offline jh45gun

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4992
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #31 on: January 16, 2005, 05:21:46 PM »
As Hunters I think most of us here have respect for God's creatures and feel in awe about the God's Creations. Still I I feel he put the animals and creatures on earth for man to use for mans own good. Since  hunting is part of that nothing to really feel guilty about. While I take joy in harvesting a animal like most here I also feel some sadness for taking a life but look at it as a neccessary thing. Like I said in my first post overpopulation kills animals also as do cars ect ect. Also I said before animals in a slaughter house die also and they never knew the freedom a whitetail buck ever did. If you are sincere in your post fine but you can see how I may feel with your post the way it was written as it would not be the first time a PETA person or such came to one of these hunting/ shooting forums to stir up trouble or use our words against us. Since you are new here and this was one of your first post you cannot fault me for wondering.
Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use it.

Offline Dali Llama

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2452
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #32 on: January 17, 2005, 01:14:51 AM »
Quote from: jh45gun
If you are sincere in your post fine but you can see how I may feel with your post the way it was written

Since you are new here and this was one of your first post you cannot fault me for wondering.
jh45gun be correct, say Dali Llama.
AKA "Blademan52" from Marlin Talk

Offline redd7

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 33
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #33 on: January 17, 2005, 08:17:02 AM »
No problem, I am NOT a peta person. I do love my dogs, and I do love animals. And Hate to see anyone mistreat any living creature.
But I do share your views that they were put here by God for our use. I certainly support everyones elses right to hunt, It is my own feelings that I wanted to sort out.

Offline Dali Llama

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2452
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #34 on: January 17, 2005, 08:35:25 AM »
Quote from: redd7
I am NOT a peta person.
:agree: :agree: :agree: :agree:
AKA "Blademan52" from Marlin Talk

Offline icedog

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 11
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #35 on: January 17, 2005, 08:50:59 AM »
Like a few other geezers who have taken part in this discussion, I will be into my 7th decade in just a few years.  I enjoy the firearms and the "hunt" more than ever, but with advancing years, I find decreasing satisfaction in the actual kill if/when it happens.  I like game meat and have been a hunter since my pre-teen years.  I have always felt some remorse over the death of game, and I think there is a kind of sickness about any hunter who feels none of that angst.  One thought which occured to me was that as we get "long in the tooth", and start to reflect more frequently on our own mortality, it is possible that we begin to feel an increased respect and reverence for all life.  In recent years I have increasingly passed on opportunities to take game.  That is something I would never have done in my youth.  One memorable situation involved a black bear which waited patiently, and stared innocently back at me as I held the crosshairs on him.  In the end, I decided that each of had had a good day up to that point, and there was no use ruining it for both of us by pulling the trigger.

Offline Major

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • A Real Regular
  • ****
  • Posts: 516
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #36 on: January 17, 2005, 01:05:48 PM »
I might as well get my 2-cents worth in.  

I eat meat, I know where it comes from and I hunt from time to time.   But I don’t ever shoot anything I am not going to eat unless I am out on the farm and am protecting the place from vermin.    

When I do hunt it is not for the biggest animal I can find, it is to put meat on the table while helping to maintain the herd.   If it will not be a quick, one shot kill I will not take it.  

Also, as icedog just said, there are times when I have decided that it was just a good day up to that point, and there was no use ruining it with a shot.
Deactivated as trouble maker

Offline BamBams

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1272
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #37 on: January 17, 2005, 05:37:39 PM »
Just curious as heck.  Anyone here ever work in a slaughter house?  I worked in a "Purdue" chicken house that my aunt owned and sometimes in the chicken "plant" where we elegantly "processed" the chickens.  How is that for polictically correct?  HAHAHAHA

I still have nightmares sometimes.
NRA Handgun Instructor

Offline jh45gun

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4992
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #38 on: January 17, 2005, 05:49:36 PM »
Quote from: BamBams
Just curious as heck.  Anyone here ever work in a slaughter house?  I worked in a "Purdue" chicken house that my aunt owned and sometimes in the chicken "plant" where we elegantly "processed" the chickens.  How is that for polictically correct?  HAHAHAHA

I still have nightmares sometimes.


Attack of the killer chickens????????????????? :)  :)  :)
Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use it.

Offline Ron T.

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • A Real Regular
  • ****
  • Posts: 646
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #39 on: January 17, 2005, 11:44:09 PM »
I'm gratified by the number of responses that we've gotten on this subject that reflect "feelings" very much like my own, too.

Like, I suspect, many older hunters... I, too, have "passed" shots on game... especially the past 10 years or so, that I could have easiy taken, but decided not to "ruin the day" (well put).

And I agree... "guilt" is NOT the right word when referring to taking an animals life when hunting... although, in the past, that's the word I thought of when thinking about the killing.

I think "respect" is most certainly a more "accurate" word.  And it's out of that "respect" than many of us have refused an easy shot on legal game.

Yes... "respect"... a good hunter/woodsman/nature lover RESPECTS all that is around  them in nature... the animals, the woods, the trees, the wildflowers and his fellow hunters.  Perhaps that's why we so "treasure" our times in deer camp... not because we CAN kill... but because we can and do choose NOT to kill.

It is not diametrically opposed thinking to be a hunter and to choose NOT to shoot.  By the same token, it is not diametrically opposed thinking to be a NATURE LOVER.... and TAKE the shot!

I use to think I was about the ONLY one who has these thoughts.  Now I realize that many of us feel exactly the same way about hunting.  Thank you for all these wonderful responses... they sure make me realize I'm not the only "nut" who passes up easy shots on "8 pointers".    :grin:


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."  - Thomas Jefferson

Offline Dali Llama

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2452
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #40 on: January 18, 2005, 01:40:12 AM »
Quote from: BamBams
I worked in a "Purdue" chicken house that my aunt owned
What do "Purdue" mean in this context, ask Dali Llama?
AKA "Blademan52" from Marlin Talk

Offline BamBams

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1272
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #41 on: January 18, 2005, 01:48:12 AM »
"Purdue" was one of the largest franchises for chicken houses in Delaware during the 1960's and 1970's.
NRA Handgun Instructor

Offline bgjohn

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • A Real Regular
  • ****
  • Posts: 602
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #42 on: January 18, 2005, 01:55:22 AM »
Bad knees, can't walk too far. What I like best about hunting is sitting around the campfire drinking coffee and seeing who can tell the biggest lie. :)  :)  :)
JM :D
I know nothing. I am only a messenger.

Offline Leverdude

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • A Real Regular
  • ****
  • Posts: 601
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #43 on: January 18, 2005, 02:09:55 PM »
I'm never sorry for killing an animal, be it a deer or a squirrel, a rabbit or a pheasant. What I feel is gratitude & a sense of belonging in Gods big picture. I dont hunt for trophys I hunt because I like wild game & spending time in the woods with Gods creations. Many times I'll just sit & watch the day unfold in awe at the sheer perfection of it all. I'll watch the doves & squirrels rooting around for nuts & seeds that the forrest provides them, in turn I'll watch a hawk swoop down at one of them squirrels or doves with the same sense of wonder at the great puzzle God has made that we call nature. I'll sit in my tree or in my blind & call it a good day afield just because I saw a fox come trotting thru the area zig zagging back & forth in his search for dinner or because I saw a couple racoons wrestling around in the half light of morning. We are part of nature as well, tho many try to distance themselves from this fact its a fact none the less & I feel most at peace when I can be a part of it.
I only wish everyone could enjoy the gifts that are so obvious all around us if we only look.
When I shoot a deer, be it 1 1/2 or 5 1/2 years old, that animal got to enjoy the life that it was given in the manner it was supposed to live. It got to roam the woods with all the other animals till its time was up.
Guy buys a cheese burger, that cow the burger came from knew not one single day of its life the way God meant it too.
Whats sadder?
Freedoms not free!
Support your NRA!

Offline Dark:30

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 8
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #44 on: January 18, 2005, 04:48:47 PM »
Very good thread!

I grew up on a ranch in the southwest.  I can not remember not hunting.
As a kid, it was my job to eliminate pests that ate feed and pooped on
feed.  English sparrows, starlings, pigeons, grackles, rats, mice and a
bunch of other vermin pests were on my hit list.  I was praised and made
to feel good about eliminating these pests. I always felt good about a
clean kill.  If a follow up shot was needed I sometimes winced at not
making a clean kill but I never felt bad about it.

I was raised in a Bible thumping family.  I was taught that animals were
put here on earth as meat for us to eat.  I take them in the most humane
way that I can and I eat them.  No guilt no shame!

Leverdues post is right on the money except for the last two sentences.
Cattle on a ranch live normal cattle lives.  They breed, feed and
interact with their kind.  When the time comes they get to go the cattle
heaven where they are fed, fed, fed.  Then after this time in cow heaven
they go off to McDonnell's, Wal*Mart meat display or wherever.  Thats
the way God planned it, that is the way it is supposed to be.

I never have felt bad about taking an animal as food or killing pests or
vermin.  We are the dominate predator on this planet and given dominion
over all!

Frank

Offline Dali Llama

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2452
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #45 on: January 18, 2005, 04:54:42 PM »
Quote from: Dark:30

Cattle on a ranch live normal cattle lives.  They breed, feed and
interact with their kind.  When the time comes they get to go the cattle
heaven where they are fed, fed, fed.  Then after this time in cow heaven
they go off to McDonnell's, Wal*Mart meat display or wherever.  Thats
the way God planned it, that is the way it is supposed to be.

Dali Llama say Dark:30 sure seem to speak rather self assuredly about personal knowledge of divine intent. :?
AKA "Blademan52" from Marlin Talk

Offline Dark:30

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 8
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #46 on: January 18, 2005, 05:24:41 PM »
Troll all you want Blademan52(Dali). Folks here know you for what you are!

My post on this subjest was honest and straight forward.

Your post.....bait!!  No thanks not taking any!

Frank

Offline BamBams

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1272
Anybody else want to hunt, but not want to
« Reply #47 on: January 18, 2005, 07:35:59 PM »
Great thread, unfortunately now locked for obvious reasons. Name calling AND baiting are not tolerated on this forum.
NRA Handgun Instructor