Hunting - What's the attraction?

[Prairie_Scouter]

We've had some good discussions recently about gun owners rights. Once you get beyond the 2nd Amendment and the idea of personal protection, you can get to the subject of hunting.

 

I admit, as a city kid, I've never seen the attraction. As a nature photographer, I've developed a lot of the same skills that hunters use, learning tracking, animal behavior, etc. And yet, when I'm done with a day's "shooting", I know that those animals will still be there for someone else to enjoy. The same can't be said for hunters. When a hunter takes home their prize, nobody will ever see that animal again in it's natural habitat.

 

There are, of course, subsistence hunters, such as Eskimos, who's families depend on their ability to bring home food from the hunt. But how many people in the U.S. are really in that situation?

 

I've heard the arguments in some areas about the need to cull overpopulated herds, especially near populated areas where the natural predators have been eliminated. And to be sure, the health of the overall herd, let's say of deer, is dependent on some culling. But, how many hunters go out purposely looking for the weakest animals to bring down, as natural predators would. Don't hunters typically go after "trophies", ie, the biggest and best? Doesn't that inherently weaken the herd?

 

And, really, how much of a hunt is there when a hunter can hide a couple of hundred yards away from their prey with a high powered rifle with a telescopic sight? Where's the "sport" in that, if there is any at all? What's next? Laser guided mini-missiles?

 

I know people who have been ecstatic to get a permit to hunt in the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, WY, where the hunting consists of walking up to an elk who's feeding on the provided food, and shoot them at short range.

 

I know people who pay for the privelege of going into a game preserve to shoot at animals that are penned into specific areas. Hunting?

 

Why is it ok for us to hunt an animal nearly to extinction, spend millions rebuilding the population, only so that hunters can go out and start killing them again? Where's the sense in that?

 

And why is it, exactly, that whenever you read the "outdoors" column in the newspaper, they never talk about "killing" animals? No, in the newspaper, animals are "harvested", or "taken", or some such thing.

 

So, we've got lots of outdoorspeople here. What's the attraction?

[scoutingagain]

"And why is it, exactly, that whenever you read the "outdoors" column in the newspaper, they never talk about "killing" animals? No, in the newspaper, animals are "harvested", or "taken", or some such thing."

 

This is obviously the bias of the liberal print media.

 

Frankly I have no interest in hunting for sport either. Although I confess to enjoying the "sport" of catching lobsters while diving. In this activity, my experience was that nearly 50% of the legal sized lobsters we would encounter would manage to elude us. A lobster in it's natural environment had a nearly even chance to get away when confronted by a recreational diver wearing a rubber wet suit, lead weights, scuba tank, etc. So, we were thrilled to be able to eat our catch.

 

So, if the animal had a reasonable chance of getting away, and it took some degree of skill to "harvest" it, I could understand why some might enjoy the sport. However, in my mind the situations you describe are nothing more than butchering an animal. They would seem to have no more chance of escaping their fate than a steer being brought to the slaughterhouse and I don't see what satisfaction that might bring an individual.

 

SA

[GernBlansten]

My daddy was a butcher. Worked in a major grocery store chain when they actually cut meat on site. During hunting season, he would cut game to make some extra coin. Never hunted himself. He would drag me along to help. So needless to say, I've been on the processing side of hunting more times than I'd like. Anywhoo, I asked ol'dad why he didn't hunt. He said he didn't have a problem with hunting, just didn't like to kill things himself. This is from a butcher who made his living on death.

For me, I guess I feel the same way. I like to target shoot and eat meat, but I don't really care to go do it myself. I guess much like a guy who loves to race cars but doesn't like to work on them. I will be taking my son for his first pheasant hunt next season just to expose him to it.

 

I do feel that thoughtful, managed hunting is good for the environment. In my area, mule deer have become a real problem. Natural predators have been chased off by development and the population has exploded. Hunting isn't allowed and it isn't uncommon to have to "shoo" away the deer to get to your mailbox. They eat everything and are a real hazard to traffic. I would support a special hunt just to manage the herd, although I really don't want them doing it in my back yard.

[baden]

I can't tell you. I used to be a fanatical duck hunter. I absolutely obsessed about it. Started in grade school and chased ducks and pheasants up into my fifties. Went deer hunting once, shot a deer and never went again. I just didn't enjoy it. Took my son duck hunting when he was 3 and pheasnt hunting when he was 5 and he is still a devoted hunter. He can't understand what happened to me. I went a couple of times last year and will probably go out over Christmas sometime when my son comes home, but I frankly don't care if I ever kill a duck or pheasant again and I don't know why. I still like to fish, maybe I never got the shoot & release part of hunting down.

[scoutldr]

Took my troop up to the Blue Ridge mts last weekend...which happened to be the last weekend of deer season. Had to make them wear blaze orange the whole time because of all the "sportsmen" roaming the woods, desperate for a trophy. I was scared to death the whole time. Sunday morning, a hunting dog wandered into camp to visit with the boys. The dog was a sweet female beagle, maybe a year old. She enjoyed all the attention and the meal of leftover hot dogs that she devoured. She was freezing and emaciated...obviously neglected and abused. Every bone and rib was clearly visible, and the pleading look in her eyes was heartbreaking. I almost took her home with me, but I don't have a proper yard for a dog. On the way home, I passed many a pickup truck with a "dog box" in the back, doing 60 down the highway at 28 degrees...the wind chill on the poor dogs must have been 20 below zero. It should be illegal to hunt with dogs.

[SR540Beaver]

I'm a certified city boy. My dad was born and raised on a farm. They were too busy to hunt other than ringing a chickens neck for dinner. He was a hard working sort of guy and usually had things to do around the house when he wasn't at work. He never hunted, therefore I never hunted. Some 20 to 25 years ago when I was in my 20's and on my own, I did a little dove, quail and duck hunting. I never managed to hit a thing except for one squirrel. When I got to him and found him twitching all over, it kind of turned me off to hunting. My father-in-law was a butcher and he cleaned it for me. It tasted horrible. Most of the wild meat that others have supplied to me tasted pretty gamey too. It is a whole lot cheaper to go to the grocery store and buy a really nice cut of meat than it is to shoot your own. By the time you factor in the cost of the gun, ammo, liscense, gear, clothing, gas, etc., the deer ends up costing you something like $50 per pound! LOL The majority of hunters do it for the sport and experience....not to put food on the table. That is merely a byproduct these days. Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against hunting and have a good number of friends who are eat up with it. It has just never been for me. The few times I sat in a duck blind in near zero temps and froze my patootie off broke me of ever WANTING to do it. Which reminds me, we have a campout this weekend and the overnight low on Friday night is supposed to be 13. Looks like I'm no smarter than my hunter friends!

[Venividi]

Its a hobby - a reason to get outdoors, just like your photography hobby. A feeling of connecting with the primal urge to be a provider, at least for a weekend.

 

I am not familiar with hunting on the National Elk Reserve, so can't comment if that is an accurate representation of hunting there, but I don't think it is representative of hunting everywhere.

 

Note that the same arguement could be made questioning why someone would want to spend a weekend (or week) sleeping on the ground, in freezing rain, cooking over a fire, getting dirty, etc. when they could be snug in a nice warm house complete with flush toilets and air freshener just in case there is a little odor.

 

cheers!

[CA_Scouter]

Yea, my neighbor gave me some duck, and 'gamey' would have tasted better than the stuff I got.

 

I have a solution though. Cow hunting. No issues with Bambi lovers, no problems with the National Elk refuge, no special permits, no complaints that its not sporting - heck, they are bred for consumption anyway! And on top of all that, the meat tastes good!

 

I don't know why anyone hasn't thought of this before!

 

Cool. A new Skillbase! I'll contact National...

 

:-)

 

 

[OldGreyEagle]

My father was raised on a farm in rural depression Maine. Many times if the game wasnt shot, there was no meat, and not just that night. The smoker and salter was used until there was enough meat for spring and summer as well. What? Eat the livestock? Cant do that boy, where do you think the money for those shoes you are so fond of wearing comes from?

 

Anyway, the time I spent hunting with my father are some of the most precious I have of my childhood. When he was hunting, he was a different person, he wasnt just "dad'anymore, he was a living game finder, totally alert and aware of his surroundings. He could see things at 100 yards I never could. He would talk about hunts of his childhood, taking a canoe along the Kennebec north of The Forks and packing down 2-3 deer, nice sized yearlings you know, dont want them big bucks, too tough, them yearlings you can cut their loins with a fork. Rabbit hunts accomplished by kicking them out of their brush piles and chasing them down. Yes, I said chasing them down. When there is 12 inches or more of fresh powder and you have snowshoes and can run over the top on the snow, while the rabbit sinks down and has to leap out of the snow, he tires easily. I am not sure I beleive that, but it does sound like it may work with deep enough snow and we are talking Maine. Anyway, I loved hearing the stories

 

Stories told around a campfire or the cook stove, out away from the phone which might call him to work at anytime, out away from my sister and younger brother, out where my dad was mine. Yeah, hunting attracts me.

 

In some communities hunting is seen as an adult right of passage a tradition handed down from generation to generation.

 

I may have a Rockwellian view of hunting, but when I hunt I join my father, and the boy who was my father and the generations past.

 

As far as how the deer take it I leave to Miss Mona Lisa Vito's captivating description(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

[GernBlansten]

Don't laugh CA_scouter.

A friend of mine is a gentleman rancher and raises a few head of buffalo on his 40 acres. When it came time to harvest 3 of them, two avid bow hunters paid him $300 a piece to hunt them. They walked up, shot them with arrows and they (the buffalo) just stood there. After a while, my friend got tired of it and shot them in the head with a 45 pistol dropping them quickly. They carved off the heads and left the rest for my friend to sent them to the processing house.

The meat was delicious though.

[nldscout]

As I am an avid hunter, I must say I hope this doesn't turn into a PETA loving, hunter bashing discussion.

 

That said, I love hunting and also fishing. Here in Northern New York, we measure the year by the sporting season. Jan starts Ice fishing, then its bullhead fishing season, then Bass/summer fishing, finally hunting season. Most of us that hunt and fish here are nothing like those hunting situations prairie mentioned.

 

We hunt for The exercise, love of outdoors, companionship, and yes we hunt for the meat also. Come with us on a typical weekend, we walk 2-4 miles a day, covering many area's. We work for every animal that we shoot.

 

While I appreciate that some do not like to hunt, please do not criticize those of us that do. Its our sport that we have choosen, just like some like watching football.

[DanKroh]

I don't personally hunt, although I have been known to kill a lot of cardboard with my bow.

 

But I have a lot of family members who do. And while to them it might be part "sport", they are not just looking for a trophy, they take that carcass home and put it to good use.

 

Now, they are not substistence hunters, but having a freezer full of deer or bear meat does help stretch the grocery budget, especially during the winter months when the heating budget can start biting into the grocery money.

 

Personally, I like the taste of deer meat (and bear meat), and while I am probably too lazy to get up that early in the morning and spend all that time freezing body parts off, I never turn down a hunk of game meat when it is offered to me by friends or relatives.

 

I have no illusions about where the meat comes from, and what is done to the animal to provide it. But I also have no illusions about where that beef and chicken in the styrofoam tray at the grocery store came from either.

 

Just out of curiosity, Prairie_Scouter, is the meat in the grocery store more acceptable for some reason than the meat in my brother-in-laws freezer just because he didn't have anything to do with killing it?

[DanKroh]

I would like to add that I do have a problem with people who hunt (or fish) ONLY for the purpose of getting a trophy to take home and hang on their wall. If you are going to kill the animal, at least make good use of what you are taking. If you don't like or don't want the meat yourself, give it to someone who will use it.

[SeattlePioneer]

Opera --What's the attraction?

 

Symphonic music ---What's the attraction?

 

 

Chess --- What's the attraction?

 

 

Things I don't do --- what's the attraction and why shouldn't I promote a hate campaign for those that do? And by the way, I'm a big supporter of "diversity," too!

 

 

 

Seattle Pioneer

[CA_Scouter]

Seattle,

 

Where's the 'hate' in this thread? I see this as a calm and rational discussion of the topic!

 

Just for that, I hope my Niners dump your Seahawks this weekend. :-)