It's Official - I Have Gone Soft!

[Char-Gar]

A couple of days ago, Murphy one of my indoor cats got out and headed for the bushes on a dead run. I could not get him back, so I set out a live trap with his favorite canned chicken in it, if he came back. The next day, I found him in the neighbors yards and brought him back. I now keep a spray water bottle near the back door and if he even acts like he is heading that way, he gets wet.. He doesn't like that!

Anyway, I picked up the trap and set it on the back porch and last night when I put Abby the dog out at 10 pm, there was a possum in the trap. I could not bring myself to kill it, so I set it free.

I think that was the death knell of Charles as the great hunter who has not hunted in years. Many of us lose our taste for killing as we get older and if I can't even kill a nasty possum, then there is no going back to my previous ways.

Sooo..I guess I don't have to worry about meplats anymore. I can just concentrate of accuracy and punching holes in targets. It is time to admit what I have known for some time... I have just gone soft.

I have done lots and lots of hunting in previous years, but that is behind me now and no use even considering it again. I have nothing against hunting or hunters, but I just don't have it in me anymore. I bet that damn possum is still laughting at me!

Addendum - Abby is a 13 year old Cairn Terrier and in her salad days was a possum hunting and killing terror. Last night, she walked by the possum in the trap one her way to and from her bladder emptying and paid it no mind. I guess this is all just an age related thing for man and dog alike.

[felix]

No, Charger, I beat you to it many, many years ago. About when I did BR work, say 1972, is when I hunted no more, deer stands included. Yeah, I shot some waving blackbirds in the wind, moving snakes in the water, etc., but that is about it during the last 5 years. ... felix

[bishopgrandpa]

I was kind of embarrassed to admit it, but add me to the list. The legs are gone, the desire is waning but I can't give up the smell of gunpowder in the wind or on my sleeve.

[Junior1942]

I quit using living things as targets right after my first heart attack. I'm still an avid hunter, but if I kill it I eat it.

[Ricochet]

Chargar, I've gone soft, too.

I'm not even getting mad at the raccoons eating the cat food any more. Found out the biggest one's got a crippled paw and felt sorry for it. They don't hurt the cats. They've all got an understanding and everybody gets along. We can afford a little extra cat food.

[bruce drake]

How about the simple lack of hunting time and land has gotten me past the point of having to hunt. I punch paper 99% of the time now.

Bruce

[fourarmed]

I just start to think I am going that way, too, and then something like this happens: I was relaxing in the reading room Saturday morning, and my wife yelled "Get your ass out of that bathroom! There's a tom turkey in the backyard." I completed my procedures, ran for the safe, got the shotgun, poked just the tip out the back door, and filled my turkey tag. You'd have thought we won the lottery, the way we carried on.

[Char-Gar]

I knew I was heading this way. About two years ago, while at the rifle range, a ground squirrel sat in front of my target at the 50 yards line. I turned it into a two piece squirrel with my Remington 25-20 pump, with cast bullets of course.

I felt bad about that for a week. Why had I taken that little guys life? He was a threat to nobody and just doing what God intended for him to do. That was my first clue.

I am in good company however, Col. Towsend Whelen gave up hunting in his later years. He tramped around his 200 acre retreat in Vermont with a Winchester 70 in 257 Roberts, loaded with cast bullet loads for years. He wore the blue off the rifle.

His daughter later wrote, he probably never fired the rifle on all of those tramps, but the old gent just couldn't see going for a walk in the woods without a rifle. He would sit under a tree or hours, smoking his pipe with the rifle leaning against the tree. The old hunter was remembering the great days of his youth and the wonders of being outdoors.

Good rifles make fine companions for us silver haired types in our "golden" years. We don't have to justify or explain anything to anybody. We know who we are, where we have been and where we are going.

We have a wonderful meat market here in Corpus Christi, called "Moody's Meats". It is a carnivore's paradise. Nothing I have every killed is as good as what I can buy at Moody's. I will just keep my freezer stocked from Moody's and my rifles will be my friends and companions in these wonderful last years.

Life is good, when you finally get your head sorted out.

[Boz330]

I'm not quite there yet. I still enjoy a good venison steak, but I have never taken joy in he actual killing. The satisfaction comes from the hunt and being somewhat self sufficient. I don't take any more than I can use but still go to the field even after the freezer is full and sit out there with a rifle. On several occasions when there was extra meat or I got a road kill I just commune with the outdoors. Hunting as much as anything is a time to be with friends and remember past good times and friends that aren't here anymore.
I'll probably get there but I think that I'll still go out in the woods with a gun even then, at least as long as I can. It is deffinately a personal thing though and I sure can relate to it.

Bob

[Uncle R.]

Life is good, when you finally get your head sorted out.

:smile:

Now THERE'S a short sentence that says a lot!

Uncle R.

[XBT]

When I was young I would nearly wreck a car trying to hit a jackrabbit on the road. Now I will nearly wreck a car trying to miss one. I suspect many of us older guys have the same outlook on such things, it seems to come with age.

I remember visiting my uncle’s barbershop as a young man and hearing him say he was done with the deer hunting, he just didn’t care to hunt anymore. I thought he was crazy at the time but now I find myself thinking the same way.

This sort of mindset can cause problems however, as I found out last fall while running my son’s trap line for him. One trap held a half-grown skunk by the toe. He was such a cute little varmint I attempted to release him alive. I got it done all right, but paid a heavy price for the good deed.

I am now re-thinking this soft heartedness thing.

[BruceB]

When Deputy Al, Curmudgeon and I went to Alberta in '05, we had a great welcoming party on our first night at my brother's hacienda. At one point in the proceedings, one of our guides-to-be turned to me and said, "What do you expect from this hunt?"

It didn't take any time at all to formulate my response: " I expect to spend a lot of time in beautiful country, with like-minded genuine friends whose company I greatly enjoy, doing something I love, and if I should be successful in bagging an animal that will be a bonus to the other factors."

He smiled, and said, "We are gonna have one heck of a good time." ...and we did.

Taking a camera into the bush instead of a rifle makes one a spectator in the Great Game, not a participant. Having the rifle makes a BIG difference, even if one decides not to shoot, as I have on occasion in the past.

I killed a lot of animals for food over three decades in the Far North, mostly caribou, but that wasn't hunting as such. It was meat-gathering, pure and simple. The obligations for accurate shooting and merciful quick kills were just as important, but it lacked the rituals and enjoyment I found in true "hunting". My old M700 '06 has done-in well over 150 big game animals, but it's the ones that I HUNTED that I remember best.

Well into my seventh decade, I still can hardly wait for November '08 when we will repeat the Alberta trip. The thrill of HUNTING is still there, but the possibility of the kill is a very, very minor part of it.

[NVcurmudgeon]

Guess I'm in transition. I quit pretending to like eating waterfowl years ago. I'm too old and sensible to chase chukars to the top of a mountain and then watch them glide down to the bottom of the next canyon. Quail, doves, and cottontails are off limits now that we have them as yard pets. That leaves big game and sage hens. Among non-edibles I still shoot ground squirrels, especially at home where they dig under the house and shed, and enjoy the demise of every one. I would cheerfully kill a coyote or rattlesnake in my yard, but wish they would continue to stay away. I rescue wolf spiders if I see them before my wife does, and hate to trap voles, but we would be overrun otherwise.

[dragonrider]

Back when I was a teenager I used to hunt alot, the usual stuff, rabbits, birds, squirrels etc. Then life happened and got married, kids responsibiliy, family life an all. Then after the kids growed up and left I got back into hunting but it just wasn't the same. Many times I had game in the crosshairs and never pulled the trigger, and about ten years ago I just stopped hunting. I guess it is an age thing.

[MGySgt]

I have taken about all the whitetail I care to take, the only way I would go now is if my son and I had a chance to go together.

Now Elk is a totally different story. I have been going with one outfitter the last 6 years and I still look forward to the trip. I love being in the wilderness with only a horse to get around on and the beauty that God created. If I have an oppurtunity to take an Elk - good, but to harvest an Elk is not my primary reason for going, it is an added bonus if I do.

Drew

[Scrounger]

Life. The less we have of it, the more we appreciate it.

[chevyiron420]

i have never been deep into hunting, except for tree rats. i have nothing against it and i love to watch hunting vidios, and sure do enjoy venison. i went deer hunting a few times but just didnt like it probably because i didnt have anyone to learn from and wasnt very good at it. i do believe in eating what you shoot though and i just dont like tree rats so i slowed up on that to. BUT i bet none of us would have a problem drillin any game we could find if we were hungry!-phil

[Bret4207]

There's hunting and there's killing. Sometimes you have to kill, sometimes you want to hunt. I always felt bad about putting a hog down for meat.

[Boz330]

[

Now Elk is a totally different story. I have been going with one outfitter the last 6 years and I still look forward to the trip. I love being in the wilderness with only a horse to get around on and the beauty that God created. If I have an oppurtunity to take an Elk - good, but to harvest an Elk is not my primary reason for going, it is an added bonus if I do.

Drew[/QUOTE]

Now you are the type hunter that I used to enjoy guiding and it seems like the more layed back the hunter the better luck we would have. One of the reasons I quit guiding was the "I've got to kill something" hunters, along with 2 bad knees and a back.
When the sun came up over the mountains every morning that I was out there I gave thanks that I could have a job for several weeks every year doing what I loved. I think that I was more tickled than the hunter when someone that deserved it scored a nice elk. I had several repeat hunters that were so much fun to hunt with that I damn near would have paid to guide them. Those times made the whole thing worth while and kept me going back. As I got older I was less inclined to put up with the other type and they were missing a lot by not enjoying the great country when the hunting luck was bad.
Like Bruce it is about being away and with friends. I don't have any kids of my own put do have a godson that is like a son to me. Him and a lifelong friend are my 2 best hunting companions. I give them the best hunting spots on the farm that I have hunted since 77. In fact my godson has taken 2 very nice bucks the last 2 years out of my favorite stand. I kid him about taking it back but it's not that important to me anymore and he is like me at that age so I let him enjoy it.
This fall I hope to have a friend from England that is in CA working on a NASA project come out and hunt with us. I used to work with him when I was in South Africa. He has hunted everything up to and including Elephant so deer is pretty small stuff to him but again it is back to quality time with friends.

Bob

[Bigjohn]

I have to agree with what is being said in this thread; when I was younger myself and some friends used to go spotlighting rabbits on several farms in this area. It was nothing to bring in a bag of 30+ because they were a pest animal to the farmers, so we feed the dogs and ferrets with them.

As I have grown (matured) older, I find that my hunting sojourns now consist of alot of looking around enjoying nature than actual shooting of game.

If I had the need for meat on the table or to feed the dog, maybe.

I can remember reading an account by one of Elmer Keith's friends when late in his life when he was struggling with a heart condition, they took him on a hunt, set him in a position where they thought he would have the opportunity for a shot at game and kept a close eye on him.
Apparently a sizable buck came into Elmer's view, presented the prefect shot opportunity and Elmer never moved or tired to take the shot. After the buck had left, one of his friends asked him if he had even seen the animal and he replied, It was a beauty wasn't it.

Maybe it is in us all to mature this way and to have a different outlook on life.
Regards,
John

[9.3X62AL]

I choose to continue hunting and fishing for the same reason I continue to plant corn and string beans and tomatoes--to remain at least symbolically and constructively involved in the harvest. I damn sure can't feed myself from the backyard garden or the local mountains and desert, but I do enjoy the table fare that results from the efforts.

My ability to hunt and fish is compromised somewhat by a nerve disorder that affects mobility. This condition onset a couple years prior to my retirement, and the irony of THAT circumstance has not escaped me. Stubbornness and profound enjoyment of the outdoors combine to discourage me from abandoning the hunt, and these pursuits motivate me to continue treatment regimens in a circular justification sequence.

I truly do not believe I'll ever completely stop hunting or fishing. It just means too much, for so many reasons--some of which were noted by others above. My nephews and daughters have all been exposed to the outdoors, and now that their kids are starting to appear--I have another generation to take afield. Can't stop now.

[fourarmed]

BigJohn, I believe the elderly hunter in your tale was Jack O'Connor. At least I read a story some years back to that effect.

[Gussy]

I have slowed up on the shooting part of hunting the past few years. Started using only muzzle loaders or single shot black powder rifles about 25 years back. Watched a lot more than I've shot. Used to frustrate the hell out of my hunting partner when he had to wait for me to reload my shotgun.

This morning while having coffee, my wife said where's the shot gun? Pepper that damn deer eating our new cherry trees. Barely leafed out and their already at them. Had to chuckle at her as she's not really a hunter, but that got the blood pressure up a bit. I opened the door and pointed out the deer to the sleeping Lab and he did the rest. I'm sure they came back after I left for work.

Anyone "marked" pesty deer with a paint gun?
Gus