Somethings wrong! Am I a TRAITOR?

[gnostic]

Paul McCartney said, 'if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarians.'

[Biggin]

I'm glad to hear that y'all feel that way. My mother passed away 11 years ago 2 days before thanksgiving. I went hunting that weekend just to get out of the house. I had the biggest deer I've ever seen in my sights the dang thing stood there and looked at me and I couldn't do it. I haven't hunted since .

[oldblinddog]

I was a young teenager, not ready to hunt yet, when my father came back from a rare successful deer hunt and put away his rifle for ever. Seems the deer he shot sounded like a baby crying and my father never got over it.

I had that happen. Shot him with a 7-30 Waters loaded with a 139 gr Hornady FP. Every cow in that pasture (500 ac. 200 cows) came to see what I was doing and to beat me up. I sold that 94 and never shot anything with a 7-30 Waters again.

[castalott]

I shot a squirrel and it cried like a baby in pain.... I haven't hunted for 15 years now. I love good squirrel but I won't harm an animal with a poor shot.

Somehow these animals lives are hard enough without me adding to it. Is that what some of you are thinking?

[azrednek]

Sure wish I could catch and release,
as I get older, the hunter in me wanes
but the shooter in me grows
Mike

I recall a lengthy article in a gun rag in the early 70's. The author was an avid varmint hunter beginng at a young age eliminating pests on family farm. Over the years he developed a love affair with Coyotes and could no longer shoot them. He began photographing Coyotes with a long lens camera mounted on a rifle stock.

[Artful]

Paul McCartney said, 'if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarians.'

Said by a man that never butchered his own beef I'd bet - I have no problem with hunting for meat but living in a big city in the desert
I have not hunted any deer since I moved to Arizona, Now I have killed some animals while here but those are rapid production (like rabbits) or predatory ('yotes)
I'll hunt bargins at the store to keep my freezer filled and if I have a craving for elk or venison visit Cabala's or other exotic game restaurants or meat sellers.

[claude]

Somehow these animals lives are hard enough without me adding to it. Is that what some of you are thinking?

Personally, I have reached the point in my mind, that killing something just because I can has lost it's savor. YMMV but there is no longer any joy in Mudville when I cap a critter. Often enough, I can justify it, but the joy is gone, usually replaced by a certain sadness.

[nekshot]

Glad to see I am not alone! I never was a killer(worked in a butcher shop for a year as a teenager- I did the kill part of the job) so I had a respect for life on every animal I hunted. Glass walls on a slaughter house would not bother me! I enjoy shooting and dreaming up projects over my head to do, love scouting and the sights, sounds and smells of wood land but the hunt is waning unless we would need red meat.

[phonejack]

I'm in my '70's. Now I only shoot when I need to replenish the freezer. Which means I mostly sit and enjoy the view.

[sharps4590]

As with most who have posted, my fire in the belly for hunting has dimmed considerably. I don't have any problems taking an animal and do still kill a few young squirrels in the spring and then when the fall litter comes on. My wife and I would rather eat squirrel as chicken. Deer and other larger game...eh....I guess I've killed enough to satisfy my blood lust. Our primary deer season ended a week or so ago and I went....and might have spent 3 hours in the blind over 10 days. As we hunt our place it's pretty easy to go or not go....and getting a WHOLE lot easier NOT to go!!!

[725]

If the libs & anti's only knew we shooters & hunters had ethics, it would blow their minds. I'm in the same camp as most of the above. I pass so many more than ever. I won't take an animal if I already have meat in the freezer. I'm very selective about any that I do end up taking. Everyday I see at least a half a dozen around the house. Many does & yearlings. The last deer I hunted hard was a wounded one I saw with somebody's arrow in it's back. I hunted that one like I was a kid again. Had over a dozen within 30 yards, but just not the one I was after. With some exceptions, we are the best stewards of the world around us. At least, that's how I feel about it.

[William Yanda]

That's why they call it "sport" not "desperation"!

[GMW]

Wow! This thread is really tugging at my heart! It is good to know that I am not alone in my waning desire to kill animals. I do LOVE to shoot!!!

[D Crockett]

I belive the day we started to hunt for a gut shot doe a hunter asked for help in finding we started at about 9am we found her about 4 that afternoon I put a bullet in the base of her skull to put her down that was over 25 years ago now don't get me wrong I will kill a hog faster than you can blink a eye but have not hunted a dear in all that time D Crockett

[GhostHawk]

No sir, no way you are a traitor. You'd just rather see him in your memory walking away in the woods than in your freezer. You just got to the point where you admited to yourself that you don't have to kill to feel like a man.

Really in my opinion your more of a man than those who have to pull the trigger. I'm dead serious.

I was a bachelor for 20+ years. I got in all the huntin, fishin, campin, woods walkin I could handle.

And then at the age of 44 I met my lady. I hung it all up. The guns, trap shooting, fishing, camping, all of it. I put it all on the shelf. I gave everything I had to building a home for her and her daughter. And to making this marriage work. Now 21 and a half years later I am back fishing some. Shooting some, loving making cast boolits and loading ammo.

But I don't enjoy pulling the trigger on live critters anymore. Heck even a gopher can soften my heart to where I will turn away. And I don't think that is a bad thing. YMMV

[popper]

Naw, not a traitor. I passed on a big doe that walked right under the stand I was in, next morning passed on a doe & 8 pt buck down at the feeder. Now pigs are fair game.

[Bigslug]

"Traitor" may be a bit strong of a word, so long as "the tribe" already has one on the hooks. Doing the deed yourself has some distasteful elements, but the way I look at it, EVERYTHING on this earth lives at the expense of something else. Plants compete for space, light, and water. If you eat an ear of corn, how many potential hundreds of corn plants did you just kill (to say nothing of the zillions of wheat seeds in a loaf of bread)? What plant life are you stopping or animal life are you depriving by making your fruit cake? If you don't take steps to keep the critters out of your garden, you won't have veggies OR meat. Once you make the leap that the ear of corn is every bit as alive as a deer, the fact that one of the two has eyes becomes a little less relevant.

Nothing wrong with passing up on a little buck to let it grow and breed, and there's nothing wrong with turning over the "bow" to the younger and fitter "braves", just so long as you've got your head squared to the reality that your cheeseburger in the Styrofoam box had a mother that loved it too, and you negotiated for someone else to swing the axe.

[white eagle]

well said
it doesn't hurt to be compassionate towards animals
things die for us to eat no way around that
how you choose to have it is another matter
I prefer to get mine myself and I still have great
respect for the animals life I have taken more so than if
i were to buy it shrunk wrapped and packaged

[Wolfer]

My problem is I only need about 1 or 2 deer a year. Yet I want to hunt the whole season. I still get excited when I see a deer coming but as soon as I know I can close the deal I will often let them walk.

[starnbar]

Pushing 70 now I still take the grandkids out but I seldom pull a trigger anymore unless the freezer is allmost empty my wife who is part native american instilled in my grandkids to honor the animals we take they are provided to us by the allmighty I watch a lot more than I take now but I have allways thanked the game for letting me take them and the allmighty too.