Huntng - for or against and why?

[dennishoddy]

Nobody in my family hunted or owned guns.

In grade school, I leaned to read like everybody else, but I picked up on outdoor books.

I read books to the point that my parents had to tell me to put the books down and go outside and play.

Loved the mountain man, and survival books from the days when the country was explored and settled.

I've related this story before, but around 12 years old, I was so ate up with mountain men that my folks let me stay at my uncles farm that had 90 acres of timber with nothing but a .410 and some basic food.
From reading I knew how to build my own shelter, make dead fall traps with nothing but what the woods provided, and catch fish with natural bait. They let me stay out there for two weeks at a time. Little did I know, my uncle would slip in there at night to check on me and replenish my basic supplies. We didn't have cell phones. That was good times.
Later on I took my kids to Colorado for a week of survival living in Natural shelters, at timber line altitudes. They got bored after a couple of days, but it was a lesson to them so we went back to civilization.
The lack of money during the first military days, and the years after when it was a struggle to put food on the table drove me to hunting for food. We lived on fishing for drum in the river for months after getting stationed at Ft Leavenworth Ks. We could hunt small game on post, so my .410 was what I took rabbits and squirrel with.

Getting out of the Army, my uncles place provided food for us again, but then the jobs got better, and hunting became a pleasure vs a way to survive.
Branched out into hunting rabbits with beagles, quail/pheasant with Britts, bullshitting with folks in diners and restaurants about hunting, and finally getting to now.
Obsessed with food plots, prep, stands, hunting, and finally the kill and putting the food on the table.

Its been a long road in the hunting history. I love it.

I also shoot competitively. Some of the guys that shoot a thousand round a month have never killed anything but paper.

I applaud their obsession, and they have never had a bad word to say about mine, although I do take Saturday's off to shoot with them.

 

[p238shooter]

Pro hunting vote even though I do not hunt any more. I used to bird hunt, now I had rather fish. That does not make me against hunting, I think to each his own of what he prefers to do.

There are way too many wild animals in many areas, deer, hogs, skunks. etc. (I do not hunt skunks, but I do eliminate the ones that are trespassing.

 

[retrieverman]

I own a 360 acre tract of land over 500 miles from where I live for the sole purpose of hunting. I'm pretty sure my stance on hunting is evident…...

 

[TedKennedy]

I grew up hunting. Dad and his dad, my uncles, everyone hunted. I've even seen Mom shoot squirrels when I was a kid.
Dad grew up in the 30s and 40s in far eastern Delaware county. They still didn't have electricity when he graduated high school. His dad and uncles all were serious meat hunters - they hunted squirrels, rabbits, ducks, gigged fish, even had a method of snagging fish that was apparently real effective.
I can hardly understand folks that are against hunting - it's part of my genetic makup, I believe. When my boys were little, we used to squirrel hunt a few miles from the house. I made it a point to go kill squirrels, have them help me dress'em, then cook them right then. I wanted them to have an understanding of where food really comes from.
I understand that some folks don't "get" hunting, and that's cool, as long as they don't try to legislate away my right to hunt.

 

[r00s7a]

Anti-anti-hunting vote here. I can understand if someone does not want to hunt and remains neutral. What I don't understand is the anti-hunting sentiment. "Man" started hunting roughly two million years ago. That's a long time. This was our means of survival and contributed significantly to the development of modern man. Hunting has been a necessity ever since, up until very recently. If you said man has not HAD to hunt for the last 100 years, that would probably be generous, but we'll say 100 years. 100 years in the last 2 million comes out to .005% of our existence that we have had the luxury of stores providing meat so that we were not required to hunt to survive. I cannot wrap my mind around how something that has gone on for 99.995% of our existence on this planet, the key to our survival, and is now considered barbaric by the anti-hunting crowd. Then you look at the methods by which the anti-hunters obtain their meat (i.e. factory farming), and we are the ones that are considered cruel? Being a hunter is continuing the methods to survive that have gone on for millions and millions of years. There is no shame in that. Anyone that opposes hunting as a means of survival is nothing short of ignorant of the big picture.

 

[RidgeHunter]

Only two kinds of anti-hunters bother me. The "I don't see a need for it" people are the first. What do any of us in the modern western world do in a given day that we "need" to do? What a silly metric to judge any activity. You're not even making a point. Terry Schiavo couldn't even eat or walk or talk or move and modern society kept her alive for years. People don't "need" to do a single thing to survive now.

Which leads us to the second, which is often the same guy. This is often just the second part of his argument after he realizes the first part meant nothing:

Second are the Macho Man anti-hunters. "I just don't see any sport in it" they say over their steak and stout beer. "I shoot guns but I guess I don't feel a need to kill animals to prove I'm a man. I'm a man because of my guns/technical skills/military service/fatherhood/swinging dick attitude."

Yeah, well you're also a toolbag because of the same. Shut and go back to your cul-de-sac. Why is masculinity the only component of hunting you're willing to directly/indirectly discuss?

It's like their version of the "guns are a penis extender" theory. "I don't hunt, therefore I am more manly and secure than a man who needs to hunt to feel like a man." Really? Because you sound a little defensive.

City folk anti-hunters don't bother me, and in fact most of them will change their opinions if exposed to hunting by nice, responsible hunters. I've changed more than a few viewpoints. Not everyone is exposed to hunting in their formative years.

I feel less of a need to justify hunting, or any of my life choices really, with each passing year. I used to argue and defend my actions every time they were called in to question. Not so much, now. I hunt because I'm a hunter. Now kindly f*ck off. Good. Be one less person im the woods. Waddle across asphalt in RMNP to take a picture of a a tourist-addled elk and let that be your outdoor experience.

 

[dennishoddy]

My kids send me things like this:

 

[makeithappen]

Pro-hunting here. It helps me appreciate everything else in life a bit more and is a stress reliever. I'd wonder the woods every day if I could.

 

[ShurShot]

Pro hunting. I hunted quail and pheasant and went fishing a lot with my dad when I was younger and those are some of my best memories. I now have two boys (8 and 10) and love to get out and hunt and fish with them. One of them loves to fish, could care less about hunting and the other loves to hunt but could care less about fishing (at least that is what he says, but he has fun when we go!) Works out great, I've got a hunting buddy and a fishing buddy!

 

[Jeff405]

I hunt because I love being out in the quiet peacefulness of the woods just sitting there with my thoughts and the sounds of nature. I also like the thought of being able to get semi-free unprocessed meat for the family, it's like an award. I didn't come from an hunting family or background, I lived in the city and had a BB gun and a couple trees in the backyard. I guess thats how I got my start in the thrill of hunting.