The Reason We Hunt

[OldMtnMan]

Another video about the right reasons to hunt.

These guys do it perfectly.

[Smokey Plainsman]

Yes, I like Capnball, he抯 good peoples.

Another right reason to hunt is to EAT the animals flesh so it can give to you the gift of sustenance.

Some just do it to cut the head off and let the body rot to display it. Not a good reason to take an animals life.

[OldMtnMan]

That would be the worse reason. I have no love for trophy hunters.

Killing for the meat I thought was covered in the video?

[Smokey Plainsman]

That would be the worse reason. I have no love for trophy hunters.

Killing for the meat I thought was covered in the video?

Yes you抮e right.

[smylee grouch]

Lots of different reasons to hunt and ways to do it. Hunt for any reason you want , just do it legal and don't waste. I trophy hunt and meat hunt. There are not very many hunters that would pass on a trophy animal or throw a trophy rack away if they got one. No apology from me if I should get "the big one" 

[OldMtnMan]

You may think i'm full of it and that's ok, but i've left many racks on the ground. I'm a meat hunter and mature bucks and bulls have more meat. I can't eat the antlers, so I don't waste the energy to haul them out.

[axelp]

A hunter can honor the animal in many ways. The more you take home the better. But squirrels enjoy the antlers left in the woods too.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Back in Teddy Roosevelt's day it was the meat hunters that were scorned.  Modern game regs were based on a sporting ethic, not a hunter-gatherer ethic.  Back then meat hunters were all about the efficiency more meat - less effort was the name of the game.  Overbagging, night jacking, road hunting were all the activities of the meat hunters of the day.

The hunters ethic today is a sporting ethic.  It's about fair chase, and meeting a challenge.  If you succeeded in a particularly challenging hunt, then by all means keep a trophy.  It may be the antlers, it could be the recovered ball from a doe, it could be a photograph of the meat pole. 

The trophy is about the story, not the points.  I lose interest REALLY quick when words like "green score" or "180-class" or "G-3 tine" start getting bantered about.  I guess it gives them something to talk about INSTEAD of talking about how they got the deer, perhaps because they know it would be really boring. . . . 

"Well I saw this add for a really posh hunting resort, so I forked out several grand, flew there, ate prime rib every night, relaxed in a Jacuzzi, then the next day our guide drove us to the top of a hill, pointed out this here fellow, and I shot him.  Say will you look at how the G-3 tine sweeps inward.  That's gotta be a 180-class, blah, blah, blah."

[smylee grouch]

Good post Black Jack. I have a few of those "high scoring racks and skulls" but I also had all the meat that came with them. I have one bear skull that I wasn't going to enter into the book but one of my shooting partners talked me into it because it beat out a ton of others that were taken with in-lines and all my trophys were taken with flinters.

[OldMtnMan]

I posted this video because it talks about the same values I have. It's how I was taught and brought up.

I don't expect everyone to feel the same way and not get the video.

[Vicanddogs]

Black Jack I think you should replace meat hunter with market hunter in your response.I believe a meat hunter is someone who hunts for meat for his table or the table of his family and friends. Just my 2 cents

[Vicanddogs]

I have a couple of animals that I had mounted because they were extra ordinary and it great to look them every day but my family and friends consumed every bit of them. And did not hurt the population one bit

[Mike from OK]

I hunt because I enjoy it. Meat is fairly easy to come by for me.

But the main reason is to keep the skills sharpened for the day when meat isn't so easy to come by.

Mike

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Yeah.  Well I think in centuries before the meat hunters and market hunters were close cousins. 

I don't really know how I would fit in.  I don't hunt as a matter of economy.  I hunt because it builds character and virtue, and is enjoyable.  These things were all well expressed in the video.

[OldMtnMan]

I shouldn't push my values on others. I apologize for that and won't happen again.

Why you hunt is your business.

[Mike Brooks]

People hunt for all sorts of reasons and as long as they are legal there is nothing wrong with any of them. I'm certainly not going to tell anyone how to hunt according to my own prejudices. "Generally" I'll take the first deer down the path as long as it doesn't have spots on it. I got my "trophy" buck clear back in '80 and I know I'll never do any better than that one ever again. When given the choice of several deer I'll take a nice plump doe over a larger buck every time, but that's just me. I like eating plump does. These days I prefer a nice 250lb  hog that I'm given for free when they empty the hog operation. They won't take the runts at the slaughter house so they don't even take them. The farmers just shoot the runts and throw them on the carcass pile unless they know somebody who will take them. i'm on the call list and my freezer is full of free pork. Takes very little time and I'm back building guns. I just don't enjoy "the kill" that much anymore. Except for squirrels and fish!

 I have a friend in TN that bow hunts ONLY for trophy deer. He is very successful. He doesn't even eat venison. All the meat is donated to homeless shelters for those in need. He gets his trophy and feeds a whole bunch of people that are really in need. How does it get better than that?

[oldtravler61]

  Wouldn't it be great if everyone would just accept what the other person's hunting style is as long as it's ethical and legal.....Oldtravler

[Smokey Plainsman]

Back in Teddy Roosevelt's day it was the meat hunters that were scorned.  Modern game regs were based on a sporting ethic, not a hunter-gatherer ethic.  Back then meat hunters were all about the efficiency more meat - less effort was the name of the game.  Overbagging, night jacking, road hunting were all the activities of the meat hunters of the day.

The hunters ethic today is a sporting ethic.  It's about fair chase, and meeting a challenge.  If you succeeded in a particularly challenging hunt, then by all means keep a trophy.  It may be the antlers, it could be the recovered ball from a doe, it could be a photograph of the meat pole. 

The trophy is about the story, not the points.  I lose interest REALLY quick when words like "green score" or "180-class" or "G-3 tine" start getting bantered about.  I guess it gives them something to talk about INSTEAD of talking about how they got the deer, perhaps because they know it would be really boring. . . . 

"Well I saw this add for a really posh hunting resort, so I forked out several grand, flew there, ate prime rib every night, relaxed in a Jacuzzi, then the next day our guide drove us to the top of a hill, pointed out this here fellow, and I shot him.  Say will you look at how the G-3 tine sweeps inward.  That's gotta be a 180-class, blah, blah, blah."

Not sure where you learned that but does do not have balls, pard. That抯 the bucks, and there should be two for the taking.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Wouldn't it be great if everyone would just accept what the other person's hunting style is as long as it's ethical and legal.....Oldtravler

But that's sort of what we're discussing - ethics. 

Just because something is legal doesn't make it ethical.

Is it legal to put Santa hats and Rudolph-red noses on deer mounts and otherwise make a silly mockery of a deer's head?  Yes, perfectly legal.
Is it ethical?

Matters of ethics reach for a higher standard than mere law.  But we have to discuss ethics, otherwise ethics is meaningless.  So yes, I want to be an ethical hunter, not just a legal hunter. 

Why do we get all squeamish and apologetic about such discussions?   

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Not sure where you learned that but does do not have balls, pard. That抯 the bucks, and there should be two for the taking.

 

I've got a shadow box full of recovered roundballs. 

[OldMtnMan]

The problem with talking about ethics is we all have our own definition of what is ethical.

[Matthew1969]

I hunt to feed myself! I feed my soul first as I often don't make a kill. Either way, the most important part of me is fed. Not to say I don't love venison! Or ducks, geese, swan, doves, chukars, Huns, blue grouse, quail, rabbits, etc.!
Best wishes to all this Christmas season and thank you to those who have shared so much of themselves. You are treasures!
Matthew

[oldtravler61]

   Not going to debate this subject. I hunt because I like to. I enjoy the time with family and friends. If I get a deer or whatever so be it. It seems this whole mixed up world is worrying about what someone else is doing.
  Oldtravler

[hanshi]

I've always hunted, ever since I was a kid with my BB gun.  I love it, everything about it!  I usually shoot whatever comes along and have often let deer walk on by just to prolong my time in the woods.  I was originally a professional forester; I guess that says something about me.  I've taken a few nice racks and lots and lots of does.  I often fill my freezer and donate the rest of the deer.  Back in my native Georgia we were allowed 12 per season; I came close a few times but simply hunted the season come what may.  Small game thrills me as always and I'll never stop as long as it's possible for me to get out there.

[bob in the woods]

I hunt because my wife wants the meat. She'll tell me to get out there and bring some home, and I do what I'm told