I'm a softie and 100% okay with it. I do feel bad taking the life of an animal, and that is okay and natural. I enjoy the chase, the outsmarting, the woodsmanship, and everything about bow hunting. If you enjoy killing deer, then HELL YEAH!!! if you enjoy killing other things too, not hunting related, just to end their lives, then it is valid to question your sanity, LOL! Humans have evolved and the majority of humans are so far removed from hunter gatherer days and.....yes, have become soft in the eyes of people who still enjoy the hunt and kill. It doesn't bother me that people enjoy killing deer. I personally do feel sad when I end the life of one and am not wrong for feeling that way. I honestly wish hunting was like fishing, catch and release.
I also prefer the term kill when it comes to deer hunting. Also I don't feel bad for killing animals that I hunt. I don't like the use of harvest to describe a kill. I don't feel the words mean the same thing aren't interchangeable. But at the same time I know what a hunter means when he use the term harvest. Let's play a little game and see if the words are interchangeable. Yesterday I took the kids to the orchard and we killed a bushel of apples. Last night my buddies and I harvested a 30 pack of Busch lite while sitting at the campfire. IDK. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
No you don’t, Joe… otherwise you can by a paint ball bow and arrow set and just give them a dot to see if that would have done it it were a real arrow… there you have it! Catch and release deer hunting! I agree with almost everything you posted but the quoted part… Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
I truly do! I wish I could get a hero pic with a buck and hold his antlers, then let him go! Just like I do with 98% of any fish I catch regardless of size. I've put back 7 pound large mouth bass, 20 pound Northern Pike etc....
It is a kill; a life existed before the shot, a life ended as a result of the shot. Could it be called a harvest? By strict dictionary definition, okay, it could. But to call it a harvest, at least in my mind, implies that it was farmed or some human-guided attempt at animal husbandry. I don't go into the woods for that. If I wanted to participate in farming and animal husbandry, I would join some 4-H organization. To it call it a harvest is to disrespect the life I ended and a misrepresentation of what I am doing. What I am I doing? I am going away from my home and into the animal's home environment. I scout, I plan, I wait for the right conditions, and I go to kill. That is hunting. It should be challenging. Gardening is not challenging. My five-year-old knows when it is time to pick vegetables out of the garden. He has yet to learn how to hunt and kill. The hunt is the pursuit, the kill is the culmination of the first act. The wait between the shot and the recovery is the intermission. How hard can that intermission be at times? The second act is turning the kill into the purpose of the kill: food and sustenance. Do I enjoy the kill? I enjoy a lot of things in life. I enjoy creating a plan, doing the prep work, and seeing the plan become reality. I enjoy seeing my hard work rewarded. Is there a sense of satisfaction in a job well done? Do I experience an emotional high, an adrenaline rush? Sometimes. But, do I do it for that emotional ride? No. Because that emotional high doesn't always happen. Sometimes the plan works so well, that the kill is anticlimactic. Does it make me a monster if I feel joy in a kill? Does it make me inhumane if I feel something less? I never feel nothing. But, do I make emotions the primary factor in why I hunt? NO! Why do I hunt? Deer tastes better than beef and I can't buy deer at the store.
I am shocked how many people on a hunting forum are conflicted with the act of hunting. The kill isn’t everything, it’s the only thing that makes us hunters. You could do everything else we do-scout, plant food-plots, run trail cameras…..and the list goes on. If the goal isn’t to kill an animal, you can’t call it hunting. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with being a non-consumptive user of wildlife, but it is not hunting. If you don’t enjoy killing animals, or you are so conflicted that you can’t bring yourself to say you enjoy killing, don’t do it. There is virtually no reason to kill an animal if you don’t enjoy it. Food- most of us could buy an entire cow for the less than we spend on hunting. Population control- only a valid argument if you do your best to fill all your doe tags and don’t participate in activities that limit hunting opportunities. Belonging to a lease is one of the worst examples of hunters limiting other hunters opportunities. Anyone over 40 who grew up in the country can probably remember when being denied permission to hunt private property was a rarity. Everything changed when there was money to be made. Before anyone gets too mad, I belong to a lease and my property is posted. I’m greedy and it is what it is. At least I will own it. I have access to better hunting because of these practices, but it reduces someone else’s access. I can live with that. I try to spend my free time doing things that I whole heartedly enjoy, even feel passionate about. If killing bothers you buy a camera…I suspect access to private land would be much easier to obtain. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
LoL I absolutely love sending an arrow through two cervid lungs, the mere act of not using the precise description of it that you feel I need to doesn’t mean I need to stop hunting Good luck this year killing, harvesting, savagely murdering or exterminating the deer! Call it what you want, I hope you’re successful.
Thanks! And I will…I try not to savagely murder them though…meat loss is too much. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
@tynimiller …. Check out Bowhunt4abuck’s scorecard entry… this breaks every single one of your rules and a few more
I probably read this somewhere, so I don’t pretend for it to be an original thought. I don’t hunt to kill animals, I kill animals in order to hunt. For me it’s just part of it, there can’t be one without the other. It’s always my end goal to kill an animal. I don’t take it lightly nor does it overly weight on me.
