https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2hD1D5d3W0

More than a few members of TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia are dead set against “trophy hunting.” Personally, I’m OK with it. For one thing, we homo sapiens spent a million years fighting our way to the top of the food chain. We didn’t do it by growing turnips. Do you think other animals would worry about morality if they’d become the alpha of alpha predators? For another thing, the money spent on “sport” or “trophy” hunting goes to natural and wildlife conservation. Lastly, hunting inspired this guy’s video, which is just begging for some serious songification. (Condolences on the cat, ‘bro.) Why do you hunt? Be honest. And is there anyone in the Austin area who wants to help this blogger break his hunting cherry?

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101 COMMENTS

  1. I don’t hunt personally but have no problem with those that do so responsibly.

    Re asteroids … If we get wiped out at this point it’s our own bleedin’ fault. Just MHO.

    • I feel the same way. Hunting doesn’t bother me one bit. I just don’t do it myself.

      Even if it did bother me I wouldn’t be calling for it to be banned. It’s very easy for fair weather patriots to pay lip service to liberty when discussing the practices, lifestyles and beliefs that they align with. Supporting liberty for real means supporting it for people are different from you, even if you disagree with their choices, lifestyles, practices, beliefs, creeds, etc.

      I believe the left calls it “tolerance.” Laughably so… as if they even know the meaning of the word.

      Your typical person who calls for the “banning” of anything is a worthless f*cking twat whose value to society would have been greater if their conception started and ended as a bl0wjob.

  2. Mostly because Chukar and Quail taste good. A large part of it though is that I enjoy the challenge of hunting in general, whether it’s upland game birds, waterfowl, or even coyote.

      • Personally, I prefer coyote that’s been blown up by defective dynamite, served by launching it onto my plate with a gigantic ACME slingshot.

  3. I hunt because I like meat, and I think as a carnivore you should be on both ends of the process to fully understand it. I also hunt to keep in touch with my primitive nature, not to lose it to domestication. I also love the thrill of the chase, the skill involved, trying to catch one. I also like setting snares on my land. Besides, squirrel, rabbit, deer and pigeon just taste gooooood!

    • I was totally on board until you said pigeon. Ive had all sorts of game birds but never really though pigeon fit into that class. Interesting.

      • Scotland is filled with the flying vermin, they’re easy pickings. I usually use them with other flavours, like especially pigeon pie. The breasts are great, but I don’t eat them as they are.
        I honestly thought pigeon was hunted in America, too. Guess I’m learning today, too. In Scotland you don’t even need to leave the house. Put a bunch of bread out and they will flock to it. I use a little simple recurve crossbow and pick them off from the patio doors. They’re also brazen little fellows, you can get within five metres of one.
        Hope this helps you!

        • I have seen a few people eating pigeon on some of those Alaska TV shows but normally they are concentrated in the city, where shooting anything is a big no no. Not to say you couldnt get the ol “squirrel assassin” pellet rifle out and harvest you a few.

          I kind of skipped over the fact your name was both a geographical locator and a joke 🙂

      • Squab has been on the menu for centuries, and not just overseas. Stuff that puppy with rice and you have a SERIOUSLY tasty dish. Beats the tar out of Cornish game hens.

      • You don’t eat pigeons that have been living off garbage in the cities, you eat the pigeons out in the country that are fat on corn. Meat’s not that great, kind of like salty venison – very dark meat. But you can hunt in the middle of summer and they make for some good target practice.

        • TaylorTX- The pun was a spur of the minute thing, just thought I’d have a smart-ass way of saying I’m not an American (But I want to be one).
          Gov. Le Petomane- Where I live is in a quiet suburb, and I have a forest feet from my back garden. Most of the pigeon come from in there. I generally use the crossbow to give them the silent treatment (See what I did there…).
          I think rabbit is awfully salty meat, but I’m not sure about pigeon. I’ll have to try it on it’s own sometime.

  4. I’m a fan of hunting for food. I’m not in to trophy hunting as it does nothing for me. Clean meat from animals who ate their natural diet is preferable to animals who were fed old gummy bears and we’re filled full of antibiotics to keep them alive long enough to make a few bucks more at a feed lot.

    • That’s just about how I feel on the issue. I don’t hunt anything that I don’t intend to eat. If someone wants to trophy hunt, more power to them, but I won’t ever do it.

  5. I don’t trophy hunt. Couldn’t care less about size of rack on a deer or elk, as long as it’s legal.

    Why do I hunt?

    – it’s a tradition that runs in my family
    – the meat tastes great and of course is 100% organic – however hunting is NOT a way to save money on meat, unless you can shoot a buck/doe right on your own property. I grew up eating 90% venison, with very little store-bought beef in my diet, and fortunately I married a woman that loves venison as well.
    – it helps keep wild game populations healthy, as in many cases natural predators have been wiped out or over-managed by the state, allowing deer/elk populations to grow to the point of starvation in winter time when the populations overwhelm the available food sources.
    – depending on where you hunt, it can be very physically demanding and a test of your abilities. here in the mountain states, a lot of the good hunting lands require you to be in good shape. there are many places that aren’t even possible to reach by ATV.
    – nothing can compare with the relaxation/enjoyment of hunting camp
    – especially if hunting in rugged territory, it keeps your outdoorsmanship skills well-honed, especially if going on multi-day hunts on foot.

    above all else, if you’ve been hunting long enough, it just feels right. some people have and enjoy the natural desire to hunt. it’s not something that’s escaped the human gene pool, no matter how much animal rights advocates would have you believe. for some of us, it’s in our blood, and you don’t know it until you’ve experienced it.

  6. I have no problem with hunting for food. In fact, I’d like to learn to hunt, but I don’t know any one to teach me.

    I also don’t have a problem with people enjoying the hunt. We are all still predatory animals, after all.

    I have a problem with people who hunt just to kill something rare. That’s bloodlust and I don’t truck with.

  7. I have not hunted yet due to a very travel heavy profession that had prevented me from taking the requisite hunter safety course, but I plan to. Partly to see if it is for me, Which also why I bought me first pistol. Partly because animal rights arguments ring hollow to me. Either animals are our equals in which case they are every bit as guilty of murder as a human is for killing and eating another animal, not knowing better is no excuse; or they are incapable of knowing better, which means humans are a higher being and there are no moral problems intrinsic to the act of hunting.

    Besides, any excuse to lace up my boots and head away from concrete is welcome, whether it’s a rifle or a camera in hand.

  8. I don’t hunt. I love animals and couldn’t bring myself to kill one that wasn’t hurting me. Somewhat hypocritically though, I do eat meat…

    I don’t hate on people that hunt, but I do find the joy that so many of them get out of killing something for no real reason to be somewhat disturbing.

    • Well the answer to that is, the fact that we’re human. We’re predators, we’re hunters, we’re killers. All of us. Every single one of us has the capability, to hunt, stalk, trap, kill, anything. Even each other. Its evolution, its the actual, real world. We’re the apex predator on this planet for a reason. We enjoy killing. And we’re good at it. If we didn’t, then the world wouldn’t have so much killing in it. That part in us is still very much alive, and shouldn’t be ignored, or feared as much as people fear it. Its really not that bad of a thing, its how we work, its how the world works.

    • So my only question to you is: Are you aware of what happens to animal populations when hunting isn’t permitted? Most often you lose larger numbers of animals due to disease, over population, and lack of adequate resources. Also, you can typically see animals that are more prone to sickness due to the fact that most of the time animals are taken, it is the ones that have not learned to survive as well as some of their herd. Survival of the fittest has some relevance in that.

      I personally think it is crueler to leave herds to disease and starvation than to hunt them.

      Please don’t misunderstand, I am not hating on you, just offering a different perspective.

  9. I love to hunt because its fun, and because hunted meat is the best meat there is. Gives me a chance to tromp around out in the woods with my gun. Love it. Give me some real deal wild grown Venison or wild boar meat, mmmm. Best food in the world.

    • No question. My family have swapped out (For the most part) pork sausages for wild boar that we buy off the local butcher, an avid hunter himself. Venison is the healthiest, leanest meat ever.

  10. Why do I hunt?
    For me, it’s a passion. If I’m not hunting, I’m thinking about hunting.
    Whether I’m hunting turkey and morel mushrooms next weekend, or planes game in Africa.
    Bear in Alaska, elk in the coast range of Oregon.
    Chukar along the snake river.

    I enjoy the camaraderie of fellow hunters. The campfire stories. Meeting new people who share the passion.
    Introducing new hunters to the hunt.

    I enjoy processing the game. Preparing it in proper cuts and portions, to be seal-a-mealed for the freezer with anticipation of old recipes for some, new recipes for others.

    My freezer currently has the following in it from hunter/gatherer activities;
    Chinook and silver salmon. Halibut. Catfish, crappie and walleye. Some of the finest tuna steaks to be had.
    Deer and elk.
    Steaks, loins, backstrap, roasts, and ground.
    Chukar and pheasant.

    In my pantry is morel, chanterelle, and angel wing mushrooms. Along with several cases of canned tuna.

    All of this protein, has no additives. No hormones, no antibiotics, nothing.

    I hunt, (and fish), for the exercise, the friendships, the food and the adventure.

    Tomorrow, I may hunt for revenge.
    The neighborhood deer raided my strawberry patch, decimating it. I’m between bummed and pissed.
    Time to set the Mathews by the front door with a broad head ready to launch.

    • Yes, hunting for revenge, is by the far the best. Deer/hogs/raccoons get into your garden or whatever you have, and then go out and snag that critter. That’s the best tasting meat there is.

  13. Whether you enjoy hunting or completely disapprove of it, the fact of life is we, as a society, must kill animals to maintain their population and our own.

    It’s called nuisance hunting or a nuisance hunting license. The animals humans typically eat are vegetation eating creators, to include the crops we grow for food.

    When wild animals are over populated they quickly run out of natural resource, thus must go in search of food, and our crops are easy pickings.

    Even if the entire world turned vegan tomorrow, farmers, ranchers, and local food growers would still have to nuisance hunt to maintain the wild animal populations, in turn maintaining the crops.

    So, regardless of how you feel about hunting, it’s a necessary fact of human survival. We have to kill animals, might as well eat them and not be wasteful.

    I love to hunt, it’s as natural and organic as is comes.

  14. I am unpersuaded by Mr. Jay Truth’s unintentionally hilarious argument, but his video DELIVERS! How did you find this video? It has only has 343 views.

  15. I don’t have an issue with Trophy hunting or subsistence hunting. I don’t think taking a trophy is for me, but that is me.
    While it is easy for the antis to point fingers and demonize trophy hunters, there are two things they need to realize about that. One is that if here in the US most trophy hunts are predator predation really. There are a limited number of tags, and they are specific, which keeps the top predators in check population wise. Second is for places like Africa, trophy hunters pay thousands to hunt. that money goes back into maintaining endangered populations and fighting poaching etc. You don’t have to like it, but the reality is that those hunts are actually beneficial.
    Now I like hunting deer, elk etc. The meat is flavorful, and much healthier than cattle. There are antioxidants present in wild game meat which you just don’t get from domesticated animals. So hunting for meat is a health decision. Plus the camping, family and friend time. Stories around a camp fire etc are all part of tradition and something I think that is really lost on many.
    You don’t have to like hunting at all, but please, those are your opinions. Take a moment to fully comprehend both sides.

  16. i hunt for many reasons. I eat meat and prefer local humanely raised meat over the stuff grocery stores sell. killing and proccessing your own meat makes you apreciate it so much more than buying at the store. i really enjoy the spiratual feeling of being part of nature and feeding my family by my own hand. the work and preparation that goes into it makes the meal that much more special. i feel an odd sense of sadness, and joy combined with respect when i make the kill. there is no emotion involved wgen you buy a steak. nobody in my family hunts, but for as long as i can remember ive always wanted to and felt it was in my blood and soul to do so. i taught myself by watchin hunting shows and reading, then just did it by grabbing a gun and going to the woods. its not
    tough to get started so if you are
    thinking about doing it, find some public land and get a map of it and walk around. only vegans have any kind of legit moral outrage of hunting. anyone else isnt thinking their opinion through. it is much better to live the wild free life and be eaten than it is to be raised in a cramped lot and being forced to eat unnatural food while being pumped with hormones and antibiotics then led to slaughter.

  17. I’ve never been hunting before, but if I do, I plan to eat what I kill. I wouldn’t be one to hunt for sport, but I wouldn’t mind thinning out the hog population… from a helicopter. That sounds like too much fun.

    • Yeah, I am working on some plans like that, too. Doesn’t sound like we’re going to run out of opportunity soon.

  18. Wow, i only made through the first 2 minutes of that video. My question for this so called “animal lover”, “How much did you contribute to wildlife preservation last year? Or the year before? Or during your lifetime?” If he would do a little research and see where hunting licensing fees go, or even The Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 excise taxes on firearms and ammunition, he would find that shooting sports and hunting fund almost all of the game preservation from the last century in the U.S. What has he done, besides throw a video on you tube griping about people killing animals? With out licensing fees for hunting, I dont think there would be very much wild game left in the US. If someone feels that strongly about hunting, do they put there money where there mouth is?

  19. Funny how your entire beginning premise is hinged on evolution. The majority of scientists may believe in it, but that doesn’t make it truth. Were you there to witness it? None of us were. There are dissenters to the theory of evolution, such as several noted cellular biologists.

    • I don’t challenge peoples faith or beliefs for personal reasons (don’t bother me I won’t bother you – kinda deal), but I gotta ask: if evolution is wrong since there are no witnesses nor proof (completely ignoring all the evidence), isn’t the God theory wrong too? Since noone saw it nor is there any evidence.

      Not trying to offend – just trying to make people think. Personally I don’t find it too important how it all started nor how it’s going to end. If you are offended I apologize in advance.

      • I’ve always considered disbelief in God is just as big (if not more so) of a leap of faith as belief. None of us where there. All the fossil record really shows (IMO) is that there were a lot of animals that came and went before us. There are facts and then there are facts. It’s a fact that if you jump off the top of the Empire State Building you will have about 3 seconds to live and it’s a ‘fact’ that we all descended from monkeys, but half the people in this country don’t believe the latter and half the people who do think it all happened with a little help from a creator. Anyway, people will believe what they want to believe.

        • @Gov. William J. Le Petomane, ahhhh….the old descended from monkey argument. And fact is it? Wow. Just – wow.

        • Stop it before you start, El Mac. These arguments are to dialog what sand traps are to golf: by the time you’ve finally gotten yourself out of it, you’re so damn agitated that you can’t remember why you started playing in the first place.

          • @Lucas D., no worries…but to be sure, truth has never aggravated me. And I just like it – truth that is. So rare in today’s world.

    • There are no credible scientists who deny evolution. The only people who deny it do so on religious grounds, not scientific ones.
      Experimentation on rapidly reproducing species has shown they do develop random traits, and that beneficial traits make them more likely to reproduce, making the beneficial traits more common in later generations.
      Humans have been selectively breeding dogs for millennia now. And that one species evolved into all the breeds we have today, from the chihuahua to the mastiff, because humans would kill the ones with undesirable traits (e.g. aggressiveness) and breed the ones with desirable traits (e.g. loyalty and intelligence). Selective breeding is effectively the same process as evolution, but instead of mother nature deciding which individuals breed and which die, humans did.

      • I really enjoyed the part on dog breeding that was featured in Cosmos a few episodes in.

      • And yet they are all dogs. Logistics aside, a chihuahua and a mastiff can still mate and produce fertile offspring. Man has yet to create a new species. We have only explored the variety possible within one species.

        • As an addition to Gov. Petomane’s post I have friends who had a dog that was a cross between a Rottweiler and a Dachshund and the Dachshund had the puppies! Weird looking dog.

        • JM,

          How long does it take before the DNA is no longer compatible? We’ve been actively pushing this for thousands of years and we aren’t there yet. How do we know that it’s even possible? We don’t. Man has never succeeded in creating a new species.

          Darwin looked at dogs as evidence of his theory, but when he laid out his theory he didn’t conclude that animals interbred to create the variety of species we have today. He concluded that random genetic mutations changed species. From our limited observations, genetic mutations are almost always bad and severely inhibit a species chances for survival. The odds of a mutation being both beneficial and inheritable are one in a trillion (or worse). I look at dogs in a completely different light that Darwin could not have considered. Darwin expected the fossil record to back up his theory. But I say had dogs become extinct a million years ago, if a paleontologist dug up a chihuahua fossil and a mastiff fossil he would proudly declare them two distinct species and he’d be hailed by his peers. But he and his peers would be dead wrong. In light of that I have to question what else they might be wrong about.

          I mentioned above that people believe what they want to believe. You claim that no ‘credible’ scientists deny evolution, but you only say this because the ones who do are not in your opinion credible. It’s a self fulfilling prophesy. If you look at this with an open mind you’ll find that we have no idea how the universe got to be the way it is because we haven’t been able to replicate anything, and until we can we won’t know anything. Which sums up my issue with atheistic evolution – arrogance.

          • @Gov. William J. Le Petomane, “Which sums up my issue with atheistic evolution – arrogance.”

            Well said!

  20. I was planning to go hunting animals and sh1t, but after watching that video, I had to ax myself, “What if the animals was hunting me and sh1t? What if an animal was pointing they guns at me and sh1t?”

    What if and sh1t, indeed.

  21. Why?

    I’m a proud member of the other PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals), recently added a wonderful bit of wild hog to my freezer, shared some with neighbors and friends.

    Moreover, as in the OP, humans are at the top of the food chain. That’s how we roll. I like to make my own sausage thank you, not just run to the grocery store for some.

    • I looked on the youtube page for this video, but couldn’t find anything about his diet. Something makes me think the guy drinking the trophy big gulp is not a vegan, but I’d be interested to know for sure.

      Any carnivore must either be a hunter, a non-hunter okay with the concept of hunting, or a hypocrite.

  22. I hunt because it’s fun and because it puts food on the table. I do not snare (I think it’s cruel), or hunt just for trophy’s, I think it’s just wrong to not eat what you kill. Now before a bunch of you go off on me about “Well we do eat what we kill”, That’s great, but a lot don’t.

  23. I’ve just gotta echo what Tom in Oregon stated. And I must add that bow hunters are a beer unto themselves.

    I’m looking at getting a Barnett Ghost 410 crossbow. That might just might be my next deer “rifle.”

    • I keep eyeing crossbows.
      The only reason I don’t have one yet is that you can’t legally hunt with them here.
      I do have a couple recurves and a few compound bows though.

  24. For the record I only made it through 33 seconds of that video before losing interest in anything this guy has to say. Maybe I missed the part where he shows his understanding of the predator/prey relationship, but I doubt it. This is it in a nutshell, some animals are born to eat and others to be eaten. Predators have forward looking eyes to focus on their prey and have teeth (or beaks) better suited to eating flesh than vegetation. Prey have sideways looking eyes for better peripheral vision and lack the canine teeth needed to shred meat.

    At issue here is what happens to the prey when one species of predator muscles out the competition and then stops hunting. What happens is that the prey overpopulate and if left unchecked their population will grow until disease and starvation crash the population. In his mind he feels sorry for poor little Bambi with her big brown sideways looking eyes, but he’s never thought about what it’s like to be a poor little fawn dying of starvation. Or mange, which is like leprosy. Your flesh rots and falls off, hardly a good way to go. There must be a balance and we’re the ones with the forward looking eyes. For that matter I’m not sure being chased by a pack of wolves for miles before dropping from exhaustion and getting your throat ripped out by vicious dogs is all that much more pleasant than a 30-06 round to the heart.

    • That’s ok, I didn’t watch the video at all. When the first frame of a video is someone sneering at me like he wants to take my head off, I don’t much care for what they have to say.

  25. I am not a trophy hunter per se. I do have a few trophies, but as my age came on, I hunt now to keep up the proficiency and also to provide some meat for my family or others. I am not motivated by what size or how it will look on the wall, though I have no trouble with those who do. They are more determined and willing to take more risks than I.

  26. I recently took the WA hunter education class online portion and will schedule my in person portion when I can find something that fits.
    I was going to ask this at the in person class, but I’ll ask TTAG’s hunters as well: how can I find experienced hunter(s) willing to show a rookie or two the ropes?

    • the only thing i can suggest other than friends or family, is try checking into hunting clubs in your area. See if one feels right and keep checking them out until one does. I was lucky myself because there was always someone around (from age 10 on) that did hunt.

  27. Why are we even talking about this??? This video is not new. This video is over 2 YEARS OLD (Published on Oct 15, 2012). Let’s not make a fuss about old things, he’s probably moved on to other things by now, there is no reason to drag this up again other than wanting to Troll.

  28. I hunt cause I enjoy being in the woods. Nit sure about the oerson that sats it doesn’t save money on meat. I know it saves me money, the deer, hog, elk, rabbit, squirrel, turkey, duck and various fish in my freezer help keep $$ in my pocket. If I want cow or chicken a offer to trade can cause a line to form especially if I mention bear. I process all my game so no $$ spent that way. In the end there’s just something about being in the woods that just gives me peace. Now if only I didn’t live in an apartment so I could tan hides…

  29. Sorry, I don’t understand ebonics. Yet another reason we should have an English only requirement to be allowed to vote.

  30. I don’t hunt, but that’s mainly because the white tails here in Arkansas taste like crap. When I was still in eastern Washington, though… mmmmm, mmmm, mmmm, mule deer and elk venison FtW!

  31. I don’t hunt because I don’t have to and it doesn’t interest me.
    I don’t knock anyone else doing it though if it is your passion do it.

  32. I’m from a small town in SW Missouri. We have a really big family and all the men hunt and most farm. I enjoy hunting and being outdoors immensely. We all hunt together during deer season and process kills together leaving no scrap of meat to waste. We make steaks and burger mostly. Very little sausage and jerky. For the cost of a 20 dollar tag, ammunition and weeks worth of time we fill our freezers and have meat to supplement grocery store buys for months. I hunt for both the sake of hunting and for the meat.

  33. I hunt for sustenance, despite the fact that there’s a Food Lion literally just a mile away. Hardly anything compares to lean, fresh game meat like venison or wild hog (though I definitely prefer the former over the latter).

    Any meat I have left over after processing that can’t fit in somebody’s freezer always goes to a soup kitchen. It’s usually a lot, too, and we hunt more than we need for that purpose. An awful lot of meat is donated every year that way, actually — on the order of 250,000,000 pounds, in fact, last I heard.

  35. I hunt out of respect for the challenges our ancestors faced. I hunt to get in touch with nature and that primitive heritage and mostly I hunt because I can and at some instinctual level its just what I want to do.

  36. I learned to hunt because you never know when you might need to do it to survive. I don’t hunt because I don’t much enjoy killing animals, myself, and prefer purchase meat at the market when possible.

    • Worth it all alone for this…;-)

      I hunt for exercise, an excuse to go for a hike with a rifle on my shoulder,
      that gives me a spiritual connection to the outdoors that goes beyond just being out in it,
      which is worth it all by itself,

      but which becomes so much more meaningful when you see the signs of your prey,
      for what hunter has not felt that thrill, that deep undercurrent that raises the hair on the back of my neck just writing about it, for the chase, the kill, and finally, the meat.

  39. Most animas don’t kill just for the fun of it; I’ll not say that none do, but most don’t. I’ve sharp teeth, I’m comfortable with that and I use ’em on what I hunt.

    I generally do not approve of trophy hunting, because I dislike the whole “See? I killed I this with machines others invented and provided beause I have lots of money! Aren’t I heap man?'” scene.

    That said, morality doesn’t come into it save endangered species and poaching – at least by my lights. The only good poacher or “kill ’em all before the Rapture ends hunting” plonker is a dead’n.

    By the way, in part we are on top precisely because we do plant stuff. Lots of stuff.

  40. I hunt because its fun – I enjoy the company of old friends who have made a tradition of an Upper Michigan deer camp for over 25 years. (The camp itself is over 50 years old but I’ve been a part of it for 25). We eat well and laugh and respect each other. We play cards and enjoy a beer or a drop of good whiskey when the day is done.

    I’ve shot a white tail or two in my day and its ended up on the table as it should. These days I tend to let more deer walk by me than I shoot because if you shoot one you have to do something with it and that ‘something” is bloody and labor intensive and I’m getting a little old for all of that work.

    Hunting gives me a chance to get into the woods. My wife and I get a break from each other – we’ve been married for 38 years and love each other deeply but two weeks away are good for us both. Deer season gives me something to talk about and look forward to. Hunting is friendship and tradition and fun.

  41. I hunt for multiple reasons:
    (1) It provides outstanding quality meat at a very low price.
    (2) Hunters replace natural predators to keep prey animal populations in check.
    (3) It is an important survival skill if society ever goes to Hell in a hand basket.

    Hunting also improves your self-defense skills in multiple ways:
    (1) You learn to move quietly in the woods while maintaining awareness of your surroundings.
    (2) You learn to keep your “head on a swivel”.
    (3) You learn how to deal with an adrenalin dump and still put an accurate shot on target.

  42. Haven’t hunted for some time, Used to hunt quail and rabbits, drew a bead on “Thumper” once.
    Too many medical problems to hunt now. If I could, I wouldn’t shoot anything for sport, unless it was a predatory animal and the herd needed thinning. Also animals that create havoc with farmers fields etc.

    Watched a program last night on Brown Bear hunting on Kodiak Island. The guides said if they didn’t thin the bear population, the older bigger bears would kill the smaller younger bears so they wouldn’t cut down on the available food.

  43. I am fairly new to hunting, but I hunt for the damn good meat that game animals yield. I also do it for the fun and experience. The first time I sat out and watched the sun rise with my rifle in hand was the best experience I’ve ever had.

  45. I’ve never hunted, nor do I have the skills or equipment needed to do so. I don’t fish either, even though I live in an area with pristine wild trout streams and salmon rivers. My father was born and raised in backwoods Pennsylvania, but being a workaholic who didn’t take vacations, we never hunted, camped, fished hiked, nothing. And now I am too broken down to manage it on my own. On top of which, being in a tourist area, the camp grounds are just too busy and too noisy to be of any pleasure at all–I’ve driven through state camps, but never stopped.
    My brother has hunted deer a few times, but he prefers to hunt pheasant.

  46. I hunt because it helps the environment. Although environmentalists have a massive bout of cognitive dissonance over this, the destruction of non-native feral animals lessens the harm on the land and helps the native animals which are often the prey of the ferals.

    No shortage of game in my part of the world. Pigs, Goats, Foxes, Rabbits, and Cats. No limit and the season is permanently open. Unfortunately “enlightened” legislation and bureaucratic ineptitude have caused the numbers of the feral animals to increase rapidly.

    • As a card-carrying environmentalist, I can tell you that not all of us suffer any cognitive impairment with reard to hunting.

      Some of us know precisely why we have sharp teeth.

      Enjoy.

  47. For one thing, we homo sapiens spent a million years fighting our way to the top of the food chain. We didn’t do it by growing turnips.

    Don’t try telling that to the Scots (hello, Great Scot). Digging neaps and tatties is right up there with reiving cattle as a Scottish tradition.

  48. For that connection to the food chain, a time when life was simpler, yet just as fulfilling, to experience the end and the beginning, to know that I can do for myself, and for the good food. Maybe it is because I came to hunting at such a later stage in life (I was 32 the first time I got my deer tags), but I find hunting very spiritually fulfilling.

  49. I don’t hunt. I went once and it wasn’t fun. I have NOTHING against hunting for food. I admit trophy hunting is something I don’t approve of but each to his own. What I DO wish is HUNTERS en mass would get on board with the 2A fight. How about 30 million NRA members or huge membership in other pro-gun groups?

  50. The problem with trophy hunting is those who engage in the trade of it succumb to greed unless a private or government organization intervenes. While I disagree with the practise if people are capable of engaging in it responsibly then they should be able to since controlled hunts do benefit the entire area they take place in. Poaching on the other than is commercialized trophy hunting and has clear, destructive impacts.

  52. I hunt because I enjoy the nights at deer camp, getting in touch with nature, time for reflection on life in the still of the woods and seeing big boy in my sights and the dance on trying to get him in my sites. Haven’t shot anything in years. I’ll put you in a stand in Central East Texas.

  53. I’m not much of a trophy hunter when it comes to deer. Mainly because I love to eat deer and I know the doe is going to taste better. However, if a monster Buck runs out, I’ll take that for my wall.

    My predator hunting is about 2 things. Supporting my deer herd and Trophies. No doubt on this one. I take a tail on every bobcat, coyote, and fox that I kill. However, I really suck at predator hunting,.. I can’t call for squat. Its all hanging around wait for that chance moment.

  54. “Welcome to YouTube, may I take your order?”

    “Yes, may I have an order of nonsensical bullshit with a side of fact less race argument?”

    “Please pull up to the first window”

  55. Hunting and trapping are population control, means to put food on the table and supply an income, and a way to get out into the out of doors.
    Until you have gone hunting, you will never understand it, and not every hunter really understands hunting. Some just go whack an animal, others get drunk. A few of us actually walk with nature and family while we are out hunting.
    Even leg hold traps do not cause the damage that is attributed if used properly and checked within a 12 to 24 hour basis.
    Observe a bear, wolf, or other predator hunt and eat. Observe a hawk kill a rabbit. That rabbit isn’t screaming for 10 minutes because he’s enjoying the piercing talons or the sharp beak tearing at him. Humans on a whole are more humane to the target animal.
    It has already been proven wolves spree kill, but don’t even think they have a guilty conscious about it.
    As for trophy hunting, meh, in proper context I see no problem with it. In Africa the trophy hunts serve to control problem animals and support the conservation efforts. Hunting here in the United States supplies more money to conservation efforts than any other funding source.
    And if you are eating meat, then don’t transfer your guilt to me. I know more about the animal I killed for a meal then you know about that slab of meat in your fridge right now.
    To my fellow outdoorspeople: “Whack it and stack it, Brothers and Sisters” and keep building the family traditions.

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