My problem with anti-hunting people

I have no problem with people who hunt and fish ethically, legally, and humanely.

I don't hunt but I'm glad you do. Your license fees and sporting goods taxes pays for a great deal of conservation work. You pay the game warden and for the public land. That provides protection and habitat for deer and turkey, benefiting the hunter, but it aslso provides protection for lizards and song birds. Thank you.

God bless Texas

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Well, I have 3 bird dogs & hunt quail & have never hunted deer or any animal w/ 4 legs & I actually get more enjoyment watching the dogs than I do shooting the quail but, if you haven't had quail, they're delicious.
I shoot dove over a plowed field & don't consider that as "baiting" or a canned hunt.
I do agree that killing deer over a feeder or in a fenced off acreage is probably not the most sporting thing to do (especially the fenced in part) but to each his own.
Any bow hunting is fair game regardless of situation & you would agree if you actually shot a bow.

Genesis 1:28 and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

eh',... if it's ok w/ God then probably shouldn't think much about what some dude who doesn't have the instinct thinks about it.
 
I am a full time ranch hand on an exotic game hunting ranch in central Texas. I started to reply to this post last night, decided against it ,and probably shouldn't have re-visited it today because some of the comments have really annoyed me.

1) I have no problem with vegans / vegetarians who practice what they preach. I respect them for living a lifestyle they believe in.
2) If you are against hunting and you consume meat you deserve no voice in the thread, you have no credibility, and I have zero respect for you.
3) I believe that if you are not willing to pull the trigger & wade through the guts and gore of what you have done then you shouldn't eat meat. That doesn't mean you have to be 'hunter' but you need to honestly be willing to do it if it came down to it.
4) People who have never hunted do not get to define what hunting is. You have no basis & only opinions that you try to impose on other people in an arena you know nothing about.

On blind hunting...

There is far more that goes into blind hunting than just 'showing up' and bagging a deer. This has been covered already and without a doubt for every hour spent in the blind there were many more that were spent in some phase of preparation or the continued maintenance of it. I do this every day.

On some ranches blind hunting is the only feasible way to hunt because the brush is too thick or the deer so sparse that you need for them to congregate in an area to have a chance at getting one.

I work cattle too and I can tell you that a deer under a feeder has something a 1200lb steer in a feedlot does not. A chance.

Anyone who hunts can tell you all the ways a blind hunt can be botched. I've seen my share : the wrong wind, a creaking chair, a coughing hunter, moving too fast, a wary doe that knows something is 'up'.. you name it.

Even at a blind, the vast majority of deer a hunter encounters are not harvested. Hunting is about stewardship of the land and animals via a long-term and dignified outlook. Animals are taken or spared based on foresight, planning, and decisions that will both benefit the ranch and the herd.

I've taken many people hunting who have never been before and they all say the same thing afterwards : "Wow, that is not what I thought it would be like. I think I like it, I understand now."

On sportsmanship...

For the poster that said that hunting naked with a knife might be a better display of sportsmanship.. all I can say is be glad your ancestors didn't think that way or you wouldn't be around now to enjoy the haughty luxury of saying something so idiotic. Your ancestors hunted in ways that are outlawed now. A starving family in ancient times did not have a moral crisis at dinner time because their life-sustaining meal wasn't quite as 'fair' as a few people around the campfire thought it should be. Today, every effort is made by hunters to bring as quick and painless a death to their game as possible. I have never met a hunter who did not feel or conduct themselves that way. Personally, I let what was and remains the biggest buck I have ever encountered.. the deer of a lifetime.. get away because the only shot I had at him had too high a chance of wounding him. The vast majority of human history does not follow this trend in thinking. Our ancestors took what they could get however they could get it.


Tell me, when a lion hunts at the only watering hole for 20 miles is that poor sportsmanship? When a pack of wolves surround and kill the smallest, most defenseless, elk in the herd is that fair sportsmanship? There is no sportsmanship in nature. Sportsmanship is a modern luxury in a time of plenty, a man-made concept, just as your misguided viewpoint is.

ALL hunting is based on creating advantages / using deception that negate the natural defenses of the prey.
Predators specifically seek situations that will shift the odds in their favor. There is no level playing field. You either have an advantage or you are at a disadvantage.

We have to hunt now whether we like it or not...

Our modern lifestyle has changed the land and the life of all game animals. Cattle, sheep and goats were brought in to feed the demands of our society. To sustain this incursion of non-native species that our lifestyle requires, most of the natural predators (mountain lions, bears, wolves, coyotes,etc) that preyed upon the deer are either gone or greatly reduced. Habitats have been destroyed, cities and sprawl have expanded, and deer have multiplied unchecked on the fringes where no hunting pressure exists. Without the natural checks and balances in place, the deer populations have exploded. We must fill the roles in nature that we have eliminated. We now have a man-made problem that requires a man-made solution.

So, if you still think hunting is cruel, immoral, or un-sportsmanlike.. what would you call the travesty of suffering that gross overpopulation would create if we DIDN'T hunt?
 
El Sapo, you of all people should know that 90% of blind hunting is done by people who HAVEN'T spent one minute preparing the blind. Most people hunting in Texas do so on a lease which they don't maintain, so I don't want to hear about all of the effort which goes in to it. Maintaining the blind does have a degree of effort (more manual labor than skill), but it isn't one which the so called "hunters" have taken on. Suggesting otherwise is a load of crap and you know it.

As for the verasity of the modern hunt as compared to a traditional hunt, that too is based on a ******** presumption. While a man a +200 years ago would have gratefully used a blind, they were SUSTINANCE HUNTING. NO ONE hunts as a requirement for life anymore. It is an extravagance which is taken on, and to paint it as anything else is very disengenuous.

Finally as to how much more sporting blind hunting is compared to the beef industry. You can paint it with whatever brush you want but the fact is no one considers slaughtering cows sport. They are killed explicitly for food and no other reason. Deer are killed for "sport" as much as food. That "rush" that is described in this thread isn't about eating. This is an apples to oranges comparason.

I'm a blooded hunter, so don't give me any crap about how blind hunting is either sport or sustinance killing. Blind hunting is a ******* joke, as is hunting fowl on a seeded property. You want to kill something fine, I have no problem with that. If you want to do it in a blind, again I have no problem with that... but when these jackasses call themselves "hunters" the only valid response is to laugh.
 
seems like this has turned more into some hunters being called out as posers.

"My problem with wannabe hunters"

And for the people who are anti-hunting, I don't see anyone really against it, they just don't understand it.
 
I spent well over an hour this morning formulating a further response to this thread but after reading it several times I decided to just scrap it. For a thread I was going to skip I could, now, easily become much more embroiled as there is a lot more about this topic that I would like to say.

However, I also realized that my job gives me a more unique, or specific, perspective than some others and that my views may not represent the majority of recreational hunters. Through my eyes the distinctions between sportsmanship, 'fairness', hunting & plain slaughtering are much more blurred. To me it's an agribusiness, first, where a deer on the ground means a check for the ranch and one for the outfitter / guide.

A happy hunter means future revenue for the ranch and 'sportsmanship' means whatever the hunter wants it to mean. The hunters are the ones who define it for themselves by the manner in which they choose, or do not choose, to hunt. On the middle ground where I have to walk it is more about the bottom line, the good and the bad, than making moral cases or appraisals of those clients I work to serve.

I have seen hunts that were true chess matches of will so as to tempt even the most exaggerated of Hollywood screenplays. I've seen animals flat out slaughtered with no grace. I've met some great hunters & true outdoorsmen and I have met hunters I have had no respect for whatsoever. No matter what happens though I am obligated to smile, shake their hand, and tell them "Great Job!" regardless of my own thoughts.

There are good and bad things about hunting and I am content to leave it at that. Oh yeah, and if you're anti-hunting and you eat meat I still think you're a hypocrite.
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Great post, Sapo.

It's like some of these guys got their lunch money stolen by kids who went hunting with their dads in elementary school.

To be sure, I've seen "hunters" driving down the highway with deer strapped to the hood. I haven't seen this very often, but I have seen it. There are total ******** who hunt.

The funny thing is, probably 100% of the people on this thread would actually be able to see each others' points' of view on the issue. The mindless trigger pullers aren't represented here.

When I was in high school, I was friends with a couple of guys who took pictures of themselves mutilating deer that they had killed. It was sickening, and eventually those photos played a part in me no longer being friends with those guys.

It's surprising that these guys lump all hunters together when the ******* hunters are in such a small minority.
 
I don't have a problem with hunters, unless they are "disrespectful" to either the animal or their environment. Sitting in a blind to kill a deer or any other type of animal is just not my deal. I like to play golf. There are a lot of people who say that hitting a white ball into a hole for 4 or 5 hours is not their deal. So be it. To each his own.

What riled me about the original post is that Rico claims I am a jerkoff and and dumbass if I'm not into pouring corn on the ground and shooting a deer with a scoped rifle from a blind. Rico can bite me.
 
In reply to:

...and say crap like, "you train a deer to come to a feeder and shoot it, that's really sporty" or other forms of ridiculous crap....



This may have been addressed but how it that "ridiculous crap". Feeders are established and deer do become accustomed to feeding in that spot don't they?


Has this point been addressed?
 
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