Hunting!

[Freakie_frog]

Been hunting since I was 11 so 21 years now. Started dove hunting and moved up to rabbit and squirrel. Been deer for the last 15 and wild bore hunting for the last 6. I'm one of these hunters that doesn't trophy hunt, I'm a firm believer that hunting and other forms of predation build a bigger stronger herd of animals. What I am not a fan of is "high fence" hunting that's trophy shooting not hunting. Looking forward to trying to do some Mule deer, Antelope, and elk hunting in CO/WY in the next two or three years.. Oh and Pheasant.

[sissysnakes]

My dad, my uncle, my cousin and I always go out to a friends land with muzzleloaders in Nov. Cant wait for this year, its my favorite trip.. on the last day all of my uncles get together and we shoot for fun... Everyone of them is a gun collector so its awlays exciting when someone pulls out the Bren lol

[MrLang]

I'm not even going to touch that first comment, lol. Are we going to have a discussion about ignorance now? What do you understand about ecology? Are you surprised that I'm from MA and have a conflicting opinion to yours? Are you surprised to know that Massachusetts is considered the 'most educated state' as a close second behind Washington DC?

Our deer populations have been declining in the past few years due to booming Coyote populations.

I'm obviously taking an extreme position. I'd lean closer to what Freakie said though and agree that a handful of idiots have very much taken the face of the sport for all of you. Idiots like this guy:

The guy who owns the convenience store down the street from me has a coat rack of coyote hides in his store. I heard him explaining to a lady one day "you see, we can't hunt coyotes but we can kill them when they're a nuisance on our property. All those coyote were eating all my dear on my land, so I had to deal with them." These hides are next to about 10x 10+ point white tail racks.

[MrLang]

uniformed opinion

Oh wait, we do agree. Fair enough... I misread the first time.

from Mass**** - shocker...

This was a crack at Romney? We agree again!

[Highline Reptiles South]

You know - oddly enough i know Mass well - i lived in Boston for many years. Got my undergraduate and graduate degrees there. You remind me a lot of my time there.

You have come on a thread - insult and degrade people, their traditions and hobbies - and generally be smug little person. You want to compare folks to one person at a supposed convenience store. It isn't fair, and it is certainly disrespectful.

For the record - Just some of the benefits of hunting include:

Population control - there are very little predators in my area - and most. Overpopulation is a real problem, with disease and starvation the the ultimate result.

Conservation - hunting fees and licenses have largely funded wildlife conservation efforts in North America.

Time in the woods, friendship, tradition, camaraderie, a tradition of stewardship.

Add to that adding "free range" , no hormone, low in cholesterol food to one's diet.

In GA alone - over 300,000lbs in venison taken legally through population control has been donated to the poor and hungry through GA Hunters for the Hungry charity.

_________________

I'm sure there are more but i'm watching football. Have a nice day!

[Highline Reptiles South]

Couple of my boys from last 2 years...can't wait to get back there!

[New guy]

Blacktail season in Oregon starts soon! Can't wait!

[Freakie_frog]

In GA alone - over 300,000lbs in venison taken legally through population control has been donated to the poor and hungry through GA Hunters for the Hungry charity.

A few years ago our area had a cull hunt that was over seen by the Wildlife Department, our area took 100 animals at an average of 125lbs each, the meat was processed free of charge by a local company and we donted it to area homeless and low income familys to the tune of 50lbs of meat per family we put food in the bellys of 115 familys..

One of my favorite things is the youth activitys, parterning with Big brother's - Big Sister's and offering a free weekend for Bigs and their little's to hunt or fish over 5,000 acre's of prime Mississippi timber and heartland. Getting kids out in the outdoors and teaching them that there are things to do year round that doesn't involve Xbox or Facebook is an awesome feeling..

Or getting the Wounded Warrior program to help set up a Wild Hog Hunt for a real American Hero..hunting is more about being in the outdoors than harvesting game. True hunters can look back on a hunt where they didn't even take a single animal and consider it a great hunt simply because of the time in the woods.

[olstyn]

So we're officially picking me up a nice compound bow this winter, and I'm going to start training again. I asked if we could get a bow that we could increase for later, in case I wanted to get into hunting. The lane owner said they'd hook me up for sure and get me on the right path.

I'm hoping in the next year or two, we can go out hunting. And that will be just beyond words.

I also have our hunting rifles at home, but there's just something different about bows.

My wife isn't a hunter, but she LOVES her PSE Chaos. For that matter, I enjoy shooting it (on the rare occasion she offers to let me, that is - I suppose the fact that she's barely willing to put it down means it was a success as a birthday present). It's pretty light, has a really nice natural balance in the hand, and is very easy to be accurate with. I guess the theory is that it's supposedly a "youth" bow, but the draw weight is high enough to be legal for deer, so you could certainly hunt with it if you wanted to. Were I you, I'd get the guys at the archery shop to let you try one out if they carry it, as it seems like it or something similar is what you're after.

[olstyn]

A few years ago our area had a cull hunt that was over seen by the Wildlife Department, our area took 100 animals at an average of 125lbs each, the meat was processed free of charge by a local company and we donted it to area homeless and low income familys to the tune of 50lbs of meat per family we put food in the bellys of 115 families.

How do you find out when that sort of thing is happening? I'm not currently a hunter, but I can definitely place bullets accurately with a rifle, and harvesting from nature to feed those in need is an appealing idea.