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Thread: How do you lose the guilt of hunting?

  1. #61
    Senior Member BENESSE's Avatar
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    Default A different POV

    The way to loose the guilt of hunting is not to acquire it in the first place. Obviously you have love and empathy for animals or you wouldn't be questioning your feelings. I can relate.

    There's nothing wrong with not hunting if your life doesn't depend on it. (If it does, that's an entirely different story...cross that bridge when you come to it) You can be a good shot, feel close to nature and acquire tons of outdoorsy skills without killing animals. You can also survive and thrive without eating meat and learning about plants, insects and grubs would be a useful thing for anyone--meat eater or not.

    I happen to be a vegetarian (eat seafood not meat) because I care about animals and can't wrap my mind around killing them if I am not forced to. (health reasons are a lesser consideration, but a darn good consequence)

    I respect those who feel differently, everyone is entitled to do what they think is right for them.


  2. #62
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BENESSE View Post
    The way to loose the guilt of hunting is not to acquire it in the first place. Obviously you have love and empathy for animals or you wouldn't be questioning your feelings. I can relate.

    There's nothing wrong with not hunting if your life doesn't depend on it. (If it does, that's an entirely different story...cross that bridge when you come to it) You can be a good shot, feel close to nature and acquire tons of outdoorsy skills without killing animals. You can also survive and thrive without eating meat and learning about plants, insects and grubs would be a useful thing for anyone--meat eater or not.

    I happen to be a vegetarian (eat seafood not meat) because I care about animals and can't wrap my mind around killing them if I am not forced to. (health reasons are a lesser consideration, but a darn good consequence)

    I respect those who feel differently, everyone is entitled to do what they think is right for them.
    Well said.......
    The decision to hunt or not is not a daily survival requirement.......
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  3. #63
    Senior Member WalkingTree's Avatar
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    I feel guilty when I eat French fries. That poor potato plant.

    But not so much if I have mustard.
    The pessimist complains about the wind;
    The optimist expects it to change;
    The realist adjusts the sails.

    - William Arthur Ward

  4. #64

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    I feel guilty when I break a $100 bill. Should have saved it.

  5. #65
    Senior Member BENESSE's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by incide View Post
    I feel guilty when I break a $100 bill. Should have saved it.
    Yes you should.
    A money saved is a money earned.

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Now that is a pretty catchy phrase. A regular Benesse Franklin.

  7. #67
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Yeah, well...
    Used to be a $100 dollar bill WAS money.....there seems to be a new money......a "hunert bucks"...that gets broke all the time.
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  8. #68
    Grubbin fer food Durtyoleman's Avatar
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    How do I lose the guilt of hunting?

    BBQ sauce.

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    I cant help with your gilt trip when you kill an animal. I never had any guilt trips about killing animals (except when putting down a beloved dog. I was raised poor and road kill and the chickens we raised for eggs were my introduction to how life works and where my dinners came from. Not critiizing you, just pointing out how and why my ethics were formed. My sister and I were not allowed to make pets of the chickens. Now, my grand daughters willingly help kill, clean and can chickens and all three have taken at least one deer (ages 12 & 14).They also help can fruits and vegetables and fish. And they prefer meat we kill and fish we catch and garden produce we can, to store bought foods.
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    I read somewhere that we have dominion over the whole place and that we can use them all for food or whatever except one tree.

    We are animals. We eat or we die. Philosophy about the nature of the universe and playing nice and all that rot is for after the meal has been eaten, the dishes washed, and someone has laid in a good stock of wood for the campfire.

    Kill the animal you're hunting as quickly and humanely as possible (Nature does not hardly EVER do that) and don't waste the meat or hide if you need it.

    I don't scrape every trace of meat from the bones but I clean them pretty good. When I've got a bunch of boys in camp I throw the boned out bones on the big grill and let them do the cave man thing.

    Alan

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    Senior Member Manwithnoname's Avatar
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    Wow, this is one of the best threads I think I've seen here. I've seen a ton of great answers and can honestly relate a bit to most of them. For myself, I hunt nothing I don't plan on eating and im not interested in trophy's. Years ago I had a friend I hunted with until it became obvious his joy of the hunt was in the kill. To him a hunt was a failure unless you got your limit. Once I figured this out about him I never hunted with him again, or anything else for that matter. I never measure the success of a hunt by the kill. Some of my best most memorable hunts I never even popped a cap.

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Manwithnoname View Post
    Wow, this is one of the best threads I think I've seen here. I've seen a ton of great answers and can honestly relate a bit to most of them. For myself, I hunt nothing I don't plan on eating and im not interested in trophy's. Years ago I had a friend I hunted with until it became obvious his joy of the hunt was in the kill. To him a hunt was a failure unless you got your limit. Once I figured this out about him I never hunted with him again, or anything else for that matter. I never measure the success of a hunt by the kill. Some of my best most memorable hunts I never even popped a cap.
    Well said...
    Now as I'm getting older,....the need to take game doesn't seem so important as it once was.
    Alway was in the "Eat what you shoot" school as well...have given up a few partners(?) for that same reason.

    Mostly it's :
    Lack of hunting areas ...use to work hard on that all year.....Biggie

    Hunting partners/family ...dying off ...or just quitting....

    Used to spend a lot of time hunting alone...as I only had to answer to myself...Lately because of health reasons.....prefer taking someone with to at least dial 911

    Just the ambition to get my butte out of the sack, in a cold tent at O-dark thirty.....
    Favorite time of day....dawn in the woods...least favorite...getting up that early.

    Still go out and do still take a gun(s)...
    Use to start about the middle of Sept....and hit it hard till about the end of Jan.

    Not so much these days.

    Mostly miss the challenge, planning, gear, companionship, and just marvel at the outdoors.

    No guilt....just a decision if I want to take this game or not.
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    Me three. I've missed a lot and shot a few. A bunch I don't remember but I'll never forget the buck I watched down the barrel as it walked across a cornfield in front of me. I never pulled the trigger on him. I will never forget that sight picture. Ever.

  14. #74
    Senior Member Manwithnoname's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hunter63 View Post
    Well said...
    Now as I'm getting older,....the need to take game doesn't seem so important as it once was.
    Alway was in the "Eat what you shoot" school as well...have given up a few partners(?) for that same reason.

    Mostly it's :
    Lack of hunting areas ...use to work hard on that all year.....Biggie

    Hunting partners/family ...dying off ...or just quitting....

    Used to spend a lot of time hunting alone...as I only had to answer to myself...Lately because of health reasons.....prefer taking someone with to at least dial 911

    Just the ambition to get my butte out of the sack, in a cold tent at O-dark thirty.....
    Favorite time of day....dawn in the woods...least favorite...getting up that early.

    Still go out and do still take a gun(s)...
    Use to start about the middle of Sept....and hit it hard till about the end of Jan.

    Not so much these days.

    Mostly miss the challenge, planning, gear, companionship, and just marvel at the outdoors.

    No guilt....just a decision if I want to take this game or not.
    I can relate to all of that too. It gets harder every year to leave a warm bed for 20 someodd degrees, but once you do, it's all worth it. Yes sir, I have hunted alone now for more years than I've hunted with someone else. I do have a confession to make, however, I did aquire me a new hunting buddy a few weeks ago, a now 12 wk old lab pup. Ducks always used to be my passion. After my last lab, it just wasn't there anymore. Fast forward 15 yrs and my youngest daughter is showing me pictures of lab puppies for sale. I made the mistake of going to look. Little black Molly walked across the barn floor, sat at my feet and stared up at me until I picked her up. Game on.

  15. #75
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    LOL.......Sucker!......
    I love a good dog story...They say yu can't buy love...never brought home a dog.

    We actually went from having dogs, mostly Lab's and a couple of shepards ...sometimes 4 at a time for over 50 years....
    Until 2013.......Was a bad year....for us...

    Labor day....I lost Gunner....my 4 year old trained duck dog...Still don't know why...got something and died in 5 days.
    That was the last year I hunt serious for ducks....wasn't the same.

    December I had my heart surgery....no shot guns or big guns for a year.

    Jan. MIL passed...90's

    Feb.... Maggie the lab, BIL dog that I hunted with and was part of the family...she was blind, had skin conditions, took a lot of doctoring, But was still a 100 pound lover lap dog...Passed at 13 years...

    She was the last...we were out of dogs.....
    Problem was , no dogs to holler at...so all DW and had to holler at each other..LOL.
    It was soooo quite .

    Every once in a while you would catch a glimpse of a dog, or a shadow, out of the corner of your eye around the house....kinda spooky in a good way.

    Come March our Ducks Unlimited Dinner took place...Found out there was going to be Silver Lab pup in the auction.
    Guys were giving me a bad time about buying it..

    Dinner night arrives, and I see there was 2 pups there.......DW (she does the door raffle) grabbed one pup to play with it as she normally does.....

    Before the auction...our President called us, and the whole committee up front of the group.
    Announced that we had had a bad year so they had gotten together,.. chipped in to buy that pup.....and presented DW and I with the pup she was holding.

    We both kinda lost it.....Bella came home with us....to be the followed by Molly (springer) the following year...(yeah I buy dogs.)

    As far as sight picture and memories go....I recall most every deer, elk, antelope, turkeys, ducks and geese hunting trips, and even most pheasants and trips.
    Memories so clear that I can tell you what time of day, weather, gun I was shooting, who I was with....like reliving it in my mind,...and some time at those campfire "remember when....have a beer" evenings.

    Getting dimmer a bit...but DW say I can't remember her birthday...but can remember the trips.

    Yup, Rick...there have been a few bucks that I just sat and watched.... with a "Holy Molly, would you look at THAT!"...and watch it move off, never really giving any thought to shooting at it.
    Last edited by hunter63; 01-19-2018 at 09:41 PM.
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  16. #76
    Alaska, The Madness! 1stimestar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hunter63 View Post
    Come March our Ducks Unlimited Dinner took place...Found out there was going to be Silver Lab pup in the auction.
    Guys were giving me a bad time about buying it..

    Dinner night arrives, and I see there was 2 pups there.......DW (she does the door raffle) grabbed one pup to play with it as she normally does.....

    Before the auction...our President called us, and the whole committee up front of the group.
    Announced that we had had a bad year so they had gotten together,.. chipped in to buy that pup.....and presented DW and I with the pup she was holding.
    Oh that's such a lovely story. I am so glad for you.
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  17. #77
    Senior Member BENESSE's Avatar
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    @hunter63, well, it was meant to be.
    I am glad you love wasn't wasted on not having any pets.

  18. #78
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BENESSE View Post
    @hunter63, well, it was meant to be.
    I am glad you love wasn't wasted on not having any pets.
    LOL...They are not pets....they are "furkids"and we found out it was so hard to not have any....

    And how cool is it to have DW in attendance... not bat a eye while I'm bidding and spending a bunch of money on a dog....
    Someone says to her,.... "Well....He bought another dog"....She says...Yeah, he always does....LOL but ain't it soooo cute"
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1stimestar View Post
    Get hungry...
    Thats what I was going to say

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    Now that is what I call a "Great DU Chapter". It is something I believe my chapter would do too. I really miss not having an "over size" lap dog. Problem is: it is all I can do to take care of myself (after all the operations) and I realize I would not be able to take the dog out and give it the exercise and training it deserves and needs. Getting old isn't for sissys!!
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