Killing a Primate is something I dont think I could bring myself to do either.

Ditto

I have mixed feelings when I take a game animal, too. I sometimes wonder why I did it and not go down to the store for my meat. Then, every fall the urge kick in and I know why I do it. I am a man and a hunter, period. It's what I do and who I am.

I am on a high when I take an animal, but not the giddy, giggling, hooting, and slap-ass high fiveing that those idiots do on the hunting shows. The turkey and whitetail shows are the worst.

Does anyone you know behave this way or is this just TV crap?

Curious.

To be honest I never even understand the morality of killing predators simply as trophies.

I have no issue with killing a problem bear, eliminating coyotes as they expand their range, hunting moutain lions in populated areas nor even with trapping for fur. But I really dont get going deep into the wild and killing cats and bears.

I let a solid VA 14 pointer walk on Saturday. I just didn't feel it at the particular moment in time... I could've had a nice trophy as well as a good amount of meat - but I just watched him meander past my stand, looking around. We locked eyes for a few beats, he snorted and just walked away...An amazing experience.

I am now, but have not always been, one who contemplates every animal and shot I take. I've got to feel it - the connection that "YES...That's the one I came for." If that feeling isn't eminating from my soul - the animal simply walks away unknowing....

Primates and other non-food related game - I care not to hunt, unless the preservation of life and/or limb is at stake.

There are baboons pretty much in every hunting area of Africa. But I've never been able to think of shooting one, even in the C.A.R. where huge "dog" baboons are common. They are fierce looking, aggressive, intelligent, live in wild country, but very wary. You seldom see them around better hunting camps. Probably slingshots, and gunfire keep them away.

Elsewhere in African parks, I've seen them snatch packages and food from unsuspecting tourists hands. Leap through car windows and escape with whatever they can grab. Occasionally. from the safety of tall trees, they will throw feces at the picture takers below them. This behavior doesn't create a lot of fondness or sympathy for them. But, I can't shoot one.

Interestng ,..very interesting.

Some number of years aggo (very late sixties) a few sentient beings killed a couple friends of mine rathet badly,.. who were at the time wearing O.D. clothing curtisy of Unlcle Sam.
They frankly at that moment seased to be sentiant anything ,..other than charlie ,. who needed killing.

That said I have seen bears in the woods and have never had a moment where i wantd to shoot one,.. don't know why either. Think I just kinda like em

Still if one attacked me or mine ,.. well ,.the story changes. in a NY second.

Thusly most of my pursute of game has been of the "ilk" with tales ,. white tails cotton tails ,bovine tail etc.

Have always done my best ( which aint bad if I do say so ) to kill quickly ,. humainly .
But there have been I admit a few exceptions which I regret and still pain me greatly.

So that said ,.every time ,.. as in every last single time ( well over one hundred times) I have taken a game animals life.
There is at once a saddness and at the same time a feeling of elaton ,.also ( I think) a silent acknowledgement ,.. respect I guess at the passng of a noble animal.
I have never been able to untangle the two.

Once or tiwce a hand shake at a good shot ,.and once slap on the back ( we were group hunting) for shooting three deer with three rounds ( with my 98 Mauser 8 x 57 all running at just under 75 yd) in about as long as it took to cycle the bolt and bring up the gun ,.. but NEVER some juvinile dissrepectfull hi 5 basketbaall court stupid assed kid stuff.

Meaning a death just accurred and that is solem stuff.
The other thing is that I have never hunted for trohy horns or anters. (Well in he US) To me its all about he hunt the meat and later the respectfull use and consumption. IE: If I couldnt eat it ,.. I for damn sure wont kill it.
Thusly a few fat does have fallen right beside a 8 or ten point buck,.. just better meat.

Also within all of us who hunt or hopefully most at least . There is way deep in the DNA ,.I believe the "kill it and drag it back to the cave so the tribe czn eat" thing going on .

But I agree wih all or most you in that celbarting death is wrong,.. more over the killing of anything for wrong reason is waaaay wrong ,..and momma karma is gonna kick you butt sooner or later for that ,..
Or as the old saying in th US goes ,. what goes arond come around,.sometime rather swiftly.

Best to all.

Those dumbasses on TV aren't hunters. They treat it like they are playing a video game. ATVs, Scent Lock, scent attractants, super camo, trail cams, shooting houses, feeders and then they woop it up like they did something and make us all look like jackasses. A simple smile and handshake is all ive ever witnessed in person.

As for looking into the fading eyes of an animal brought to bag and feeling uncomfortable... That is what makes us human. It also keeps us in touch with the real world, as the individual who can kill with no feeling would seem lacking as a sentient or moral being. Watching a gentle and loving family dog catch a young rabbit, rip it to shreads, eat it and walk away with no remorse reminds us of what the animal world is all about.

I, like most hunters at the beginning, went through a phase where limiting out was the the most important thing. Call it blood lust or competition, I was gulty. I was also proud and braggadocios, quite often leaving the tail gate down...

I was also raised on a farm where we knew our meat personally. Cows, hogs and chickens were raised for slaughter and the family dinner table. I would feed and care for these animals daily knowing their ultimate fate. I was frequently the one who would administer the coupe de gras at slaughter, the pistol or ax handed to me by one of my elders. I have also come to realize that my father and grandfather probably felt in thier middle age as now do in mine...

I still kill for the table. I kill only what we can use. I find the term "harvest" as used nowdays in reference to hunting nothing more than a politically correct denial of the facts. I find those who have no qualms in buying thier meat on a sterile styrofoam plate, but complain about me killing Bambi the most hypocritical of all.

I have no problem taking an animals life for the nourishment of my family. I have no problem with predator control when necessary, no problem with humane trapping for fur. I do have a problem with killing for horns or feathers and leaving the rest to waste.

I refer to the current rash of hunting videos as, "killing for cash." I was involved several years ago with helping the 20 something female host of a PBS affiliated hunting & fishing show document a Women Only WMA Hunt. She was ultimately successful at getting a kill (button buck) on camera. Upon returning to the check station and posing for pictures she promply got into her vehicle and left for the next assignment. Leaving her camera crew to clean up the mess so to speak.

Michael McIntosh wrote in his introduction to a book a collection of Robert Ruark's writings entitled AFRICA of "a transformation that many, though by no means all, hunters achieve, from exuberant shooter to passionate hunter to the curious state of grace in which hunting becomes an exercise of the mind and spirit."

Mr Love ,.. I would beg to differ with you on one small point.

That being the idea you at one time or another you were stupid.
Reading your "stuff" as you have put it in the past.
Leads me to believe that would be difficult position to take,. much less prove.

I do believe and agree however with Happy Mykes who put it well

After a point, many ( but not all)make the passage from "exuberant shooter",.. to that of passionate ( dare I add ) reponsibe hunter.

And,.. the idea that transsention goes to achieving a state of grace is well,..just plain intresting,.

Especially since some of my most spiritual momenst have occured in the field,.. with a rifle in my hands hunting.IE" waiting to kill.

Not certain how or when that occurs ,. but i do now know it does.
It also helps to be around people capabile of similar depth and sentiment as it were.

So the idea you are or were stupid is as i say dificult for me.

Maybe not at that juncture introspective to the extent death and time will ( not all the time but as stated ) many times allow.
Again per Mr Myles depending of course on the individule.

To close very intersting thoughts here to today ,..

Sleep well

Many of you have said it better than I am able--hunting videos are a scourge on ethical hunting. These morons dressed like commandos, their high-fiving and endless "kill shots" sicken me, and I am certainly not a squeamish sort. When I put myself in the place of a non-hunting viewer, I believe almost every hunting video I ever have seen would have created a disgust for hunting by that viewer.

As I've grown older, I find myself becoming more reflective regarding my reasons for going out into the woods to hunt. There was a time when I would grit my teeth at every deer seen and not shot at. Nowadays when I see a deer or any other quarry coming toward my stand, I find myself more focused on the wonder of seeing such a creature, and less concerned with bringing it to bag. As a result, I have stopped taking risky or bad shots, and burn way less ammo than I used to. Despite this, I usually manage to fill a tag or two every season, and enjoy all aspects of the hunt more than ever. I've dumped most of the old hunting friends who viewed the hunt as just an opportunity to kill something, and spend more time hunting solo. I guess our outlooks change as we grow up, and that's not a bad thing. While this may never change an anti's mind about what we do, it sure does sit better on my conscience

I guess I'm just different then everyone here in some ways. I'm only sixteen and I hunt deer, squirrel, and dove. I've never been the type of hunter who goes into the woods for trophies or just to shoot, I go in the woods because I like being in touch with nature more in this high tech. world and I never kill anything that I wont eat. I don't shoot at everything I see either, if its the right time then I do shoot but if I feel that its just not right then I wont shoot. That's why I hunt, because its a part of me and always have been. I remember when I was four years old putting on some coveralls and going out into the little woods in my back yard and just sitting there for hours and watching animals, at that time I never really wanted to take a gun. I saw many deer birds squirrels chipmunks and anything else you can imagine. Now that I'm older I still will do the same thing just go and sit and watch. Like I said its a part of me.
I also hate those hunting shows, I saw one yesterday where this guy was in the Artic hunting polar bears. He saw one like a mile away and sent this dogs after it then when they found his dogs they were circling the bear while it lay spread eagle on the ground and then the guy took a step back and shot it with his bow and got all excited and everything. That just made me sick. Thats not hunting thats running an animal to exhustion and then walking up to it and just shooting it.