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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,142 Likes: 371
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 3,142 Likes: 371 |
Last edited by John Roberts; 12/01/20 01:07 AM.
Be strong, be of good courage. God bless America, long live the Republic.
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 352 Likes: 2
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 352 Likes: 2 |
JR,
Interesting article, and it does hit home, doesn't it?
I am 67 and I have been an ardent hunter since childhood. But I find that my desire to kill is rapidly diminishing. I still enjoy hunting, but I find myself increasingly reluctant to pull the trigger, on game both large and small.
Nice to know that I am not alone.
Thanks for posting it.
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,798 Likes: 567
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 7,798 Likes: 567 |
I still hunt for pleasure. I no longer care how many I shoot and do not consider that a measure of success. I do often just go to be with my son or a friend, to build a memory for them, or myself. When I was duck hunting last week by myself I had a mallard hen land in the decoys and enjoyed her company for several minutes. She left without me making a sound. It was a nice visit. Had she been a black duck or better yet a canvasback we might have had a different outcome. Or at least a louder one.
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 2,042 Likes: 27
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 2,042 Likes: 27 |
Due to rotator cuff surgery, I haven't hunted this fall, and I haven't really missed it all that much. The F&S piece says a lot for many of us at our age. What I do miss, as much due to the plague as to my shoulder, is seeing the landscape this time of year.Looking back, I see that " being out there",for me, turns out to have been the main point all along.
Bill Ferguson
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Joined: Feb 2019
Posts: 319 Likes: 76
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2019
Posts: 319 Likes: 76 |
Never! Same for work, I'll stop farming and working cattle when I can't crawl into the tractor cab or grip a brand. I'll keep hunting and shooting after that.....
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 15,457 Likes: 88
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 15,457 Likes: 88 |
The hunt isn't a hunt without the kill...
Unsuccessful hunters have been taught by liberal thinkers how it's more about the hunt than the kill...that is all bull hockey.
I lust to put my foot on a gobblers neck....
I'm not happy with a participation trophy.
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Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 8,158 Likes: 114 |
Robert Ruark once said: "Sometimes, a man comes to discover that the greatest pleasure of owning a gun is also discovering the greater pleasure of not always using it".. 50th Anniv. of Field & Stream had a great piece involving duck hunting by Ted Trueblood- "Other Values" I hunt just to be out and immerse myself in the greatness of Nature (something found in the old Swedish Lutheran Hymn: "How Great Thou Art"-- enjoying the company of my aging Black Lab, "Rommel"- and holding a well-worn Winchester or Browning shotgun- memories, and as I am 1 click away from 80, thanking the Good Lord for each and every day I get outdoors, and get back home safe & sound- empty bag and unfired shells in my coat pocket- The shotgun du jour goes back into the cabinet in my basement gun room-man cave, and later, I sleep the sleep of blessed- Covid free, debt free, ready for the next AM-- RWTF
"The field is the touchstone of the man"..
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 458 Likes: 21
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 458 Likes: 21 |
I still pull the trigger, just more selective on big game. On upland game, real stuff like grouse and woodcock, they are still a challenge so no difference. Game farm stuff is definitely less exciting but good for training dogs and young hunters. For me, that's what makes that type of hunting still enjoyable.
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,056 Likes: 338
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,056 Likes: 338 |
My take on this is a little more technical. I wear a watch that records my heartbeat 24 hours a day and I can look at what my heart rate has been doing at any moment of any day, Before, during, and after any particular experience.
I also am tasked with removing whitetail deer from a set of farms Under a USDA disease control permit.
For me the uncertainty of a point, flush, and shot Raises my heart rate. I can glow for a few minutes. Feel alive as it were.
Shooting whitetail deer doesn't do anything. There is a rise of 5-10 bpm for the duration of the shooting. That's it. It's just a job. I have 3 spots I can choose to hit, and that's it.
I'm pretty sure in older males declining testosterone impacts the desire to hunt and kill.
Out there doing it best I can.
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 7,561 Likes: 249
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 7,561 Likes: 249 |
From some time in my early twenties when I started getting my own dogs, I knew it was just for being there. I knew I could go to a grocery store for food. If my dogs were working well, I enjoy another hunter moving in for a flush.
The original article really lost it for me when it mentioned historical stories of hunger and food. If someone can sit back and admire the scenery, they just aren't hungry. If food is the truth about it, there is no question, but I have very rarely seen it.
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