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This article by the Ol' Curmudgeon gave me pause:

https://www.fieldandstream.com/story/hun...MoIIFzdS-1kGJtZ

JR
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.
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. smile
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.
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.....
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
This thread is very interesting to me. A week ago I was deer hunting on private property in Indiana that belongs to a close friend. I've hunted there yearly and it is a wonderful place to hunt. There are no food plots etc. it's just natural except for log blinds that we have built. Mine was redone this year and christened "Fort Mann".

I've been very successful here, my last deer was a young 10 pointer with a "kicker" technically an 11 but who's counting. I'm now after a trophy buck, one that deserves to be mounted I want nothing less.

Now that I've set the stage it was now late in the day and up to this point I had seen 12 deer, all does and I see another pair coming towards me one was a buck that looked nice but not "mister big". He stopped and looked at my blind at about 80 yards, I had him dead to rights and asked myself "do I want to do this?". I passed and let him go he'll be bigger next year. A while later my buddy Glenn showed up and said he done the same thing. To be perfectly fair I also didn't want to field dress a deer in the dark!

Doug
Originally Posted By: Doug Mann
To be perfectly fair I also didn't want to field dress a deer in the dark!
Doug

I quit deer hunting 40 years ago for this very reason.
JR
I camped out for three days at the beginning of waterfowl season in Saskatchewan.
I setup the decoys twice, but never fired a shot.
My heart really wasn't in it.
My hunting partner of 40 years passed away suddenly in September 2019.
Maybe next year.
I love to hunt and fish. I have since I was a youngster. Birds, big and small game are my prey. I guided big game hunters for 27 years. I don't have be the one pulling the trigger to enjoy the hunt. I love being outdoors hunting in any sorts of weather. I enjoy each day in the field.

When mallard hunting I don't kill hens. I love watching them as they drop into my spread. Any duck that lands in my decoys gets a free pass out from me. Part of my enjoyment is making good shots. Being selective is a fun part of my hunting.

When I hunt big game I don't have to kill something to have a great hunt. If I don't find something I really want to kill I let them pass. I hope I, or someone else, will be thrilled when that animal is in front of them at another time.

I'm not a "harvester". When I hunt, I kill things...I'm a good hunter.

"The best thing about hunting and fishing,' the Old Man said, 'is that you don't actually have to do it to enjoy it. You can go to bed every night thinking about how much fun you had twenty years ago, and it all comes back clear as moonlight."
Robert Ruark
I call it the "Off Button"...here's something I penned on this topic back in 2017...

The Off Button


The pair had come back. When mallards return to a recently rejected decoy spread they usually coast right in without circling but these aren’t mallards.

They basically circle and pull off in almost exactly the same pattern they did when they initially vetoed my presentation. I have a rule that once a duck responds to a call I need to continue calling or risk its losing interest so I let the Déjà Vu continue to play out. Two or three false approaches and they finally break the mold and cut back towards the decoys rather than away.

I grew up hearing about black mallards but this was the first time I’d ever seen them with my own eyes. The USFWS booklet I have says the hen and drake are nearly identical in plumage. True but the size difference is so noticeable that I never have any doubts about which bird to shoot. This wasn’t going to be a feet dangling over the decoys shot. It was just another pass but this time directly over me and the decoys so I take my chance. My nerves and lungs couldn’t have survived another circle anyway.

I miss clean with first shot but I don’t give the cold cloud of doubt time to form before tapping the over barrel. The angled trajectory of a single pellet cuts through the breast and out the bird’s back. There’s a lot of important stuff between the entrance and exit wounds so the bird flutters nearly straight downward finally finishing his last 10 feet of air while completely limp.

The big bird, my first black duck, was everything I’d expected it would be. I picked him up and waded to the boat for closer study. The speculums were purple just like the book. My “bird” books describe the American black duck as “burnt-toast brown”…yep. The white stripe on the trailing edge looks exactly like the early 1800’s Audubon painting. As I sat on the bow of my boat the pleasantness of a mild November morning quietly seeped in. I am done with black ducks but the overall daily bag is three so I still had two birds to go. Then, I did something that even I didn’t expect. I continued sitting on the bow of the boat not moving.

I watched a small flight of greenwings throw out the air brakes and fall loosely into my decoys. A couple tasted the water lifting their bills to drain the water back in their throats and several others stretched their wings while lifting their tiny chests into the air. Their motions are too purposeful and exaggerated to be anything other than some sort of display. The flock swims around anxiously in the decoy maze meeting up somewhere in the middle before swimming out and disappearing into grass where I had just been hiding. It would be an easy sneak along the grass line to finish up my limit but I still didn’t move.

It was a perfect moment - the outdoor equivalent of having one of my kids put their pudgy arms around my neck and lay their head on your shoulder. I’m afraid if I move it’ll break the spell so I sit perfectly still.

All the hard work and lost sleep were worth these few minutes of complete and timeless serenity. I soak in the rest of the morning without interacting with the world around me before picking-up my decoy spread and heading for home. That was the first time I ever experienced the involuntary state-of-mind that I now call “The Off Button”.

As I get older it’s easier for the events of a normal duck hunt to hit the off button. Shooting a black always does it so does shooting the second-to-the-last bird of a limit, especially on opening or closing day. A well-hunted pair of divers can do it and sometimes just killing a trusting, gullible bird does it.

Hunting with a kid can hit the off button even before things really start. The only difference is that I usually have to pretend to still be hunting to keep the youngster engaged.

As the triggers for the off button get more and more frequent I sometimes have to purposefully keep it from happening. I wait for two or three years for a draw hunt so I don’t want the off button getting hit too early in the morning. I’ve learned to psych myself up with a pre-dawn pep talk to make sure that I stay in the game until the end or risk regretting it the whole time I’m building up my next batch of preference points.

I worry, too, that The Off Button may lull me into an empty gun apathy that will cost me that goldeneye or old squaw that I’ve hunted for years.

I don’t know for sure but I suspect The Off Button is nothing but the temporary tenancy of the “Sportsman Stage” of hunting. I really like the comfortable feeling of this final stage but worry that one day I might get stuck there. Will I, then, lose the identity of being a duck hunter? Is it indicative of not just the final stage of being a hunter but the final stage of life? Every fiber of my “secular” life is driven by my being a duck hunter. I’m afraid that I will lose my personality if I relax in this bloodless state too long.

At some point, I may let myself drift permanently into the Sportsman’s stage of life but come this November, I’m all about shooting.
At 72 I still have the passion to enjoy the hunt be it birds or deer. On birds not how many but how. Enjoy hunting with a 28bore muzzle loader more for the how. A few hunting friends not so happy about this use re reloading and such. Please note that the dragging of deer in both PA and NH certainly have my sights on a deer cart in the very near future. Sure, the legs are not what they were nor is the dawn to dusk hunting what it was but I surely enjoy being out in the woods. I seem to spend more time just looking at the hills and such and enjoying those sites.
Rubberhead, I know the feeling. It's almost perfection. What I do know when it hits me is that all is right in my world.
I hope I never tire of bird hunting, nearing 60 years and still just as engaging as day one!

Never did a lot of big game hunting excepting deer. Deer are food. No real excitement to it for me. Rabbit hunting is more fun. I like to eat deer so I kill one when I can.

Being raised on a farm helps, you get your feelings detached from your food sources early on!

Chief
I can't count the times I've pointed the gun at game, or game birds, saw the sight on the vital spot or saw the right lead, then said quietly "Bang!, I gotcha", knowing that I could have just as surely pulled the trigger and taken it.

But then, the hunter in me returns and I kill again. There's no conflict within me about that. I think of hunting, and the kill, as much more than a way to gain food. It is an outward expression of the inner man that God placed within me. I was born a hunter, and I will make no apologies for it.

As I have said before here, my goal is to kill a limit of doves on my hundredth birthday, not sit there and watch them. I know full well the odds that are against that happening, but hopes and dreams are what keep me going. I can enjoy being beaten by a dove dropping into a peanut field with a 25 mph tailwind, screwing me into the ground as I try in vain to get my muzzle ahead far enough ahead. When I do fire, and miss, I will often stand there and tip my hat to the dove, with a big smile. But, if it turns and comes back by I will try with fervor to take it's life again.

It's a balancing act, and right now I'm in balance............ I think.
I'll keep on shooting game until I can't. Some old injuries are catching up to me and limiting some of the hunting venues.
My Grandfather was a fanatical wildfowler, he cut canals and dynamited pot holes on a large part of his farm on the Rock River near Ixonia, WI and built a slue to water it all out of the Rock River(I have home movies of the dynamiting). In 1956 he was in his skiff with two dogs duck hunting on the Farm and had a heart attack. One of the dogs stayed in the skiff and the other went to the farm house where his son inlaw, my Uncle Ted, was and went to find him. My Grandfather was 63 when he died in that skiff and I'm sure it came to him as a complete surprise, but he died doing what he loved.
Originally Posted By: HomelessjOe
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.


All too true.
Stan, my goal is to die in bed at thh age of 95, shot by a jealous husband!!!
Originally Posted By: Saskbooknut
I
My hunting partner of 40 years passed away suddenly in September 2019.
Maybe next year.


I know that feeling. My bird Hunting partner of 32 years died on me and it took 3 or 4 years before I was really interested at all again. I still have little interest in collecting Fox Guns anymore because of he passing. He was a Parker man and I am a Fox man. and we were always looing for that next little jewel to call the other up and talk about.

I still hunt. I just dont keep track of numbers. no score cards.
Ill shoot a buck once in a while but it is situationally dependent (weather, location, time of day, how ambitious I feel, etc. ) but that's my prerogative now. I have no moral quandry with killing. I dont proclaim my moral or ethical superiority by no killing an animal. I simply make a choice each and every time. After all, we have eyes in the font of our heads which makes us natural predators. so I am one. I just exercise my options!

and when it comes to woodcock and grouse; my attempts at killing definitely have minimal impact on the overall population, no matter how hard i try.
I too have wrestled with this one. Quail hunting was always my main interest. Then the wild quail disappeared and I began "hunting" released birds for the dog's sake. In my line of work it was usual to be invited on several "Plantation" released bird outings every year.

I gave that up a few years ago because I felt my balance and condition had eroded to the point I did not want to endanger my friends with my constant trip and falls (and I found it embarrassing). I continued hunting alone for wild birds only until my last bird dog Willy the Wirehair died last December.

I still love a dove shoot and keep right on deer hunting even though I rarely shoot due to waiting for a big one. I also like to duck hunt but there's little of it where I live and the politicians and their plague have closed down my annual trips to Canada.

I guess I'll have to say I'm still in the game and probably will always be to whatever extent I'm able. The killing hasn't really become an issue with me at all...Geo
Posted By: mc Re: When is it time to stop pulling the trigger? - 12/03/20 01:38 AM
I'm 65 I love quail hunting and I am still going to put in for Elk this year.i had the best times hunting in Wisconsin and hope to go back next year.i spent opening day dove and quail in az. With my son and grandson the absolute best of times
81.5 years behind me. Avid upland hunter. Today me & my 14.5 year old Brit put up 2 coveys of quail. No shots due to brushy cover,no problem. Great day! No birds okay, & I sure as hell ain't no
liberal! Every day is a gift now for both of us.
I'm 84 and I don't feel the need to pull the trigger again.

I have a lifetime of great memories of hunting with friends and relatives that is very satisfying.

However, I still enjoy those jaunts through our woods and brush with my good buddy Jasper, my English Springer Spaniel. With some fresh snow on the ground, we did a little of that today.

We were rewarded with fresh deer and turkey tracks.

It was wonderful. Jasper enjoyed it too.
Originally Posted By: Brian
Stan, my goal is to die in bed at thh age of 95, shot by a jealous husband!!!


Better than practicing tricks on a water slide....
Posted By: SKB Re: When is it time to stop pulling the trigger? - 12/03/20 03:38 PM
Originally Posted By: HomelessjOe
Originally Posted By: Brian
Stan, my goal is to die in bed at thh age of 95, shot by a jealous husband!!!


Better than practicing tricks on a water slide....


Never leave us in doubt frAnk, we know you have zero class.
I’m only 46...but I have also reached a point that I no longer have as much “blood lust” as I used to have. There was a time when I lived by the silly mantra “if it flies it dies”. Obviously I still enjoy hunting. I’ve just become pretty selective about it. Hunting company included. If I can’t enjoy the company of hunting partners, I don’t want them around. It’s about the experience for me nowadays.
There’s things I just won’t pull a trigger on....swans, sandhill cranes, birds on the water, birds on the road, birds that are out of range, hens....there’s more stuff, but I think that covers most of it.
The absolute worst is wounding game. I don’t care what the species is. I hate it. I hate having to deliver a coup de gras, or having an injured animal crawl or fly off to die in agony. It never really bothered me before....but these days it does. I don’t know why. I get pissed at myself for not delivering the decisive blow the first time. Sometimes it’s not my fault...the other day I took a pair a drake mallards at 15 yards, right in the landing zone...the steel shot went right through both of them and they writhed on the water for 5 minutes, they were both still alive when I got to them and I had to finish them off by hand. I hated every damn second of it.
Nobody intentionally wounds game. Well, except for a guy I know who lives on the outskirts of Macon, GA and hates the deer which eat up his garden every year.

He uses a .22 with CB caps off his back deck to gut shoot the offenders. When asked why, his response is if you shoot'em in the chest they die in the yard, but gut shot they'll make it back into the creek bottom behind the house to expire...Geo
Originally Posted By: Geo. Newbern
Nobody intentionally wounds game. Well, except for a guy I know who lives on the outskirts of Macon, GA and hates the deer which eat up his garden every year.

He uses a .22 with CB caps off his back deck to gut shoot the offenders. When asked why, his response is if you shoot'em in the chest they die in the yard, but gut shot they'll make it back into the creek bottom behind the house to expire...Geo


Sky busting, pass shooting at 75 yard birds, 50 yard shots on pheasants,sharptails,chickens, sage grouse, excessive distance Hail Mary shots with on big game is about as intentional as it gets.
The guy you know, he sounds like a prick.
Originally Posted By: Geo. Newbern
Nobody intentionally wounds game. Well, except for a guy I know who lives on the outskirts of Macon, GA and hates the deer which eat up his garden every year.

He uses a .22 with CB caps off his back deck to gut shoot the offenders. When asked why, his response is if you shoot'em in the chest they die in the yard, but gut shot they'll make it back into the creek bottom behind the house to expire...Geo


Speechless. I’m surprised anyone would post this. Irresponsible, cruel and illustrates why some people should have no access to firearms. If your dog continued to dig up his garden would he be liable to gut shot that too ?
I don't think much of the guy's garden protection practice either. My point is that is what is obviously irresponsible and cruel, whereas folks that miss or wound a deer are not necessarily either, they just mess up sometimes. If you don't I sure am proud of you...Geo
I don’t see any connection between a misplaced shot and deliberately gut shooting an animal out of spite with a small bore calibre with a round designed for indoor target shooting.
I will be 80 next April and enjoy hunting but the desire to kill is getting weaker and weaker. Bobby
I’m mostly alone when I hunt these days. My partners have aged out, or cashed out. I missed grousemas with Lloyd this year, too many reasons on both ends to bother listing. I never took to deer hunting, absolutely no problem with those who do, but, it just ain’t me. If I didn’t own a dog, I might not hunt.

I mean that. The dog is the most important part to me.

I eat the game I shoot, but, tend to share with a retired couple who enjoy it as much as I do, but, have no desire to help harvest it. My wife and son mostly have no interest in eating it. We have a big sit down dinner a couple times a year, grouse, pheasants, and maybe fish, some kind of domestic chow for my family, think steak or chicken. All cooked in my foodie buddies kitchen. My son is not a meat eater, never has been, but, will tag along on a day bird hunting trip.

I don’t know how that will resolve itself. I have hopes.

I never take more than a brace. I used to. Agree with Dustin, I hate losing game. I had a well hit pheasant manage to run to the cat tails last trip out, ticked me off to no end, but, a fox or more likely a coyote owes me, I suppose. If we would have been having some sub zero temps, and the dog and I could have run out after the bird on the ice, we likely would have found him. I have specific pheasant guns and loads which are not grouse guns and loads, but, sometimes the roosters still avoid the bag.

The grouse, not so much.

I enjoy my time afield whether I come home with game or not. I miss my Dad, still hunt his spots here and there, occasionally use his guns, and drive his route to his spots. I have friends who would love to go, but, can’t.

The dog enjoys the trip immensely, as well, game taken, or not. I wish the dogs lived longer, and were in better shape at the end. It seems so brief, my time with them.

Their lives are the calendar pages of my own life.

Best,
Ted
Grouse are tough Ted. I’m 62 yo and I can’t grouse hunt like I once did. I got 5 this season after 2 weeks of hunting in the UP if that tells you anything. Seems like the older I get, the less time I have on those things. Couldn’t even get the safety catch off before they were gone....hang in there. It’s still fun, but quail hunting on wild birds must be 10-20x easier! Grouse hunting is ROUGH.
Buzz,
Most of my grouse hunting is a stroll in the woods. Yes, they get moving quickly, but, I have a setter that mostly points the birds I get a shot at. I work the edges, breaks and fire roads, and don’t find it to be much of a struggle.

The pheasants live in tangles of Minnesota WMAs, areas that were unfit for farming in the southern part of the state. Invariably, they are wet, and brushy, and tough to work properly. The birds concentrate in them after the corn is put up, they receive a lot of hunting pressure, and turn into ghosts this time of year, you catch glimpses of them exiting out of range, wise to the game.

My pheasant hunting is the more difficult of the two for me.

I love them both.

Best,
Ted
Really appreciate all of you guys' responses. Good stuff and lots of insightful viewpoints.
JR
Only once- Rommel is 10, showing age but still an enthusiastic retriever, and a companion and friend too. You let some sob like your screws loose neighbor pull that crap on me and my dog-best friend, and I'll revert to my Iish roots and I'll kneecap him at close range with a .38 PSP-both knees too- RWTF
The author quoted a philosopher in his article. Here's a quote on the subject from another philosopher:

"We hunt not to kill, but we kill in order to have hunted." Ortega y Gasset.

I can enjoy a day in the field if the dog has handled the birds well, but for whatever reason I haven't had any shots. But I would much rather put a bird on the ground for the dog as a reward for his good work. I'm strictly an upland hunter, and I'm out there for the teamwork between me and the dog . . . or to watch the teamwork between a hunting partner and his dog.

I'm 75 and can't visualize reaching the point when I won't want to pull the trigger. I'm old enough to recognize that I have far fewer hunting days ahead of me than behind me. And it's my intention to make every effort I can to enjoy them, as a hunter, for as long as I can.
I've read and reread Gasset over the years at least a few chapters every year.

One day I went to the trouble of typing out and sharing several of his statements about hunting for people on here that might never have read him....guess what.

Dave deleted it...It took me a long time before I understood why.
Posted By: SKB Re: When is it time to stop pulling the trigger? - 12/04/20 02:18 PM
Originally Posted By: HomelessjOe
I've read and reread Gasset over the years at least a few chapters every year.

One day I went to the trouble of typing out and sharing several of his statements about hunting for people on here that might never have read him....guess what.

Dave deleted it...It took me a long time before I understood why.


Another tragic tale of frAnk being victimized, how very sad.

Did you need me to donate to Dave in your honor again? I can if need be, just speak up.


It is not about me....it's about Freedom of Speech.

No victim here Sister Stevie.....pull your skirt down your little too'tOO is showing move along now.

The fact that 9 out of 10 times Dave sides with liberal/Socialist bass'turds like you is fine by me.

Posted By: SKB Re: When is it time to stop pulling the trigger? - 12/04/20 02:29 PM
Oh it is always about you and your princess Billie K isn't it?

This is a private forum Bozo, You are not entitled to free speech here.

Maybe read that Constitution sometime, You might learn something.
Originally Posted By: SKB
This is a private forum Bozo, You are not entitled to free speech here.

Maybe read that Constitution sometime, You might learn something.


Good to know Steve'O....Stepheny

Posted By: tut Re: When is it time to stop pulling the trigger? - 12/04/20 02:41 PM
I deer hunt to provide venison for myself and those who can no longer hunt for health reasons. Folks who mentored me or provided me access to good hunting properties. Now they set on the couch and I bring them venison, cut, wrapped and frozen to put their freezers. I regard deer pretty much as organic free range meat. Not much pleasure to it frankly. If it didn't like it myself I will still hunt for my buddies (all Vietnam vets btw).

Bird hunting behind my little Llew is totally different. I live for that and live to swing a little shotgun on a bird coming off a solid point. I love little far away diners it little bitty bars with nice folks who would give you the shirt off their backs even if they don't know you.

Number 2 behind chasing a little bird dog is spring turkey hunting. Nothing like battling wits with a boss bird who has the edge in every way possible because you on his home turf. Hell, if Turkey's had a sense of smell you sure wouldn't kill many.

Killing is part of the game. Regarding hanging it up, I'm thinking I'll do it as long as I can safely do it and when I can not longer safely do it I'll starting drowning a worm and drinking more bourbon.
Originally Posted By: Brian
Stan, my goal is to die in bed at thh age of 95, shot by a jealous husband!!!
YES !!

When I deer hunt now, at age 80, I only shoot does or young bucks with small racks, I leave the bigger deer for the younger hunters. I'm not about to pay a taxidermist $500 to have another 10 point shoulder mount; and don't want to see a nice rack wasted.
Originally Posted By: gold40
When I deer hunt now, at age 80, I only shoot does or young bucks with small racks, I leave the bigger deer for the younger hunters. I'm not about to pay a taxidermist $500 to have another 10 point shoulder mount; and don't want to see a nice rack wasted.


Is it not wasted if the buck dies of malnutrition after his teeth deteriorate, or the coyotes pull him down in his weakened condition and begin eating him alive? Then, the squirrels eat away that beautiful rack to nothing?

Not arguing, just asking.

Many more big bucks die that way than are ever taken by hunters.
Originally Posted By: SKB
Oh it is always about you and your princess Billie K isn't it?

This is a private forum Bozo, You are not entitled to free speech here.

Maybe read that Constitution sometime, You might learn something.



Hahaha, this is hilarious... coming from the Official State Fruit of Colorado, Queen Stevie! Once Queen Stevie exited the birth canal, he/she never wanted anything to do with a woman ever again.

After I got home from deer hunting last night, I was entertained to see how Queen Stevie told us how extremely busy he/she was... just swamped with gunsmithing work. This was while Queen Stevie was repeatedly checking in and posting here all day, and attempting to disrupt yet another gun rights thread. Queen Stevie was also once again repeatedly knocking Republicans while never uttering a peep about anti-gun Liberal Left Democrats. I guess that's why John Roberts recently asked:

Originally Posted By: John Roberts
Steve, Are you a Democrat?

JR


Sometimes we ask questions that we already know the answer to. Of course, the Democrats are all about rights for fruitcakes, so it all makes sense for Queen Stevie.

Now all we need is a two-faced Canadian weasel to cry that I started it.

Still pulling the trigger... Libtard hunting 101!

I do believe Her'sheys stalking me too...


Lucky i have a gOOd nose for fish.
Well for me it is not time to hang up the guns for hunting. I spent two days hunting with my middle son on some walk in public waterfowl hunts. Mile and half walk in, packing in all our gear. Stale ducks and very cautious geese. Scraped out two geese and five mallards the first day. Got one real nice drake widgeon, six mallards and three geese the second day. Every duck was earned to be sure. But doing it with him, watching him become the hunter I always hoped he would be was worth it. I know he will be hunting long after I am gone and taking his son or daughter and wife with him. All I can ask for.
Great memories, Jon.

Those geese, along with the ducks, are a tough "tote" when you've got to carry them 1 1/2 mi. to the truck. Whew!

SRH
Ever notice how the trek back seems shorter and less tiring that the one in if you have game in hand? But yes, by the end I was glad we did not come close to a three goose limit each on geese.

My memories of this hunt may last 20 years at best but his will last 50 or more. I hope so anyways. I still have memories of hunting with my grandfathers back in the early 1960's. Both taught me not to shoot a ducks we did not value as food, just so we could kill something and taught me the bag size is not the judge of the hunts success. Lesson learned.

We did not shoot at several Spoonbills and small diver ducks which just plunged right into our spread. Where we were they are not very good table fare I am told. We did watch them pick up and fly to another group's decoy spread about 300 yards away, who were not as picky. But as my son said he would rather have one nice Mallard than five little divers he could not enjoy eating and they had been fun to watch in the decoys. Lesson passed along.
Posted By: Hal Re: When is it time to stop pulling the trigger? - 12/06/20 05:31 PM
Had to stop upland game hurting as I can't see my dog, much less any birds that flush. Doves are out of the question. And way too dangerous to walk in the woods for fear of poking my one remaining blurry eye out. I really missed not being able to walk the logging trails in Manitoba this year, just for the smell of the spruce/aspen forest, hear the ravens squawk, and pick mushrooms. But my kid and I did try a little pass shooting on mallards and pintails where I was hoping to see a low bird early enough to get an overhead shot, but alas the birds were not flying that morning, so didn't fire a shot. We had a poor flight of diving ducks again this fall, so did not get out in my boat where I hoped to shoot some birds in the water among my decoys. Still a lot of fun to be out there a bit and see hunters using my habitat plots.
I had a fantastic layout boat hunt in November on a coastal marsh. Hundreds of ducks were flying all around me, some landing very close. It was exactly what I envisioned when I bought my aquapod a few years ago. I could have shot several limits, but only took a few. It was wonderful.

I like your ethics, Lee- I've been hunting ducks and geese since age 10- my first shotgun, a 20 bore Stevens single shot, hammerless and 28" mod. choke- then at 14 with Dad's M12 20 ga,again, 28" mod.choke. Learned this dispatch technique from a guide in Canada, assuming you have a crippled bird, even a goose, on dry land that you want to finish off- put the dying creature chest down on the ground, and place one knee right on its back, and your weight will allow the bird to suffocate and die without any trauma-- RWTF
Fox is right. I took a Northwestern School of Taxidermy course as a kid and the first lesson covered that method of dispatching a bird without mussing the feathers. Only difference was to use your boot in place of a knee...Geo
The technique is called Thoracic Compression. The real goal, with smaller birds, is to physically stop the heart. Not easily done on a goose, where suffocation will probably be the ultimate cause of death, but doable on smaller birds, depending on your hand strength. If you feel for the heart when hand squeezing, this is often not hard to accomplish.

Also used on small mammals.
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