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Old 10-23-2011, 04:49 PM
HuskyFan HuskyFan is offline
 
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Default New to hunting - anyone ever have moral dilemma's with it?

Hey Guys,

I'm 100% completely new to hunting, never did it in my life, and was never raised around it, but I'm interested in trying it and for certain aspects it really interests me.

I like the idea of hunting to provide for myself and family, and I think it could be an invaluable skill to have in unpredicatable situations later in life. However I'm not sure I have it in me for the "sporting" aspect of it.

I could see myself hunting for deer/elk/moose etc, and enjoying the huge amount of food it would provide for my family and friends. And I don't see this really any different than how we get our grocery store meats (maybe its even more humane in some ways?). But I don't really see myself enjoying the "trophy" side of things, and I'm curious if there are others out there that are the same way?

For instance going wolf/bear/cougar hunting just for the sake of killing it really would bother me I think. I have a hard time even looking at some of the pics on this forum for that reason (the wolf thing really gets to me for some reason, maybe because I'm a dog lover?). However I respect the choice that some people make by doing it, and I have no problem with what others do as long as its legal.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm curious if anyone else's hunting interests ever conflict with their personal morals/conscience? Or if others have a hard time with the "killing" aspect of hunting (as stupid as that might sound)?
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Old 10-23-2011, 04:59 PM
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I've never had a moral dilemma about hunting. There are plenty of people that hunt for just meat, and that is totally fine. Personally I'd consider myself a trophy hunter and that's never bothered my at all. Do what you feel is right for yourself and enjoy every minute you spend in the outdoors.

On a side note, every predator that we trophy hunters harvests ensures that there are more elk, moose and deer for the meat hunters. We hunters help to keep a healthy balance of predator/prey. Too many predators and ungulate numbers take a nose dive.
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Old 10-23-2011, 05:20 PM
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There is no moral issue about it.

Hunting is collecting meat yourself.
Trophy hunting is collecting meat, and collecting the antlers or horns of the animal.
Shooting a wolf or bear for its fur is preferrable to me than buying a rug from China made by a 9 yr old.

No one says you have to shoot a trophy animal. Actually I prefer you dont. Increases my odds in getting one.

Buying meat at the store and hunting. One, the dirty work is done by someone else.
I prefer to collect my own. I support the local butcher, but I hardly rely on him

As for the wolf scenario, a wolf is not a dog. As a matter of fact, a wolf will lure ypur dog away, hump it, kill it, and eat it within 15 minutes.
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Old 10-23-2011, 05:26 PM
densa44 densa44 is offline
 
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Smile Dog lover too!

I may have had a conflict until I saw coyotes kill and eat ALL my chickens and I don't know how many of our cats.

I now work very hard to kill all of them that I can.

Other than pests eat what you shoot, no moral conflict!
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Old 10-23-2011, 05:42 PM
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i have such a moral battle in my head when im eating hot italian deer sausage , pepperoni , steaks , jerky and roasts.
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Old 10-23-2011, 05:48 PM
HuskyFan HuskyFan is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by huntinstuff View Post

As for the wolf scenario, a wolf is not a dog. As a matter of fact, a wolf will lure ypur dog away, hump it, kill it, and eat it within 15 minutes.
Haha I like how you put that.

Still don't think I could shoot one, but it's good to keep things in perspective.
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Old 10-23-2011, 05:49 PM
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A rhetorical question when asked here, kinda like asking why people climb mountains on a mountain climbing form or why cyclists like biking across the province. Silly cyclists wasting all that energy for nadda!

I'm betting everyone here does it cause it's fun as hell, if the following pic does not evoke a sense of adventure, fun, accomplishment I'm not sure your built for the sport.

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Old 10-23-2011, 05:54 PM
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That picture is simply incredible
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Old 10-23-2011, 05:56 PM
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X2!!!!...would like a copy of that!!!!.....open sights on the rifle too!!!...very nice!
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Old 10-23-2011, 05:56 PM
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everybody has their own reason's/morals for hunting/not hunting what they want,I don't understand some stuff and I hunt things that other people don't,I say live and let live.
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Old 10-23-2011, 05:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HuskyFan View Post
Haha I like how you put that.

Still don't think I could shoot one, but it's good to keep things in perspective.
And its perfectly fine to not shoot one. Your choice. Thats the beauty of hunting. You choose.
I wish you much success and enjoyment
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Old 10-23-2011, 06:06 PM
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Default moral dilema

Enjoy the CHEAP MEAT !!! I only trophy hunt to prolong the experience. After a few seasons of harvesting small bucks and does most of us start trying for the mature bucks just to have more days in the field. Then comes all the other equipment and the scouting trips. I t gets expensive if you get crazy about the big boys, but its my only vice
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Old 10-23-2011, 06:15 PM
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It's a constant tug of war trying to balance the good and bad of killing an animal. Coyotes for example. A lot of people have no issues with killing coyotes as the coyote preys on fawns and calves and domestic livestock. On the plus side for the coyote I struggle because after all they do eat cats.

Moral issues and hunting go hand in hand, Nearly everyday someone on this forum is trying to tell others what is 'right'. The next day he's being told what is right by the ones he trid to save the day before.

Morals and ethics are things that are very personal and really only mean anything when they guide your conduct when there is no one around to witness your actions.
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Old 10-23-2011, 06:18 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by huntinstuff View Post
As for the wolf scenario, a wolf is not a dog. As a matter of fact, a wolf will lure ypur dog away, hump it, kill it, and eat it within 15 minutes.

....wwhat, what do they want to do to fluffy? rape him?
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Old 10-23-2011, 06:19 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by huntinstuff View Post
That picture is simply incredible
X2. Wow.
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Old 10-23-2011, 06:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lattery1 View Post
Enjoy the CHEAP MEAT !!!
LOL, I think our next moose will be at a cost of $200.00/pound considering gas, food, booze, travel time, equipment including campers, trucks, quads, butchering, and on and on....
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Old 10-23-2011, 06:26 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Straightgun View Post
....wwhat, what do they want to do to fluffy? rape him?
If his name is Fluffy, he probably deserves it .......
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Old 10-23-2011, 06:32 PM
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The great thing about a moral dilemma is that if something does not fall within your morals then you don't have to do it.
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Old 10-23-2011, 06:34 PM
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I started out much like the OP; I had essentially no exposure to hunting until I was about 34. I did go with my uncle once when I was 12, but there was no game taken nor much on the instruction side of things. I'm not sure on the regs back then, but in hindsight it may have been out of season, but I know he was a sustenance hunter in the bush north of 100 Mile House BC. As you experience killing an animal for the first time it was a whole lot of mixed emotion; on one hand there's the euphoria for a good shot and having all your work culminate in one exciting moment, but that's counterbalanced by what I feel was some combination of sympathy and perhaps even a bit of remorse for having taken a life. It gets easier, but I think it's healthy to have had enough respect for the animal that you have some feelings for it upon having killed it. I know some who were raised on a ranch or who've killed a lot of gophers, etc may be a bit more casual about it than myself, but we all have perspectives and none are necessarily wrong. If you wind up spending much time hunting on a ranch, you'll likely learn that coyotes are not to be sympathized with, for they extend none themselves. If they happen across a calf being born they'll begin their feast before the animal is fully delivered.

I would go so far as to say I'm a reformed 'anti'. I used to be ignorant and uninformed about hunting, and while I still have plenty to learn and experience, at least I'm approaching it from a knowledgeable perspective now.
Shamefully, many years ago I laughed upon seeing a video online where a whitetail buck attacked a hunter; I no longer find it amusing these days.
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Old 10-23-2011, 06:46 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Morsky View Post
LOL, I think our next moose will be at a cost of $200.00/pound considering gas, food, booze, travel time, equipment including campers, trucks, quads, butchering, and on and on....
For me the meat is just the kicker. The enjoyment is the hunt. For that reason the meat is cheap.
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Old 10-23-2011, 06:48 PM
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Spend some time on a farm and help with the butchering of farm animals.

You will become instantly desensitized.

Hunting is far more humane than some of things done on a farm in my experience.
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Old 10-23-2011, 06:48 PM
sjemac sjemac is offline
 
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My moral dilemma comes when I have to buy meat that I know never saw the sunlight in its entire short and miserable life.

I know we all can't raise and hunt our own meat but it sure makes me happy that I can.

One of my biggest thrills was shooting the wolf in my avatar. I don't think I will ever become a dedicated wolf (cougar or bear) hunter, but I'd like to hunt everything at least once so that I know what others talk about. Now to find that cougar.
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Old 10-23-2011, 07:11 PM
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I should ad that you should look at some of the videos online regarding what natural predators do for their meat. I've seen one where a pack of coyotes attacked a calf and cow moose. The Cow was trying to defend the calf as much as it could and fought for a while trying to stamp on the coyotes. In the end, it stamped its own calf to death and then watched as the coyotes ate its calf.

There are many animals out there that eat their own offspring.

When duck hunting, walking around a pond just after daylight, I've seen piles of feathers from where other predators have gotten to the ducks first. It's just nature.

Each year, there are always far too many deer to survive the winter. They always over populated. Here are our options:

-Harvest and eat a certain number of them through a tag system so the others can live through the winter relatively comfortably.

-More deer suffer through the winter, none comfortably, with many dying slowly to predators, frostbite and eventually hypothermia and losing their fur from mal nutrition. I've seen that too. It's not pretty.

I feel that the deer I shoot and eat with a bullet through the heart or lungs die much faster and more humanely than through other predators or the horrible winter which, trust me, won't allow all those deer to survive.

The more you see in the world, the more you realize we are a part of it. Many of us are very separated through civilization and technology that we lose sight of this.

Reconnect. Visit a slaughter house. You will lose all 'moral' concerns with regard to hunting.
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Old 10-23-2011, 07:12 PM
SkytopBrewster SkytopBrewster is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Straightgun View Post
For me the meat is just the kicker. The enjoyment is the hunt. For that reason the meat is cheap.
Yeah, the meat is great but really just an excuse to get out and enjoy the hunt be it with friends, family or just alone. Enjoy the outdoors, great stress relief. Its easy just to go out and shoot the first doe you see and get your meat, and there is nothing wrong with that. I prefer to drag it oit going for the big boys and if you dont get that shot, take whatever you can and fill the freezer. But to tell you the truth it would be much cheaper to fill the freezer from safeway, but then again theres nothing like wild game and the feeling of providing for the family the old fashioned way.
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Old 10-23-2011, 07:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Morsky View Post
A rhetorical question when asked here, kinda like asking why people climb mountains on a mountain climbing form or why cyclists like biking across the province. Silly cyclists wasting all that energy for nadda!

I'm betting everyone here does it cause it's fun as hell, if the following pic does not evoke a sense of adventure, fun, accomplishment I'm not sure your built for the sport.

That is one of the best photos i think i have ever seen, One time i swung a book grizzly over my shoulder with the head still in it and it dwarfed my head, but that picture has everything hunting is all about. What a bear.
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Old 10-23-2011, 08:03 PM
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This thread has been hijacked by that amazing picture! Do you have it framed? if you have any details on It shoot me a pm
Thanks for posting it
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Old 10-23-2011, 09:15 PM
Dr. Phil A Dr. Phil A is offline
 
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"For instance going wolf/bear/cougar hunting just for the sake of killing it really would bother me I think. I have a hard time even looking at some of the pics on this forum for that reason (the wolf thing really gets to me for some reason, maybe because I'm a dog lover?). However I respect the choice that some people make by doing it, and I have no problem with what others do as long as its legal.

I have two dogs and they are my buds. They provide me with a lot of enjoyment but it has never stopped me from pounding coyotes. Shot four on Saturday morning. I know what they can do to livestock and pets.

I won't shoot them in the spring or summer but once fall hits it is game on.
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Old 10-23-2011, 10:01 PM
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Personally I am a fairly new hunter and i really enjoy it. I am quite the fan of wild game and the satisfaction that comes from it. I try to use what i can from the animal, I attempted twice to tan hides. Hopefully il the the chance to try again this year, maybe do a european mount if i get a buck. I dont find it hard at all to shoot a deer or a bird, etc. The only thing i feel is recoil and satisfaction of a good hunt.
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Old 10-23-2011, 10:09 PM
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Default Check these books. . .

I think the fact you even ask the question shows your heart's in the right place. I feel just fine about hunting, but I always feel at least a little sad for whatever I've killed. But I grew up in a hunting house - fall was dad's religion.

If you want to want to do some reading - here's two authors I've enjoyed. THey both fill the freezer every year, but they've thought a lot about what it is they do.

Ted Kerasote - "Bloodties" - read anything of his, but I've read this one twice and I'll read it again. It contrasts four different hunting groups - including some militant animal rights activists. Oh, and an elk dies in the end.

Richard Nelson - "Heart and Blood" - the language is a little over the top sometimes, but study this and you can take on any "anti" argument. It is basically a history of deer and our relationship with the species. It starts with ice age hunters and goes right through today.

I believe you shouldn't take too much joy in killing, but there's also no shame.
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Old 10-23-2011, 10:11 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by huntinstuff View Post
If his name is Fluffy, he probably deserves it .......
THANK YOU



Incredible pic Morsky.....thank you for posting it .

tm
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