quote:

Have you ever shot and killed a living being?

Never.

Just rats, I am fortunate that I don't have to hunt to put food on the table.

Didn't actually shoot to kill it but.
A yellow bird, with a yellow bill.
He landed on My window sill.
I coaxed him in. With a piece of bread,
and then I stomped his f#*$&@ head!

Yes, I don't enjoy it. I extend that feeling to everything not microscopic. I take life only when I must and I do my absolute best to make it quick.

Just like Para a small bird I never thought I would hit. Probably a hundred or so deer. All of which had been hit by vehicles and needed to be put down. I'm fine with hunting but I have hated killing every single thing I have shot.

Many moles over the years. I always feel a little bad looking at their lifeless furry bodies but that is tempered by knowing moles live terrible lives, getting so little out of their time on Earth.

Many Birds and Rabbits.

No large game yet.

For me, it was a few chipmunks up north back when my parents had a cottage up there. They were notorious for burrowing under the deck and gnawing through stuff so we thinned out the population a little bit with an air rifle my dad bought.

Yes, I have taken many lives but without any malice toward them. It was combat.
.
I don't hunt anymore but enjoyed upland bird hunting. I might add I have hatched off and released thousands of Northern Bob White Quail.

I too stop and move turtles off the highway and rescued a doe last year that had been shot with an arrow. She made it to my feeding station and laid down. I called the vet and we got her healed up and released. She showed up this year with two babies at the feeding station in our back yard.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Yes, a damn near impossible shot (which is why I took it, I guess) at a Blue Jay. Crosman BB gun when I was ten years old. When it hit the bird, I thought I had missed, because it flew off the branch it was sitting on and made a slow, lazy circle to the ground, then didn't move any more. No one- including the bird- was more surprised than me. The next day, the woman who lived in the house chastised me and asked me the point of doing that. I coudn't answer her. Since then, no, nothing else, and you can laugh or roll your eyes, but I still think about that bird and I still feel bad about it.

My story’s so similar it’s eerie...bird, BB gun, ten-years-old, no thought or sense to the senselessness. Only difference was that my bird was on a telephone wire.

I still feel bad about that bird, too.

quote:

Originally posted by kimber1911:
Didn't actually shoot to kill it but.
A yellow bird, with a yellow bill.
He landed on My window sill.
I coaxed him in. With a piece of bread,
and then I stomped his f#*$&@ head!

Why?

Yes.

quote:

Originally posted by Elk Hunter:

Why?

Elk, it's a marching song...

omit the first sentence and voila

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Very simple question. I put no qualifiers on two legs, four, or on the wing. Very simply put, have you ever shot and killed a living being?

Deer, hog, squirrel, rabbit, various game birds, varmints, predators and snakes. Usually game animals that are intended for food though.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Any details you feel like sharing are up to you. Any further discussion is up to you. I know there's plenty here who have done some, or all. But I wonder how many have never.

Nothing really further.

Like many here I have been hunting all of my life. Growing up, everyone I knew hunted, it was just something we did without question.

I've never wounded an animal and we always ate what we shot. I still hunt but mostly just because I like to be out there in the woods. If I shoot something fine, if not, then that is fine as well. And yes, I have stopped and pulled many turtles off the hiway.

I used to hunt all the time. Always responsibly and for food. Then one day I had to drive a straight truck for work to a satellite office about 70 miles away. It was a one time deal as the regular driver had called in sick that day.

About 5 miles from my destination a dog came out of the ditch directly in front of the truck. Didn't even have time to touch the brakes. It was killed instantly. I didn't stop I just continued to my destination. I felt terrible for quite sometime. That was 16 years ago and I still think about it to this day.

I haven't hunted since. I don't know why, what one would have to do with the other but I just couldn't hunt any longer. Seems as I get older the idea of ending any kind of life for whatever reason doesn't sit well with me.

It's getting to where I can't even listen to the death throes of fish we catch as they flop around in the cooler. Weird.

quote:

Originally posted by blueye:
Just rats, I am fortunate that I don't have to hunt to put food on the table.

The vast majority of people don't have to hunt. We choose to.

I couldn't even begin to count the number dead critters at my hand. Some for fun, some for nuisance control, some for food, some to protect my life/property.

The one thing that I will say is that as much as I love bow hunting for the chase aspect (there's nothing like being able to get within 10 yards of a big bull) the actual archery kills have begun to bother me some the past few years. If I needed to eat, I can still do it without a second thought, but it is a relatively slow death and for some reason that kind of rubs my fur the wrong way of late.

Quick head and neck gunshot kills don't bother me at all, but putting an arrow through a chest and watching the critter run off bleeding and gasping while it slowly dies...just...well...you know. I don't much care for it these days.

But, yeah, killing things is a way of life out in the sticks. If you've got no stomach for it, that's OK too.

Similar to Para, I killed a bird with my pellet rifle when I was in 4th grade "just because". I felt terrible about it. That's the only time I've shot something without a purpose. I will shoot for pest control (armadillos, rats, etc.) or for food, but I never feel good or excited about it. It's just something that needs to be done.

quote:

The vast majority of people don't have to hunt. We choose to.
I couldn't even begin to count the number dead critters at my hand. Some for fun, some for nuisance control, some for food,...

Same here.
I enjoy the camaraderie of getting out in the woods with a small group of close friends. I enjoy the peace and serenity of being in the woods as much as the hunting. If I shoot something, fine. If not, that's fine too.
I usually take 1 deer a year, occasionally 2, and I do eat what I hunt. I also like wild turkey.

Critter control is another matter. Raccoons and squirrels must be kept in check. The raccoons especially don't seem to have many predators around here and they can quickly overrun a suburban neighborhood.

When I got a bb gun at age 8 or 9, my parents made me promise not to shoot anything alive. They were serious about only killing what you are going to eat. I never killed a bird with it.

As an adult I’ve killed dear and wild hogs. Ate them too.

I’m not against killing wild hogs as population/ nuisance control. Plan to help a family member do just this. Hope to eat the smaller ones.