Love guns but have never/would never hunt?

I have hunted since I was a very young boy and I am now just about 60.
In fact I am leaving tomorrow specifically to go on a hog eradication hunt on a friends ranch near Columbus Texas.
I have far more hunting rifles and shotguns than handguns.
I was fairly oblivious about handguns until just a few years ago and have become more attuned to them since I received my carry license.
I love hunting.
Although I admit it's pretty much a dying art with todays younger set.
What a loss.

I grew up in the suburbs in a anti-gun house, and recently got into the hobby as an adult, so hunting has never been a part of owning a gun for me. I came into the shooting hobby from a self-defense angle instead of a hunting angle, which I think is unusual in the Midwest. But I want to learn! The problem is I just need to kick myself in the butt to overcome inertia, and find a place to learn all the skills.

I really enjoy cooking and see hunting as an extension of that. I want the skills to be able to take meat all the way from field to table.

People who grow up on a farm or ranch are familiar with varmint and pest control; sometimes even having to put down a pet that is beyond help.

These actions are foreign to the vast majority of people who grow up in a city . Environment has much to do with the way things are approached. A couple of 100 years ago when people were more or less on a parcel of land and depended on that land for survival they were more opportunistic with providing for the supper table.

I am really not big on hunting but I am big on doing away with pigs as a form of civil service.

To many years in Buddhist countries changed my outlook on killing things so unless I need or want to eat it I tend to admire and leave critters and things alone unless they start infringing on me or mine. Different strokes for different folks.

Fishslayer,
You might be surprised to find out how inexpensive venison is compared to the beef at the grocery store. Ground beef is what, over a dollar a pound these days? Venison is about a quarter a pound.

Now there is a Gopher in the back yard I'd like to get a shot at.

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M2, want to borrow my 'gopher gitter?' Cleared out my whole property of the wretches with my 20 gauge single.

hang it head down...skin the hind quarters, unzip the bellyskin with a gut hook all the way to the sternum....the grab the skin up by the rump ...and in one fell swoop, peel the entire body like a banana

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I hang them from the neck, head up. But then I also field dress and gut them in the woods, so there is a massive cavity for the blood to drain from already.
Man, I'm itching for deer season, and I can't get vacation for opening week.

I have absolutely no issue with hunting but just don't do it. My other hobbies take up what free time I have. Now that I think about it I may be the only guy in my neighborhood that doesn't. Someday I'll join some friends on a hunt and who knows? I may get addicted to it.

Used to fish often and here's where it gets quirky: I have cleaned mass quantities of fish in my day but I'll admit that I might get a bit squeamish cleaning a deer. Probably one of those things I'd have to do a couple of times to get over it.

I am a firm believer that you don't kill something just for that sport. If you take it down you must utilize the remains as best possible.

Reminds me of an idea that I've knocked around for years. May be something like this available but I don't know about it. Why not a digital camera integrated into a scope, trigger activated? You hunt, line up on your prey and the trigger snaps a photo capturing the scene as the scope sees it including the cross-hairs. It would be proof that you were successful in the hunt and what you would have bagged but lets the animal go unharmed. I know it wouldn't be the same as real hunting but it might become a popular hobby in it's own, with a side benefit of preserving the game for real hunters.

This is America.
You don't have to hunt to own a gun and you don't have to drive fast to own a Ford Mustang.

I'm basically a city boy. So are my kids. In a way, I feel like I missed out on a lot of learning and experiences as a youth that I would have liked to have because I never hunted or was taught how to hunt. I've tried to teach my children about how to safely use and respect guns. All 3 of them know how to handle, load, and fire the guns that I own. My middle son even knows how to clean them. Haha. He was the only one interested when I asked about driving down to Texas (1,100 miles each way) to hunt "wild boar".

Before July of this year, I had never hunted. It was really bothering me that I felt like I didn't truly know how to provide for my family in the worst case scenario. Going on a guided hunt one time certainly hasn't taught me everything, but I do feel one small step closer to knowing some things that I didn't know before we went.

My middle kid (turning 16 this weekend) and I went with a friend of mine from work on a hog hunting trip in Texas at the end of July. None of us had ever hunted before, so we were all very green. We had a wonderful time, learned a bunch, and were all successful in getting some hogs. We took back all of the meat that we could fit in my car (3ea 48qt coolers full), and what we weren't able to take home we left behind and it all got used by those who could use it.

It was a great trip on so many levels, and a great learning experience for all of us. I am looking forward to doing it again.

Having said that, there are certain animals that I simply would not shoot. Except in the case of self defense, I could never imagine shooting a bear...I just have too much respect and admiration for them. Hogs are a whole different story though....


Warner

I don't hunt because I don't like being the one to kill something. I'm not against it provided there's a reason for it such as culling sickly and/or overpopulated animals, putting food on the table, varmint control, etc. I can't understand the pleasure in killing something just for the thrill of it. Maybe I'm just weird. I would hunt if I really had to though.

I am a meat eater but could never bring myself to shoot an animal.

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Remember that when an at-large pit bull is attacking you and your child while walking down the street....................

Our firearms are not necessarily for hunting first and foremost. Hunting with them is just a secondary purpose.

Second Amendment
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

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If it weren't for the dirt and trees and bugs and hikes and long waits, and lousy shooting skills, and being vegan, I'd try hunting. Oh, and that "getting up eary thing" too.

I'm a gun nut, but have never hunted. Probably never will, unless absolutely necessary.

oneounceload said:

Remember that when an at-large pit bull is attacking you and your child while walking down the street....................

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I wouldn't hesitate to shoot in that situation. That is self defense.

There is no need to apoligize for liking long arms but not doing any hunting. I used to hunt but in my area at the time there were alot of people who called themselves "sound hunters", they would shoot at the sounds. Knowing my training I decided to quit hunting before I was forced to shoot someone for shooting at me because he heard me walking and thought it was a deer. This was just one of the reasons I stopped hunting. I still like shotguns and rifles but don't get much chance to enjoy them.

I've hunted most of my life, I'm 62, and today I am just about ready to call it quits due to several negatives, the biggest being the culling of "vermin". Our country has seen drastic changes through my life but to me the word hunting has taken the most and has lost it's meaning. I can't see how the average guy can support a system that makes animals a for profit way of making a living. I was brought up to respect religion and through my early years heard that it was God's gift to all to hunt for food but that has been turned upside down with slaughter of food for no purpose other than it is considered vermin, my Grandpappy would have called it heaven on earth. I am sorry for you younger folks that never got to see a covey of wild quail on the rise or hear the sounds of hounds on the chase but killing is a necessity of the hunt and I never found joy in the act other than knowing I did my best to lessen the animals suffering. Sorry for the rant but I do hope the best for our animals and do commend you for not "sporting" them.

I think you need to rethink your mis-perception of hunting.
Hunting is not all about killing something.

I have spent many a wonderful & memorable day hunting and never fired a shot or killed a thing.

You haven't truly lived until you have experienced a glorious sunrise in a duck blind with a good friend, and a good black lab.
Even if the ducks don't come.

Or a covey of quail or a pheasant getting up in front of a faithful old pair of Britteny's on a crisp fall day.
Even if the dogs get in the way and you don't get off a shot.

Or a monster buck walking under your tree stand the day before deer season opens, while a squirrel comes within two feet of you to see what you are.
Yea, that big buck you never see again after opening day of the season!

Memories of hunts like those are things I will never forget until the day I die.

rc

to call it quits due to several negatives, the biggest being the culling of "vermin". ....slaughter of food for no purpose other than it is considered vermin,

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I can't say I follow. "Vermin" animals and "Varmint" animals are not food animals in any realistic sense of the word. If I were starving, I'd still have a difficult time considering a racoon or a gopher food. 'Coons are a pest animal, they get in and kill my chickens. We dealt with them. Gophers are tearing up my yard and my garden. We dealt with them, too. Next time, I'll put them on ice and mail them to you if you'd like, so good food doesn't go to waste.

I am sorry for you younger folks that never got to see a covey of wild quail on the rise or hear the sounds of hounds on the chase but killing is a necessity of the hunt and I never found joy in the act other than knowing I did my best to lessen the animals suffering. Sorry for the rant but I do hope the best for our animals and do commend you for not "sporting" them.

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Hunting is not always about killing. I've shot more animals with my camera than with my guns, yet I still consider it hunting. I enjoy everything hunting has to offer, including the trophy rack of the wall and the meat in the freezer. I hope I can pass that all down to my kids, knowing that you can enjoy wildlife without killing it. My stepson didn't understand why I didn't shoot the rabbit I had been watching for ten minutes through my rifle scope. It would have been an easy kill had I wanted it, I prefered to enjoy that rabbit visually, not in my stew pot. To me, knowing I could take the shot and get a kill (and not doing it) is as much a sport to me than making the kill. The knowledge that I could is the win there.

Love guns, and would love to hunt more. But for the past five years I have been able to take at most one week off a year at a stretch and that I have to spend visiting relatives. The rest of vacation days are spent scrambling to get caught up with errands and I can take one or two at a time at most. Mean time I'm getting older and unfortunately it looks like my dreams of big game hunting in my own state are never going to materialize. The most I can manage is small game quickies. Fun, but not the same.

I suspect the problems of finances and scheduling are a major limiting factor for many would-be hunters.

I have the guns to hunt but I have never done it ....

Not against it, just never made the time..... :banghead:

I do prefer to take photo's.... Not kill animals. Now I have rasied small animals for food when I was young, so I'm not against eating animals....


Lateck,

I'm pretty much a paper killer....

Never really cared for the taste of Venison, and the way that deer are hunted here in Texas, from a blind.. not much challenge...

It is an important part of wildlife/game management, it NEEDS to be done.. I just don't much care for Deer Hunting... Used to love to Quail Hunt, nothing better than walking and Stalking behind a good Dog, But my Shorthair passed on, and Quail are all but extinct in my part of the world due to Fire Ants, and regs against using pesticides that will work on them..

I've been know to take out some feral hogs, and coyotes, they are a problem in my area..

Now Fishing... I'm a fish murdering fool.

No problem..... Just call yourself a shooter rather than a hunter.
That being said....you are an NRA member, correct?

I'm a fourth generation rancher. Guns have always been a part of daily life for my family, but not necessarily for hunting. Sure, my dad killed a few deer in his younger days, but for the most part guns were seen as no different from a shovel or hammer, just a tool, used mostly for dispatching problem varmints around the farm.

But I differ from most of my past family members because I both love to hunt and I love guns. I will say that my passion for firearms stemmed from my love of hunting and the outdoors.

I'd say the vast majority of hunters are not gun people, and the vast majority of gun people are not hunters.

I guess that puts people like me who like both hunting and guns in the minority. I can live with that, its not us that are missing out.

My neighbor is a great deer hunter. He loves getting up while it is still dark and sitting in a tree stand. He enjoys the hunt, the kill, even cutting up the meat. But, he hates cleaning his guns and doesn't know how to take them apart.

I enjoy working on guns, cleaning guns, polishing and tuning, stripping and re-assembly. I also love deer meat. We fix it up in lots of different ways.

As a result, I keep his guns in top condition. He keeps my freezer full of meat.

I am more of a city boy and an armchair outdoorsman, no hunter. I can barely find my car in a parking lot. My brother is the hunter in the family. I have no objections whatsoever to it, though. The point of all this is that one need not be a hunter or even outdoorsman to own, use and enjoy guns.