Any hunters here?

[rumguy]

Anyone who has hunted large mammals: deer, elk, pronghorns?

[freetobegay]

1. Why would anyone want to?

eom

[rumguy]

3. for fun

[freetobegay]

4. Hunting a defenseless animal for fun?

Now that speaks volumes!

[rumguy]

6. yes

[jmowreader]

25. Who said they were defenseless?

They can't shoot back, but they can blend into the terrain and since they live there and you don't, they know all the good hiding places.

My dad gets an elk tag every year and has for the last 30 years. He goes out and beats brush every year--and as a road locator for the Forest Service, he spent thousands of hours in the woods so he knows where the elk hang out. He's filled his elk tag four times in his life.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. I hunt deer

and upland game birds.

Why?

[Taverner]

5. I killed a deer once

but it was with the grill of a Chevy Blazer. That doesn't count does it....

[rumguy]

7. no

[Taverner]

9. Too bad...yopu'd be surprised how much a blow to a buck

Can screw up the front end of a blazer with some snowplow equipment still attached!

[Jackpine Radical]

22. Depends--

Were you aiming for it?

[m-jean03]

8. My grandfather was a hunter --

He killed lots of deer & elk in his lifetime, as well as smaller animals, and ate their meat.

Growing up in the Northwoods of Michigan I ran across some bloody sights during hunting season that really upset me as a little girl....

Like deer carcasses, skinned and hanging from a post in my neighbor's back yard -- all their flesh and muscles raw and exposed

Or deer recently killed, strapped on the hoods of a great many cars driving by

However I did eat venison a couple times, 'cause my friend's dad was a hunter.

[rumguy]

11. I don't big game hunt anymore

pretty much for those reasons, neither does my dad. Now when we hunt it's mosly for game birds...

[m-jean03]

12. Do you eat them

and if so, what is your favorite?

[rumguy]

13. we don't eat them

[m-jean03]

14. John Kerry eats doves --

I found that bizarre! :shrug: But he said they were tasty, so I guess I'll take his word!

[rumguy]

15. no we do eat them

I've had pheasants and grouse which are both really good when prepared right. My experience with duck meat is limited, but it has always tasted sligtly oily to me.

never had dove meat, but I hear it's good

[m-jean03]

16. I like duck in stir fry.

I couldn't eat it until I was older though, thanks to my dad, who majorly anthropomorphized the ducks we fed at the lake when I was a kid...:D

[rumguy]

17. that can happen

ducks are pretty cute...

[doc03]

10. I have hunted deer, haven't for the last few years.

I don't care much for venison and don't want the meat to go to waste. I much prefer fishing, you can release the fish alive if you don't want to eat them. For the anti-hunters out there what would happen to all the deer if their poulation wasn't controlled somehow?

[DancingBear]

18. Um, let me try

They would infest their (former) natural habitats which have been ripped apart for housing, and after the novelty of all the happy suburbanites wanting little Jason/Jennifer/Jeremy to see a deer they would be blown apart by hunters because the deer are eating the little gardens that Jason/Jennifer/Jeremy's mommy planted in the yard?

That'd be my guess.

Animal control: see "Buffalo"

[Whitacre D_WI]

19. Actually, most of them would starve to death.

Or be hit by cars.

[DancingBear]

23. Wrong - but thanks for playing

So the logic is you'll blow their heads off so they won't starve?

Fascinating.

Of course, if this were indeed the case, then hunters would look to kill the older weaker herd members, thus leaving the strong to fend for themselves.

What they do, however, is akin to meeting Don Knotts and Mr. Universe in the woods, and killing Mr. U so Don will have a chance.

Interesting....

[jmowreader]

24. There is a reason to shoot the big one

Genetic diversity is it--that big guy disallows mating by any other buck.

[WillParkinson]

28. Great idea!

Let's start killing off the jocks so that nerds can have a chance at a date, too. After all, that would be the same thing.

[DancingBear]

32. Yes, I'm sure that is in the thoughts

of most hunters, especially those looking for that photo-op before they head to the taxidermist.

[jmowreader]

34. Well, the Fish and Game Department thinks so

Check the hunting regulations and you'll find "antler-only hunts" and "antlerless-only hunts" listed. The state wants x number of large bucks/bulls (deer are bucks, elk and moose are bulls) killed every year.

I know a hunter who gets an elk every year. He only goes in antler season, and he usually comes back with these little two-point and three-point bulls. "Why do you always shoot these little bulls?" said I. He said he always goes into the woods to be a trophy hunter--his goal every year is to kill an elk that will make Boone and Crockett and fill the freezer with elk sausage. Then he spends a week and a half still-hunting game trails; the day before he is supposed to come home, a nice 500-pound bull comes out of the woods...and he's now a meat hunter with a thirty-inch rack for the garage wall and a freezer full of elk sausage.

I know another hunter who has quite a few large racks. He goes into the woods after the elk moult, picks the antlers off the ground before another animal eats them, and mounts the largest ones he can find. He fires a box of ammo at the beginning of hunting season to "check his scope," then doesn't fire another round until next fall. I don't think he's ever killed one.

Don't kid yourself: Large bulls and large bucks are extremely difficult to find.

[Whitacre D_WI]

27. Actually, I'm not a hunter -- but thanks for playing.

The natural predators have been killed off (yes, by humans).

We now fill that role.

I don't hunt, but I respect those that do; so long as they do it with respect for the animals they bring down and feed to me.

[solinvictus]

20. Small game, mostly.

In my teens, I hunted rabbit, squirrel, and dove. I had better luck with rabbit and squirrel, which are great cooked like chicken with milk gravy, biscuits, and mashed potatoes.

[Whitacre D_WI]

21. I like rabbit, but squirrel is a little greasy for my taste.

[fishnfla]

26. I used to hunt alot

Deer,small game, ducks and geese. Only shot one deer in 15 years of hunting, the deer hunting was mostly a he-man, male bonding cultural thing.

I traded in my guns for fishing equipment after I moved here and had an encounter with a large diamond-back rattle snake.

[bloodyjack]

29. some of my relatives occasionally hunted deer

never understood its appeal though. i mean, deer are so lithe, so nimble, so graceful. why would anyone want to kill 'em? better viewing if they're alive, the way i see it.

[Whitacre D_WI]

30. Better eating if they're dead, though...

Ever try to eat living deer? They don't much appreciate it ;)

True, they are beautiful animals. But y'know what? I'd kill (and eat! yummy!) a deer before I'd kill a duck.

Why? Ducks are smarter.

[bloodyjack]

31. you'd spare ducks because they're generally smarter?

oh dear, that sets a dangerous precedent . . .

[Donkeyboy75]

35. How does Freeper taste? n/t

[fishnfla]

33. Farmers, for starters

small plot farmers especially, a herd of deer can do considerable damage to their crops.