I am going camping in the middle of a state forest this weekend, the first weekend of hunting season.
Those deer (rats on stilts) will be so thick around the tents we will have to beat them off with sticks.
I used to feel sorry for the prey, until I realized mental agility wise they were on par with the hunters 
“Ruffle Feathers”? Where’s that turkey? BOOM
Man, my life would be incomplete without the thrill of killing living things. I mean seriously…if hunting humans was legal, I’d do it, because I get SUCH a charge out of seeing blood spill.
I’ve never hunted in my life but I appreciate those who do so responsibly. There’s nothing creepy about it because the OP is attributing some kind of cheap thrill to the killing process that in the minds of the hunters I know, just isn’t there.
Sure, there’s the “nice shot, Jenson” aspect (just like killing the DEATH STAR), but it’s fleeting and arbitrary. The hunters I know want the meat, and I’m glad for it…because they are willing to share the meat with me and suffer the truly icky parts of field dressing an animal like a deer that I don’t have the heart for (although I have eaten pickled deer heart…JUST LIKE ROAST BEEF!).
OP, you are kinda creepy in that you somehow vicariously associate the “thrill of the kill” as the be all and end all of hunting…when mostly that just isn’t true. This isn’t some 1924 African Safari so a British Lord can get a tiger pelt for his estate house…it’s deer and other herd animals that quite frankly aren’t hunted enough.
I bet you would feel differently when you and your car was destroyed because of a collision in a state where the bag limit is too low to thin out the deer herd.
I don’t blame him. I hunt on occasion and the thrill of the kill is part of the package. I think it’s a little dishonest to say it isn’t.
Odesio
Just so we’re clear, when you say “stalked,” are you being literal? That is, you found sign, followed, snuck up on, and got close enough on foot to shoot a turkey with a bow?
Killing a turkey with a bow is pretty badass when you just hide in camoflage and call it into range. I know one guy who did that, and he also hunted and got bear with a bow (which takes balls.)
I’ve never known anybody who could stalk a turkey. Do you really mean “stalk?”
(not to offend or doubt, but that is a pretty bold and awesome claim in my mind, so just want to double check your meaning, here.)
I dunno. I run marathons and ultras, and it ain’t about the finish line. When I hunted, it wasn’t about the killing. The killing wasn’t particularly noteworthy, and even a little sad. It meant the funnest part was over.
But somehow, you don’t give a shit when animals are beaten and mistreated, eh?
God, you’re fucking stupid.
The Universe is Shiva and Kali.
Both infinitely hospitable to Life, and infinitely hospitable to Death.
Everything that lives, lives at the expense of another.
Every breath we take, takes the life of a lesser being.
How many wild animals live in the soybean field that feeds the Vegan?
Or the corn field that feeds the Cows and Chickens?
How many wild animals were displaced so that it could be planted?
How many died because there was no place else to go?
How many birds, insects and small animals die during the planting, cultivation and harvesting of that field?
What died so that you could eat today?
The deer lived free. If not for the hunter, it would die of disease, or starvation, or killed by predators, or of winter conditions, or be hit by a car. But it would still die, as will you and I.
Demonizing hunters speaks less of the judgements heaped upon them, and more of the disconnect the accuser has with the reality of the Universe and the source of his or her own nourishment.
(BTW, I think it WAS demonstrated that the circus animals were treated humanely – just that our friend Jettboy didn’t seem to give a shit whether they were or not)
My two brothers and I found turkey sign (fresh tracks after a rain, IIRC), located the birds over a period of several hours, and they slowly and gently herded one (we had no idea it was the tom at the time) through very heavy undergrowth until I had a shot. I took it, it was clean, and I put a turkey broadhead right through him, from about 35 feet. If it had been through and through, I’d have lost him, but the arrow stuck and inhibited his flight.
He was delicious.
Maybe. If that point was directed at me, I have no idea what you mean.
Ok. So they drove it to you. That is still a completely awesome feat of skill both on your part and your brothers.
I took your initial post to mean that you snuck up on it and shot it yourself, which would have been a notch above awesome and well into unbelievably godlike skills.
How dare you.
He’s got the restraining order to prove it !
Honestly though, I can’t blame him. Have you seen the centerfolds for Gobbler monthly ?
My family members are avid deer, squirrel, duck, and quail hunters We have a 600 acre property set up for all of it although I haven’t been there in years. When I made a kill or two (it was most likely other group members did), it meant the worst part was over. I love the woods and even camping by myself for a few days at a time but I just don’t have the discipline for good hunting skills like you and my brother do. I respect people like you for that but it often sucks badly to be out in those cold, early, damp conditions and it doesn’t appeal to everyone. I just wanted to get a nice warm nap while they prepped the game for dinner.
That said, it is a fine sport that takes a lot of skill and some talent and I completely respect it. People that engage in truly bad hunting practices are called poachers and in my native state of Louisiana, “The Sportman’s Paradise”, you would probably be better off killing a person than spotlighting and killing a bunch of deer. It is taken extremely seriously and Game Wardens are about the scariest law enforcement officials around. I have always been fascinated by the guns themselves and precision shooting a lot more (during more reasonable hours).
No no. Turkeys are far too cagey for that. It took three of us to outsmart one.
Boooooooooooo! 
Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry!
No – the OP. I have no problem with hunting – most of my family is big on hunting.
No, if you read the previous thread, he’s all, meh, they’re just animals. Now he’s a big time animal rights dude. Huh? Especially when the case here is that animals are being killed humanely, where in the last thread, it was being argued that there was potential animal abuse.
I get it totally, but have no inclination to partake, though the fat asses of my local squirrels leave me wanting to at least shin a BB off 'em to see how far they can jump.
Diff’rent strokes, and all.
Scylla, I do hate to interrupt with facts, but you do know that the “gathering” part of the equation provides most of the calories? Just checking.
(Like I said before, no issue with hunting - my dad would have starved as a child without squirrels, literally. But let’s be factual - in hunter gatherer societies it’s the women who pretty much provide for the tribe.)
Can we get a cite for this, if we’re being factual? Berries and the like aren’t high in caloric density, whereas a single buffalo could feed a lot of people.
You do have a cite? Right?
I guess that depends on the particular group we were talking about and the time of year, but yes, you are quite correct in saying that our ancestors’ diet was primarily on the gathering side.
We evolved in such a specialized way to run and hunt because those groups that could reliably supplement with meat had a big advantage.
Interestingly, this revelation about the route of our evolution coming through “persistence hunting” solved a quiet but notable problem in Anthropology.
Doubtless you’ve heard the tale that superior Cro Magnon replaced inept Neanderthal. The truth is somewhat different. At the time Cro Magnon came on the scene, Neanderthals were living in large complex tribes, cooking meat in stone ovens, burying their dead, caring for their sick and wounded and hunting after the largest game in complex interractive groups using sophisticated weapons.
Neanderthal was much bigger and stronger than us, and arguably more intelligent. They had larger brains.
So… the embarassing question was: How does weak, sissy, disorganized, and stupid Cro magnon man outcompete Neanderthals? No sane betting person would have put money on us.
Well, we could run long distances. Neanderthal could not. They’re not built for it. In the fossil record there are these cases of Neanderthals with rodeo type injuries from (presumably) trying to take down all this big game.
Persistance hunting though, is a pretty sure thing. You go after the fast animals that are much more plentiful and of which there is a large variety. Instead of fighting them, you just chase them until they collapse. You don’t need weapons, you don’t have to get hurt, and, apparently, from the few groups that still practice it today, it’s a pretty sure thing.
It’s a lot more flexible and elegant a style of hunting, and it pretty much moved us from scavengers to the top of the food chain, as no other animal practices that type of hunting.