How many hunters do we have?

[carver]

Well bow season starts here in MS on the 1st, I'm headed out to do a little more scouting this morning. It got me wondering how many members we have that hunt, and how important is it to get in the woods?
ETA: I'm every season, every chance I get.

I'm an avid hunter, have hunted all my life (since age 9), and really enjoy being out in the great outdoors. I used to bow hunt but haven't hunted with a bow for several years now, due to age, and arthritus. Will be purchasing a good cross bow this month, so will be back into bow hunting again. Gun season for me means that the first legal deer to show up gets shot. I only hunt for meat, not antelers. Although I do use them when I can get them. A flint napper here! After the first deer, I switch to revolver hunting only, for deer. The same is true for squirles. After I have about a dozen in the box, I start hunting them with a pistol. Just me and the wife at home now days, so it doesn't take much to fill up our small freezer. While I am a hunter, I don't like the canned hunts. I will personally never do one. To me that is just target shooting for bragging rights. I was glad to hear from those that don't hunt, but still support our right to do so. There are just too many people in this country that hate hunters and everything they stand for. As some one else posted, humans are omnivorous, all of us. In our society we get to have a chance to make the decision to become vegetarians due to the availability of fresh produce every where we go. And that's OK. But, if mankind found himself in a society that required hunting and gathering, there would be no vegetarians. Having said that, hey, if you don't like hunting, or eating meat, that's cool! Just leaves more for me!

Y'all be safe now, ya hear!

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[JonInNY]

Thought for the day:

If vegetarians eat vegetables, what do humanatarians eat?

[goawayfarm]

This has been an interesting thread. At first I didn't think it would go very far......DC.com never ceases to surprise me.

I hunt regularly. I don't trophy hunt, I hunt for the meat. Over the years I have killed a lot of deer & never have I mounted any of them. I don't see hunting as affecting my ego in any way. I don't see any difference between my providing the meat by hunting, than letting someone else provide it at the grocery store. (Although it's a lot fresher if I provide it.)

Here in Virginia, we have an overpopulation of deer. As a result the deer are causing a lot of crop damage as well as having moved into the suburbs where the eat everybody's shrubbery. They also cause a lot of vehicle damage by being hit by automobiles. The lack of hunting is a leading cause of this........These populations must be controlled, or the damage & disease they cause will be huge.

The other hunting I tend to do the most of (...& enjoy the most!) is predator hunting. Where I live, I don't have trouble with cougars, but I do have coyote, fox & even raccoons that are a constant nuisance.

No matter what those that are against hunting say....It is necessary if man & animal are to coexist. Proper wild life management is needed & most states are doing a fair job of it. However as hunting decreases, the problems caused by wildlife will increase.

I look at conservation the way Teddy Roosevelt did..... I think areas of the country need good management of hunting & NOT BANISHMENT as many of the antis would like the rest of us to believe.

[Ron]

[QUOTE=goawayfarm;861659]This has been an interesting thread. At first I didn't think it would go very far......DC.com never ceases to surprise me.
QUOTE]

Me too. And what is most interesting is that this was a topic which could have gone down hill very quickly, but it never did.

I must admit that I posted my first "I don't like hunting" post with a certain amount of trepidation. Yet, with 78 posts, not one nasty, rude or flaming post that I read. IMO, that is really a credit to the members of this Forum.

[cdwolf]

Well it looks like 80% of responders will spend some time in the woods this year! To me hunting is a tradition that I've been doing my whole life. Taking a animal is second to a few hours in the morning watching the woods come alive!! No cell phones, no distractions, just nature and quite time to clear your head! It's good to see so many vast responses,and yes this forum and members is amazing, I'm proud to be a part of!!

[sgtD]

I am primarily a quail and pheasant hunter. (One of God's greatest gifts to mankind is a bird dog.) However I like all kinds of hunting. I have hunted ducks, and hunt deer and hog too. When I was a kid I shot lots of rabbits and squirrels too. I grew up shooting, fishing, and hunting and still love it.

I have taken Hogs with muzzle loader and bow, I got a deer with my bow in Jan of this year, I shot a deer with a shotgun a few years back. I'll put it this way, if I couldn't hunt and fish, I don't think I'd have much reason to work.

I have also served on the board of directors of two habitat organizations and have aided in raising 10s of thousands of dollars for conservation efforts. I did my undergraduate research project on disturbance ecology as it related to quail habitat and worked as an intern for the FL Fish and wildlife comission on a multi year quail research project, doing trapping and radio telemetry monitoring to gather information on nest success and predation (both human and non-human). I am a conservationist of the Aldo Leopold school, and believe in the wise use and management of resources which includes mankind as a predator, steward and a natural part of the ecosystem. I am generally opposed to the Muir school of preservationism, which totally seeks to exclude mankind from the natural world.

The way I see it, my ancestors didn't scratch and claw their way to the top of the food chain so that I could eat salad.

[Agave]

I do not understand people who do not eat meat, as humans are not meant to be vegetarians

I don't understand vegetarians at all, especially when their reasons are political. I do know that meat is tasty.

My reasons are not at all political. However, it is widely accepted that vegetarians live longer.

I eat little meat; I actually wish it were possible for me to be vegetarian (or rather pescaterian). I still hunt anything and everything that I have opportunity provided that the animals are given away.

Consequences of not hunting are grave for both people and animals. Whitetail are road hazards. They also are overpopulated. Too many animals mean that some of them starve.

G-d told us which ones to eat for a reason.

I have had venison. I have had it fancifully prepared at a restaurant

I carried a venison shoulder to my Mexican buddies at a restaurant. They made venison chimichanga; it was incredible. It's generally illegal to sell game meat; I made it clear to them that they can't and they promised that they wouldn't.

[Squawker]

"My reasons are not at all political. However, it is widely accepted that vegetarians live longer."

No, it just SEEMS like it!"

[mech1369dlw]

I was put on this earth to hunt and eat white tail deer. I will let deer walk right by me just to extend the season so I don't miss a minute of it. Rabbits, squirrels, birds, etc etc. all find home in my freezer. Been going at it since 1968, missed a few while overseas, but now every minute I can. When not hunting, I am fishing. I am a member of PETA. People Eating Tasty Animals

[7mm Gumbo]

As a follow up tp my Sept 29 post.......Got a goat..... Sat morning about 8:45. sorry no pics.....Doe, she weighed 82 lbs at the check station. This is my first ever antelope and I am now hooked on hunting those rascals.