Why did I do it?

[rustysocket]

To hunt, I say
     Go afield for a day.
Even though it may be harsh
     Hunt the endless marsh.
I don't hunt to live any more.
Now it's live to hunt even if I don't score.
I'll show my son
     And we'll have fun.
You must understand, we must stay in touch with the land.


In my mind, it is about the tradition.  I do enjoy the meals that I prepare from the things I harvest.  I thanks the One who gave the animals to me.  This may be the other side of the coin, but it is the way I feel.  And it is okay if you don't agree!

I will also be one of the first to step up and protect your rights to hunt, teach your children to do the same and continue to pass on the traditions. 

[Grover]

We have a serious squirrel problem in my neighborhood.  They keep chewing through,among other things, my cable line.

I identify with the OP's feelings because I've had them myself at times; but my pangs of guilt don't last long.

I view it simply as home defense.  Filthy varmints.

Edit:  Except for Snowflake.

[Oldgringo]

We have a serious squirrel problem in my neighborhood.  They keep chewing through,among other things, my cable line.

I identify with the OP's feelings because I've had them myself at times; but my pangs of guilt don't last long.

I view it simply as home defense.  Filthy varmints.

Edit:  Except for Snowflake.

Maybe southern squirrels have better manners?   

[Bicycleman]

We have a serious squirrel problem in my neighborhood.  They keep chewing through,among other things, my cable line.

I identify with the OP's feelings because I've had them myself at times; but my pangs of guilt don't last long.

I view it simply as home defense.  Filthy varmints.

Edit:  Except for Snowflake.

I had to take a second look before I saw that little darling. 

[pault]

I used to feel that any gun I owned wasn't properly christened until I shot game with it-no longer feel that way although I still hunt.
People evolve.

[Hoosier Daddy]

It's ok to not want to kill.
It's ok to sport hunt.
I live on prime deer and turkey property and will let one or two trusted hunters harvest here... but I don't.
In my younger days I loved stompin the brush piles for Bunnies or scouting for squirrels with my .410...  feeling one with nature. There was open season on those darn Red squirrels.
Now, I only shoot the troublesome Ground Hog, or Opossum maybe something else that is causing damage to my immediate area. But that's about it.
Oh except Canadian geese... filthy, over populated, disease carrying critters here. They taunt me so!

Thank GOD I don't have Rats... they would HAVE to go.  HEEVEY JEEVIES... BLAAAH!

[DEAN]

Ive hunted all my life and still deer hunt, squirrel and occasionally rabbit hunt.. had beagles for 40 yrs. and loved hunting with them..
Anything I kill other then pigeons, Starlings,occasional coyote and English sparrows is to eat.. I do not shoot deer in my woods nor squirrels off my feeders, I put the food out so its my fault the squirrels come to eat it and I have a lot of squirrels, sometimes will have 10-15 squirrels on ground under feeder at a time.. in 20 yrs I've shot 2 squirrels in my yard one a really old boar squirrel was chewing the heck out of my deck railing, tried chasing him away at least a dozen times but wouldn't give up so he was shot, another really old boar squirrel grabbed a male Cardinal off feeder while I was watching and ripped it to shreds, he's no longer with us either..
 Killing an animal because it "might" do damage is not pest control its just killing to kill and killing animals off or under feeders is the same thing because 99 percent of them are not going to harm a thing..
Love to hunt and have killed literally thousands of animals to eat and to rid a area of invasive species but cant kill stuff to have a kill tally or just to say I killed something.
Everyone has to do what they think it ethical and morally right.

[dwalk]

I don't kill unnecessarily. few creatures, around here where I live, are destructive enough to warrant killing.

in fact, most are more enjoyable just to watch or see.

a while back, I was grooming our mare and I noticed a big bobcat watching me from the woodlot next to us...almost as if it were asking me to groom it, too. unless it was trying to get at me, or the mare, I would not harvest.

[Onebaddj]

Dude if you do not enjoy it or harvest anything from it then dont hunt. No shame in that. Paper punch your heart out. Haste makes waste brother and we are taught not to waste. Most of us were anyway.

[Killo Coonadillo]

Well I am sympathetic toward OP's position.
Growing up, we shot everything that moved.
As I got older, I started having a conservation type attitude which I still have.
However there are pests that sometimes have to be taken out and I am still a varmit hunter as my user name suggests.
But now I never shoot anything without a very good reason...and that is that animal has qualified itself as a pest.

I (we) mostly target shoot nowdays.

[CENTURION]

I had to take out 1/2 dozen or so monks this year, they're cute little devils but they started invading my property, landscaping, shed, fences they were eating or burrowing everywhere, I was afraid they were going to infest interior walls. I viewed them as destructive invaders, my 317 dispatched them instantly. The squirrels seem to know their place, never had to eliminate them and in fact I make sure they are well fed all winter. Never fun to shoot these guys for problems like that. I have friends that have horror stories on monks, wires in cars chewed, inside walls with holes, lots of damage for such a small animal.

[aceflier]

Squirrels here keep getting in my garage attic. I cover the venting with chicken wire and they chew through it. So every nutter in my yard is a threat same with racoons as they climb in after the stupid nutters chew up the wire. Amazing the size a hole a racoon can fit in.

I also like hunting nutters in the early season before deer and coyote season. But we eat what we take at my house. Minus the racoons and yotes but I do keep the furs. Mainly I kill the coyotes cause they kill the deer. They have also desimated the grouse/rabbit and quail in Indiana. I've seen 1 rabbit all hunting season its sad.

[DEAN]

its not the coyotes that are decimating the rabbits, quail etc, its the farmers taking out all the fence rows, weed patches etc to make room for more crops.. where there's good habitat there's always rabbits and quail no matter how many coyotes are around.. when I rabbit hunted Central Indiana(now live in Parke county) a lot in the mid 70`s and 80`s it was easy to find lots of rabbits/quail used to take my dogs out every afternoon and usually killed my limit before dark..then farmers started taking out all the weed patches/fence rows and by the 90`s there wasn't hardly any rabbits left.
Theres a few places around me where the farmers let CRP grow up around the edges of their fields out about 30 yds and these places are loaded with rabbits and quiet a few quail..coyotes have a hard time catching them if they have adequate cover such as briars and stuff to get into..
The good ole days of small game hunting in Indiana are pretty much gone except for squirrel hunting still tons of them..

Squirrels here keep getting in my garage attic. I cover the venting with chicken wire and they chew through it. So every nutter in my yard is a threat same with racoons as they climb in after the stupid nutters chew up the wire. Amazing the size a hole a racoon can fit in.

I also like hunting nutters in the early season before deer and coyote season. But we eat what we take at my house. Minus the racoons and yotes but I do keep the furs. Mainly I kill the coyotes cause they kill the deer. They have also desimated the grouse/rabbit and quail in Indiana. I've seen 1 rabbit all hunting season its sad.

[RinCG]

We have a serious squirrel problem in my neighborhood.  They keep chewing through,among other things, my cable line.

I identify with the OP's feelings because I've had them myself at times; but my pangs of guilt don't last long.

I view it simply as home defense.  Filthy varmints.

Edit:  Except for Snowflake.

Huh? One of 6 "flakes" escaped to the other Grove! Had been wondering where they went. Didn't think squacks migrated though and why they would move further North!? Yes this CG had 6 snowflakes less than 150 feet from me. Had a leucistic pair of Robins this year...must be from all the lead in the ground?

Greg, since September 2015 I can account for 337 reasons why you made that choice. You're going to be fine, and trust me, as will the squack population also(may even be better because you made the correct choice).

[Technical Ted]

I find the older I get, the more I value life... whether it's mine, someone else's or some critter. Don't get me wrong, if I had a "reason" to terminate something, I would and still do. But, if it's not hurting anything I feel it's got as much right to live as I do.


Just my two cents,
Ted

[TwiceHorn]

I'm all for ethical hunting.  I don't do it hardly anymore, but I might if I get an invitation.  I'm a city dweller and don't have a lease or other access to land.  Which is a major reason I like airguns.

That said, when I was maybe 11, I was patrolling the back yard with my Daisy Pal, which was low-powered enough to almost be safe.  I saw a sparrow or wren up on the power line, drew a bead on it with the fixed iron sights and blam.  To my surprise, it dropped like a rock into the alley.  I went and watched that bird die.  I felt pretty bad and remember that 40 years later.  That was senseless killing and I wasn't happy with it.  So I haven't done it since.

We have a lot of mockingbirds, bluejays, robins, cardinals, cowbirds, squirrels and grackles around and the occasional coon and possum.  None of them have ever gotten in the house, although the squirrels sometimes dig up my wife's bulbs and that annoys her.  But I don't shoot them anymore.  I'd rather just watch em.  And watch the cats watch em.

I might waste a coyote near an urban neighborhood before it got someone's pet(s), but that's about it for varminting.

[Oldgringo]

I did shoot a few cowbirds off of the bird feeder back in the spring.  Cowbirds are the most nasty of all birds.

[Steelontarget]

Greg.  Perhaps this might make you feel a little better.

I used to fly in a lot of air shows in the late 1980s.  I flew with a lot of WWII veterans.  A lot of WWII vets from all the services would tell me their stories.  My own Father talked to me a lot about WWII after I went in the military.

I also had the honor of talking to a lot of POWs from that war.  Except for two, all of the POWs that I met were captured in the ETO.  I'll never forget those two gentlemen that I met, who were captured by the Japanese.

They talked to me about their experiences.  For some reason, I felt compelled to ask, "Did you ever have to eat rats?"

Their answer was, "Yes, we ate a lot of rats."

"What's a rat taste like?"

"It's sort of like eating a squirrel."

Now do you feel better?

[Oldgringo]

Greg.  Perhaps this might make you feel a little better.

I used to fly in a lot of air shows in the late 1980s.  I flew with a lot of WWII veterans.  A lot of WWII vets from all the services would tell me their stories.  My own Father talked to me a lot about WWII after I went in the military.

I also had the honor of talking to a lot of POWs from that war.  Except for two, all of the POWs that I met were captured in the ETO.  I'll never forget those two gentlemen that I met, who were captured by the Japanese.

They talked to me about their experiences.  For some reason, I felt compelled to ask, "Did you ever have to eat rats?"

Their answer was, "Yes, we ate a lot of rats."

"What's a rat taste like?"

"It's sort of like eating a squirrel."

Now do you feel better?

I've ate a lot of squirrels, rabbits, dove, quail, chukkar, pheasant, ducks, geese, deer, elk, and even bear.  I used to skin the squirrels including the tail and leave the cartilage on it for my mother to guess whether I'd brought home squirrels or rats.  I thought that was a lot funnier than she did, bless her heart.

I ain't never ate a rat that I know of; however, I do favor Chinese food of the Schezhuan variety.  Except for the Chinese food, the game shooting and eating days are pretty much behind me.

[Steelontarget]

I ain't never ate a rat that I know of; however, I do favor Chinese food of the Schezhuan variety.  Except for the Chinese food, the game shooting and eating days are pretty much behind me.

Put enough spices (or ranch dressing or tobasco sauce) on anything and it will taste good.