Bitter Sweat....

[lerch]

You talk about people running game on atv's to the point of exhaustion. I have recently seen 2 videos of guys on dune buggys chasing coyotes for a long long long time and eventually shooting them with buck shot for the kill. Know I love yote huntin and i actually thumped one this last weekend while deer hunting with a good chest shot but never found him, which made me feel bad and very confused how he survived the shot which completely dropped him.

Now in this video the second dog was so run down he was at a trot that most of us could have kept up with. I am not one to try to put myself in the place of the animal but hell you got to think what that poor suckers last moments were like. Being a animal that survives on speed and endurance and you are chased to the point where you might succumb to sickness anyway, and then being dropped to the sound of cheers and laughter for you effort!!!! I aint trying to sound like a PETA card holder but can you hand them any better flags to wave??? It honestly made me sick to my stomach to see it and more ****ed off than you can imagine! While i wont lie to you and say i hold a coyote or pdog in the same regard as a deer or elk this poor sucker deserved a better way out of this world and our sport **** sure deserves better examples on the web.

 

[Festus]

Kirby,

I share your sentiments and respect for our quarry. I chose not to hunt deer this year because they struggled to survive a severe winter last year. Many of them didn't make it. No, we don't get the extreme cold here in SE Alaska that you get in MT, but we get a lot of snow on occasion. Last year we had a lot of such occasions.

The snow forces the deer to the beach where they can't get any lower. They can't find enough food and end up eating kelp and other seaweed on the beaches that doesn't supply enough nutrition and contains far too much salt. It only prolongs their agony.

Hunting reports this year are dismal. There are a few deer being taken but not many, and mature bucks are really rare. They are so scarce in fact that spike bucks (that were lucky enough to survive the winter) have rut swollen necks and are breeding. Nothing wrong with that, their genes are probably as good as the mature bucks would have been, but they would normally be chased off by the bigger bucks. Not so this year.

If we get a normal or mild winter this year, the deer will rebound nicely, most does giving birth to twins as feed is good and competition for it is low. On the other hand it remains to be seen if there were enough surviving bucks to service the does. If we have another bad winter now the herd will be decimated and take years to rebound.

Isn't it nice not to be the only guy getting mushy in the head. I'll go there proudly with you.

Rick

 

[MT4XFore]

Kirby, You're not getting mushy in your old age ( oh give me a break!) just wiser. I too have found that as I get older the need to kill something seems to be less important each year. Oh, by the time hunting season rolls around again, I'm chompin' at the bit to get out there, but when I do the need to kill something seems to diminish somewhat. I still love to eat venison, so I try to keep my freezer comfortably stocked with it, but my need to try to "outdo" or keep up with my friends gets less and less each year. In Germany when an animal is killed the Jagermeister cuts a green twig and puts it in the animals mouth as a symbol of its last meal as a way of paying homage to the animal and thanking it for the meat it is about to provide. I too thank my maker whenever my shot is successful on a big game animal. There is nothing wrong with any of that. The "antis" of the world can't understand how we can profess to love these creatures and still hunt them. They will never understand either. So, no, you're not mushy, just maturing and your priorities are changing a bit. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings with us. Your honesty is one the things that sets you apart from the rest of us. God Bless
Jim

 

[NONYA]

If you were trulyy saddened by killing animals you wouldnt continue to do it,I think its more of an adrenaline dump that causes a flood of emotions when we harvest game.I do say godbye to my A tag though with a tear in my eye and promise to visit him again next year.

 

[Fiftydriver]

Nonya,

I thank you for your reply but have to respectfully disagree with your last comment.

I feel a great sense of loss when I walk up to an animal I have just killed. In a way I supose it is a sense of guilt for taking the life of such a majestic animal, no matter if there are antlers on the head or not.

Personally, I do not know how you can not feel bad to some degree when you kill an animal, even a large trophy.

Guess we just look at things differently which is perfectly alright.

As far as the adrenaline dump, I can honestly say I have never shot a buck that really gave me the shakes or got me overly gittery after the shot. Again, that is what I ment by the actual killing is not what I get a rush out of but again, thats just me.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts, they are no more right or wrong them mine, just different.

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[AJ Peacock]

If you were trulyy saddened by killing animals you wouldnt continue to do it,I think its more of an adrenaline dump that causes a flood of emotions when we harvest game....

I always have a twinge of true sadness for the animal that I've harvested; I'm thankful for the gift, which offsets those feelings. Occasionally I feel truly hurtfully bad about one, its usually really big and really far from the road; thats when I am most likely to question the wisdom of hunting, after I get it back to the truck, that feeling goes completely away though

AJ

 

[Coyboy]

AJ, That I agree with, a long pack makes me question my pursuit as well.

Since were all getting older and may-be a little more game sensitive, I too have noticed some lingering remorse. Mostly I think about the feeling of being shot or arrowed, and how that truely must feel to an animal. That said I don't need some one telling me the BS about animals not feeling pain.

Mostly I feel sorry for the animals who are wounded and unrecovered, that will suffer a slow death, which will hopfully be quickened by a coyote/wolf/bear. One of my friends had too shoot a buck with no lower jaw this gun season!

My deer season is over for the year even though there is plenty of oportunities left. With 5 deer and one antelope in the freezer I had all the hoof killing I can stand for the year.

coyotes have paws!