Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

I understand hunters who hunt to eat. But I don't understand hunting for sport. I grew up in New York City and have been a city guy all my life, so I have not been exposed to hunting. But why kill a living animal for sport?

Mods: feel free to move to a more appropriate forum if you think it proper.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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I understand hunters who hunt to eat. But I don't understand hunting for sport. I grew up in New York City and have been a city guy all my life, so I have not been exposed to hunting. But why kill a living animal for sport?

Mods: feel free to move to a more appropriate forum if you think it proper.

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It simply can't be explained to you.

I grew up in Westchester and I get it.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

A good answer would be because you can. Some people find it enjoyable and its not really a terrible thing so ill allow it.

I dont understand masturbating while standing on my head, but if someone does then more power to them.

FWIW ive never killed anything so i dont really get it either.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

I grew up in Wisconsin and hunted as a young man, as all WI youths do. My whole family still hunts, and I never then, nor now, see the sport in killing animals with a gun. At least with archery there's some technique involved. But gun hunting is a joke.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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I understand hunters who hunt to eat. But I don't understand hunting for sport. I grew up in New York City and have been a city guy all my life, so I have not been exposed to hunting. But why kill a living animal for sport?

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I'll toss out a few bones and see who pounces:

The challenge.

It gets one out of the house.

It is a blood ritual. (done on 'innocent' animals instead of fellow humans in this case)

Bonding ritual for those that hunt in packs.

An excuse to exhibit power over something (Freud must have had something to say about all this)

For practice - so you can be sure to hit your spouse on the first shot. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

-Zeno

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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I grew up in Wisconsin and hunted as a young man, as all WI youths do.

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Holla

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At least with archery there's some technique involved. But gun hunting is a joke.

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Depends how you do it, I guess. We have to use scents and calls to attract em and then you still have to account for some things (wind, shrubs that could deflect the shot, etc). Some of our rifles don't have scopes.

Last time we got deer while hunting (3 years ago I believe), my grandpa took two deer in one spot, one of them on the run after the first one went down. Pretty impressive for a guy who's in his 70's using a .30-06 bolt action with no scope.

Re: Andy's OP, I don't know any hunters who don't either eat what they shoot themselves or donate it to charities. I would probably look down on a hunter that just killed animals for sport and then did nothing with the carcass, as would, I think, most hunters.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

bloodlust and power lol

I like to hunt the does with piano wire tied to two handgrips...sneak up behind them and strangle them.

I do it on the farm where they are trained to come and eat the grass and not be afraid of people b/c I can't run as fast as them.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

I'm a pretty typical non-hunting city liberal, but anyone who eats meat and has a problem with hunting is a complete dilltard in my view. For that matter, anyone who's not a vegan and has a problem with it. Actually vegans, too.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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I'm a pretty typical non-hunting city liberal, but anyone who eats meat and has a problem with hunting is a complete dilltard in my view. For that matter, anyone who's not a vegan and has a problem with it. Actually vegans, too.

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Why am I not exempt as a vegan?

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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Re: Andy's OP, I don't know any hunters who don't either eat what they shoot themselves or donate it to charities. I would probably look down on a hunter that just killed animals for sport and then did nothing with the carcass, as would, I think, most hunters.

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This is a legitimate and good point that most hunters do not hunt just for the Kill or the Sport. In fact, this is rather rare in my opinion (except perhaps in some instances of 'Big Game Hunting') but I have no statistics to back up this assertion.

-Zeno

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

An excuse to go to an exotic locale; Kodiak Alaska, Africa, etc, with your beer drinking buddies. Nobody wants to be a pussy and bring only a camera along.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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bloodlust and power lol

I like to hunt the does with piano wire tied to two handgrips...sneak up behind them and strangle them.

I do it on the farm where they are trained to come and eat the grass and not be afraid of people b/c I can't run as fast as them.

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Some more interesting things to think about:

Anthropoetics

Bible Blood

Sacrifice


-Zeno

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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I understand hunters who hunt to eat. But I don't understand hunting for sport. I grew up in New York City and have been a city guy all my life, so I have not been exposed to hunting. But why kill a living animal for sport?

Mods: feel free to move to a more appropriate forum if you think it proper.

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I personally wouldn't hunt just for sport, but it is a fact that hunting is necessary to keep many wild animal populations in check and healthy (many of their natural predators have been removed). So, if someone sees it as sporting and by hunting is also helping keep to the herds healthier, well, they are accomplishing a good thing even if for a reason I personally wouldn't choose.

I don't like the idea of extreme blood sports just for fun, and don't relate well to the motivation; but hunting is more than just a blood sport, even if the hunters irresponsibly waste the meat. Illegal poaching is a different matter though, and no longer fits under the qualification of helping keep wild animal populations at healthy levels.

Are you really asking why some people like bloodlust and power over other living things? No doubt that is the (perhaps hidden) motivation for some hunters. Other hunters are consciously concerned about conservation and environmental issues and have a lot of respect for the wild animals they kill.

Also, if one eats meat but frowns on hunting, there is probably some sort of disconnect occurring between the emotional and rational parts of the mind on that issue. A person paying others to slaughter their food is just as much a killer as is a hunter or a slaughterhouse operator - they just insulate themselves psychologically from dealing directly on an emotional level with the effects of their actions of paying others to do their killing for them. Again, for many there is a disconnect between the emotional and the rational on such issues - and many probably like it that way, as they aren't forced to feel badly too often or too much about it, and are mostly able to avoid facing the stark reality of what it means to eat meat.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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I'm a pretty typical non-hunting city liberal, but anyone who eats meat and has a problem with hunting is a complete dilltard in my view. For that matter, anyone who's not a vegan and has a problem with it. Actually vegans, too.

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Why am I not exempt as a vegan?

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Because they annoy me and their cookies taste bad. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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but it is a fact that hunting is necessary to keep many wild animal populations in check and healthy (many of their natural predators have been removed).

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Along these lines, in parts of Africa, certain animals such as elephants would be extinct if it weren’t for privately owned hunting concessions. Private owners have the incentive to not only keep the animal population thriving, but to also kill poachers.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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but it is a fact that hunting is necessary to keep many wild animal populations in check and healthy (many of their natural predators have been removed).

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Along these lines, in parts of Africa, certain animals such as elephants would be extinct if it weren’t for privately owned hunting concessions. Private owners have the incentive to not only keep the animal population thriving, but to also kill poachers.

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Thank you for the interesting factoid.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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but it is a fact that hunting is necessary to keep many wild animal populations in check and healthy (many of their natural predators have been removed).

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Along these lines, in parts of Africa, certain animals such as elephants would be extinct if it weren’t for privately owned hunting concessions. Private owners have the incentive to not only keep the animal population thriving, but to also kill poachers.

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Solution to the tragedy of the commons at work, folks. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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I think Russia is legalizing polar bear hunting for the same reasons.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

What's the deal with model trains??

http://www.ferendeci.com/trains/Navi...dTrain2-tn.jpg

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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I understand hunters who hunt to eat. But I don't understand hunting for sport. I grew up in New York City and have been a city guy all my life, so I have not been exposed to hunting. But why kill a living animal for sport?

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I'm a NYC guy also and I've never understood it either. Must be a cultural thing. I'm sure if I grew up around it I'd think it perfectly normal.

But I didn't, so I see sitting in the woods waiting to kill a defenseless animal as a rather strange way to spend one's free time. But then again lots of people think playing online poker is a dumb hobby, so to each his own I guess.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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but it is a fact that hunting is necessary to keep many wild animal populations in check and healthy (many of their natural predators have been removed).

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Along these lines, in parts of Africa, certain animals such as elephants would be extinct if it weren’t for privately owned hunting concessions. Private owners have the incentive to not only keep the animal population thriving, but to also kill poachers.

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Solution to the tragedy of the commons at work, folks. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Private ownership is not a panacea though. It stops poachers, but it does not necessarily stop overhunting by individual landowners. As long as people value animals more highly dead than alive, stopping overhunting is a serious problem even with private ownership. If the species in question is migratory and many different people own land in that species' range, then each landowner will have an incentive to kill as many of that animal as possible while that animal is on their land because they know that is exactly what everyone else will be doing. Of course, in theory, there are ways that you can contract around this problem, but the transaction costs and costs of enforcement may be prohibitively high. Also, it is not guaranteed that all the landowners will be rational and want to preserve the long term viability of the species contractually. They may just want to make as much money in the short term as possibly by killing every animal in sight.

There are really two solutions to this problem:
1. This is actually an instance where a monopoly can be good thing. If one landowner owns the entire range of land in which a particular species inhabits, then he will have an incentive to conserve the species because he does not have to worry about other landowners killing those animals as they migrate.
2. If there is strong tourist industry in which landowners can make more money by showing the animals to rich white people rather than killing them.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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Re: Andy's OP, I don't know any hunters who don't either eat what they shoot themselves or donate it to charities. I would probably look down on a hunter that just killed animals for sport and then did nothing with the carcass, as would, I think, most hunters.

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This is a legitimate and good point that most hunters do not hunt just for the Kill or the Sport. In fact, this is rather rare in my opinion (except perhaps in some instances of 'Big Game Hunting') but I have no statistics to back up this assertion.

-Zeno

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I don't know anyone who doesn't take the meat from game animals. You can get the trophy and still eat the meat. The common shoulder mount you see, which is the neck to the antlers, doesn't waste much of the meat. The idea of killing game and letting it lay after taking a trophy mainly comes from foreign poachers selling ivory or tiger penis or some such.

There are several reasons why hunters go after trophy bucks. They are rare in the same way a 34D-24-36 female human is rare, they are the best genetic specimens of the breed. A true trophy buck is older, 4-5 years old. They have proven their cunning by surviving mother nature and .30-06 for several years. They are much more careful than the yearling bucks and it takes a lot of preparation in the off season scouting to have a decent chance at a trophy buck.

There are also types of hunting where you don't eat the meat. I guess it would be more like pest control. When you catch a mouse in a mousetrap, or step on a spider, do you eat the meat?

Many people consider shooting groundhogs, raccoons, skunks, coyotes, feral cats, prairie dogs, etc just like catching a mouse in a trap. They are overpopulated nuisance animals and if they come on your property you get rid of them. Its probably more like pest control than hunting, although people do travel and pay $$$ for prairie dog or coyote hunting. There are so many coyotes in the forest preserves here, the foxes are pushed out, I had foxes living in my backyard all last fall. (No, I did not shoot them). Also, on the public land where I hunt they are practically begging for people to hunt coyote in the off season.

Ranchers will sometimes pay to have you shoot coyotes on their land, and you can also get some money for decent pelts. Another thing that gets a bad rap is trapping and most trappers use traps that you can release the animal unharmed. Also the animals don't really chew their paws off, they sometimes even go to sleep. You don't need sharp toothed steel jaws to hold a fox or raccoon.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

Yeah, but nothing dies a violent death when you get your kicks playing on-line poker.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

"if one eats meat but frowns on hunting, there is probably some sort of disconnect occurring between the emotional and rational parts of the mind on that issue."

I eat animals. I have no qualms about it. I'm asking why someone would hunt for sport and not have qualms about it.

I'm anything but an animal rights guy.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

I gave you a fat one right over the plate, didn't I?

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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"if one eats meat but frowns on hunting, there is probably some sort of disconnect occurring between the emotional and rational parts of the mind on that issue."

I eat animals. I have no qualms about it. I'm asking why someone would hunt for sport and not have qualms about it.

I'm anything but an animal rights guy.

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Well, many sport hunters are aware that they are doing the animal population some good by helping keep the herds down to healthy levels.

Some of other sport hunters, though, are probably just thoughtless or insensitive, or even sadistic bastards. Maybe that's what you're trying to get at?

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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Well, many sport hunters are aware that they are doing the animal population some good by helping keep the herds down to healthy levels.

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Again this is probably because I'm a wimpy non-gun-owning city guy...

but there's a big difference to me between "helping the animal population" and "shooting a defenseless deer".

My assumption is that the act of shooting the defenseless animal involves SOME sort of enjoyment on the part of the hunter. It's not like he wakes up on a Saturday morning and says, "damn I hate shooting deer but I've got a moral duty to help their overpopulation problem."

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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Well, many sport hunters are aware that they are doing the animal population some good by helping keep the herds down to healthy levels.

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Again this is probably because I'm a wimpy non-gun-owning city guy...

but there's a big difference to me between "helping the animal population" and "shooting a defenseless deer".

My assumption is that the act of shooting the defenseless animal involves SOME sort of enjoyment on the part of the hunter. It's not like he wakes up on a Saturday morning and says, "damn I hate shooting deer but I've got a moral duty to help their overpopulation problem."

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True, but I don't think the enjoyment necessarily comes from killing a living creature. It comes from the challenge of the hunt. Let me put it this way: if someone invented mechanical deer that behaved and looked exactly like real deer, I bet most hunters would have no problems hunting the mechanical deer.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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True, but I don't think the enjoyment necessarily comes from killing a living creature. It comes from the challenge of the hunt. Let me put it this way: if someone invented mechanical deer that behaved and looked exactly like real deer, I bet most hunters would have no problems hunting the mechanical deer.



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Yeah, hunting is too much work. I gave it up after a friend bought me an automated trap and skeet thrower. Now those are fun.

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I grew up hunting but no longer hunt, it really comes down to one thing "power" or the illusion of power over another living thing.

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Well, many sport hunters are aware that they are doing the animal population some good by helping keep the herds down to healthy levels.

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Again this is probably because I'm a wimpy non-gun-owning city guy...

but there's a big difference to me between "helping the animal population" and "shooting a defenseless deer".

My assumption is that the act of shooting the defenseless animal involves SOME sort of enjoyment on the part of the hunter. It's not like he wakes up on a Saturday morning and says, "damn I hate shooting deer but I've got a moral duty to help their overpopulation problem."

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True, but I don't think the enjoyment necessarily comes from killing a living creature. It comes from the challenge of the hunt. Let me put it this way: if someone invented mechanical deer that behaved and looked exactly like real deer, I bet most hunters would have no problems hunting the mechanical deer.

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Can't eat a mechanical deer...

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Can't eat a mechanical deer...

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http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4320/jawsbondyo0.jpg

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

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Well, many sport hunters are aware that they are doing the animal population some good by helping keep the herds down to healthy levels.

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Again this is probably because I'm a wimpy non-gun-owning city guy...

but there's a big difference to me between "helping the animal population" and "shooting a defenseless deer".

My assumption is that the act of shooting the defenseless animal involves SOME sort of enjoyment on the part of the hunter. It's not like he wakes up on a Saturday morning and says, "damn I hate shooting deer but I've got a moral duty to help their overpopulation problem."

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You are probably right about what the hunter may or may not be thinking - but, helping the deer population literally IS "shooting a defenseless deer". Feel free to investigate this further but it really is necessary. All conservation and wildlife groups will agree with that statement.

By the way, I've never shot a deer, but I'm thinking right now that I have been neglecting my duty to help keep the herds in check. I must say I actually feel a bit guilty about it. If I liked the taste of deer meat, though (which I don't), I'd probably feel a lot more guilty for my shirking.

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Can't eat a mechanical deer...

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http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4320/jawsbondyo0.jpg

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Mmm. You can really taste the hydraulic fluid.

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Anthropoetics

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W. T. F.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

Also for states with high deer populations, deer are a real killer on the roads.

CNN article

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By the way, I've never shot a deer, but I'm thinking right now that I have been neglecting my duty to help keep the herds in check. I must say I actually feel a bit guilty about it. If I liked the taste of deer meat, though (which I don't), I'd probably feel a lot more guilty for my shirking.

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Venison jerky ftw! But if you want to relieve some of that guilt and feel good doing it, donate the meat to your DNR.

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Yeah, but nothing dies a violent death when you get your kicks playing on-line poker.

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True, and the comparison applies not only to hunting, but equally to paying to have animals slaughtered for your meals.

Do people who eat beef get their kicks thinking about cows being led to their violent deaths in the slaughterhouses? Would it matter if they did?

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

I did not read the replies in this thread, but here is my reply (sorry if I repeat anything).

First of all, hunting is not just about killing stuff, it is also about being in the great outdoors and just being able to get away from everything and be at one with nature.

Also, 99.9% of hunters despise those who are just out there for the kill. If you do not eat what you kill or donate the meat to charity, you are truely scum.

Also, have you talked to any biologists? If it were not for hunters, many more deer (or other animals) that we kill would die much more painful deaths throughout the winter as they starved to death. True, this problem has been brought upon ourselves to some degree, as most natural predators have already been elimintated by humans, but there is nothing we can do about that now (other than try to hunt to take their place), without completely changing how society operates (such as stopping all urban sprawl and rebuilding the wetlands and other wildlife refuges -- but we all know that will never happen, even though almost every hunter wishes it would).

Hunters and fisherman (in general) are probably the biggest conversationalists you will ever meet.

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Hunters and fisherman (in general) are probably the biggest conversationalists you will ever meet.

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What do they like to talk about? Hunting and fishing, I suppose.

Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
 

I was raised in az/florida and my dad and all his friends were hunters. I did it up until like college. Was never big on the bigger animals personally but enjoyed hunting with a dog for pheasants, rabbits etc cuz i enjoyed eating what I took down.

Im big on the outdoors etc and take a rifle with me for shooting purposes but i'm pretty much over big game hunting...would rather spend days tracking and backpacking to take great photo shots like that crap u see on Planet Earth then shoot the animals.

My dad used to still hunt but he had been going up to Alaska a bunch as he really got hardcore into fishing and he did some hunting while up there to. He went caribou hunting and he ended up getting charged by a brown bear. Luckily it was a bluff charge cuz when he went to shoot at it he realized the safety was on(side note...he got drunk with some friends and admitted he [censored] his pants at the time it happened).

I don't think he hunts much anymore...he was always really into the man vs. beast aspect of it. Would go with a guide and track the animals...be gone for weeks hunting buffalo, deer, mountain goats, mountain lions once i think...may be wrong...crazy crap like that. 1/2 the time he never killed anything but seemed to enjoy the process in his own way.

Now he fishes like crazy.
Just last year he told me about how great the fishing is at night near his place in florida...he was thinking of taking his float tube and fishing out in the water along the docks etc...I then informed he was a [censored] idiot.