The Dichotomy of the Sportsman

I am fortunate to have made it to the final stage of a hunter. I am no longer compelled by letting the arrow go or pulling the trigger. That’s for the younger ones.

I have 50 plus years of killing to look back on.

Now, I’m more interested in teaching or doing conservation work. I still enjoy a cold fall morning and the sound of gobbling in the spring, but I truly don’t care if I ever kill another thing.

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I am fortunate to have made it to the final stage of a hunter. I am no longer compelled by letting the arrow go or pulling the trigger. That’s for the younger ones.

I have 50 plus years of killing to look back on.

Now, I’m more interested in teaching or doing conservation work. I still enjoy a cold fall morning and the sound of gobbling in the spring, but I truly don’t care if I ever kill another thing.

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I think I am at the stage right before that. I still enjoy a bit of blood lust. But I get just as much joy out of feeding family/friends with that meat. Or most of all, getting to assist in a kids first kill….of any animal.

I made the same shot on a doe once when I was young. Did the same thing with my knife. Hopefully, I will not have to do that again.

I’ve come to respect nature and the animals much more as I got older. I don’t waste meat and I clean process and cook all of it myself. I only shoot what I’ll eat, and the season ends when the freezer is adequately stocked.

Im driven by the feeling that
going out into an animals natural habitat quietly and quickly taking an animal is so much more peaceful, humane, and organic than what commercially raised and processed livestock go through.

“ what commercially raised and processed livestock go through”

Lot of cattleman around where I live and go to church with so I keep this to myself.I actually feel sorry for the the cattle that get sold off for slaughter.
All they’ve known is living in the pasture with the herd,one day they get loaded into a trailer,hauled off to the sale barn and the off to a feed lot then a slaughter house.I imagine just riding down the highway is pretty disconcerting compared to the life they’ve lived.

As far as the deer I shoot them and sometimes feel bad about it,especially if I have to shoot them twice.
On the other hand I used to go deer hunting outside Fredricksburg Tx. back in the 80’s.The limits were very strict,land was overpopulated and the deer were stunted.Couldn’t go 2 miles without seeing a dead deer on the side of the road hit by a vehicle.
The landowner told me every late winter he would find couple dozen young deer that had starved to death,
More humane to make a good shot and have them dead within a few seconds.

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I don’t want it to be like this, but I think I am too

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I'm not quite there yet, but I'm in a very enjoyable stage. My son and daughter love to shoot and I love to be with them. More than happy for them to pull the trigger on everything. Won't be long until they graduate and then who knows where they'll be. or what stage I'll be in then. Would imagine I'd shoot a deer for the freezer and sit and watch most of the year. I'm sure I'll always shoot a couple ducks for the pups though.

Same.

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He was beating his head on the ground after he fell.. I had to cut his throat.

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This is a dumb question but I’m not a hunter. Is there a specific technique to cutting a deer’s throat? A few years ago traffic was stopped on a highway. It was due to a deer that was hit by a car laying in the lane. Everyone was slowly creeping around the deer. It was still alive but obviously mortally wounded. I almost stopped and got out and slashed its throat, but then I realized I’ve never done that before and I might just make its suffering worse. So I rolled over it with my truck to finish it off.