hunting american style

So I guess you dont want to see the pictures of last falls moose hunt.
Have been eating on them all winter........Dennis

 

I like reading your posts Haid. I always see so much I agree with and so much that I don't. lol. but alas I'm not up to getting into it. Maybe after another beer

 

yeah, that's gonna happen.

Ok, so I don't hunt and I don't eat meat. But I also don't waste my time, energy or talent judging those who do. It's not productive. I'd rather donate a week of my time building someone 2 kilowatts of solar power at no cost because taking one more household off the grid and off petrochemical fuel will save DOZENS of lives instead of one deer that will likely be turned into deerburger by a fuel delivery truck anyway.

More positive, less negative.

 

Drumminmama: Yes, its my target at the garage. Targets are actually cardboard.
I've been shooting a bow since age 8. Target shooting is my moment of Zen. I don't use sights or trigger releases, when you find the mark and hit the point,you become one with the bow, the arrow and target.
I could use a high-powered rifle and make a shot at 300-400 yards, but I prefer my bow at 25-30 yards. If I make noise or what ever the game is gone. I feel its more of a level playing field.
I have to admit when I go duck or other bird hunting I do use a shot gun.
I love to fly fish, hope this doesn't upset to many fish lovers, I carry a short barreled 12 GA magnum for bear protection.
This is Alaska. You have to dress for the weather, carry water and food. Also the proper firearm. In the bush I carry a shotgun, if I was to go to a major city I would carry my 45 auto. Oh and yes I do have concealed weapons permits, issued by the US Dept of Justice and the State of Alaska.
People who buy their t-bone steaks at the super market in a nice little Styrofoam package and say our hunting is cruel are ????????

 

This thread would do well without negativity and insults...:toetap:

 

Thanks Crystals, I am glad someone does.

No matter what you eat you should at least get some hands on experience with your food. I find people are completely disconnected anymore. When you do the work yourself it adds a whole new understanding of life and how everything is interconnected.

As far as making hunting illegal, I don't think people need more of our hunter/gather pasts erased in favor of mass production. How many animal habitats are distroyed to farm them veggies you are eating. Maybe, you should reaserch the effect large scale agriculture has on habitats.

 

yes you should research it , how much of the rain Forest is being destroyed, to grow food for the cattle you are eating.
You want to research some-thing, try reseaching that.

 

I apologize for not responding to this earlier, but I did not see this post until now.

You make a good point that it is better to be connected to your food and not rely on packaged products from stores, but there is always the option of growing a garden. The world would be a better place because people would be able to sit down at their dinner tables and know that they did not destroy lives to make their meals. The only predators that animals would need to worry about are other animals, not rifles. To me, that is more natural. I am not sure if I should have bothered saying that, as I know that this is not of much importance to a lot of people. I just feel that we would be better off without killing that is not needed. There is enough violence in the world. My point was more about the cruelty to animals than the environment, but I am sure that it would be better to start a garden than to buy vegetables in the store.

 

I have researched it, I know the impact that I make on the earth. By the way most of the rain forest is distroyed for timber and to grow crops for bio fuels not to feed american cattle. We mostly grow our own cattle food. Take a look at how much forest has been distroyed in Brazil to drop their dependence on oil. What I don't like is people getting all self righteous because they don't eat meat but yet they drive around in cars, watch tv, have a computer and sit around in their heated houses. You may only eat plants but you are still helping to distroy the earth one way or another. Hunting an animal is no crueler then distroying their habitat so you can plant food, then harass the animals that try to eat it. It all has a negative effect if you want to look at it that way. Personally, I believe to some extent distruction of habitat is a natural occurance. Say when deer populations explode in an area eventually they can not find enough food and the herd is vulnerable. A disease comes through and the deer population plummets. The same will be true for humans eventually, nature will take its course in the end.

 

well said haid. as for the bit about nature will take its course i hope so but i feel the cost for this planet will be mighty high by the time we start to decline in any great numbers

 

For the organisms alive today you are probably right but life has a way of carrying on. The earth has at least 5-7 billion years before it in pulled into the sun, so there is time for recovery and life rebounded, though it may look quite different.

 

Then get you own garden. I dont wanna change you all I just wanna make the point that if you dont need to do something then why do it? I know if I were an animal I wouldn't want someone to murder me and my family when they don't have to. If you wanna hunt , do it fair. no weapons. Its not fair to chase an innocent animal, who is unarmed and defenseless with a gun or otherwise weapon.

 

You do realize we humans are the least naturally fit for our environment. We require clothing or we die. We can't feed ourselves without tools and machines. If left naked in the forest in Alaska do you not think any wild animal has one up on us. And do you really think that a bear or pack of hungry wolves would have compassion on us to the point of evening the playing field before we were used for food? Or would worry about our children if they are hungry? The world is not fair by any means.

 

if we're the least naturally fit on our own to survive... how did we? before tools, before fire, before all that?

and wolves GENERALLY hunt for different reasons, survival. We do not have to anymore (in most cases, based on the western way of living GENERALLY). We may choose to, but it is not necessary at this point in our evolution.

I'm not against hunting for food, but I am against it for sport. Hunting no doubt helped our survival through the ice age when plants became rare, but it is not an ideal nutritional system, in my humble opinion.

 

Please read this and try to understand your world you live in and ours.
Freeinalaska and his family live at latitude 65* north, Me on the other hand live at 60* north. This equals out to 300 nautical miles between us.
(Freein hope you don't mind me using you as a reference point).
You in the lower 48 states live south of latitude 49 north.
I've heard , grow a garden. We do ! We have approx. 100 days (in a good year) of last frost to first frost to get it in the ground, grow and harvest. We give it all we've got. Here its more of a labor of love, than being able to stock your pantry.
We are meat eaters here in this environment. Eskimo's diets are 80-90% red meat and seasonal fish. I wont tell you what the other 10% is, you might get sick.
I don't want to buy commercial meat products, if I can help it.
Follow along with me please...Steers are raised in, lets say, Nebraska. At market time their loaded on train cars and transported to the stock yards in Chicago. They are then placed in feeder pens to fatten them up and fed antibiotics to prevent hoof and mouth or mad cow disease.
When they reach the right weight, they are herded up a ramp to the slaughter area. Where they are met with a air powered hammer to the head.
When they go down the "cutter" comes in and cuts a spot between the main tendon and the hoof of their hind legs so they can be hung vertically, when they are up, their throats are cut so they can bleed out.
Then they are gutted, skinned and quartered. Then shipped all over the country. During this process how much fuel is burned transport the product from point A to B to C to D......Etc......How many mark ups in price ?
Now for us hunters..We go to an area which is open to hunting, try and find a Bull Moose, we don't kill cows or calf's. With a good shot from our 30-06 , we bring down a moose. He is cleaned, treated with respect and finds a place in our freezers to feed our families through the winter.
Now I have to say that I admire the youthful ideas of changing the world .
You sit at your family table and declare you have found a new way of eating,
and you get strange looks from your folks. Heres a new concept, you go to the store and buy your own groceries.
Until then, us in the north country will continue to hunt..........

 

funny you should mentoin that our land lords to bought an other half acre and im planing to grow a few vegies. you see hunting for me is just one step to been self sufficient i also would like to start genarating my own electricaty but im a little low on know how in that department. and as for not using tools to kill animals i think the animals would disagree it would be far more destressing if i jumped on a rabbit and killed it with my bare hands rather than one shot to the head wich leaves it dead instantly.

 

See... there is this thing about life. Its full of personal choices. Some people have made the personal choice to be vegatarians. Some made the personal choice to eat meat. Some made the personal choice to hunt for that meat. Some people made the personal choice to join PETA. Some made the personal choice to join the circus.

See, life is full of choices. I don't make the choices for you. You don't make the choices for me. Just because I choose one thing doesn't make it better, or me better than someone else who choose differently.

Eatting meat is a choice. Eatting lettuce is a choice. People just need to realize that there are different ways of going through life and realize that they aren't the Emperor of Moral-ness because they don't eat steak.

For the amount of bitching my fellow veggies do about how "my family doesn't understand me" and how hard life is for a veggie, they sure are quick to jump on the soap box and start pointing fingers. Its always boggled my mind. If you want understanding about your personal dietitary desisions, how about practicing some?

 

Before these things we were not considered humans. Most primates will eat meat when available. They also get protein from bugs and grubs. It just that over time our intelligence grew and so the efficency of tools grew.

No, they hunt for the exact same reason, instinct and to eat. Yes, you could say that we have evolved into a species where some do the dirty work for all. The cow replaces wild game and can be bought in a nice clean package. There is still someone soaked in its blood, doing the dirty work. You go grab stuff to make a salad. There is a farmer doing the dirty work of distroying animal habitats and doing whats necessary to keep animals from eating your salad stuff. So you could say that most of us have the luxury to just pretend these things don't happen and eat up our packaged food. I would have to say this is less respectful to the animals involved. The hunter learns about their lives, what they eat, what their natural habits are, buys a licence(supporting conservation efforts), takes the life with respect because it isn't the 100th he has done that day, they cleaned and prepared the meat on their own taking hours of their time. Now tell me they are not more connected with their food and reality then someone who grabed a burger at Mcdonalds, ate it watching tv and couldn't even tell you where the meat orginated. The mass manufactor and slaughter of animals as well as large scale farming is what has allowed poplulations of humans to grow so much in the first place. Anyway, I would say the hunter in this case is the more responsible person to both the animal and himself.

I do agree with you here, killing something just to kill it is disgusting.