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| Are you a hunter or just an animal killer? |
Excellent video below.
I don't hunt. When I got back from Vietnam I said I'd had a taste of all the killing I wanted to do. That's not entirely true. I can still think of one or two people I wouldn't mind putting in the ground. But that's another story. I'll get back to you on that.
But I love hunters. Real ones anyway. Not some yahoos that shoot a deer in a pen with fourteen other guys and some dogs and radios. I saw that on TV a few years back. Some enterprising person in New England actually fenced off a lot on a few acres and released a buck it had raised into it. Then he would guarantee a kill to the so-called "hunters" (calling them "hunters" is making me ill to my stomach).
There were about 14 of them and they had dogs and radios to report on the deer's whereabouts. They finally cornered the deer against a high fence and began blasting away at it. I wonder how they divided up the meat? Oh, that's right. Because of all the lead they pumped into the deer there wasn't much good meat left. Finally, after awhile, one of them had the mercy to go up and shoot the deer in the head with a pistol. After all those rifle shots, they still hadn't killed the deer and he was suffering. Why not just tie the deer up and dump it in a clearing for them to shoot at from. say. two feet away? It would save a lot of time and ammo and they could still enjoy watching something die. Not one man there for the "hunt" was a hunter. 14 guys and they still couldn't kill a trapped deer cowering against a fence. I think the video was part of "The Guns of October", an anti-gun propaganda show. If I remember right, it was very anti-gun. I'm not. I don't own a gun at present but as soon as they are outlawed I'm going to run out a buy as many as I can afford.
My ultimate supreme hero, my Dad, was a "real" hunter. He learned how to hunt growing up in Deadwood, Texas during the Great Depression. He and his Dad and his siblings weren't hunting just to kill something. They needed the meat to survive. If my Granddaddy heard one of his boys shoot, he expected meat on the table that night. Ammunition cost money that they didn't have very much of.
Dad employed a few tricks. He kept a set of deer antlers. Out in the woods during rutting season he would clack them together like two bucks fighting. Then when curious bucks came out to see the fight - well - you know the rest. BTW, you men out there. Remember this is a true story and just use the head you have above your belt-line. The other one below your belt isn't 100% trustworthy. I learned the hard way and have a lot to atone for.
Later, after I was born, Dad kept hunting and he took me with him looking for deer, squirrels and rabbits. My job was to carry the game for him. Except for the deer. I was too young and small for that. New hunters, if you shoot a buck always remember to drag it by the hind legs so the antlers don't get caught in the brush.
Dad taught me how to shoot his shotgun when I was six. He stood behind me with his arms out because he figured the recoil would knock my little body on it's butt. But he had taught me well and the recoil of the shotgun didn't knock me down. My shoulder was a little bit sore though because I wasn't holding the shotgun into my shoulder quite firm enough. A hard learned lesson.
To environmentalists that may come across a copy of this post, I'm an environmentalist too. I live on an acre of land I left mostly wooded. My wife and I like feeding the raccoons, squirrels and birds. So that's why we and the animals need hunters. Why you say? Read on.
You see, our ranchers and farmers didn't approve of wolves, coyotes and cougars dragging off their lambs and calves and chickrns. So they hunted those predators to near extinction. When's the last time you saw a wolf, coyote or cougar in your front yard? My granddaddy kept a sotgun on the front porch in Deadwood because of wolves.
So deer and other species began to reproduce like crazy. We had disturbed the balance of nature. Deer began overpopulating and starving slowly towards a miserable demise in winter when there wasn't enough fodder to feed them. And remember, real hunters don't shoot baby animals the way wolves, coyotes and cougars stalked them. Hunter's want the "Big Bucks", so to speak.
My Dad's first two rules of hunting were "don't shoot anything you aren't going to eat" and "Make sure you make it a swift and clean kill so the animal doesn't suffer". Better than being eaten by wolves while you're still alive I bet. I'll bet when I wasn't screaming in terror and pain, I would be wondering just what part of me that wolf just swallowed. Nature can be very cruel.
But I don't hunt anymore. Haven't since I got back from war. After hunting men with guns hunting me, I decided hunting animals was boring. That's just me. If I need meat I go to Wal-Mart. However, I do respect hunters. The man in the video is a true hunter. He could have killed one or both stags easily. Instead he saved both of them. At the end of the video he says, "they don't deserve to die like that". Like the Native American Indians, he respects the animals he hunts and he respects nature. He doesn't need fourteen buddies, dogs and a radio. He's participating in a time honored ritual. He's a hunter.
Vegetarians, remember this the next time you stock up on soy beans. Before you bought them to eat, soy beans were living things too (I once saw a TV show that said when you cut down a tree, it emits an inaudible scream - and they recorded a tree "screaming" while they cut it down with an axe). I'm a tree hugger. I love trees. They give us oxygen, shade and beauty. Even if you have allergies, trees are why you're alive and not flopping on the ground like a fish out of water. I hate seeing trees cut down. So I guess I'm not only not a hunter these days, I'm also not a logger.
Potential new hunters, here's few tips. Learn gun safety. Don't shoot at anything you can't see. Take the meat home. Don't just leave it to rot in the woods. If you don't want to eat it then give it to a charity serving poor and starving people. Try your best not to let the animal suffer. Meet your prey on it's ground, not trapped behind a fence. If you can do that, you are on your way to being a "real" hunter.
Gary
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original post:
Take a look at this video-amazing. Two deer were locked up in a fight and the guy shot a antler apart to separate them.
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This guy shot one antler off to save the deer. When I first started watching I thought he was going to kill the deer.
Quite a shot. Two deer with locked antlers.
http://www.texashuntfish.com/app/forum/25824/Deer-Fight-Inte rrupted-by-a-Bul
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