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Forums10
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Most Online1,344 Apr 29th, 2024
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 15,456 Likes: 86
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 15,456 Likes: 86 |
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1 member likes this:
Buzz |
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 11,345 Likes: 391
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 11,345 Likes: 391 |
I think the urge to hunt is more of a primal instinct. The strength of the urge is also dependent upon the game. Image posted from my cell phone.... for those who continue to say it isn't possible.
A true sign of mental illness is any gun owner who would vote for an Anti-Gunner like Joe Biden.
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 996 Likes: 7
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 996 Likes: 7 |
Interesting question! I have two brothers, one older and one younger. We grew up in a hunting household and a small community where hunting was a big part of the culture, big game predominately. My older brother rarely hunted big game but did hunt waterfowl and forest grouse and as he got older he gave up hunting altogether. My younger brother hunted, again, predominately waterfowl and forest grouse, but as he's gotten older he still hunts waterfowl and uplands but has become more involved with big game hunting, mainly deer. Myself, I hunt about everything available and when young, it was always a conundrum for me, which to hunt elk or waterfowl, since they opened up on the same day. I still hunt as often as I'm able and will as long as I am physically able, waterfowl, upland birds and big game and since turkeys were planted in our area and have thrived, I've added that to the list.
I have nephews, who's dad was not a hunter, but they've always been interested in hunting and some who are not interested at all in hunting. Same with my son. I used to take him out hunting regularly when I lived in AK for ptarmigan on a snogo, but as he got older he lost interest completely and doesn't hunt now.
I've often thought about our differences (my brothers and I) in our attitude toward hunting, where we all grew up in the same household, had the same opportunities to hunt, yet, I was the only one that was and am still somewhat fanatical about it, although a bit less so than when I was younger. I don't really have an answer concerning the urge to hunt. I suppose it's an innate urge that's stronger in some, than others.
Cameron Hughes
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,704 Likes: 103
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,704 Likes: 103 |
Same nature vs. nurture argument mankind has always had. Some folks have the urge to hunt some don't. The answer to the question posed in this thread is that both matter. Nurture can overcome nature or nature might overcome nurture. I was from a non hunting family but had a hunting Grandfather and Uncle I idolized because they were hunters. I've been a bloodthirsty throwback all my life...Geo
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 2,025 Likes: 25
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 2,025 Likes: 25 |
The urge to hunt is not a fixed trait. There are those who lust to kill anything that moves from early age to death. Some start out blood-thirsty but evolve to hunt selectivley or not at all as they age. The only thing I recall ed saying that I agreed with some years ago was that he couldn't see shooting a dove. I still enjoy hunting but associate it with food gathering more that "sport". That wasn't always the case. Almost all the men in my family were hunters,though most were southerners and bird hunters. I grew up wanting to incoporate all their hunting interests. Perhaps I managed that for a while. I tend to agree with Aldo Leopold that what we killed without thinking when we were young was a mistake hard to atone for. Nowadays the idea of "varmint" hunting seems wrong. We have made varmints of ourselves, not by intention, but by our very success. It remains to be seen if we have the wisdom to recitify that error. I hope we do and believe it's still possible.
Bill Ferguson
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 7,464 Likes: 212
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 7,464 Likes: 212 |
Years from now, old timers will be sipping keto friendly cocktails and saying, I'm a throwback to the emasculation awakening, had a warm beer once when I was young-n-dumb.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 601 Likes: 61
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 601 Likes: 61 |
I also came from, not an non-hunting, but an actively anti-hunting family. The writing appeared on the wall when I became an enthusiastic young naturalist at age 11 and lived for my weekend small mammal trapping expeditions, which resulted in properly prepared scientific specimens. I went completely over to the dark side when employed by the Fish and Wildlife Service in the Aleutians one summer, trapping and shooting introduced Arctic foxes, which had decimated waterfowl and seabird populations and were being eliminated in order to restore the Aleutian Canada goose, which the foxes had eaten to near extinction. In spite of that introduction to hunting, which has preoccupied me ever since, I abhor predator and prairie dog killing as pointless destruction. It is my duty as an ecologist, however, to maintain the balance of nature by spending the winter in a duck blind.
Bill, I don't have much optimism about the human race recifying our errors. A small fraction is aware of what we have done to nature, but the overwhelming majority couldn't care less. It is even worse in the developing world, where wildlife is just about gone, and awareness and concern hover at about zero.
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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 357 Likes: 51
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 357 Likes: 51 |
There is a podcast on Youtube called GRIDLESSNESS, about a Canadian family that moved "off-grid". Father, mother, and about 5 girls ranging from about ten to seventeen. Those young girls put an urban-suburban boy to shame in skills they have acquired. Not that a boy similarly raised wouldn't compete quite well. Those kids hunt, fishing, raise farm animals, weld, do construction and help their parents a lot. They all seem very happy doing it too. It makes one think that what they are doing has tremendous value. Oh, they get a lot of flak for their hunting and fishing from the inept and clueless, but they know better. I think if you take any kid, early enough, and teach him or her the skills and show them the opportunities they'll revert back to something the Greta Thunbergs of the world would run from like a scalded cat, and perhaps make the world better.
Last edited by liverwort; 07/05/21 08:12 PM.
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Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 3,113 Likes: 595
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 3,113 Likes: 595 |
Like many, I suppose, I hunt for many reasons, but a major part of it now is for the unique foodstuffs that it brings to my larder and table. I have, accordingly, narrowed my efforts to maximize for the best table fare species and focus mostly on them. I'd like to think that I never killed wantonly, but I'm fairly sure I'm not perfect in that regard. Our traditions of fair-chase public hunting and large conservation efforts (Pittman-Robertson, Ducks Unlimited, etc., comes to mind) in this great county have endlessly blessed me and my forefathers. I hope those traditions continue for my son and following generations but... it seems that we are coming to a crossroads on that subject. I too hear that in the rest of the world, those opportunities are either going or are largely gone. I dearly hope that we don't go down that road here as well. It has been a birthright that I have so enjoyed. To lose that would most-surely deeply alter our understanding of one's personal freedom and liberty.
Last edited by Lloyd3; 07/05/21 08:28 PM.
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Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 3,113 Likes: 595
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 3,113 Likes: 595 |
FallCreekFan: I wanted you to know that while I am slow, I do eventually get there. I found and watched Steven Rinella's "Stars in the Sky: A Hunting Story" on Netflix tonight. Made in 2018, it's probably the first time I've ever seen (or heard) this subject adequately discussed. Mr. Rinella does a very good job here, well worth seeing this one.
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