The Hunters Have Been Gunning For Game
Posted: Sunday, November 27, 2011
by The Old Gray Mare
www.DressYourHorse.com
Over the years I have always lived away from the maddening crowds. I like it like that and seek the solace and quiet beauty of being in the country, far away from cities and malls and hustle and bustle.
As with everything I’ve experienced during my lifetime, nothing is ever perfect.
There are drawbacks to living in or near cities, and also living far away. For instance, shopping is never just a snap. Nor is dropping into the nearest store for a gallon of milk. And that’s OK. It takes planning. The commute to work is always long but it’s a tradeoff for convenience versus peaceful privacy. And there are the hunters . . .My readers can trust me when I say that having acreage and living near state forests can prove to be quite a liability. Further, I’ve learned that the posting signs must never look too attractive because they will be stolen. Sounds insane, I know. Post the store-bought signs and they’ll stay forever.
There are always a few hunters that begin to stake out their hunting territory in the summer. Truth be told, they feed and salt prime deer yards; then after some time, they’ll sit in their stands or hides and watch the deer traffic. They “harvest” their deer at the start of hunting season with bragging rights.
And then there are the guys, gals too, that like to get the deer on the forest peripheries at dusk. Don’t you just love shooting some of the
does and their young that are not yet afraid – just put on that scope and wait and shoot. Just like a shooting gallery. Oh, it’s not hunting time yet. Small matter, oh well.Some of these mighty hunters really know how to do it. They’ll know most of the paths these shadow creatures take and hit them with the light. One guy hits them with the light and his buddy shoots. Split second timing. Great sport!
But this one really gets me. I have only once observed this hunting methodology and that was years ago. This year I have seen it personally on three different occasions involving the same “impressive” hunters. They drovers come together in six cars, in a caravan no less. They all get out together with their scopes and other high tech gear. They head into the woods 20 or so feet apart, two by two, and proceed to make a lot of noise. They are flushing game into the guns that are waiting somewhere on the other side. Wow, now that is impressive. Or not!
I saw this last bit of hunting prowess Monday and Tuesday and Thanksgiving Day. All of it was occurring on the length of our street (10+ miles). Since no one that I’ve asked knows about a major animal culling, I think this is just a group of guys that want to be sure to get their deer. Does anyone agree with me that while this isn’t illegal, it’s definitely not sportsmanlike?
And that gets me to the “sport of hunting.” It used to be that men hunted by stealth, cunning, outsmarting the animal and because food was needed for the
family. The hunter used a rifle and knew how to shoot – and shoot it well like a marksman. Compare that to the gear and scopes and bullets and paraphernalia used by hunters these days.I guess I needed to get this off my chest. At least this way, I’ve let it go. Of course I’m not one of those people that is out to stop hunting activities or interfere with those that do. I just want them to play by the rules. Don’t reduce the killing to a gallery shoot. At least give the quarry a fighting chance. I mean it’s not a life or death event for the hunter that if he doesn’t make his kill, he’ll starve to death. It’s all about sport and bragging and killing and trophies these days. Sorry, that’s where I do draw the line. Killing means death. No animal should die because of his rack. And if the hunter kills the animal, then for goodness sakes, take the whole animal, not just the hindquarters or, worse, just the head and rack.
So, this article is going out before I read it again and change my mind about putting my thoughts and feelings out there.Hunting is like some other subjects I don’t much want to talk about – it happens, but I don’t want to dwell on it.
Author's Note: This big beautiful fellow is forever safe from me - I would like to shoot him - with my camera exclusively.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)As you say, it is no longer a matter of survival. I feel as you do, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.Thanks for reading. This is one of those articles that may well be controversial to some. I'm not looking to alter others' pasttimes but I feel justified to voice my opinion. Personally I hate the thought of people enjoying getting their kids out there with guns to kill an animal. Blows my mind that's considered a sport. We have a neighbor that has a stuffed zebra, full grown in their living room. I'd much rather see a picture of him on the wall. Anyway, I've got some more of these controversies rolling around in my head. Darn it.
Not everyone who roams the woods is a lover of the woods and nature. Some are just the opposite. But these warring points of view have been around for a long time. We used to push paniced elephantine behemoths off of cliffs. That was for survival. We also have had kings pushing scores of well dressed hunters and dogs by the hundred going for foxes. There is no accounting for man's nature.So right. Lots of people don't partake of nature for the sake of enjoying it. They're after what it can give. I've never appreciated anything about fox hunting either. And not for the horses. These riders just gallop like fools over and through about anything. Takes quite a horse. But then same things can be said about polo and racing and steeplechasing. I'm just horrified that they are beating the bush to drive the animals into the guns. That's just so lame - you can bet these mighty hunters will not tell the whole story when they retell about their great 12-pronged buck.Who'd want to own up to killing one that way?
Blood sports aren't 'sports', at all; as long as we treat our fellow animal neighbors with wholesale murder, we cannot claim planetary rights to being a "sentient" species and thus risk the precise same treatment at the hands of aliens.
Vegetarianism must be achieved by our race of beings before we can demand equanimity, at the hands of likeminded predatory aliens.
I send you a warm hug and a warmer kiss to sustain your courage and clear thinking.
Affection,
PaulI know I answered this but must not have saved. Upps!
I like that first paragraph. Such a clever writer - you! I'm afraid people will never become vegetarians. They never were and never will be. I am not one that should speak to this because with all my animal love, I do eat meat. But I do not eat near as much as I ever did and in many ways am separating myself out of the meat in the diet. Yet I still eat it.
I often consider how many animals have to die just so people can eat hotdogs at a ball game, at a wedding and so on. The numbers are boggling when you think of the population of the world. It is then that I really could become a vegetarian. It is mind boggling. And with this overpopulation and breeding like rats in some places, this is certainly not abating. Oh well.
I send you hugs, warm, fuzzy and friendly with friendship back so you'll also maintain your clear thinking and courage going for us and others. You're a great WS friend!
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