The hunt or the kill ?

roundball said:

shootrj2003 said:

My best times are spent in the woods wether I get game or not.To have the freedom to walk in the woods with a rifle is enjoyment and proof that there is still some freedom in this country,One of the best times was in a stand dozing when two squirrels ran up and over me and were as surprised as me!Another time was bow hunting and I squatted by a tree to let things "simmer" down while I made myself part of a tree and watched as a squirrel worked his way over to me and he climbed the tree almost set on my shoulder and then looked me eye to eye from about3" away til he finally saw through the camo and took off!. No for awhile it was get meat for me but now I just love the hunt and the things that happen on it,I carry a camera most times now also.

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Those kinds of examples are what makes coming home empty-handed no problem at all...similarly, I've been turkey hunting and had a ruby throated hummingbird appear right in front of my face mask, literally almost touching me with her beak as she peered into the eye holes then it hit me that she might peck me in an eye so I shooed her away.
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For the record... Id pay good money to watch that "eye-peck" on video! :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

It is a great feeling moving through the woods with a good rifle/gun and just enjoying the solitude, sights and sounds. Yep, I've had my share of weird encounters. The weirdest was while I was sitting on an overlook with a muzzleloader hoping for a deer. I heard something and this fox came running toward me. When he hit my legs he made the fastest switch, turn and scat I've ever had the privilege to witness. And he did it all about four feet in the air; I mean he simply shot straight up. It took less than a half second for me to lean and fire after him but he was already out of range.

My dad and I were still hunting a ridge, I was on top, and he was near the bottom. The idea was that if he jumped the buck we'd been seeing there, that I would get a shot. Moving ever so slowly and quietly, it wasn't long 'til I heard the footfalls of an animal running. I stopped between two trees, and my eyes were glued to the sound of the critter running towards me. It was a coyote, and he was paying much more attention to what was behind him. He ran to right in front of me, and I couldn't resist, when he stopped and was looking back down the ridge, I jumped out from behind the two trees and roared as loud as I could. Animals DO have expressions.

One does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, one kills in order to have hunted...If one were to present the sportsman with the death of the animal as a gift he would refuse it. What he is after is having to win it, to conquer the surly brute through his own effort and skill with all the extras that this carries with it: the immersion in the countryside, the healthfulness of the exercise, the distraction from his job.
Jose Ortega y Gasset, Meditations on Hunting
Spanish philosopher & politician (1883 - 1955)

Just being traditional hunters, says we're not all about the kill.
I recall riding down the backroads of WV, on an old school bus, and in the distance I could see my grandmother's house. I called to the driver to let me off there. I ran in the house, changed clothes, grabbed a 22, and took off up the hollow to a patch of hickorys and white oaks, to a little place called "Square Woods". A mere five acres, I suppose, but grays and fox squirrels everwhere. It was Septmember and the smell of the woods in the air, and a change in the seasons. I'd shoot a couple squirrels and take off to the house, skin them, and my grandmother would do the rest. She'd soak them in salt water, roll them in flower, fry em and make gravy and biscuits. To this day I hunt in a little patch of woods, about five acres, and shoot deer and squirrels there every year. I'm 62 now and I'll always have the memories.

The Hunt is always the most important aspect of an outing. The Kill is secondary to me. :grin:

A combination of the two, I don't have to be sucessful every time, but if neat things come about, they make it worth while. all of it, including a nice venison stew or soup. The two times before that day i found mushrooms that will now go into my stew.....etc... The last dozen deer where all harvested with a flinter....Get the drift

The kill must be the first intent. If it is not and the kill is of no importance then the "hunt" is only an armed walk in the woods.

I get sick to my stomach reading "Bugle" magazine. Some of the writers insist in producing stories where the animal is too "magnificent" to shoot so the hunter lowers his weapon and "allows" the animal to live. I want to puke when I read that cr@p. I picked up an issue at the barber shop this week. The writer allowed a spike bull to live because he couldn't pack the animal out in the deep snow. I read another story about how hunters were using pack frames to pack out elk in the snow
I wanted to grab them by the neck. I have killed dozens of elk in deep snow. I use sleds, the kind my kids slid down hills with. I can put 1/2 of a cow on the sled quartered or I can put a whole one on boned out. I prefer to just quarter since it rides better.

The hunt or the kill? It is the kill. Without the possibility of the kill it is not a hunt. The amount of effort I put into a hunt depends on the animal that I am after. If I am after a buck or bull I will put in more time for a trophy. If it is a cow or a doe hunt then the hunt changes. It is about filling a freezer. In that case I do it as quick and least expensive as I can. Ron

Wattsy said:

roundball said:

shootrj2003 said:

My best times are spent in the woods wether I get game or not.To have the freedom to walk in the woods with a rifle is enjoyment and proof that there is still some freedom in this country,One of the best times was in a stand dozing when two squirrels ran up and over me and were as surprised as me!Another time was bow hunting and I squatted by a tree to let things "simmer" down while I made myself part of a tree and watched as a squirrel worked his way over to me and he climbed the tree almost set on my shoulder and then looked me eye to eye from about3" away til he finally saw through the camo and took off!. No for awhile it was get meat for me but now I just love the hunt and the things that happen on it,I carry a camera most times now also.

Click to expand...

Those kinds of examples are what makes coming home empty-handed no problem at all...similarly, I've been turkey hunting and had a ruby throated hummingbird appear right in front of my face mask, literally almost touching me with her beak as she peered into the eye holes then it hit me that she might peck me in an eye so I shooed her away.
.

Click to expand...

For the record... Id pay good money to watch that "eye-peck" on video! :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

Click to expand...

It was something...I'm sitting down fully camo'ed and well concealed in a 3 sided natural blind, turkey decoy 25yds out into the oak ridge, calling every now and then.
I begin to hear a hummingbird around me and sure enough see one several feet away exploring one bush or another, and eventually it stops, hovering 2-3 feet away in front of me.
Looks me over pretty good...then comes a foot close...then another...until I can faintly feel the air from its wing beats through the mesh of the face.
Then it angles over directly in front of first one eye, then the other...a beak length away and that's when it hit me it might dart in the rest of the way and peck me in the eye and I raisd a hand to scare it off.

The hunting trip gets better.

Not long after the hummingbird encounter, I hear something slowly stepping through the leaves over my left shoulder / left side maybe 10yds away...finally, a long beard is coming to the call.
The steps stop...I'm sitting frozen on place, not calling...then a few more steps and it stops...I'm straining my eyes trying to look left without moving my head...another few steps...and I see the front legs of a deer coming into my peripheral vision.
A few more steps and I see its a 4 pointer...and he's fixated on the turkey decoy...continues to take slow cautious steps past me and closer and closer to the decoy.
He finally stops and stretches his neck so far out to try and sniff the decoy that I thought he was going to lose his balance and tip over...LOL.
When his nose touched that solid plastic decoy...which probably had my scent on it...he took off like a rocket.

The kill ??

I didn't fire a shot that day yet it's one of the most memorable / enjoyable hunts I can remember.

I'd rate the hunt and the kill as equal. A hunt without a kill may be satisfying and fun/exciting but it is, in the final analysis, incomplete.

On the other hand the taking of any creature in anything other than true "fair chase" is not a hunt; just a travesty.

hanshi said:

I'd rate the hunt and the kill as equal. A hunt without a kill may be satisfying and fun/exciting but it is, in the final analysis, incomplete.

On the other hand the taking of any creature in anything other than true "fair chase" is not a hunt; just a travesty.

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I agree 100% well said. :thumbsup:

Without the possibility of the hunt,,there is no kill if it was just the kill why not shoot from the truck or plane or ATV or whatever.

Took the .40cal out for a walk after squirrels this afternoon.
Unseasonably warm at 71* and I don't know how many hundreds of yards of deer trails I still hunted from after lunch until 5:40pm, but never saw a squirrel (or a shed).
I did have one surprise...it was dead calm / quiet, I was slowly picking my way through a cluster of Cedar trees when a huge owl flushed out right over my head...scared the daylights out of me, LOL...they are a huge bird to be so quiet on the wing.
Then finally on the last couple hundred yards towards where I parked, 15 minutes before dark I saw one Gray up ahead but it had already been a good day and gave him a pass...something to look forward to on the next hunt

for me its the scouting. i love just wandering the creek beds looking for crossings or the ridges looking for rubs and scrapes and the surreal of the river bottoms, dark and changing in appearence as the light changes. i think God knows that has always been my passion with huntin cause i rarely killed one but almost never failed at putting my guest on one and with one exception always gave them the better ground. if i just wanted meat i could shoot them out of the back yard, which i have in the past, but there was no joy in it. it was like waiting instead of hunting. one of the neighbors told me i could hunt on his 80 acres on the river but between the boats and the trucks on the county road i felt as if someone was looking over my shoulder so i never went back there and retreated back to the river swamps. i'll return there with my granson this coming season so there will be alot more stalking than still huntin, his 7 year old exitement aint gonna let him be still for long at one time anda being older and more patient than i was when my daughter was coming up i have decided as long as he is making an effort i wont insist he be quiet as a mouse or be perfectly still. if we see a white tail flag away or if he gets to see just how fast a 200 pound piney woods rooter can run when busted out of his bed it will be a successful hunt, like wise if he scares a grey squirrel out of the tree with his little crickett 22 i'll tell him how close he was and what a good shot that it was for a 7 year old learning to shoot.
without doubt, its the hunt.

creek

For me it's the hunt. I haven't hunted since the mid 90's, sort of gave up, less and less areas to hunt, Massachusetts. A year ago a friend called and asked if I wanted to hunt, I said I would love to.
Not having my license, I went out with my trusty camera.
I had such a good time getting back in the woods I decided to start hunting again, got my license this year and picked up a TC 56. I plan on using my black powder exclusively even during shotgun season. Also can't wait for turkey season.

DonK56,
Welcome back to the kingdom of Mother Nature. I truly hope that you new adventures into the hunting fields are productive and fulfilling. Good luck.

If the kill was important I wouldn't spend my time with a Longbow or a Flintlock.
I hunt hard and seriously but taking an animal is not something I feel I have to do for myself or anyone else.
Purely from economics wild meat is far more expensive than anything in the store by the time you add up the true cost of going hunting.

when i was still huntin i was lucky enough to be just a few miles from any of my haunts so i was out there scouting almost every weekend year round, i'm still out there but since i quit huntin i have taken up back pack camping and use my canoe and kayak alot more. i think alot of people disappear after huntin season because of long drives and making up for lost time with children that don't hunt and paying wives back for overlooking those neglected chores for 3 or 4 months.thats why a drive over a hundred miles a day round trip to work, it puts me close to the important things, but thank God for carollas.

creek