A typical hunter
There are several things a man should know: how to build a house, how to kill a meal, and which kinds of women to stay away from.
For modern man, hunting is a tough issue. But like most things tough, your soul gains much by suffering through it.
When I announced on the air that I was getting interested in the art of hunting, I received a lot of response. Most was of the “I’m glad you are talking about this fine sport…” but there were a few “why would you even contemplate such a barbaric act, the killing of defenseless animal?”
I hope within this space to help the doubters to consider and the doers to contemplate, but mainly, I seek to work out my own feelings on the matter by setting them down.
I feel a calling to the hunt, because in my short life I am seeking the answers to Death. Mine and other’s. In this sense, hunting is another confusing yet necessary part of my life. Before I complete my earthly cycle, I want to see the sacrifice made by other creatures in their contribution to my years.
Firstly, I’m sickened by the stereotype of hunters and especially those who fulfill it.
I should think the true hunter sees killing as something sacred. Dispensing death is God’s business and as we are instruments of his trade we should never forget, nor take lightly, this awesome charge.
I’m sure the first time I kill I’ll cry, because no longer can I keep up the false divide that in my living I cause no death. Most of us never integrate, nor take responsibility for, the death we cause.
We will eat our food and never pay much heed to its source. We shield ourselves from the gruesome details of that which enables us to live. How many women will give a hunter an earful over her grilled chicken salad or her filet mignon and never see the opportunity for self-reflection and growth?
In this respect the hunter is a more integral person. He cannot hide from the death he causes.
In my opinion the only thing worse than the man who is content to have others do his killing for him is the one who kills, stands over the beast, and doesn’t feel bad about the whole sorry affair.
In our modern world it is impractical and unnecessary for everyone to hunt the actual food he or she consumes. But I think it is important for the meat-eater to, at least once, go on a hunt and follow the process from start to finish. See the stalk, see the death, the sickening thwack of the bullet, see the gutting, the windpipe severed, the incision around the anus, the intestines pulled free in a jerk, the quartering, legs cut off, head pulled off, the slow cooling of the carcass. It is unpleasant business, but then again, all killing should be. Maybe it will make you a vegetarian. That’s a hell of a lot better than living without integrity, and in my view we should integrate the intellectual knowledge of our food source with the emotional self and realize, with that nauseating pit of dread in our stomach, that life is the cause of death and vice versa.
If I am a man that profits from death, I must be willing to confront it. Responsibility is truly a bitch. I’m not saying that you should be a plumber if you enjoy the fruits of plumbing, but you should be willing to.
Most opposition to Hunting is born out of ignorance. Hunting is necessary to our American life. It keeps our wildlife healthy and fruitful and it keeps our lands intact. Most people do not know that hunters are the greatest conservationists in America. The money made from the sale of firearms, the payment of license fees, etc. directly funds the preservation and management of our lands. There are strict rules on what game can be killed and in what quantity and the rules shift according to need. If there is a dangerous overpopulation that threatens a species, the rules are adjusted to allow the hunter to pull the animal population back into a sustainable harmony. If there is an infestation of a destructive animal that threatens to wipe out the habitat of other important species, the hunter is called upon by the Wildlife Department to do that dirty and noble business. In this sense, the hunter is a volunteer employee who keeps our land working. More than a free employee however, the hunter actually donates money back to the employer to continue to do all such good things. It is a very efficient system.
In the art of hunting there is so much to be learned, first in the physical sense (land, navigation, tracking, survival, specie characteristics), and ultimately in the metaphysical. I suspect both categories can never be exhausted, for we can never know enough about the natural world and never know why a single creature is never good enough to exist eternally in it.
It is very exciting to learn new, important things. I have had the best time out in woods, learning the land, the limitations of my body, and the precarious balance of God’s bottomless world. For me, hunting is a calling to be whole.
I know that we mainly consume beef and chicken and these animals are not hunted. Some may think this is more humane, this harvesting of cow and bird. But those animals are usually horded into gas chambers or penned and beaten over the head until the eyes go gray. To me, that is not hunting, that is killing.
Hunting certainly seems more virtuous.
Appeared in the Dallas Sportspage 6/2/2004
I don’t like this – it makes me think and reflect on life’s ethical issues. Just cut Marion Barber.
Your view’s on hunting, along with Junior’s, are reflective on the American Indian approach to the hunting kill. It’s too bad more of the animal isn’t used though. In addition to tasty sausage one could see more deer pelts worn around town as jackets.
http://www.cracked.com/article_19038_the-7-most-stupidly-overpowered-hunting-weapons.html
How fitting that this article was also posted today. Speaking of people with no respect for the hunt…
Less words. More scantily-clad chicks.
I don’t have a problem with hunting. I use to really enjoy it but then I figured out that for me at least the thrill was about “making the shot.” Much like a golfer that tries land the ball where he aims I wanted to do the same with my gun. Once you make the kill then the thrill of making this shot is over and the work of cleaning and preparing the dead for the table begins. That part I never really enjoyed.
Finally, I decided that target shooting (rifle) and skeet, trap, and sporting clays (shotgun) gave me the thrill of the shot without the unpleasantness of dealing with the dead. Also, the skeet/target range doesn’t require me to wake up at the butt crack of dawn, rub special “scents” over my body, and sit in a freezing deer/duck blind for the “chance” that I might get to take a shot. Nope. I can run to the range at lunch on a Tuesday and shoot a round. So more than being anti-hunting/killing I’m more just plain fat and lazy. But since I’m well armed…I wouldn’t call me out on it.
Totally agree with the “thrill of the shot” comment above. If you find yourself jazzed about developing pure shooting skill try out IDPA or USPSA matches (especially 3-gun matches).
Nicely written GK. You are talented in expressing conflicts of morality in print. I have never hunted & do not have a desire to do so simply because I am not trying to experience the event. The exploration or confrontation of causing death is something I do not seek to experience. I need to be removed from that process because I’m not sure those images can be quieted once envisioned.
I am content with my chicken salad & turkey burgers & choose not to get my hands dirty with the kill. I do acknowledge this animal is dead so that I may live. My thanks are to god for providing the food, however it comes to be on my plate.
Thanks for your courage Gordon (Nimrod)
“vegetables are what food eats”
Preach it!
Thanks Gordon! I have struggled to explain to non-hunters the personal need I fulfill by hunting. I have found that I prefer to take responsibility for the killing of my food. As a carnivore at the top of the food chain, I realize this must be done by someone. Other meat eaters are deceiving themselves by letting someone else do their “dirty work”. It isn’t “manly” but I will admit that I feel sadness standing over a dead animal that I have shot and that I find the process of gutting an animal to be uncomfortable. But by experiencing these emotions, I gain a respect for the animal and the process that goes on when I am not there killing and butchering the meat I consume daily. Ultimately there is something much worse to me than killing an animal and gutting it and that is being an anti-hunting meat eating hypocrite.
I think the modern adversity to hunting is a sham. I am especially thinking of Deer hunting here as that is what was discussed on the show mostly this morning. Deer are exploding in population due to decreases in the number of hunters. Deer kill people… car wrecks caused by deer make them the number 1 killer of people of all animals in North America. Also deer populations suffer from lack of predation. Wasting disease and starvation take the deer who are not able to survive the winter. It is poor stewardship and poor animal husbandry not to hunt deer well. Like you I feel that giving that animal a “good and efficient” death quickly is a dis service to the animal. I take your point about ineffective bow hunters very much as truth. Guns kill efficiently. Junior needs to be taken hunting. Sitting still for hours is demanding. it may not rise to the level of sport but I dont care it is not easy.
Sharing is good. What does Jub think about this story? http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/02/23/breastfeeding-mothers-share-milk-with-other-moms/
Gordon,
I think The Ticket should have a hunting and firearms consultant on call for when these subjects come up. I like most of your co-workers but they are clueless when it comes to these topics. Well, except Corby, he is just a pompous ass.
AMEN on the pompous ass
Gordon, I think I must have missed this article somehow when it originally printed. But its a good one.
I appreciate your coverage of not only the death part of hunting, but the conservation side of hunting. I have paid in thousands of dollars over the years for the sake of animals and their habitats.
In my eyes, I have done much more for the environment than most of those who simply complain about how bad hunters are. Those folks just don’t get it.
I have taken all of kids hunting. Its been a bonding experience to roam the woods with them. To teach them the habits of various animals. To explain to them how to be invisible to their prey.
But I can with a surety, that my kids will most likely never take a human life. They understand that when you shoot at something, it dies. None of this video game stuff, where everyone lives to fight another day. Life ends for that animal when you shoot it.
While they take pride in their skill of shooting and stalking, they understand they took the life of that animal. Its a life lesson they will never forget.
For the millionth straight time, on a variety of subjects, Junior is wrong. The only thing I agree with from his viewpoint this morning is that hunting over bait is not very sporting. I think that hiding, camouflaging, scent management, and elevated tree stands are fair game, if you’ve taken the time to find out where the deer are likely to be, and not hunting them over a feeder.
As usual, Gordon has nailed it. I feel a connection to the earth when hunting that is hard to put into words. When I am lucky enough to take a deer, I take a few moments and say a little prayer of Thanksgiving that I was able to humanely end this animal’s life, and that I pledge to use the meat wisely. But yes, just before the trigger is squeezed, there is a moment of thrill and exhilaration that is hard to describe to the non-hunter without sounding like a bloodthirsty freak.
As to weapon choice, I say use whatever you need to make a clean kill. If you’re proficient with a bow or black powder gun, use that. If you need a more modern rifle with a scope, use that.
Junior’s rantings about “laser sights” (illegal) and “hand grenades and machine guns” (illegal, and most importantly would ruin the meat) only point out his ignorance. (http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/annual/hunt/means/)
Thanks again, Gordo.
Junior is wrong only because he is ignorant – he sees that the hunter uses a deer blind, and thinks that that guarantees a kill, he thinks that a using a rifle with a scope means an instant kill –
He does not know that setting up a deer blind takes a lot of work and many days going home with nothing to show for it – he does not know that having a scope doesn’t mean that you ever get into a position to use it – and when you do, the random gust of wind throws the round off and you only wound the animal, and never track it down –
Junior is “wrong” because he is ignorant – but –
“When I am lucky enough to take a deer, I take a few moments and say a little prayer of Thanksgiving that I was able to humanely end this animal’s life, and that I pledge to use the meat wisely” –
I think that Junior would agree to that –
So you see, you are not so very far from what Junior thinks –
Stop trying to make the millionth straight point – I think you and Junior are closer than you think – he just needs to be educated. And BTW, never assume that you are without the need to be educated -
Super gay!
Very well written Gordon I enjoyed the read. I am no hunter but I have hunted….and I did cry at my first kill. The “sport” or whatever people want to classify it as, is not for me but I very much enjoyed the introspection.
Keep up the good work!
At least make it a challenge and use a bow instead of a rifle and scope.
I disagree with this comment. I have hunted before, but I would hardly call myself a knowledgable hunter. However, I do know this is the last thing you would want. By making it “a challenge”, you only risk having the animal suffer unnecessarily. If you are not a skilled marksman with a bow, you run the risk of ending the animals life inhumanely. The only thing tougher than standing over an animal that you have killed is tracking an animal for hours as it slowly bleeds to death and suffers.
As a meat eater who doesn’t hunt I would rather all meat be hunted & sold to grocery instead of slaughter houses existing. There is no dignity in being trucked to a facility where a machine cuts off your head or someone shoots u with air. The problem is that chickens & cows aren’t challenging beasts to hunt. So man implemented a system where the raising & selling of meat became profitable & marketable to larger & larger companies. At least a deer can run free & wild for a few years before a bullet meets it’s head @ 3000 feet per second
hunting is super gay
What do you call a potato that opresses other potatos? A dick-tater.
-NH
Where’s Ribby?
As a 12 year old I went with my father on a hunt in south Texas,It was by the llano river and I was put into a tree stand directley over a path that the deer had clearly made down to the river After 6hrs of waiting,below me not more than 25ft away arrives a doe and her offspring heart beat in my mouth the shot comes out of the 308…unlock the seat belt that kept me in the tree stand.I go to the doe and and see I shot her Thru the neck shattering the neck bone.The next thing I know I am looking down over this beatiful animal and having thoughts and emotions of regret over what I had done.I then dragged the corpse up from the river back up thru a barb wire fence and waited for 2hrs in the dark waiting to be picked up.My first and last hunt.
Interesting story, Do you feel like you were too young or that you prob wouldn’t have liked it when you were older either?
Please don’t call hunting a sport unless the animals can shoot back. You can justify it anyway you want but for once I would like to hear these “hunters” just admit they like to kill things instead of telling me how they’re helping the animals or raising money for the state. Are you telling me you can’t explain the habits of animals, the beauty of nature or bond with your kids without ending with the killing of an innocent animal. Does that make you feel like a big, tough guy because you blew away a helpless animal with your high powered rifle from a long distance away? Remember, this is 2011 not 1811. You need meat, go to Kroger, and let the animals survive and thrive as nature intended.
OMG, WTF and LOL
How ridiculous.
First of all if the animals were shooting back it would no longer be called a sport it would be called a war.
Hunting is a sport because you just don’t go out and pluck a nice, healthy deer off of a venison tree, or pick Turkey from your meat garden. You have to work at it in so many ways and it’s a blessing to have the oportunity.
If you are content with going to Kroger and paying someone for the meat that they got from these “surviving and thriving” animals that they pen-raised and shot full of chemicals just for the purpose of beefing them up to slaughter them then more power to ya.
2011, though, is also a year in which people ought to be educated enough to know animals aren’t really “innocent” or “helpless”.
To teach this to kids is doing them a disservice; you’re lying to them about how life really is.
You don’t see any lions and gazelles or coyotes and rabbits resting under a shade tree negotiating any peace treaties on the Discovery Channel.
In the end it’s not that I feel like a big tough guy blowing away a ‘helpless’ animal from a long distance, it’s the satisfaction I get from putting my instincts, hunting knowledge and efforts into filling my freezer with a few months worth of meat, much more healthy than Kroger meat, for me and my family (yes, this still goes on today), and knowing I can survive this way without having to pay someone else to do it. You work for it, God gives you the right to do it, and it’s personally rewarding if you do it right. We are all stewards of nature.
To me it’s a feeling that can’t be described, it has to be experienced. For you to talk about it like it’s a barbaric sin is only ignorance on your part. If you don’t like the experience, keep letting Kroger do the work for you. You have that right.
Great article, Gordon.
Hunting which sometimes includes killing and sometimes doesn’t, does not make me any more manly or tough than any other person. It does make me feel exhilerated, even when I’ve stalked an animal for hours and can’t get a shot because its too dark, or if I draw the animal’s attention and it runs. I came close and hope to be better the next opportunity.
I don’t get sad after I’ve killed an animal. I admire the animal for having survived the harsh elements as long as it did. I respect it for the food it will provide me and others. I don’t fistpump and holler after killing an animal; I simply go about preparing the meat for the table. Every time I put a deer on the ground, as I walk up to it with my heart still racing form the adrenaline, my ears picking up every subtle noise, I thank it for its life and its meat.
I think eating the meat from the wild animals I kill helps keep me healthier than I would be eating the meat from conventionally raised animals fed feed they did not evolve to eat.
I don’t consider hunting a “sport”, hunting has been around a LOT longer than any sport and humans have been the premier hunters for thousands of years.
I don’t try to justify hunting by telling people how much money I’ve spent or that I am controlling the population. I think hunting, even though I use modern and efficient means, connects me to a primal past we all have but some refuse to acknowledge.
“Nature” has a lot of predators and human hunters are but one of them.
See you at Kroger. I love grilled veggies with my venison.
And that’s the problem – hunting is not a sport – it’s fun and exhilerating, but it’s not really a sport – because for some people, most people in human history, it was a job –
Seriously, if you are a bushman, even now, hunting is not a sport, it’s a job. It’s a job you may enjoy, but it’s still a job. If you don’t get a kill, you don’t eat. There is great exhileration in hunting – some of it is the connection with nature, some of it is just that tonite, you can eat.
But Ray is also correct – it is 2011, not 1811 – we don’t have to hunt for our food – and why is that a bad thing? As a modern human being, why can’t I celebrate the fact, that I don’t have to live hand to mouth?
Geeze, hunting meant you lived hand to mouth – hunting meant you had no money – really, it’s good that we don’t have to hunt for our food. Humanity has spent 300 years to get to the point, now, where most people don’t have to live hand to mouth. Why is that such an ef’ing bad thing?
I think your are referring to these guys –
You, sir, are a hypocrite.
Do you know what conditions that your steak or chicken lived in before its death? High density feedlots. An unnatural diet. Artificial hormones to increase growth. So, in order to feel enlightened and superior, you’re much more willing to allow an animal to live a miserable existance. Wow. Your ignorance is amazing.
If God didn’t want us to eat animals he shouldn’t have made them out of meat
That chick wears the same outfit I do when hunting.
After reading that, I’m ready to go kill something.
I grew up hunting in central tx, hated just squatting in a perch waiting for a shot. I loved the stealthy walk thru the woods, that moment when you first spot prey. I gave up hunting altogether one day while out with a buddy, stumbled on a deer, an easy shot. Just something about it hit me strange; I was done. Let my friend bag it and never hunted since.
Always thought stocked leases were ridiculous. Even moreso, the cris cris who brags about the 3 bucks he bags there. That’s not hunting, that’s gathering.
Yup, canned hunting – but that’s been around for a long time – idiocracy started many years ago.
I hunted for my virginity once, but it was lost on a fat Mexican that I had to coyote arm myself from out of the burrito stained sheets of a dank musty dorm room, scale down three stories on a rickety fire escape, elbow crawl 20 yards (I didn’t really have to, but I was still somewhat drunk, and thought it might be fun). Ah wasted youth, I miss you…no funeral, headshot.
Would you rather be shot and die quickly, or be eaten alive by coyotes when you get old/sick/lame?
The outdoors is not like babmi or some delusional PETA fairy tail.
Are you asking if I would rather be shot and die quickly in the middle of my life or live a long life and die by coyote? I think I’ll take coyote.
Well, that’s the problem – since there are no predators anymore, you can live long and still be miserable.
On the other hand –
“The outdoors is not like babmi or some delusional PETA fairy tail.”
No – the “outdoors”, a lot of it anyway, is simply not the “outdoors” – PETA or babmi has nothing to do with it –
Animals need predators – most likely man, at least in the country – but the fact is, we, human beings, decide what is “outdoors” – nature has nothing to do with it -
Gordon,
Thanks for this. This Nail’s it to the exact point. I am no longer an active hunter. I have hunted with rifles, shotguns, bow and arrow. In the right mentality and perspective it is one of the most “footprint on earth” things we can experience. I lived for over three years on the game I took from the field. It is awesome experience and should not be taken lightly the taking of life. I had trophy’s made as an honor to the life of the animal and have within the last few years given them to charity.
The process of survival is a grusome one. When we see the tiger take down the gazell we have to understand we are far the greatest predator this earth knows. All in the name of profit and survival.
As with most things there are those who pollute the beauty with poor motives. But they are the few. I am grateful to live in this great state of texas where the outdoors can be embraced.
The cost of survival and profit are high in this life. Understanding this can bring the right balance and perspective to life and all that is in it.
God did a great job of taking care of everything. Take a moment to get outdoors. Sit near some pond or stream at sunrise as the woods awake. It is an awesome thing this place we get to live in. Everything is pretty taken care of for us. All we have to do is take the time and go get it. However or whatever it may be.
Man, you hunters are missing the point. First, most nonhunters don’t give a rat’s ass whether you hunt or not. I like meat, I know meat has to be dead before I eat it and I shed no tears for the animal that gave itself to me.
As for all the corollary benefits, communing with nature, controlling the population, eating what you kill, blah blah. All true, no doubt. But come on, that’s not why you hunt, is it? Really, this is just between you and me.
You hunt because you get off on killing stuff. At least the prime reason. And that’s what baffles most of who don’t. Maybe the urge to kill stuff has washed out of our genetic system, but we just don’t see the pleasure in offing Bambi or Simba. And when Great White Hunter goes to Africa to do “big game” hunting, that just seems gross.
So that’s it. Keep on hunting, we just don’t get it.
Gordon, I still like this article, because it is an honest assessment of your questions,motivations and the reality of the situation for the average “sportsman”. The kill is the simplest part of hunting, everything leading up to it and resulting from it is the easiest part to overlook. Maybe that’s the problem.
I wanted to listen to the discussion, but couldn’t. I wish I could’ve heard the opinions on bowhunting.
Look Maw No spellchech.
Gordo,
This has no relevance to your current article, but as a former P1 now residing in Houston (much to my chagrin, but it pays the bills) I occasionally check out the The Ticket’s and gordonkeith.com websites. This morning I was instead reviewing news updates on a financial website, and clicked an article about Sirius Radio – Guess who the author was…Rocco Pendola. He looks even more like a douche bag than I thought he would. Keep up your level of comatose mediocrity. Greggo from Vidor says “Stay Hard”.
Dallasrebel
About Rocco Pendola – http://seekingalpha.com/author/rocco-pendola?source=about_lpic
Rocco Pendola is a former radio host and freelance writer. He lives in Santa Monica, California where he trades stocks and options for a living. Rocco’s writing work appears on websites ranging from SF Gate to TheNest.com. Armed with a BA in urban studies from San Francisco State University and two years of PhD study at the University of California-Irvine, his work has also appeared in the peer-reviewed academic journals Environment & Behavior and Health and Place as well as Planning Magazine and the website Planetizen. Pendola’s radio career took him from his hometown of Niagara Falls-Buffalo, New York to cities such as Pittsburgh, Miami, and Dallas.
• Description: Independent trader. Trading frequency: Daily
• Interests: Commodities, Dividend stock ideas & income, ETFs, Energy stocks, Foreign stocks, Mutual funds, Options, REITs, Retirement savings, Stocks – long, Stocks – short, Tech stocks
Rocco is actually a very good writer and a smart guy. I wish we’d been more friendly while he was here. Much of that is my fault. I encourage people to follow his writing.
Thanks Gordo.
We need to get together. Well, we don’t need to, but it would be nice.
Ok I have been hunting since I can remember. All points made above have some truth. Some remarks are made in ignorance but we cannot fault those ignorant to our lifestyle. Yes I enjoy the thrill of the hunt leading up to the kill and the rush of adrenaline as I take the animal. And I also enjoy the post kill work because without this the animal died in vain. Hunting without consumption is just killing and that I do have a issue with
Killing for entertainment sake is wrong and that is basically what you did in Africa. Serial killers do the same thing. They just get off on a different prey.
I’m a fan Gordo. I’m also a gun guy.