ORIGINAL: Sylvan
It all has to do with the area we hunt and the land and average caliber of animals that we see on a regular basis. I would be bored to death if I had to hunt where some of you guys hunt.......
Really?
"I hunt deer because I love the entire process; the preparations, the excitement, and sustained suspense of trying to match my woodslore against the finely honed instincts of these creatures
. On most days spent in the woods, I come home with an honestly earned feeling that something good has taken place. It makes no difference whether I got anything; it has to do with how the day was spent."
"Life in the open is one of the finest rewards. I enjoy and become completely immersed in the high challenge and increased opportunity to become for a time a part of nature. Deer hunting is a classical exercise in freedom. It is a return to fundamentals that I instinctively feel are basic and right."
"I have always tempered my killing with respect for the game pursued. I see the animal not only as a target but as a living creature with more freedom than I will ever have. I take that life if I can with regret as well as joy, and with the sure knowledge that nature's ways of fang and claw or exposure and starvation are a far crueler fate than I bestow."
Fred Bear
I believe there is far too much emphasis placed on killing a big buck. I can tell you from experience that the satisfaction and joy of killing a trophy animal is temporary but what Fred is talking about will last a lifetime. If every buck in the woods was a scrawny 4 pt I'd still be out there and I wouldn't be bored. I love hunting!
Well said Sylvan. I hunted squirrel rabbit doves and quail (still do) before I hunted deer. If deer hunting were outlawed I would find some other way to be in the woods doing what I enjoy. All these trophy hunters are massaging their ego.