ORIGINAL: atlasman

I have been offered the opportunity to be a part of these types of "crowd control" for years now through friends at my gun club and a large local processor. I never had much interest at all because I knew what it was gonna be like but one of the guys talked me into tagging along one day anyways..........after watching him shoot 8 deer that day from the ground I wished I had never went. It was borderline nauseating.

There are jobs that need to be done.........and one of them is controlling the deer populations in areas that have no pradators other then cars. I understand that completely, and I also understand that a valuable resource can be provided to hunger shelters at the same time. I am all for these measures..........however, there are reasons these kinds of "jobs" are left to police departments and "shooters"..........because that is what needs to be done......a bunch of deer need to be shot. When we try to blow smoke up people's butts and pass it off as hunting it hurts our image and embarrasses our great sport.

It's nothing more then killing a bunch of tame deer (many of which are carrying a fetus at this time) and that is a disturbing task. When most people look at that "job" they would shutter at the thought of having to do it........now enter a group that is not only volunteering to do it, but want to pass it off as hunting. This gives us all a black eye to the general public IMO. No matter how you spin it you are never gonna convince an intelligent adult that the deer that was staring at them yesterday on the 8th tee box needs to be "hunted". It just makes us look foolish.......and even worse it makes us look like the EXACT thing we do not want to be perceived as........guys who simply like to kill stuff. We preach non stop about how we all love the sport and challenge of the hunt. Jobs like these do not fall under that umbrella and everyone knows it. When a city or town gets over run with rats they don't plan rat hunts............and when the cops or a team of snipers are used to knock down the numbers somewhere they don't say they are hunting.

I have no desire to kill tame deer (possibly pregnant).........but I do realize that the job needs to be done. I have no problem with the deer being shot, I just wouldn't want to be the one doing it.

My last point is that whenever a bait and shoot or sniper event is needed.........no matter how bad it is needed there is ALWAYS extremely volitile opposition to such actions. Some of the town meetings I have been to were down right scarey. These people see the deer every day in their yards and around town and on the golf course and they enjoy that sight............no amount of common sense will sway their opinion because deer are so visually "cute" and the thought of putting a bullet or arrow through one is ghastly to many. So when the hammer finally falls and the deer get shot because they have to........those same people's opposition now turns to hatred and disgust. I don't want that aimed at bowhunters or hunters in general because those people don't soon forget.

It's a job that needs to be done but it should be done by a nameless, faceless group that has no dog in the fight. People who don't want these deer shot will be even more angry if they find out they are being shot by hunters.........I don't want that as part of our reputation.......and god forbid word or pictures get out about a bad shot. It's just not worth it. One deer running around town with an arrow sticking out of it can be disasterous.

JMHO