This might sound terrible but I enjoy target shooting far more then hunting. Even when I was a kid, I was antsy. My Dad used to have fits with me when he was teaching me to hunt deer because I could not be still. I'd move my feet, swivel my head at every sound, and loved to point that old shotgun at anything that I took a fancy to. But because of my father, I learned to sit still, and spend hours in the woods without moving. And I learned to stalk deer, and most of all track deer. So hunting when I was younger was fun. Now they've shot off the deer herd. At least when there were a lot of deer, I could SEE DEER. That made it fun. Now you sit for days, and watch the same squirrel or set of leaves that look like a deer. I guess with age comes boredom. This year I sat there and replayed in my mind every deer I ever shot. Man that was a lot of deer. But I actually think I remembered them all. That is the first sign of boredom.

I like to shoot. I like the noise, and the smoke. I like to stack bullet on bullet. It makes me smile. When I hunt I seldom if ever get to shoot. Also killing something just does not thrill me like it used to. In fact it kind of bothers me after the deed because I look at what I have taken the life of and ask myself.. did you really need to do that? This might sound silly but after the last deer I shot, I felt terribly guilty for doing that. But I do like venison, and the one way to get it is to hunt. But if I had to hang one up.. the hunting clothes would be washed and hung in the back closet in a heart beat.