The feeling is not guilt for me. It's a mixture of emotions and respect for the worthy game that we hunt. The only time that I've felt guilt is on a botched shot that causes needless suffering.

I feel a bit of guilt. Thats why I practice shooting and try to make it quick as possible and pass on shots im not 100% confidient in.


The worst is after shooting a bear the screaming and roaring they do. I don't like it but it means hes on his last breathe and it was a good shot. Gotta take the bad with the good.

Your not human if you don't feel bad if it doesn't die quick and humanly. I think Hunter education should be required for longer than it is. there are too many ignorant idiots out their that don't know the right way to hunt.

First warm blooded animal i killed other than birds i was 10 and it was a chipmunk at my friends house . He was pretty upset with me because he fed them .. i felt guilty and sad. guilt was because my friend was mad at me .. sad just because there was no real reason for it .Since then i have killed many animals and i feel thankful for the meat and the chance to be outside .I was raised on hunting and we only kill the animals we are going to eat so there is no guilt .However i do get mad at myself if my actions cause an animal to suffer .But redirecting that anger to make myself a better and more ethical sportsman , through practice of my skills and only taking clean one shot kills has removed any remorse i could have .

I have to agree with whoever said its not guilt you feel but I know what your saying. I dont like to see anything suffer either but you are out there with the intentions to kill something so its best to put all emotions aside atleast for the moment of the shot.

I shot a doe one time many years ago and I trailed her with intestines hanging out. I followed up with a second shot as she was eating! Her head was wobbling back and forth as she stared at me. I felt really bad about it and questioned hunting. After a while I got over it until one day I shot a buck close to dark. We went back the next day and my buddy got to it first. When he called me over and I saw it laying on the ground at his feet I teared up.

I realized I just got my first P&Y buck!

The 1st time a shot at a deer w/ a gun (I actually missed) I almost threw up and i felt like I just shot a person. this year I bow shot a doe high in the shoulder and it rolled down hill right under my stand where I put another arrow right in the lungs, watched the eyes roll back and the life drain from her at 20 feet , felt nothing. after about 40 kills, I am a cold bastard, but I am cold bastard w/ a full freezer chest.:woot:

Guilt is perhaps the wrong word for me. I'm a little tore up when I shoot them. I don't feel guilty that i shot one, that's what I went out to do. I get a little uneasy watching them squirm if it's a back shot, but that next shot to the pump station turns that uneasiness into elation.

I also forgot the time I spine shot a doe at 80yrds with the slug gun opening days five years ago and it made a bahhhhhhhhhhhh.............kind of bawl. I got all kinds of calls on my cell. My buds that where hunting on the edges of the valley I shot her in called and asked what the heck was that! Said it sounded like a dying sheep.

The deer I kill die a whole lot faster than most of us will...

Consider that...