Feelings during The Hunt

[chris2fer6148]

hey there everyone ! grateful to be here to get everyone's perspective and insight

I have a lady friend here next to me who is curious as to how you go about internal processing of your emotions during a Hunt !

the last time she went Hunting was when she was 12 years old with her Dad in Wisconsin . they spent most of the daylight setting up a spot to take out a deer . and when it came time for the Dad to pull the trigger she got tugged by her Heart strings and became distraught and could not go thru with the kill

her emotional blurtage of "don't shoot it Dad" brought empathic Feelings to the Dad about the killing of a deer . so he lowered his gun and they Journeyed home empty handed .

she knows that Hunting is something she wants to fully accomplish. to appreciate the full Cycle of Reality . to remember the relationship we share with animals and to Honor the full process from Wilderness to dinner plate .


how do you all go about processing this internally ? any tips or stories are all welcome here !

thank you for your input

 

[JjamesIII]

What are “feelings”?

 

[Hydro557]

This is not uncommon. My youngest daughter caused me to do the same thing. Not only on a buck but even worse, on a Coyote too lol.

I think the key is to explain that all land has a carrying capacity and we can help manage it. Also an animal dying from am ethically placed arrow or bullet is likely the least terrible way an animal can die in nature.

Lastly, it needs to be very clearly demonstrated that we place the suffering of any game animal above our desire to fill a tag. Meaning, we don't take sketchy shots risking injury to the game. I think this one is the most often ignored unfortunately.

 

[Vaultman]

Respect the animal before you take the shot (and if needed, take good follow up shots). Don't let meat spoil as you dress, process and package the meat. Be thankful while eating what you brought to your table.

Think about these things before you even leave the house.

 

[Northpark]

That’s a tough one. I think everyone processes things differently. Some joke with the old “what do you feel when you pull the trigger? Recoil.” Some get bent out of shape. I’ve cried a couple times (first deer, first 6x6 bull elk on an OTC tag) but mostly I tend to feel a bit of sadness mixed with the regret of taking life followed by satisfaction in a job well done and the right to live another day on meat. So I guess it’s just different for everyone. Your lady friend will need to get over the mental hurdle of taking life though in order to hunt. Sometimes the real world is messy and violent and bloody and that’s just the way it is. We are not somehow superior to the thousands of generations of humans that came before us that ate meat, we just somehow developed the idea that we are superior. Sorry I’m not more help. Tough subject.

 

[OKHunter84]

I haven't really felt bad about it most my adulthood. I remember crying about shooting an oriole when I was very young. My dad explained to me that's why we don't kill things for no reason, we kill them to eat.

Last time I dealt with this was when I killed a deer with my son with me for the first time. He was 4 or 5 and we saw a buck and I asked if he wanted me to shoot it, he said yes, so I did. When we walked up on it, he got a little upset and told me not to kill them anymore. I've explained it to him now that he's getting older and we eat almost exclusively meat that I harvest, I don't think it bothers him.

Life eats life, we're all going to die. The animals we harvest live free until we harvest them and eat them. I would like to think it's a more pleasant end then being eaten by a bear or a pack of wolves. I also think it's a better life then dying packed into a slaughterhouse.

 

[long hunter]

Been hunting all sorts of animals since about 6-7 years old, understood then as now that hunting is taking a life, be thankful for that life you received and move on. Strange how I think of a dead deer I just shot in terms of a few seconds ago the deer was doing what deer do and now there it lays dead at my feet. Makes you think about the short time we spend on this rock sucking air.

 

[aftriathlete]

but mostly I tend to feel a bit of sadness mixed with the regret of taking life followed by satisfaction in a job well done and the right to live another day on meat.

Pretty much the same.

 

[Swamp Fox]

In our rather stupid time, hunting is belittled and misunderstood, many refusing to see it for the vital vacation from the human condition that it is, or to acknowledge that the hunter does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, he kills in order to have hunted.
----José Ortega y Gasset

 

[TradArcher]

Here is a different viewpoint: I quite often have close stalks and rarely kill. I do occasionally kill deer, etc and then process the meat and eat the animal and I am grateful for that for when i choose to kill.

Here's the thing...you can enjoy the hunt in full without pressuring yourself to kill. If you go too far with that though you could wind up like me endlessly stalking deer/elk and then wishing you killed when the seasons over so you could have the meat come winter, lol.

But I do love the hunt so often hate to have the season end too early so often I just take the stalk.

To each their own and don't pressure yourself to do anything either way - just relax into the hunt itself and enjoy that. Hunting is a very rich experience.

Ha, I was typing this all out as the poster above was posting...synchronicity.

 

[Swamp Fox]

If your friend is up for it, this might reveal some things to her. I highly recommend it to to hunters and non-hunters alike.

A Hunter's Heart: Honest Essays on Blood Sport​

https://www.amazon.com/Hunters-Heart-Honest-Essays-Blood/dp/0805055304

And there's more where that came from.

The best thing, though, is to hunt, and to see how you feel once you've found an animal.

 

[WKR]

Don't over analyze everything. Let nature take its course.

If you can't handle it go buy your meat from the grocery store.

 

[CRJR45]

The truth trumps feelings every time . Truth is that animal is going to die one way or another and something is going to eat it , might as well be me . LOL

 

[Team4LongGun]

What are “feelings”?

Really dude?

 

[Swamp Fox]

Really dude?

LOL ...

 

[Team4LongGun]

Don't over analyze everything. Let nature take its course.

If you can't handle it go buy your meat from the grocery store.

Another senseless post.

I read it as he was asking for opinions on relating is to his lady friend. Why do we need so many sarcastic and or nonsense posts? If you don't like the topic, move on.

 

[MuleyFever]

I have a lot of emotion towards the killing of an animal. One of my biggest emotions is sadness for removing the animal from the landscape. I love seeing game in the field. Watching a buck or bull on the landscape is awesome. When I look into a drainage and see an animal in its home it completes the very definition of nature to me. When I remove that animal now its just a baron hillside and I have deprived nature. No one else will ever be able to see that animal and enjoy its presence. For these reasons I feel sadness.

In the end I do it for the food and that is enough for me. I often sit out a draw or turn in a tag because I dont need the meat.

 

[ozyclint]

Don't over analyze everything. Let nature take its course.

If you can't handle it go buy your meat from the grocery store.

This. Do people that have hurt feelings in killing an animal and actually utilizing it still have hurt feelings when they buy meat from the store? What's the distinction? It's OK to pay to have the death on someone else's conscience?

 

[Team4LongGun]

This. Do people that have hurt feelings in killing an animal and actually utilizing it still have hurt feelings when they buy meat from the store? What's the distinction? It's OK to pay to have the death on someone else's conscience?

This is thread derailment. Your responding to a snide comment, and furthering the discussion from the OP's point. If you want to discuss this, start your own thread.

 

[Team4LongGun]

OP-

I have daughters. I've had several discussions with them about why I hunt, the purpose behind it, and what it does for me and our family.
I am not a scholar, so I broke it down Barnie style for them. All things die, a large portion of human food is from animals, so I prefer fresh, true organic meat, fish, etc. over grocery stores. This made the most sense to them.