How many love to shoot but don't hunt?

Canuck Bob · Post by **Canuck Bob** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 12:54 am

I've decided to not hunt anymore. It started as a medical thing but I'm growing comfortable with the decision generally. I hadn't actively hunted or shot for about a decade and just started back to shooting two years ago.

I grew up in a hunting family in Alberta. I worked and hunted some of the best game fields in Canada. I favored moose hunting with my Marlin 444. I can even remember buying spring grizzly licences over the counter. My ex called herself a hunting widow, my refusal to change that weighed heavy in our divorce.

I seem to have lost the urge to drop the hammer on a game animal. I'm wondering if other skilled hunters have done the same? I love other guys stories and success and reliving my own on forums. Please don't think this in anyway is about others choices to hunt. I admire skilled hunters and trappers as the best tree huggers I know (folks who really love nature as a participant in a natural battle of wits between prey and predator or predator and predator).

kimwcook · Post by **kimwcook** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 3:04 am

Canuck, I find myself not hunting, but it's not by choice, but more because of time. It's hard to find people of like mind that I want to go hunting with. I don't do it for subsistence, but for the enjoyment of good people, camraderie and the great outdoors. But, time anymore just seems to be a commodity I have a little of. Me and a buddy of mine are talking about going elk hunting this year. We'll see. We're both extremely busy with work, but also need the time off to recreate the man.

gamekeeper · Post by **gamekeeper** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 3:36 am

Two or three times a week I walk the wood and fields where I live, sometimes I get to fire whatever gun I'm carrying but more often I just enjoy being out side with nature.
I guess I'm losing the urge to kill but not the urge to hunt...

El Chivo · Post by **El Chivo** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 5:23 am

I'm in between right now, but hunting less and may forgo the deer tag this year. There have been lots of problems, a drought, hunting areas closed, other hunters showing up just to shoot into the air, etc. I'm thinking about alternatives but have been pressed for time so the alternatives don't seem as important as deer hunting used to be.

I'm also discouraged about all the preparations for big game hunting; carrying an entire butcher shop with you, meat bags, wagon, ropes, scents, you name it.

I may get to the point where I stop hunting altogether, though I'm not there yet. But I think that when I retire I will want to get back into it. One of the reasons I got started was to learn how to spend time in the forest safely and enjoyably. That means taking a gun!

I shoot two targets a week at the indoor range, trying to get the best offhand group I can. That's most of my shooting time these days.

Mescalero · Post by **Mescalero** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:16 am

I live in N.M. at 7300 ft. deer, elk,bear ( now hogs ) turkey, quail, (down lower) antelope and I have not hunted in 30 + years.
What is a single guy going to do with a whole elk?
Stilll enjoy shooting.

FatJackDurham · Post by **FatJackDurham** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:50 am

I have never hunted, and wouldn't mind doing it. I think hunting is a american tradition and skill that should be preserved.

However, conservation should always be kept in mind.

toby · Post by **toby** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:52 am

I shoot often, but no longer hunt around here. Growing up, I could hunt squirrel, dove, & nutria in basicly my backyard. But now my town of 2,500 has a population of over 40,000. I have $500,000 homes sitting in what used to ricefields.

Old Ironsights · Post by **Old Ironsights** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:05 am

I prefer hunting to shooting, and prefer shooting steel to shooting paper.

But, as mentioned, it's getting harder to hook up with like minded hunters willing to share their spot (if you haven't lived somewhere for at least a decade) and while you CAN give away an elk, you also generally have to pay to get it professionally processed first...

COSteve · Post by **COSteve** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:20 am

I have moved away from hunting over the years not because of any specific decision but rather because of lack of opportunity. The financial and time demands of raising a family and their needs has relegated hunting to a 'back when' sport the same as riding motorcycles. However, I do still find the opportunity to shoot quite regularly.

madman4570 · Post by **madman4570** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:24 am

If I could not hunt(think it would kill me??) It's part of me/it's where I live/it's just is
I love to shoot also(just shooting)
I love thinking about shooting/the guns/the hunting/the challenge/the animals/the wilderness/having guns and what that means.
Even after 43 years I still when sitting on the pot read hunting/shooting/gun books.

Holding my gun when were walking my Lab in them (about 2 hrs everyday now)it makes me feel (secure)and warm

I tell my Lab as when I say "Hey" and him looking at me with that intense look(with his little bottom teeth smiling at me------
"Watch it,might be a big deer or even a bear,he alertly looks out into the woods then back at me, I continue "but daddy (pointing to my gun)has the big boom boom stick" he gives me that happy look cause he knows what I am saying!

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:31 am

I still seem to get out a bit for deer, and elk/bear/cat. I enjoy the woods. If any game animal can't hear my fat butt chugging thru the woods, he deserves to be shot...a Darwin thang, I guess

Malamute · Post by **Malamute** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:37 am

I don't hunt much. I mainly meat hunt when I do. I haven't had time either, its been a choice of working (and work has been poor in construction the past few years) and taking time off, losing money, and spending scarce money to go out. I do grouse hunt a little, I love it, and so do my dogs. It's something I can do on a weekend afternoon, without too much work and planning.

I also walk in the hills nearly daily, rifle in hand. Hunting isn't my "time in the woods", I get that nearly every day. Other than grouse hunting, meat hunting mostly just seems like a lot of hard work. I may feel differently if I ever get to retire, and have time to plan hunts and spend time out without worrying about the lost work time. I've never had a huge desire to kill things tho, just never have.

gvthnks · Post by **gvthnks** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 9:41 am

I shoot but don't hunt. I used to hunt quite a bit growing up and even after I joined the USMC. I went for a period of about 8 years where I didn't even fire MY guns. That ended last year when I shot recreationally for the first time in years.

I intend to do some limited hunting in the future and think I'd like to try quail or pheasants or doves as birds are something I've never hunted before.

For me it was just a preference. Hunting just wasn't something I thought about doing in my off time. I'd like to do some again in the future however.

Post by **Old Savage** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 9:46 am

I have shot a lot more than I have hunted. So I guess I am primarily a shooter that hunts on occasion. I have friends who are hunters and shooting is secondary - part of the hunt.

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 9:50 am

Another factor is the price of gasoline/diesel, unless you live real close to the action.

Chas. · Post by **Chas.** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 9:55 am

I haven't hunted in several decades - mostly due to the demands of raising a family, the development of prime hunting ground, and the demise of my dogs. My last hunting was quail/grouse and that hunting is of no use without dogs. I'm not sure I'm physically able to hunt grouse anymore. But I do enjoy lighting off a few rounds at inanimate objects.

two bit okie · Post by **two bit okie** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 10:12 am

unfortnatly, my hunting went with the cartilige in both knees bye bye.. AND when I could walk, I was just not into killing and cleaning. A nice walk in the woods was very enjoyable.

madman4570 · Post by **madman4570** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 10:17 am

Guys,
This is coming directly from the heart--------------

"If" any of you living in the city get to at a point in your life where it is feasibly possible to make a switch to rural living where you can own your own land/homestead ---DO IT--------------Do it

You will find there is a vast difference in the quality of life/the air/the peace/the soothing effect on mind/heart/soul.

I cannot put into words what a difference having this expanded space makes. You calm down. The animals you hunt,you even feel a little different about ?? There isn't that (oh boy,if I don't get one today on some state land

feeling,its more well they will still be here feeling/plus like to see em.

When you get retired it just triples that effect.
It is like you are permanently on Vacation at a resort. We made a temporary move(pretty long one)while daughter was going to High School (her bus ride would have been 1.5hrs each way and wife and myself had excellent careers that were only 1st shift hours and typically were 6am-5pm being gone. So once she started College(back we come)at warp speed.
While living in the city (small town)I was a shell of myself.Actually hated to even go outside because of no privacy and all the other stuff that goes around with that.(I need a lot of space) me more than wife.
Within first year being back I have spent more time outside in 1 year than 6 years in town.Was it convenient to get something at the store---ya/ was it less stressful in heavy snowfall winter events---ya, but not having that outdoorsy living softens a man,and for me(totally ruins a man)-----It makes one get soft and age too quickly,at least for someone like myself??)

The stress of working/trying to make retirement is tough(a killer)
If you make it-------------Grab a piece of heaven if you can.
Speaking of that time for Charlie's afternoon mountain hike!

God Bless!
Peace bro's

C. Cash · Post by **C. Cash** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 10:29 am

Old Savage wrote:I have shot a lot more than I have hunted. So I guess I am primarily a shooter that hunts on occasion. I have friends who are hunters and shooting is secondary - part of the hunt.

Plus one on that. I am motivated to hunt more now because it is potential time with family and less time for my kids to sit in front of some sort of technology.

Streetstar · Post by **Streetstar** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 11:09 am

Old Savage wrote:I have shot a lot more than I have hunted. So I guess I am primarily a shooter that hunts on occasion. I have friends who are hunters and shooting is secondary - part of the hunt.

This is me as well ---- far too often, my occupation takes me away from home during hunting season.

I enjoy hunting very much, but i don't stress if i miss a season, - and i dont burn too many calories in the summer trying to find spots (when i bowhunted a decade ago, i was rather obsessive about this though) -- usually i will have an aquaintance with a lease who i hunt with.

My career is weather related, so if a hurricane hits Florida (or anywhere else) in the late summer/fall -- no hunting for me

Booger Bill · Post by **Booger Bill** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 11:15 am

I was raised in a hunting family in wisconsin. Went hunting all the time. Now I am almost 71 years old. I started backing off when my ex wouldnt eat bambi. Now my wife theresa wont eat bambi either. My biggest reason now really boils down to the fact that I have come to respect all life more as I have aged. I sure havent quit eating beef and pork. I figure if I can bounce a can at 200 yards it could as well have been a deer. I just dont need to prove anything to anyone. I love my guns and could probley sell 80% of them but still wont. I have nothing against others hunting in a respondsable manner if they eat the meat or varmint hunt in a area that truely needs it.

Mescalero · Post by **Mescalero** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 11:32 am

Blaine,
I like your logic " a Darwin thang "

Canuck Bob · Post by **Canuck Bob** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 12:50 pm

BlaineG wrote:I still seem to get out a bit for deer, and elk/bear/cat. I enjoy the woods. If any game animal can't hear my fat butt chugging thru the woods, he deserves to be shot...a Darwin thang, I guess

I'm having a bad day and you just cheered me up a bunch, thanks.

Canuck Bob · Post by **Canuck Bob** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 1:03 pm

Well I certainly don't feel alone in my decision any longer. I'm lucky as I work long hours too but about a third of them involve visiting wellsites in the Alberta foothills and Crown forest. I get lots of time in the bush and can say I'm at least the fifth generation of men in my family who earn their keep in the bush. Even more importantly my gas and mileage are paid to do it.

Last week I watched two Lynx kittens play in a small opening off a logging road. It was an amazing sight, it would be hard to find two more beautiful creatures.

This summer my takedown 92 32-20 goes in my luggage full time. After a day of work I can hike a retired logging road and plink. Look out pine cones! I'll have a ton of fun and leave nothing behind but footprints.

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 1:13 pm

I have enjoyed hunting for many years. For a while, after I come home from VietNam, I couldn't bring myself to "suit up" and go afield. I was actually afraid of my motives and what "might happen". After some discussions with friends, I decided I'd tag along and just camp. That lasted exactly one scouting trip. Come the season, I was toting gun and ammo. Then came a period of about 10 years when I'd have readily given up my job to go hunting. Actually turned in my notice once when my supervisor said I couldn't have the week off.

Moved to TX. Hunted on public lands for about 5 years, and a couple of day leases. Then did lose my job. Began driving a truck. Loss of income level curtailed my hunting for several years. Then joined a lease off and on... then several years running. Recently haven't hunted anything but coyotes on the farm. Calls still work! I've been invited as a guest a few times to hunt with friends on their lease... always encouraged to take something... either a cull buck or a doe. Since I'm the only one that actually enjoys venison in my house, one is more'n enough.

Being afield is enough. Hunting is the excuse... venison in the freezer is just icing on the cake.

Thunder50 · Post by **Thunder50** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 1:23 pm

Don't hardly hunt anymore, even though I like to get out in the woods during hunting season. If an elk comes along, well, thats just icing on the cake. Loved to hunt quail in my youth, but moved to Colorado and seldom got back to Oklahoma to go hunting. Now that my neighbors dog ran into my knee and tore it up, my hunting is severly curtailed. Can walk about a mile, but thats my limit.

Shooting? Couple times a week as long as it is around 40 degrees and up. Course, family, motorcycle riding and golf interferes with my shooting

Booger Bill · Post by **Booger Bill** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 2:21 pm

I am old, fat and out of shape. The good news is I am also retired and live in what many think is the prettyist area of the states. Southwestern utah. Live close to 3 national parks bryce, zion and cedar breaks all less than a hour away. I dont need the excuse of hunting to get out. I am out plenty rideing the best atv trails in the united states in good weather. My early background was several years in the NPS and wisconsin conservation dept. I just got soft in my older age and respect wildlife more. What can I say?

Streetstar · Post by **Streetstar** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 3:20 pm

Booger Bill wrote: I just got soft in my older age and respect wildlife more. What can I say?

Naah, i wouldnt call it getting soft. Just a couple of nights ago, i rescued a mouse from my cat and turned him loose in the neighboring field next to me (Talk about getting soft

)
My wife thought i was crazy, so i just made the excuse that i didnt want to clean up after the cat after he dissected the mouse in the living room

azzhandler · Post by **azzhandler** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 4:19 pm

I love to hunt, I hunt anything I can with fur or feather, and I hunt alot. but I am also a gunjunkie,

have been for as long as I can remember <im 43 > I have around 80 guns of all different flavors, I am the type guy that has a different gun for every occasion, but the ones I like the most are my vintage 22 rimfires, just something about them, my 1st real gun was a 22, they are cheap to shoot, and easy on the ears. I have a heated 50 ft indoor range in my barn and 140 yd range outback. <can shoot 1200 yds without backstop > and probably average between 500 -750 shots a week , and shoot in acouple of rimfire indoor leagues, I love percision accuracy, give me a vintage target gun and a brick of shells and I am a happy camper, but on the other hand I am the type of guy that hunts the mice in my house and barn with a blowgun

Mescalero · Post by **Mescalero** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 4:35 pm

azzhandler,
I would also, but my two closest neighbors are ladies with cats, slim pickings around my house, but if you were a cat shooter; the action would be fast & furious.

bdhold · Post by **bdhold** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 4:45 pm

I confess, I fish 12 months/year in Texas and haven't hunted much since I stomped my grandfathers' farms in college days.
Shooting is a great interest, and you get out of it what you put into it.

shooter · Post by **shooter** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 6:04 pm

I'm both a shooter and hunter. I tend to hunt quite a bit in the late fall/winter months with not much shooting in between hunting trips, although I usually shoot a bit for fun in between hunts or after I've harvested game. I generally pick up shooting again this time of year and try to get to the range at least a couple times a month from now till hunting season starts up again. I really enjoy hunting just about anything. I love deer hunting, pig hunting, calling in coyotes, etc. I also really, really love to shoot. I guess if someone put a gun to my head and told me I'd have to give up one or the other I'd give up hunting, but I wouldn't give up getting out in the field and seeing the wildlife.

RIHMFIRE · Post by **RIHMFIRE** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:04 pm

I'm gonna do both till the day i die

Boreman · Post by **Boreman** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:17 pm

Profound,what madman4570 said.He speaks great wisdom,if you have the chance to do it.
I am a shooter and a hunter,mainly turkey and deer.I ENJOY them both.

retmech · Post by **retmech** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:49 pm

I am mainly a shooter, it's a sickness I've had since I was a young boy. I used to love to hunt pheasants and still would if we had any around but we don't. I'm 69 now and don't really want to kill anything but that's just me, I have no problem with people who enjoy hunting. On the weekends I go and pay for 50 sporting clays targets to be thrown for me and bs with the guys as we go around. Nice part about that is you don't have to clean them when you're done shooting. During the week I shoot steel with my handguns and lever guns. Life is good!

Pitchy · Post by **Pitchy** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:03 pm

As long as we`re not starving i can go either way, i like to hunt if we can use the meat otherwise i`m not upset if i don`t hunt.
We only have deer and grouse around here and i don`t bird hunt much anymore so hunting season only comes once a year.
Sometimes i just get tired of killing and have quit hunting for a few years and then hunted again with a different weapon to spark the interest again.
Spend a lot of time now days patrolling for road hunters.

RIHMFIRE · Post by **RIHMFIRE** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:24 pm

hunting is my sanity maintenance....
just me and my rifle

gundownunder · Post by **gundownunder** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 9:03 pm

I haven't hunted for years. I used to hunt goats, roos, foxes, and rabbits. I used to commercially harvest rabbits about 20 years ago and shot 10s of thousands of them. Back in the 70s I even did a season of duck hunting but wasn't impressed by the eating so gave it away. These days it isn't a lack of desire that stops me but a lack of time to do all the things that need doing.

Pete44ru · Post by **Pete44ru** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 9:53 pm

I'm wonderin' - How many love to hunt, but don't shoot ?

.

vancelw · Post by **vancelw** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 11:22 pm

Pete44ru wrote:I'm wonderin' - How many love to hunt, but don't shoot ?

.

I hunt a lot. A lot. Won't shoot anything I'm not going to eat unless it's a coyote, poisonous snake, feral dog/cat (not someone's pet..chill...) or a prairie dog.
In fact, one of my hang-ups on going to Africa was not being able to bring the meat home. Seems like a waste to me. It was only after my PH assured me his wife would cook me whatever i wanted and more that I was "in" for a Plains game safari.

I do love to shoot targets, cans, etc. Prepares me for the hunting if I do decide to shoot something.

People say you can't eat horns. That is correct, but the horns give me a guideline to decide it that is the "one" I want to let end my hunting for the year. (but it's not my only guideline.)

Ji in Hawaii · Post by **Ji in Hawaii** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 3:15 am

When I first joined this forum back in 2003 I was living on Maui in rural Kula district. I had Pheasants, and Francolins on my one acre and adjoining lands, deer 10 minutes south, pig 15 minutes up slope (where I found my Lucille), and goats galore an hours drive on my way, and at my favorite secluded fishing grounds. Used to take my nephew plinking and deer hunting on Hawaiian Homelands. Life was good. I've been on the crowded island of Oahu since late 2007 and have hunted only once since moving here, and it wasn't even here that I hunted it was in Texas thanks to my friends Ricky Krodle & Joe Riekers' generosity. Hunting opportunities, here on Oahu are practically nonexistent, family turmoil keeps me preoccupied, and my ongoing medical issues limit mobility, My expenses living here are more than my fixed income thus no allowance for airfare back to Maui for a visit. The wind has been knocked out of my sails for several years now, and I don't see it picking up anytime soon. I love to shoot, and I love hunt, but I never did enjoy the kill, not the type to dance for joy after the kill but no regrets either always thanking the animal who's life I took giving it a last taste of green grass, and thanking God in prayer for this provision. I miss hunting but I'm adjusted to my circumstances. I did get to take my nephew visiting from California to the range to shoot my handguns- 22, 357, and 44 mags back in June which he really enjoyed. I just have to make time for myself to get to the range more often. Shooting is in my blood thanks to Dad so I won't ever give that up even if my hunting has slowed down to almost zero accept for the huge roaches and geckos who would be foolish enough to cross the path of me and my trusty Daisy model 10 levergun!

Molasses · Post by **Molasses** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:22 am

I like venison and other wild meat and enjoy being outdoors, gun in hand. However, I spend too much time napping in the woods or tramping around making too much noise for it to be what anyone that's serious about it would call hunting.

GoatGuy · Post by **GoatGuy** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 12:54 pm

I used to hunt more than I do now. Seemed always to hang out with fellers who loved to hunt and I became a pretty fair hunter during those years. Whether after southern hardwood forest and Ozark whitetails or New Mexico plains, high desert and mountain mulies, coyotes, pronghorn, exotics, etc. I went after em just for the experience, I've come to believe.

Don't get worked up much about big game seasons anymore, but do keep a .32 Win. Spec. levergun handy here on the place for an opportunity harvest during deer season. Have taken only three in the past seven years here. Really, now I want to get back into squirrel hunting as that seems to be what calls me, small game. Love the woods and the seasonal weather for that sport. On reflection, the reality is I've always been more of a shooter who hunts, than a hunter that shoots.

BigSky56 · Post by **BigSky56** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 2:59 pm

Bob breaking down a moose and getting them out is a chore for anyone, not knowing the laws for AB do they alow you to use a off road vehicle/cycle to get back in the hunting units or is it foot and livestock only. Anymore I ride a horse that shanksmare stuff got old along time ago. As I raise beef I wont go hungry but I love the taste of elk so I chase after them every year the last few Ive taken the nephews and let them do the shooting, teaching them how to hunt from horses and where to look for and find elk works for me plus I like saying fetch boys. I was taught by my grandfather how to shoot that man took pheasants on the wing with 22 shorts in a pump, Dad taught me to hunt and track game.
Sometimes its not the taking of a animal that is important sometimes its just being out and about in the backcountry. I have let elk go that that were in my sights one was a herd bull that I felt he needed to pass on his genes another was a cow then her calf walked up to her and nursed, being a good steward of the land and game is more important to me than a animal on the ground. Dont give up hunting because of physcial limits figure a way around it I have. danny

Streetstar · Post by **Streetstar** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 3:56 pm

BigSky56 wrote:................ being a good steward of the land and game is more important to me than a animal on the ground. ............. danny

My favorite quote from this board all day --- thanks Danny

InTheWoods · Post by **InTheWoods** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:33 pm

I am 62, and love both shooting and hunting. I started both about the age of 11, chasing rabbits with a pellet gun and shooting four-position NRA .22 junior matches. I have lived in the country my entire adult life, giving me access to some pretty good hunting grounds.

I have a decent back-yard 50 yard range so I can shoot anytime I desire. Much of my shooting is with .22s, both with an accurate bench rifle (Sako Finnfire with a Lilja barrel and 2-ounce Jewell trigger) and with a variety of other pretty decent .22 rifles/handguns. Really getting a kick out my older Winchester 62a and 9422 as of late. I also like shooting my centerfire lever guns and revolvers a great deal. I shoot sporting clays two or three times a year also, and may do it more often in the future.

The pace of my hunting has slowed somewhat, but I still love it. I thought when I retired a few years ago I would hunt more. Not so. I tend to pick the best days, enjoy the woods more, and even let some creatures pass after placing the crosshairs on them and verbally saying 'BANG.' Most of my hunting these days is for quail, dove, deer, and coyote. I generally shoot 3-5 deer a year and donate all but one to our state's Share-The-Harvest program. I am finding the 'getting the deer out of the woods' thing a bit more of a chore these last couple of years, so I may cut my harvest a little down the road. I have to keep that landower/farmer happy though.

jeepnik · Post by **jeepnik** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:39 pm

I love to shoot. I love to hunt. Unfortuantely, I rarely shoot while hunting.

93marshooter · Post by **93marshooter** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 5:23 pm

Deer as a season game is becoming more a hobby of the rich. I am thankful to have had several years of hunting deer on some land owned by kin. Most of my shooting will be at the range. Time are changing. These not enough hunting for all the gun owners in the country.

Canuck Bob · Post by **Canuck Bob** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 6:18 pm

Bigsky, quads are common here. I don't know the details but they are allowed.

Our family homestead is located on the west end of Lessor Slave Lake north of Edmonton. It is swamp country so close to the lake. They moved up there in the dirty 30's when the dust storms drove them out of western Sask. My grampa was a logging teamster but a poor farmer. He loved the bush not wheat fields.

I always backpack hunted or still hunt alone. I read everything Whelan wrote and copied him right down to the tarp lean-to. Those are wonderful memories. I was also a meat hunter but far too proud of a couple of dandy antlered moose in my past!

I'm amazed. When I tell folks hunters are the most respectful nature lovers I know they just don't get it. This thread proves that and is giving me the courage to fess up. I talk about health and such but I've lost the desire to drop the hammer on a wild creature. I'm amazed so many lean the same way after loving hunting in their younger days.

However I'm happy to be shooting again. Walking around in the foothills of the Rockies with a lever action is just so right (and kinda handy in grizzly country). Learning to load and shoot cast accurately from a fine handling iron sighted rifle is some fine living. Trying to redevelop some of my old abilities from my Artillery days with a Lee Enfield battle rifle, dare I say the best battle rifle of its era, honors many old Canadian vets resting in dozens of foreign countries for me. I daydream they are happy to know that the old 303 still barks openly in a free country because of their sacrifice.

TravisM · Post by **TravisM** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:21 pm

Never hunted in my life. I think its great that people can and do hunt though.

I just love putting lead down range (or making swiss cheese without the cheese as I call it.)