Hunting versus just killing stuff in

Joined
Jun 3, 2026
Messages
29
Got to thinking about this.
I’m a country boy, and have many times helped with killing and butchering domestic critters. Cows, pigs, and a few fowl.
We have always done our level best to made it as clean and painless as possible.

But as far as that goes, I have also killed a few animals in defense of my garden and domestic friends, and my kids. Stinging insects, and venomous reptiles, skunks and such like.
That too is done as cleanly as possible. I never killed anything without justification.

Below is a link about other species killing other animals.
Link
Other than domestic tabbies and dogs, all other “killing species” seem to have an excuse.

Dad used to keep a few free range chickens, now and then we’d invite one or two in for supper.
But mostly we’d raise them and take them to a livestock sale for a little extra $ occasionally. But there were always about 8 or 10 “yard birds” and a couple turkeys, maybe a peacock or two.
(I made the mistake of buying an Incubator for The Old Man 😀)

Anyway, one summer we had every dang chicken that got wacked by a pair of raccoons. We read the story from tracks and placement of the victims bodies.
We had an old city bus we used for a storage shed. Setting on cinder blocks beside a chain link fence.
The Coons evidently chased all of the chickens under the bus, which had only one opening for them to enter/exit.
They cleared us out of 9. One went under the bus and chased them out. The other ambushed them as they tried to escape!😄

I just got to remembering this episode and decided to post it for fun and discussion’s sake. You’re welcome to share thoughts and personal antidotes.

I’ll add that in my 5 decades of hunting deer, I have only ever lost three that were hit with a rifle or smoke pole and not recovered.
I have spent quite a few hours on a blood trail, dropping a marker and going on to find the next.
It’s not a job i enjoy, but I feel that I owe it to the critter and myself. The ones I lost are burned into my memory, and thinking about what I should have done differently.
PTRN
 
Some dummy forgot to post the link!!!🙁

Killing for fun by species

I’m sure we’ve all seen cats toying with their prey until they get bored and finally give them the coup de gras.
But I’m not pulling your chain by admitting that I have lost sleep beating myself up over losing a crippled deer.
Not that I’m a sportsman, mind you. Anyone who has spent time in a Pennsyltucky deer camp in Pennsylvania in the 70s and 80s will tell you.
The name of the game was to put meat in the freezer! I learned to be pretty optimistic!😄

Growing up in a fairly poor family of hunters, I learned not to be squeamish about such niceties as tags or legality. If you can get it out without attracting attention, it was always “brown and down”.
And I have supplemented our family’s supply with a light and a .22 magnum. I’m probably killed as many with a good Marlin .22 mag than the rest of my battery combined.
I know I’m not alone in this. It was sorta common in rural PA 20 or 30 years ago.

But my Old Man also taught me that deer are not to be wasted. I crippled one the second year I hunted, back when we had a separate season for antlerless deer.
I made a sloppy shot near dark on Pleasantville Mountain.
Dad give me hell and the next morning we went up and tracked the deer down, and he killed it.

We can kill a domestic critter for meat without too much of a thought. But deer were altogether different.
“If God had meant deer to be trophies, he’d have made them outta bronze. He made them outta meat for a reason!” That’s what I was taught by my Old Man and my uncles.

I raised my son with the same mindset. Ben’s a helluva good shot. I started him out on squirrels will a .22 LR.
Squirrels are pretty forgiving with a .22. If you miss you’ll usually get another wack at them pretty soon.
So you learn to be patient and pick your opportunity for a killing head shot.

Trouble is, all that work I put into training myself a hunting partner was wasted effort!🙁 Ben now lives 8 hours away from me.😄
But a few years ago he drove all night, checked his wife into a hotel at 6am, and was with me in the woods when the sun came up!😎
You can’t imagine how much that means to a guy like me.
Or maybe you’re lucky enough to know.😎

Pennsylvania has murdered the deer herd by overselling antlerless doe tags and extended seasons.
It ain’t like it was when I was a kid, and you can hunt all day and you’re lucky to see a half dozen, let alone get a killing shot at a legal buck.
They’re more interested in managing their bank account than actually providing good hunting opportunities.🤬 They’ll deny it. But remember how the feds used the news media to push the covid vax?
If they find a case of CWD, they make damn sure everybody knows it!
They’re blame CWD, but most of us know that’s just a convenient excuse.🙁
To be honest, my Old Man and my brother went home without me, and with the kids living away from home for work, the old way of hunting is a thing of the past.🙁

In the old days you could hunt ridges from end to end without bothering anyone. Now everything is posted, and the people who hunt are hunting out of heated shanties on private land while listening to the radio!😳

I learned to still hunt. You park the truck and hunt by walking a ridge, then turning around and hunting your way back to the vehicle. But that’s only allowed on state game lands, and the deer are pretty scarce nowadays.
I’m getting old, and an all day hunt with a long drag just ain’t worth it anymore. If the family was still together it’d be different.🙁

But I still thank God for every day I can get out, and I’m especially thankful for the great memories of the time when it was a family function instead of a business.
Pennsyltucky Red Neck
 
Last edited:

Forum statistics

Threads
120,251
Messages
2,254,335
Members
39,115
Latest member
jackthed123
Back
Top