Hunting versus just killing stuff in

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Jun 3, 2026
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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
 
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Are you related to Mustangs Rule?
No idea who that is.
This is the only hunting forum I posted on other than the 24hr campfire.

I was a member there from the get go. I joined that when shooters,com blew up and started banning people.

I never had a compuker until December of ‘01.

If you’ve read my drivel, you oughta know that I never lived outside of the Bedford County area other than 4 years of US Army service at Ft Lewis from 86 to 89.

I was talking to a friend who told me he had just retired last week.
I congratulated him and said “now you can go hunting all season!”
He just laughed disgustingly and said “yeah. If there were and deer left!’🤬

It got me to thinking about what has happened here and what the future of hunting in PA holds.
When I was a kid, (1976) it wasn’t hard to see >20 deer in a day of hunting.
Even if you’re not shooting, seeing deer is the key to keeping a kid interested. We hunted state game lands on Pleasantville Mountain all the time. We Seldom hunted the valley except in doe season. Back when they had a 2 or 3 day season.

I started Ben in 97. By then there were more deer down in the valley.
Not nearly as many as when I was a kid, but I could show him >12 or so in a day.

The past 5 years in the same area, I’m doing real good to see 5 or six.
It’s not just me. My friends all say the same thing, and you hardly ever hear much shooting.
Even with brown and down all season long!😳
If Ben and Jake were here to go, I guarantee we’d be out. Ben loves it as much as I did and so does Jake.

For me, hunting was a family deal, although we seldom organized a drive
We pick out a spot, park vehicles were we were coming out, and split up to still hunt. Sneaking around trying to get a crack, or at least maybe push deer to a guy on the other side of the hollow or ridge.

Driving deer always aggravated me, ‘cause we spent as much time talking and traveling than we did in the woods.😡
At that time most private ground wasn’t posted either.

Now there’s posters everywhere, and land owner lease ground to hunting groups. Nobody pushes deer. Most guys set in a heated shanty and raise holy hell if you wander in to their space. Not that I blame them if I’m paying for to hunt someplace.
And I still hunt the mountain when there’s snow. Seldom see tracks let alone get a wack at one…

Hunting has changed so much, and hunting alone ain’t much fun for an old guy like me.
PTRN
 
All this negativity is getting me pumped. 1 short week to go, can't wait! Going to go sleep with the bears for a few nights.

I listened to a guy tell me all the reasons to skip the first weekend just a few days ago. All reasons that I have heard for 50 years running. After the weekend he will wait for snow, then it will be snow on the right day of the week, yada, yada, yada. Things change. I choose to change with it. People have been quitting hunting because things "aren't like they used to be" all my adult life, and long before that, I am sure.
 
All this negativity is getting me pumped. 1 short week to go, can't wait! Going to go sleep with the bears for a few nights.

I listened to a guy tell me all the reasons to skip the first weekend just a few days ago. All reasons that I have heard for 50 years running. After the weekend he will wait for snow, then it will be snow on the right day of the week, yada, yada, yada. Things change. I choose to change with it. People have been quitting hunting because things "aren't like they used to be" all my adult life, and long before that, I am sure.
Im putting money on you.
 
All this negativity is getting me pumped. 1 short week to go, can't wait! Going to go sleep with the bears for a few nights.

I listened to a guy tell me all the reasons to skip the first weekend just a few days ago. All reasons that I have heard for 50 years running. After the weekend he will wait for snow, then it will be snow on the right day of the week, yada, yada, yada. Things change. I choose to change with it. People have been quitting hunting because things "aren't like they used to be" all my adult life, and long before that, I am sure.
8 hours behind the glass Saturday. Found one that’ll get my ass out of bed. Running shoes and rifle in tow:IMG_3635.jpeg
 

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