My dad has been bow hunting and black powder rifle hunting for my entire life. he only uses primitive arms because he says “it’s called hunting, not killing” and advanced weapons make it unfair. Most years he gets one or two deer. Some years he gets none. Sometimes he just sits in his tree and watches nature and doesn’t even pick up his bow. Sometimes he gets incredibly emotional when he gets a kill.

A few years ago I learned how to tan the hides because I’ve always wanted to, and because he was becoming more and more passionate about not wasting any part of the animal. You can do it with simple chemicals or you can use the animal’s brain!! (Unrelated fun fact, every mammal except the squirrel and the bison have exactly the right amount of brain matter to tan their own hides!)

I think it’s great if you’re doing it respectfully and consciously, and abiding by local conservation guidelines.

Hunting for food is fine.

Hunting for trophies is not.

Hunting is fine. All that thinking will get you into trouble though. /s

It’s absolutely necessary around where I live. If people don’t hunt the deer, they get killed by cars and that’s much worse for everybody involved.

I don’t have the spine to do it, but I’m all for people who do. Also, hunting is about the only reason people should have guns imo.

Just be safe, responsible, and don’t poach. As long as you’re doing it for food or going after something like feral hogs, I think its fine, even important.

Just like humans have done for millennia and are meant too. Hunt. Cook. Feed. Then shit.

Rinse and repeat.

I started hunting deer years ago because I wanted to be a part of the process, like if I couldn’t handle killing and gutting an animal I shouldn’t be eating meat.

Sorry for the extreme parallel, but… “If I can’t handle murdering a defenseless child, I shouldn’t be in the military.”

Have you considered… just not doing that?

Also, I fucking love it.

I guess there’s the answer.

I tried writing my comment as nicely as possible, but the post seriously reads like a billionaire’s diary. I don’t know how else to put it.

I think wild hunting is harmful to the environment, and hunting overall causes unnecessary suffering for the animal.

Overall, I’m turned against it. But if you really need to follow primal urge, at least put it to good use: some wildlife preservation projects require control of animal population, and a man with a rifle is by far the most common way.

Also, make use of your game, at least. Don’t hunt for trophies.

I’m from Finland, which has a 1340km border with Russia.

When my grandad grew up you’d either hunt or fish if you wantes to eat. My dad hunted. I’m the only one of my siblings with a hunting license. I was raised with a lot of “when the Russians come”-mentality.

I’ve been moving countries, so I’ve had to give up my rifles and I’m not that passionate about it that I’d figure out where to go do it. But I do think it’s a good skill to have, and I keep my license active.

And my two spaniels would love it.

Hunting with a valid reason (for food, population control, etc.) is acceptable and/or a necessity.

Hunting for funsies only - including all the BS safari hunting that are essentially glorified high tech fishing trips - is disgusting

I won’t take any life unless it’s unavoidable. If I had to kill my own food, I’d rather be vegetarian.

I’m quite neutral about this. I don’t mind hunting and fishing as much, unless it’s on an industrial or wasteful manner.

I grew up in a tiny village where “everyone” had at least one hunting rifle, so I may be biased but I think it’s fine as long as it’s done in a sustainable way.

The main game was moose, and there was a strict quota every year about how many of them could be killed. And I can confirm that it was sustainable as it was still moose everywhere (to the point where I remember sitting by my PC one day, playing Quake, noticing there was a moose outside of my windows, eating apples on the lawn.

It’s cool and good, but where I live it’s becoming increasingly expensive. Yes to locals/workers hunting their own food on communal land. No to upper class bastards flying in to hunt, getting themselves and their setters airlifted back to a lodge for lunch, etc. And trophy hunting should not be a thing.

It’s a tough one, on one hand yes we killed their predators so we have to do it instead; on the other if those predators somehow come back then most often we just kill them again so we can continue hunting. I suppose my biggest issue with hunting is the seemingly inevitable wolf cull.

If there was no farmland, if the majority of this planets surface wasn’t being used exclusively for human activities then I would have no problem at all with hunting; however that’s not the case. Wild populations likely seem abundant but they are a fraction of what they were before industrialization/colonization (Overton Window) and further pressure on those populations, that are essentially holding on to slivers of the only land left for them, can only do harm (with the caveat of overpopulation).

As well, most hunters use lead bullets because they’re cheap, so now all areas where hunting happens regularly are contaminated with lead, especially the predators (including humans) of that area (bioaccumulation).

I guess the least impactful way to hunt is to use copper/non-lead bullets(?) in rehabilitated farmland.