It’s awful.

Spent a lot of my youth on the family ranch in the foothills of the Sierra Madre. Grass fed beef, they, the cows, had pretty idyllic lives up until the end there. I have never had a problem eating a good steak. I certainly don’t have a problem with someone killing and eating a deer. We’ve decimated the apex predators that should be culling the wild deer herds anyway.

I totally agree with you. It’s far more humane. They get to live a natural life in the wild and the death is often far better than what they’d face to a natural predator. It also has a very small carbon footprint.

I don’t hunt, and probably never will. It’s not really the killing and butchery that keeps me from doing it (I think I could handle that), but more the activity isn’t appealing to me, and I also don’t live in a great area for it. I have ADHD I’m pretty sure though, and the idea of sitting there for hours sounds horrible. I like camping, but I can’t be active and do things while camping.

I’m more curious of people who are against hunting. I can’t really think of a good ethical argument against it. I can understand an emotional argument, being against hurting animals, but that isn’t logical really. That’s part of nature. They will be hunted, by humans or otherwise, or their population will get out of control and they’ll die horribly from starvation. If anyone does have an ethical argument against hunting I’d love to hear it!

A lot of people bring up the moral problems with eating meat, but I have barely any such issue in regard to wild animals, especially those overpopulating areas.

Of course, if a company ever made a big product out of reselling venison, we’d probably get perverse incentives where someone would start trapping and farming them. So, it ends up just being a homey domain of hobbyist hunters and all their family friends - but one I respect a lot.

the impact of hunting for food is so far below the impact of industrial agriculture and other things, it’s fine

hunting for food is ethical, over killing, killing for profit, killing for sport are not.

Go hunt to your hearts content. We’re all part of the cycle.

people who shoot animals for sport do so because photography is too difficult for them

I have never understood trophy hunting and frankly it pisses me off. I look for animals that taste good, which means reasonably young, not some tough old moose bull I have to hold my nose to eat.

And we probably feed a couple hundred deer on our grain bags all winter, I think they can donate one or two to my freezer.

As much as I’m not a fan of hunting, I realize it’s a necessity to keep the population in check. I’m not anti gun or anything, but I personally feel you should have to use a bow. The level of rifles now is absolutely insane and it’s not even a challenge anymore. Bows are pretty bad as well now a days, but at least your much more range limted and it takes a lot more skill. But I guess a bullet could be less suffering depending on the shot. I guess I’m not against it, and I understand why, it just isn’t my thing.

I completely agree with you on every point.

Humans have created the need for “culling to preserve healthy species”. Do they shoot the unhealthy for food? If humans caused the problems in wild species, does “culling the species” really remove the ones causing the problem? Just sayin’.

I get a lot of down votes for this but it’s important since we wiped out natural predators. One of my favorite days was cooking up some venison my students; we had a field day or whatever and no the meat came from another hunter.

I almost died when a a bunch crossed over the highway in the middle of the night. Tokyo drift instincts kicked in lol. Thankfully a buddy bought a Jeep XJ and it saved his ass.

Then there’s this ongoing argument against firearms; do you shoot the deer that ran into your car or beat it to it’s death with a blunt object? And I mean this in a humane question, otherwise you leave it die suffering in pain.

I only go for kill shots. None of this trophy bullshit. I’m not going to make a game of chasing around a wounded animal.

I’m pretty simple.

Hunting to eat it? Great. I love me some deer sausage.

Hunting to chopoff its head and mount it on your wall like some ghoulish asshole? Go fuck yourself.

I feel like trophy hunters don’t show any respect to the animal, while hunters for eating do.

Deer are a serious problem for most farmers in my area. Farmers have resorted to mass shootings of them, sometimes 20 or more a night. To remedy this the Game Commission issues multiple additional permits.
I have hunted all my life. As a kid wild game was food for the family. Now, venison is a delicacy for the table. Done right game is fantastic. Done wrong, it will turn your stomach.
I prefer to harvest a calm doe - special permits are only for doe, officially called, “antlerless” deer which are deer with no antlers or very small ones. One clean shot is preferred. This is where whatever weapon you use, practice and more practice counts. You must precisely place your shot. Of course, archery only gives you one shot. Archery deer produce especially good table fare because they bleed out completely and painlessly.
Once downed, the animal is field dressed and skinned as soon as possible. Then the carcass is immediately cooled.
People that harvest an animal that has been run and/or poorly bled out or left to sit around have meat that loses a lot of fine eating quality. Bucks, especially those in rut, have a strong taste - most people around here relegate the meat to sausage containing a mix of pork and seasonings to render it decently edible.
Hunting properly requires a LOT patience but it is a great way to get out and be with yourself to think, enjoy the woods and ruminate because not every trip yields good wild food.