I haven’t done any hunting in years. I’ve never done any deer hunting, mainly pheasant in Champaign and rabbits and ducks in Carbondale. I know squat about deer hunting but it seems 100,000 deer down in a weekend would suggest that they are not that hard to find after all. I do know, of course, a ton of deer hunters and I have yet to hear them get together and say “Well, it’s time to go do our civic duty and thin that menacing herd for the good of our neighbors.” They do seem to take on a strangely superior attitude that I don’t see during other hunting seasons. I have nothing against hunting at all. The reason I don’t hunt any longer is a simple one. It always takes place in the damned cold and I hate winter with a passion. I prefer fishing.

Same old story. The millions of ethical hunters who follow the rules and respect both the activity and the game resources aren’t as interesting or newsworthy. Yet, the poachers, idiots, or careless people are often misrepresented as typical hunters or sportsmen.

As with lawful gun owners, the bad rap goes along with being on the politically incorrect side of the agenda. The most strident critics have no knowledge whatsoever of the heritage of hunting or its benefits as a means of recreation and tool for wildlife conservation and family bonding.

Worthwhile info at:
http://mdc.mo.gov/

I am not against hunting at all, I hunted turkey, rabbit, squirrel, dove, duck, goose and pheasant for years and deer for a couple of years. My dad and brother still hunt and I enjoy the food from their harvest. Smoked wild turkey is absolutely delicious and nothing better than wild rabbit, squirrel (remember they are seed, nut and fruit eaters, pigs and chickens eat disgusting things so don’t turn your nose up) and dove fried like chicken then baked for a hour or so in the gravy, mouth watering.
I think deer hunters can take a rap because many view their tactics as unfair. First, many hunt from tree stands, the reason, deer have no natural predators above ground level so they do not look up to spot potential enemies, second, deer hunters use every imaginable scent disguise, from does in heat to bucks in rut, they use decoys, some hunt over food plots. They tip the scale heavily in there favor and many do not find it hunting more than a slaughter, sort of like shooting cattle. I stopped hunting deer after a couple of outings, I did not find it to be challanging or what I would calling hunting, in my opinion deer are quite stupid, the two I shot stood there not 30 yards away looking directly at me (mind you I did move and was whispering to my dad) did not move and I simply pulled the trigger, not much fun or sport in my humble opinion.

100,000 deer in one weekend may seem like a lot, but it’s important to remember that it is a small fraction of the actual herd. In Missouri, and probably most states, usually less than half of deer hunters actually kill a deer; far fewer kill more than one.
Stories like this are good reminders of how important it is for hunters to be mindful of their appearance to the non-hunting public. Some people will always have their biases based on a variety of influences, but there is no reason for hunters to add to those biases through their own behavior.
As for doing “civic” duty, many hunters feel strongly that they do more hands-on work for and donate more money to conservation programs than non-hunters. There are statistics and financial figures to support the claim that sportsman-based conservation organizations (Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, Whitetails Unlimited, Trout Unlimited, Smallmouth Alliance, etc.) contribute more to conservation and habitat restoration programs than other organizations. Add to that the state and federal programs that are funded largely or entirely by sales of hunting/fishing permits and stamps and taxes on sporting goods and you’ll find that most conservation efforts would simply not exist without hunters and fishermen.

Stereotypes of out of control hunters hurts the vast majority who play by the rules. This is typical of any of the many catagories we like to put people into. While I don’t hunt or fish, and I love to poke fun at my friends who do, there’s really nothing wrong with it. I love deer sausage and I’m grateful to my friends who supply me with it every year.

It seems a number of reasons contribute to a despisement of hunters:

1. Most lemmings in America don’t want to know where the meat comes from. The process has been sterilized and corporatized for them. They think meat comes from “The Corporate Meat Fairy”. In reality, for the most part, wild game is probably much more healthy to eat since it doesn’t contain toxic growth hormones and assorted other toxins made by Monsanto and Dow and a handful of other “death to the living” Corporations.

2. Deer Hunters do carry a aire of Superiority that without them there is no such thing as wildlife management. When in reality the entire system is broken and a lot of it has to do with habitat encroachment and the killing off of predators. If natural predators were reintroduced you’d again have to deal with the lemmings who’d be screaming “OMG!! The wolves are going to kill my Billy and Sally Sue and drag them off in to the woods and eat them!!”. This statement is completely false and is exacerbated by propaganda told to children about the “Big Bad Wolf” and other consumerist nonsense sold as fairytales and childrens books. There’s no documented cases of wolves attacking children and carrying them off in to the woods to eat. Perhaps pets but those are natural predatory instincts and pets are convenient targets when other wildlife is scarce and only requires due diligence on the “Skeered Lemming’s” part to guard against this happening.

3. And probably last but not least but most likely the primary reason is that hunting has been turned in to a “Sport” and not a means of securing food. When killing something for fun turns in to a sport it becomes akin to what the Federal Government does with its military. Killing for fun is something that only rabid hunters and the US Military does and is why it is so abhored in society. If killing were for self-defense, to secure food supplies or actual defending America from threats it could be justified. But the way killing has been turned in to a “Sport” by hunters and the US Military makes it despisable to most people.

Hunting, like a lot of other traditional activities in this country, has been under a cultural assault for the last several decades. It’s part of a general wussification of society. In a society where people don’t let their dough-butted kids out of the house without a helmet and are afraid to call a handicapped person handicapped, buying them a .22 and teaching them how to shoot it are out of the question.

While hunting and fishing remain very popular (there are entire cable and satellite channels that do nothing but hunting and fishing 24/7 and it’s a multi-billion dollar industry), you never see those activities portrayed in a positive light in the popular media. Hunters are almost always portrayed as drunken, sadistic, hillbilly rubes. Never mind the fact that the majority of hunting and fishing licenses are sold to middle class urban and suburbanites. I’ve found that the vast majority of hunting critics don’t have the slightest idea what they’re talking about. They do it solely for a fake sense of moral superiority.

I’ve been an avid hunter and fisherman for over 30 years. I grew up reading Outdoor Life and Sports Afield. The hunter from Sedalia violated one of the cardinal rules of deer hunting — you never walk up to an animal you just shot unprepared for a follow-up, specially if it’s eyes are closed.

Does anyone remember the Ellisville town hall meeting to discuss the proposed urban hunting of deer this year? They were so over populated in that area because there were no hunters or predators of an kind that they started moving into yards and then streets. I remember that prior to the start of the town hall meeting 3 deer were eating the lawn in front of the hall.

There were 2 options up for debate, allow an urban hunt or sterilize the bucks (or does). Either way you are killing the deer. If you aren’t killing the ones you see, you are killing the ones that would have been born next year.

Every time someone sees a deer hunter they say “going to kill Bambi?”. The thing is that those opposed to hunting seem to not understand what happens to the herds if they go unchecked with no predators around. Diseases set in and inbreeding will eventually occur. I’ve seen a diseased deer or two in my time and I can tell you its not pretty.

Hunters get a bad rap because people tend to say things like “oh, its so cruel to shoot Bambi,” without giving any thought to where their food comes from. Chances are, what you’re eating tonight used to walk around on all fours, too.

Anybody that has hit a deer with their car is probably more likely to say “good for the hunters”. I’d be out there with them if they didn’t get up at such an ungodly hour.

Comparing all hunters to a bunch of out of shape lazy drunks is like all comparing motorcycle riders to the Hells angels!
I think the anti hunters really don’t get it and need a better arguement.