I've never had the issue of taking a life, but will say I fish, hunt and kill for a purpose. Either food for myself or extended family or to resolve an issue that needed resolved. Pests can cause serious damage physical financial and emotional. I feel like they make the choice that dictates my action so I feel justified.

I do have my superstition where I don't eat the target meat the day before, day of or day after harvest and I'm always giving my thanks to the animal.

So not really remorse, but more like respect.

 

It happened to me only once during bow season with a perfect shot in the deer but not an instant kill and it tore me up for days. I sold the compound bow and have not shot one since. I don't deer hunt any more but every shot with my b/a .270 was either an instant kill or they didn't run but a very few yards then dropped dead. Almost every deer I have taken was given to a Christian food mission where they skinned, cut up, packed then freely distributed to the needy of the surrounding community, that filled a need.
Nuisance pests that have damaged our property are eliminated so that's justifiable in my mind.
I squirrel hunt with my range buddy across the street and he gets every squirrel we kill to put in his gumbo so there is the purpose.
I'm at peace.

 

If it bothered me that bad,I guess I would stick to targets,it does give me pause and to appreciate the animal and that I have a hunters skill at 70 years young,quite frequently I go out to the woods just for the freedom of being able to go forth ,armed as a freeman and with no intent to shoot an animal,just to enjoy the woods and slip through silent and unseen ( at least in my mind!).You don’t HAVE to make a kill,hunting just to view nature is good enough,carry a camera.

 

You don’t HAVE to make a kill,hunting just to view nature is good enough,carry a camera.

That's true, I've taken about as much wildlife sitting on the back porch with my phone as in the field with a firearm

 

I don`t like an animal to suffer, so I`m particular about the shots I take. The only " big game " I hunt is turkey. I will not take a shot beyond about 35 yards. If I can`t call him in that close, he wins. I don`t want any animal I shoot to know what hit it. I owe it that.

 

I don't hunt much anymore, although I could- easily & often. As I've gotten older, I've taken more of a "live & let live" attitude. I take more time to appreciate the beauty around me. I'm thankful that the places I fish (catch & release, per the property owner, but I'm fine with that) and shoot have an abundance of critters to enjoy.
When it comes to my property, I have no problems ridding my home of pest animals who do physical damage or pose a threat.
If I accidentally kill a fish, it bothers me for days.
I'm not anti- hunting, at all. I 100% support hunters who harvest to feed their families or stock the freezer.

So- you're not alone. You're human, with a conscience that works.

DrGunner

 

I'm pretty much the same as DrHunter. Doesn't bother me in the least that others hunt but I just dont have a need for it.
As far as self defense goes......that's different. No hesitations. I'm prepared for that

 

If taking a life bothers you then thats normal. Although you don't need to hunt, so if I was in your shoes, I'd give up hunting. Why put a rock in your shoe for no reason. There are endless ways to enjoy the outdoors without killing anything. Focus on those.
If it tastes bad just don't eat it.
If you must hunt for food or Varmint control then it's a cross you must bear. Be glad you have compassion because the world needs a lot more of it.

 

I doubt the animals are thinking that hard about what is about to kill them. They just instinctually know something is about to. This is why they are always on guard. We, humans, establish ethics around a perfectly natural act. The animals live and die by very different set of criteria. I believe it is better for us not to anthropomorphize them.

 

330Rimfire you are not alone in this. I consider a deer to be one of the most beautiful creatures in creation, but during hunting season I typically will not hesitate to kill one if it is legal. I have been in deer reduction hunts where a game warden directed the hunters that ALL deer seen were to be taken, including yearlings still with spots. It doesn't really make any difference to me what the game species is, they to my way of thinking deserve respect. And you can see traditions throughout the world where the hunter offers thanks to the animal taken for its life. This can be tracked from prehistoric times to the present. I took a 6-week hunter ed class over in Germany in the early 70's to get my "Jeagerbrief", aka German hunting license and respect for the game taken was a very integral part of that class. Very similar traditions for Native American tribes relating to giving thanks to the animal for having taken its life.
For me personally I get quite upset when meat is wasted, particularly if it is an animal that I killed, but even if I didn't kill it, it upsets me because I know firsthand that an animal died somewhere, so that I could have that meat. That is one of the things about being a hunter... you KNOW beyond any doubt that an animal had to die in order for you to have that meat. Too many people in this world today have zero understanding about how the meat on the shelf of the grocery store got there and what had to happen in order for it to be there. I suspect that if you asked a person where the meat in their frig came from the answer will be "the store".
First deer I ever killed, I had to put a finishing shot in it at point blank range. What I remember most and very clearly were the big brown eyes and the long, beautiful eyelashes on that small buck. But I couldn't leave the deer, I had to finish it quickly and humanely. I put the muzzle of my 12 gauge about 12" from that deer's chest and pulled the trigger. A 12-gauge size hole materialize in the deer's side a cloud of vapor escaped from that hole, which was that deer's last breath. After that I had to sit and contemplate what I had just done. Sat for the better part of an hour thinking about how that hunt had ended and if I even wanted to continue to hunt. I had killed plenty of squirrels and groundhogs in preceding years, but that deer was my first large animal that I had ever even taken a shot at. None of the smaller animals had affected me the way killing that deer did. Plus, the end on that hunt was VERY up close and personal and that does make a difference.
What I do after I kill a deer is to try to find something that the deer would have eaten in life and give it a "last bite", then I offer a small prayer of thanksgiving for the food that this deer will provide. This is from that 6-week class that I took in Germany many years ago. Just a few thoughts to share with my fellow hunters. So, no 330Rimfire you are not alone.
God Bless, Frank.

 

I get it. I grew up hunting but over the years, as I grew older and more empathetic, I slowly gave it up for similar reasons. Even my fishing has become 100% Catch and Release. I don't begrudge anyone who kills to eat their prey as hunting and the taking of life is a natural state of nature. I just don't get the enjoyment I used to out of the harvesting and eating part of the sport. Now I go shoot steel, paper, lollypops and what have you and stop for a hot dog on the way home. Yea, I'm a hypocrite I guess but we all play by the rules we set.

 

As mentioned in the preceding posts many hunters feel the same. Thats why you always hear try and get a clean kill so they are pretty much dead when you get to them. Trailing and finishing off a living animal while they are looking at you is hard. Especially in our modern life of plenty. You can hunt all season and not kill anything but hit the drive through on the way home and have dinner that night. Not like the old days when you would go hungry. If it really bothers you just stop hunting and shoot targets. No biggie. If the SHTF you can always go back. I haven't hunted for about 20 years. But theres plenty of fat city squirrels in my yard and free range pitbulls in the hood to feast on.

 

I posted a few months ago about my first "Varminterring" and the feeling that came with it..

A GroundHog (2) at the request of our Range officer.

I didn't love the feeling it gave me at all.

rabbits will eat part of our Garden every year...and my mindset is..."They get Hungry too"

I feel ya

 

I feel the same way.

 

I haven't been mad enough at an animal in years to kill it.

 

I hope this post was in jest. There is never a reason to be "mad enough at an animal" to kill it. The animal is what it is. A person's temperament should always be under control. Killing an animal, however, can be justified for many reasons. But, becuase one was mad has never been one of those reasons.

 

Rule #1 , eat it.
Resulting in Fact #1 , everything alive dies.usually by being eaten.
Feelings are for the full.
When you feel bad about killing something, what’s really happening is you are expressing fear about your own impending demise.
I feel bad about road kill, its natural, I dont want to die, like that or any other way .
At the inevitable end , nothing really matter….. to me.

 

Eat or be eaten is actually a pretty deep statement on life.You can eat animals or plants,and there is actually some evidence to indicate plants are” aware”.Please, don’t let that stop you because if you don’t eat the plants or animals you are offered ?Your own body will begin consuming itself Until it’s consumable units are finished,then you die and the next smaller size plants and animals begin their chow down on your remains.Many civilizations have tried to cheat this by mummification and formaldehyde etc. ,but in the end our “self” still has to go where it goes and the body is still dead and will eventually be consumed. So feel free,life is about eating,(It’s a SLAUGHTERHOUSE !)if you feel bad about eating critters,turn on a plant ,slaughter them,if you don’t,they will get you! Just don’t be greedy or cruel about it,and thank your benefactor.

 

Eat or be eaten is actually a pretty deep statement on life.

I've been hunting and fishing since 1956. I respect and perhaps even feel a bit of reverence for animals but remorse?.... nope. I am the top of the food chain at least for now.

 

I don't agree about about worrying about my demise if I kill an animal. I've never worried about my demise.
In fact....I have lived a lot longer than I ever thought I would.

As a kid I hunted squirrels and they were food.
I never regretted that. I also killed a lot of birds with BB guns. I do regret that.

330....you are not alone. Many of us have no need to kill something that will never harm us unless they are some kind of threat to our way of life or destroying our property.

It has nothing to do with being afraid of anything else......at least for me.

 

If you didn’t feel at least a little remorse, I’d question your humanity.

I struggle a bit with killing anything that didn’t have a quarrel with me (even killing something that was actively engaged in malicious destruction or in the process of trying to kill me - it still gives me just a little pause when reflecting after the event). I love the process of the hunt, the shot and the meat. But the actual kill always comes with a little bit of mixed feelings.

If you believe the Bible is true, then you know that death is the result of sin and killing animals for meat is part of the fallen nature of our world. In God’s original order all creatures were vegetarian. The remorse or guilt you feel is a reflection of the nature God puts in the heart of all men. After the fall God gave the animals to man for food so I never feel guilty for enjoying a nice stake or fillet but death and killing still causes a pang.

 

My ex came from a very rural area where her family owned 5000+ acres of property. Getting rid of pests and putting food on the table were daily parts of life until they discovered that the property was sitting atop a huge reserve of natural gas and none of them ever had to work again. It didn't faze them much. Life continued pretty much as it had, except, now, they could send all of the kids to college and there was a lot less pressure to pay bills and put food on the table.

However, the pests didn't go anywhere. They had a variety of predators and scavengers to defend against and that's where I learned how to do it. I have hunted crows, groundhogs, coyotes, turkey vultures, feral dogs, feral pigs and never felt one iota of remorse. My tools of choice alternated between a Rem 700 PSS in .308, Rem 541-S and a 7.5" S&W Model 41. I also messed around with .22-250 for a brief period but never became overly fond of it. Most of the shots were < 300 yards anyway.

The weirdest was a rogue blue jay who attacked anyone either going in or going out of the house. I thought my FIL was joking when he called me for help. "He's a swarper!" (first time I ever heard that word) "I been tryin to get rid of him for the last week..." A couple of hours later I showed-up and sure enough, that blue jay started swooping at me and squawking its head off as soon as I got out of the car. To make a long story short, that bird was super-wary. He knew he was being hunted. Fortunately, I got a lucky break after a couple of hours when the family cat just happened to trot across the front yard in front of me, oblivious to being repeatedly strafed the entire time. I was sitting on the front porch with my rifle on a sandbag, resting on a wood crate. The bluejay landed on top of a small tree about 40 yards away to pause before the next attack. Bad decision. I felt no remorse about turning him into a cloud of blue feathers. Even got a homemade peach cobbler as a reward. LOL

But seeing what my in-laws had to endure probably de-sensitized me to dispatching varmints with such extreme prejudice. It still doesn't bother me. I'm ready to meet my maker and answer for every shot.

 

Too funny. I was attacked by a blue jay while I tried to get a fledgling off the edge of the lawn to a safer spot. I thought someone was tapping me on the head with a stick to be funny. Wife or neighbor. I was intent on getting it onto the chunk of sycamore bark to move it so ignored first few taps. Turned around and looked an jay was dive bombing me. Take that human!
I left situation as is and thought o.k. it's on you bird.

 

I probably wouldnt hunt anymore if it wasnt for my son. I've had my fill of killing. Take that back, I do love to pop a turkey. Havent shot a deer in 5 seasons, my son does all the deer killing, we eat about 3 a year and usually shoot one or two for some folks asking for meat. I wont hesitate to pop a hog and drag it off, they are just everyone now. Sows in the 100-125 seem to be the best to get processed in my experience. Coyotes are the devil too. They need to die.

I did feel fairly bad about shooting a fox a few years ago, I was in turkey mode and I doubt foxes put a dent in poults like other things like owls, hawks, nest raiders, etc. But then again dnr has a predator season for a reason. They think it helps.

 

Any basic elementary study of the physics of the cosmos will tell you that all life on earth is doomed. It is just a matter of when. All life millions of years from now or that squirrel's life a minute ago, everything that is born will die, it's just a matter of when and how so if it's you or something else it's all pretty much the same.

 

In order for anything to live, something has to die. If I shoot it I plan on eating it, unless it's a pest. If you had a dog for many years you really loved, and it got in such bad shape it needed put down would you do it yourself? You could take it to a veterinarian where it would be nervous, possibly terrified and they stop it's heart. You could also let it out in it's own backyard where it feels at ease, and when it's head is turned do the deed yourself. Same result in the end. Everybody is different, and are affected differently by life's tough decisions.

 

I did not read the other posts. There is nothing wrong with you. I suggest you dont hunt. No big deal. I do not feel the same way, so; that is on me. Sometimes, I do a litttle. I have had coyotes in my sights and gave them a pass. They never did me any harm. Like "Dances with Wolves". I like to think I understand. I also respect and understand the Buddhist philosophy. You might look into that. Most of us eat meat and that is the way of nature. For most of us. On the other hand your feelings may have tapped into something that is real. You should go with your feelings.

 

Seeing living things when I go afield brings me a degree of happiness. Seeing things die, whether by my hand, a hawk, a coyote, or whatever else always brings a degree of sadness for the animal that died. But I never feel any remorse for taking an animal. Remorse is a combination of sadness and regret. I don't kill animals just for fun or to just take a small piece off them that are considered "trophys". There's always a higher purpose for my killing, and therefore there's no regret.

Like Al, I find myself to be a top tier predator. Animals are there to provide for my needs. Store bought meats don't exempt me from the fact that something had to die to feed me. And I don't feel any remorse for eating any of that meat either. In fact, the animals I kill probably lived better lives than the pen raised food that I get from stores and restaurants. So I'm happy when I take an animal that was living on it's own terms, and I'm just as happy when I see that same animal roaming free between hunting seasons.

Supporting wildlife through preservation and enhancement of their habitat is my way of giving back to nature for the bounty it provides. And I do that out of gratitude - not out of sense of guilt or remorse.

 

I think the natural thing for humans is that as they get older and closer to their own end, they tend to be a bit more reflective and perhaps respectful of life. I personally don't really have remorse per se, but killing isnt as important to me as it used to be. I will still kill an animal and usually never give it a second thought, but it is not a driving force any longer.

 

My dad killed a deer during muzzleloader last November a month before he died of cancer complications. It's got a lot to do with how your brought up.

My dad killed a deer last November a month before he died of cancer complications. I ate the majority of that deer, made some great meatloaf. It's all in how your brought up, and life experiences.

 

The OP sounds like me, I just felt bad and one day, and I could not pull the trigger.

Now I just kill steel and paper.