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Old October 3, 2009, 12:19 PM   #1
roy reali
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Hunting versus...

How important is hunting to you? Not the killing, or meat gathering, but the whole activity? Is there any other activity that you would rather do on any given day in stead of going hunting? Or, does hunting have priority over jsut about everything else in your schedule?

You have one buddy that invites you out on hunt on the same weekend another buddy invites you to a ballgame. Which would you pick?

You plan on spending an entire afternoon hunting, your best girl wants you to spend that same afternoon with her? Which would you pick?

You have two days of vacation left this year. Do you use them to go to a vacation resort or to a hunting cabin?

How high of a priority is hunting in your life?
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Old October 3, 2009, 12:27 PM   #2
oldone
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The whole Outdoor thing is important to me, just the calming effect of the woods and the silence is the key. Hunting is just a bonus. Harvesting the meat is important as well, bringing it home to the family (the cave man thing) is gratifying as well.
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Old October 3, 2009, 12:29 PM   #3
fisherman66
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I usually get three trips a year, not counting birding. My favorite is a camping trip for 4 or 5 days on public land. Last year I only saw one doe before legal light. On the other trips I am almost guaranteed a shot under a feeder, but sleeping in a tent by a campfire for the better part of a week seals the deal. It makes me no difference if I don't get a shot. I'd much rather primitive camp/hike around a forest for 4-5 days than shoot a deer under a feeder and sleep in a 5th wheel for a weekend.

Screw the ballgame and best girl. I want the smell of a campfire infused in my BDUs.
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Old October 3, 2009, 12:45 PM   #4
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Hunting rates pretty darn high. but it's still far below hanging out with Halle Berry.
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Old October 3, 2009, 03:11 PM   #5
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X10 for what Buzzkill said!
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Old October 3, 2009, 07:59 PM   #6
SavageSniper
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The only thing that I put above hunting is family, work and the whole "Being responsible" thing. Don't get into wimpy sports with balls and stuff, thats for kids. Well, some kids. I did not play them, it was hunting and fishing for me. As a matter of fact, I ran into an old friend a while back that I have not seen since I was a teen. He said "I did not reconize you without something dead inyou hand" Wow I miss those days.
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Old October 3, 2009, 09:55 PM   #7
plainsman456
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They call it hunting not shooting.I would be hunting in all of the above.I might even ask if the bud that wanted to go to the ballgame could come.I don't care if i shoot my rifle just getting out where nothing but looking clears the mind,works for me.Good luck
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Old October 3, 2009, 10:17 PM   #8
Fat White Boy
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It is my heritage, whether it is big game, small game, upland game or water fowl. My grandfather started my dad young, my dad started me when I was 5 and I started my son when he was 5. It is part of who I am....

Like Buzz said- It's about as much fun as you can have with your pants on...

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Old October 4, 2009, 12:34 AM   #9
hogdogs
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Running hog dogs is pretty important to me as it usually involves my son and is a service as well as all out fun. I don't rank gun hunting near as high. Florida heat makes the overall experience miserable at times too. On a cool day, I could go out in the woods with out a gun and have as much fun as I could when hunting.
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Old October 4, 2009, 01:10 AM   #10
Christchild
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It ranks way up there. All aspects of it. Outdoors... the hunt itself... the shot... the kill... the harvest... the time well spent either alone or with family/friend... the clean, fresh air... the time spent over the numerous meals the harvest provides and telling the story again... the tablefare that is provided (again, the caveman thing)... Even WHEN there's no harvest, everything else applies.

As far as Your "best girl"...If she WON'T go because she's just not into it, then how good is "best"? If I were married, I don't think it'd be any different, 'cuz I'd already know she'd accept it, and more likely than not, even if she doesn't hunt (acceptable), she's gonna love what comes out of the oven/off the grill/out of the pot/out of the "Dutch-Oven".

It's also a heritage. We'd hunt and fish as kids (I never was the video game type), and still love it just as much, plus we have more reasons (little feet) to love it even more.

Give a man an animal/fish, feed him for a day...Teach a man to hunt/fish, You feed him for a lifetime.
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Old October 4, 2009, 11:08 AM   #11
James R. Burke
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I would like to hunt year round if I could. Not just for getting game, I just like getting out in the woods period. If you get something that is a bonus in my book. I was brought up to respect the woods and wild life. Not to just kill something for the fun of it, and to learn things about the woods and animals in it. Like leave it the way it was, no littering etc. Nature is a great thing and we all need to do our part to protect it. I feel the same about fishing. If you get a couple of nice keepers it is a bonus for the day. Also leaving some go for the next guy or kid who may be out there. That goes for both fishing and hunting.
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Old October 4, 2009, 12:04 PM   #12
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Good summation, Mr. Burke. Good summation.
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Old October 4, 2009, 12:37 PM   #13
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Another vote for just being outside.

And NO I would not trade a afternoon at some sporting event with thousands of other folks pushing up against me for a afternoon out in the woods or on the water.
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Old October 4, 2009, 12:57 PM   #14
treefarmernc
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Pretty high on my list but that can be altered depending on the details like…
#1 hunting over a ballgame every time. Probably will never be a problem since all my buddies would rather be hunting also.
#2 Again, the details. Depends on WHAT she wants to do. Cold treestand or ….
#3 probably hunting but this can also be dependant on #2.
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Old October 4, 2009, 01:07 PM   #15
mayosligo
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Late to the tradition

I did not grow up hunting. I came late to this tradition and love it. The smell of the forest, sitting around the campfire, involving kids, grandkids, parents and grandparents in the same event is priceless. I do not get to do it as much as I would like, but I cherish the times that I do and look forward to involving my daughter some day.
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Old October 4, 2009, 04:35 PM   #16
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If I'm not on a patrol, there's a season open, weather is semi-cooperating, and I still have harvest tickets/tags left, I'm in the woods hunting something, on a riverbank salmon & trout fishing, or in a boat chasing halibut & p-cod...

I can't wait to get back down south and do my part in downsizing the hog population in the southeast states...
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Old October 4, 2009, 07:30 PM   #17
kraigwy
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One of the best hunting trips I had was last winter's elk hunt. Not much hunting, I took my grandaughter. We had more snowmen then any elk camp in the big horns. Not to mention the snowball fights or warming up her cold feet. Or the talks we had while we stopped to make her hot choc.

I'll take that over shooting critters anytime.
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Old October 7, 2009, 09:28 AM   #18
stingerspray
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I like to hunt when autumn hits. Something about the mosquitos and ticks being gone, and the cool crisp air draws me to the woods. I'm a pyromaniac too, and will go out just to build fires, drink some brew, shoot game. When its not too cold i enjoy staying in the woods for 2 or 3 days if i got some good company.

If my best girl tried to make me chose between spending the day with her and going hunting, i'd go hunting to keep her in check.

Going to the ballgame would be a waste of time. The chiefs suck. If it was 2005 i would go.

I do prioritize hunting because its fun. I save money on food small game hunting, and even if i didnt i'd still do it.

Everyone needs at least one good hobby. Lots of people like to play golf on the weekends.
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Old October 7, 2009, 09:46 AM   #19
ZeroJunk
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There have been years when I didn't need any meat, hunted 60 or 70 days anyway, saw deer most every day, and never fired a shot. I just love it. Of course, if I had seen a really, really good buck I would have tried to take him and given the meat to somebody that wanted it.
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Old October 7, 2009, 10:55 AM   #20
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I take my family responsibility as seriously as I do hunting. I make sure that I take care of business on the homefront so that my passion for hunting and fishing doesn't cause problems. When it comes to choosing hunting versus other activities, the only thing that might trump hunting is to hit the river for steelhead. I consider a great day steelhead fishing right on par with taking a deer. I play golf also but that takes a back seat to hunting and fishing unless it is league night, because I honor that commitment to my golfing partner, a long time friend.
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Old October 7, 2009, 10:57 AM   #21
Uncle Billy
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Hunting and fishing trips of my childhood...

While I'm not a hunter myself, I've spent a lot of time in the woods with friends and family on hunting trips. I do like fishing and fishing trips as well. The best parts of it are the fellowship of a bunch of guys who like each other, living rough, cooking on a fire, sleeping in tents or a tepee or, most often a log cabin 28 miles by outboard boat from the closest people, with outside facilities, no electricity or running water, cooking on a wood-burning iron stove with lids and brass decorations...

... the smells of bacon and eggs frying over an open fire in the middle of our little cluster of tents on the river's edge, the coffee perking and steaming on a frosty morning as the mist rises off the river and the boats and motors are wet with dew or even frost; the shore dinner miles from camp at noon where we beached the boats, filleted and breaded about 2 dozen walleyes we had started keeping about 11 o'clock, and fried them in a huge frying pan over a driftwood fire, the beans steaming in a pot and the potatoes wrapped in tin foil with onion and butter tossed in the fire burning our fingers as we unwrapped them; then after washing the gear, the old guys would lounge around the impromptu campsite on the deserted shore, napping in the warm sun while we kids would toss spinning lures off the shore and wish the oldsters would wake up and go fishing again, where the only people we ever saw for a week were the 10 of us, and if you saw a boat in the distance, it was one of ours...

... or the early mornings in my grandfather's primitive but roomy log cabin which was 15 miles up a first-gear-and-crawling logging "road", in the late fall, before dawn, where the cooks (usually including me as "helper") would have the huge iron stove hot with a softwood fire which warmed the main floor level, the bacon or sausage frying, the toasted bread on a platter in the warming oven, taking egg orders or serving the oatmeal as each of the hunters came down from the loft and had their juice, and coffee poured from a 6 quart pot (they never would have rolled out of their bedrolls into the early morning chill and damp of the cabin loft if the smell of the cooking hadn't waked them up); laying out the summer sausage, bread, candy bars and fruit for each to pack his lunch; dressing in woolen clothes and heavy boots, handling the rifles and shotguns as the party was readying themselves to head out on a 4 or 5 mile hike to the area of the day's watch-and-drive for white tails, leaving as the weak, cold light of dawn spread through the forest...

... the warmth and friendly baking bread smell of the cabin at day's end when the 8 or 10 hunters returned, chilled and shivering with the sweat of the hike back, maybe carrying a field-dressed buck or two which was hung from the giant pine out front; the bunch of them in their long johns and heavy sox, having a beer and telling stories of the day's hunt while dinner was on (or in) the stove, filling the cabin with the smells of roasting beef (early in the trip) or venison rump roast (later, if we had been lucky enough to bag a button buck for camp meat); the inevitable poker game after cleanup, with the Coleman lantern hissing overhead and Canadian Club or Chevas Regal poured over ice from off the porch; the antics that always went on, making story-telling fodder for the rest of the year, like the time somebody snuck out to the outhouse and fired a few rounds with the .45 my uncle always carried, into the collected mess under it while somebody was aboard one of the 2 holes- it was an up-scale privy- and was never invited to go hunting again, or the time someone tossed a firecracker into the stove, which blew all the lids off their holes- he wasn't invited again either...

...the deep silence and absolute darkness as the Coleman faded and went out at rack time; the rapid dash to the privy or behind a tree, when pausing outside for a moment presented you with the absolute isolation, the absolute blackness of the sky freckled with a million spots of sparkling light, and whiteness of the snow, the outlines of tall standing pines that surrounded the cabin rustling gently in the breeze, the cold brightness of moonlight shining over it all made you feel small and insignificant, but really fortunate to have an opportunity to be this intimate with the natural world, the forest, and the beauty of what God had made for us...

... this goes on and on as I encounter a huge memory readout. I apologize if this is too long.
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Old October 7, 2009, 07:43 PM   #22
BIGR
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To me its about being outdoors in the woods, smelling the outdoors, seeing wildlife in its own world. Getting together with family members and buddies at the deer camp, cooking those big meals after a day in the woods. Yeap if I had my choice right now I would live way back in the woods and be a hermit. Heck with the everyday hustle and bustle......
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Old October 7, 2009, 07:46 PM   #23
castnblast
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I saved tons of $$$ in college by hunting 4 legged instead of 2 legged deer!!!

I'm spending my last 3 days vacation hunting - one this friday, and 2 the first week of December for a bowhunt.

Sometimes it's a toss up between kayak fishing and hunting though. I got into offshore kayak fishing, and the rush it gives me is equal to hunting. Nothing like catching a 58 3/8" kingfish on a kayak 3 miles out in the gulf of Mexico! The best thing is, that season does not interfear with my hunting!!! It's a summer thing. I hate cold water.
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Old October 7, 2009, 10:43 PM   #24
wyobohunter
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Quote:
You have one buddy that invites you out on hunt on the same weekend another buddy invites you to a ballgame. Which would you pick?
Hunting of any kind every time...

Quote:
You plan on spending an entire afternoon hunting, your best girl wants you to spend that same afternoon with her? Which would you pick?
Define "spend the afternoon", also depends on what kind of hunting.

Quote:
You have two days of vacation left this year. Do you use them to go to a vacation resort or to a hunting cabin?
Hunt... Err, what kind of resort? Premium skiing vs. rabbit hunting? Skiing.... Or is it X-Country skiing vs. an awesome Dall Sheep hunt?.. hunting for sure

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Old October 8, 2009, 11:03 AM   #25
rodwhaincamo
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Hunting is my favorite of favorites. I would always chose hunting over anything else. I used to be able to nearly hunt at will, so if my GF/SO were to want me to be with her that time I would choose her instead only because I don't want the tension and would have plenty of other opportunities. But she is not like that, and so I would go hunting. Anything outdoors ranks high with me.
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