Feeling remorse after shooting

[Zapp]

Not really a great deal to add here - do I feel remorse? Absolutely.

 

I think that Eric made a very good point about there being a balance to be struck, it summed up how I feel (and tend to shoot) very well.

 

I like nothing more than going out with the rifle and potting enough rabbits to keep me in meat once or twice a week for a month or two.

 

At harvest time, I might shoot many more rabbits from the harvester in a single night than I do in the rest of the year, but that is not to say I particularly like doing it (though it has to be done). Personally I start to get uncomfortable once I get beyond the point of what I can reasonably exepect to eat myself and give away.

 

As has been said, if you didnt feel this way then you would probably be viewed with some suspicion by the rest of us. Pest control is pest control, it doesnt have to be extermination, and IMHO it shouldnt be done in a "cold-hearted" or "gung ho" way!

 

ZB

[kennym]

Is it okay to feed pigeon breast to your dog? as I would pluck a breast 200+ if I could cook it and feed it to my young lab. I reckon it would be okay but most of the people I know say it would upset his tummy. But then again what do townies know

 

 

You come across like a sensible young man but the townies coment is a silly unadvised thing to say, as most older or balanced people will know good and bad educated and ignorant people can come from any walk of life....

 

Having lived in both, I know that the main differance between the two is a lack of willingness to see life from the others point of view, they should also not judge each other because they like/accept different things.

 

again I must say most trouble in this world is down to intolerance,... and remember it starts like an accorn it starts small

[ferretman]

if you feel so sad n guilty maybe clays are for you and not vermin shooting.

[duckdog]

I owe it to myself to have a few more trys. I will always be adicted to sporting clays though

[urikastu]

Sorry but I do love to wind people up, it works every time

[dogfox]

ok, im 16 and yes, sometimes i do feel remorse, but so far only when ive shot foxes before, but all you can tell yourself is that it died quickly and that it wont be doing the local wildlife any harm, in my case they wont be doing damage to my valuable pheasant population!

id only feel remorse for say a pheasant or woodcock that is shot and not found, that really gets me going (my uncle nearly cried the last time it happened )

[Ozzy Fudd]

Thanks for the replies everyone, it has really made a me feel better. I reckon I felt sad because the bodies where still warm when touched, and one of the bird was still flapping around which added to the guilt.

I'm not into driven shooting either. I've been beating before but I alway felt there was something wrong with it, but that is just me.

I'll stick to clays and pest shooting, plus the odd one for the pot.

 

I'll probally put some pics up saturday

 

ive been shooting for a few years and all i can say is hunting is a personal thing, do what youre ok with. i dont like driven shoots either, doesnt seem very sportsman like to me, but hey, thats just my opinion. clays are ok (especially if its just to wind up the waistcoat brigade by turning up with a black mossberg pump... sorry!!) but i see them just as practice or a fun way to waste a couple of hours. mostly i do pest control - if youve ever seen a newborn lamb after crows have been at it youll never feel guilty about shooting them again...

 

find something you like and stick to it. simple

[duckdog]

ive been shooting for a few years and all i can say is hunting is a personal thing, do what youre ok with. i dont like driven shoots either, doesnt seem very sportsman like to me, but hey, thats just my opinion. clays are ok (especially if its just to wind up the waistcoat brigade by turning up with a black mossberg pump... sorry!!) but i see them just as practice or a fun way to waste a couple of hours. mostly i do pest control - if youve ever seen a newborn lamb after crows have been at it youll never feel guilty about shooting them again...

 

find something you like and stick to it. simple

 

I sometimes see people at the clay ground if full shooting attire. I also heard this women talking about all the game shoots she and her husband had booked, and she' only been shooting for like a month. I think I will stick to vermin and the odd one for the pot.

 

I think smaller pheasnt shoots are okay when everything is eaten or sold, but the larger ones make a bad name for shooting.

[Spaniel]

I know where you are coming from, i can remember my first Pigeon outing, wasnt that sure to be honest if it was for me or not at the time, but the most important thing for me was to get a clean kill.

 

Ive done some pigeon decoying and also had ago at the Pheasies on Beaters day but i really enjoy the more natural style of shooting waiting for the birds to come over you without decoys setup and im just getting into Wildfowling which again i feel enjoyable.

 

Just have ago at all types of shooting and find out what is more agreeable to you

 

Cheers and good luck with the shooting

[deny essex]

Ive been shooting for 30 years and still feel a twang of guilt now and then , but pest cotrol is nessesary and more selective than poisoning as with mxy used for rabbit control many years back, which we still see rearing its ugly head.

Respect for your quarry and make as good a use as you can for the carcase wether it be for human consuption or otherwise.

We all enjoy our sport and in an ideal situation short of what we want to take for food and protect the crops/livestock for at least the day it would be nice to say thanks for they enjoyable day guys you can get up and fly/run away now till another day.

We still have the hunting instinct in us, and not just for animals , some use that instinct to go for money, power, position, knowledge etc , even the anti's hunt, us! if they ever eradicate us they will hunt the next lot down that doesnt conform to what they like.

[Flashman]

I sometimes see people at the clay ground if full shooting attire. I also heard this women talking about all the game shoots she and her husband had booked, and she' only been shooting for like a month. I think I will stick to vermin and the odd one for the pot.

 

I think smaller pheasnt shoots are okay when everything is eaten or sold, but the larger ones make a bad name for shooting.

 

How do large, commercial shoots generate bad publicity? They sell the excess bag to game dealers, so there's no waste. If anything, these larger, cash generators will keep their staff and those in related industries in work despite the credit crunch.

 

I'd dress like Mr. Toad 24/7 but the introduction of central heating and heated public transport means I'd sweat like a rapist unless I moved to Siberia. However, if people would rather resemble a tramp with a cammo fetish, knock yourselves out.

 

Is this antipathy due to simple envy?

[Baldrick]

Flash, although I side with you completely (apart from the wearing of tweed at all times), the game shooting that you and I know can never be compared to the industrial 300+ bird days that do occur. I know two estates where 1000-bird days are a regular event, even in this economic climate. These shoots do generate appalling publicity, as ethics and 'sport' play no part in such events.

[duckdog]

I'm talking about the 500+ bird days and not the smaller days that I've been on. They just sometimes seems to show the sport in a bad light.

[Dave-G]

Very interesting and soul searching thread this.

 

Most of my regrets are felt on the increasing rarer occasions when I’m out shooting on my own. I feel a measure of guilt that I use pest control as a reason for enjoying the quality air that cannot be breathed in a city, and the sheer pleasure of walking in the countryside away from the constant stream of traffic lights (etc) that I pass as a cabbie. I could take up golf but that would be difficult with my night time body clock - and yes I enjoy my leisure pursuit. If that makes me worse than most of you then so be it. What goes through our minds as we visit the gunshop for our next acquision?

 

I’ve never done the pigeon shooting thing in particular but doubt that the reason pigeon are on the open licence is because they are a flying food source. I also doubt the farmer views them as even a potential food source – otherwise he’d surely look to stop the shooting and harvest them. That some see it this way is perhaps their way of dealing with the issue, and that can only be a good thing.

 

My worst night of guilt is that I shot 119 bunnies for a farmer in Cornwall who simply did not have the time or wish to do it himself. The reason he gave us permission to enter his land armed with a rifle was to seriously reduce his rabbit problem. Few people understand how a bare swathe of missing crop affects the person trying to make a living from it. Even fewer people can fathom how much the crop is thinned out without seeing a bare patch.

 

If the farmer cannot make a decent profit on his produce he will perhaps cease to farm the land and our country will have to import more of its food. If all our farmers stopped pest control… well that event would bring guilt – and raise the price of our food to horrendous levels – yes even for the anti’s. That some are comfortable about it, or WANT to do it has to be a good thing.

[6shot]

im also glad its not just me that feels this way.

 

i try to think on the plus side of things there are alot worse sports like bull fighting. at least we try to kill quick, help the farmer and put something on the table. but still dont like the killing part about our sport.

 

p.s dont tell my mates im a big girl.

[southernlad]

Some fantastic sentiments on this thread - good to see. Who in their right mind enjoys killing? There is far more to hunting than just killing something. It's good to take stock over what you kill and not forget that you're taking a life.

 

I always feel sorry when I kill a rabbit or pigeon, but I'd feel a lot sorrier if I wounded one and left it to die so I try as hard as I can to get clean kills, as I'm sure we all do.

 

As far as I'm concerned every pigeon or rabbit I eat means one less chicken has to be cooped up in a cage for months, to be slaughtered unceremoniously by a machine.

 

Too many people are too detached from the realities of meat production - to eat meat something has to die and I for one would prefer to kill something quickly and cleanly with a gun shot, knowing it has lived free and has not suffered.

 

Calling any animal vermin is disrespectful in my book, be it a fox, a crow or a squirrel. No matter what damage it does to crops etc none of our wildlife deserves to be exterminated thoughtlessly. Control is one thing, Killing huge numbers for the sake of killing is another.

 

SL

[Pinkfooty]

Some fantastic sentiments on this thread - good to see. Who in their right mind enjoys killing? There is far more to hunting than just killing something. It's good to take stock over what you kill and not forget that you're taking a life.

 

I always feel sorry when I kill a rabbit or pigeon, but I'd feel a lot sorrier if I wounded one and left it to die so I try as hard as I can to get clean kills, as I'm sure we all do.

 

As far as I'm concerned every pigeon or rabbit I eat means one less chicken has to be cooped up in a cage for months, to be slaughtered unceremoniously by a machine.

 

Too many people are too detached from the realities of meat production - to eat meat something has to die and I for one would prefer to kill something quickly and cleanly with a gun shot, knowing it has lived free and has not suffered.

 

Calling any animal vermin is disrespectful in my book, be it a fox, a crow or a squirrel. No matter what damage it does to crops etc none of our wildlife deserves to be exterminated thoughtlessly. Control is one thing, Killing huge numbers for the sake of killing is another.

 

SL

 

Very true.

 

What a lot of the antis forget (or never knew) is that the duck that lives free in the wild for several months before being harvested by a wildfowler has had a far better life - and death - than the battery chicken confined to one square foot of space before being chopped at 16 weeks and ending up in a supermarket plastic bag.

 

The deer, roaming free on the hills, with only a sporting chance of an instant kill by a stalker's bullet, as opposed to the bullock, castrated shortly after birth and fed on concentrates for a very short life before being herded to the abattoir to provide steaks for the housewife.

 

Or the trout, netted after a brief tussle with the angler before being chapped on the brow - or the haddock, hauled from the sea and gutted while still alive before being tipped, squirming, into the hold to suffocate.

 

Of all the ways that birds, animals and fish are farmed and killed for human consumption, field sports provide the most humane methods. But how many of our Tesco shoppers appreciate that?

[Supersonic]

As a side note as you are only 14yo and I don't think anyone has been picked up on this yet. I would suggest that you go back to tin cans and paper targets for a while.

 

It happens to the best of us.

 

Nige

[duckdog]

Very true.

 

What a lot of the antis forget (or never knew) is that the duck that lives free in the wild for several months before being harvested by a wildfowler has had a far better life - and death - than the battery chicken confined to one square foot of space before being chopped at 16 weeks and ending up in a supermarket plastic bag.

 

The deer, roaming free on the hills, with only a sporting chance of an instant kill by a stalker's bullet, as opposed to the bullock, castrated shortly after birth and fed on concentrates for a very short life before being herded to the abattoir to provide steaks for the housewife.

 

Or the trout, netted after a brief tussle with the angler before being chapped on the brow - or the haddock, hauled from the sea and gutted while still alive before being tipped, squirming, into the hold to suffocate.

 

Of all the ways that birds, animals and fish are farmed and killed for human consumption, field sports provide the most humane methods. But how many of our Tesco shoppers appreciate that?

 

I think this posts puts it very well.

[POW!]

As a side note as you are only 14yo and I don't think anyone has been picked up on this yet. I would suggest that you go back to tin cans and paper targets for a while.

 

It happens to the best of us.

 

Nige

 

Why should this level headed young man who clearly has a ballanced opinion of his chosen sport/ hobby , " Go back to caps and tin cans"??

This has been a most excellent debate for a young man with vision ,

 

I started shooting with my father at a far younger age , and by the age of 14 had shot more than most of double my age then ,

 

It realy is a ballance of concience and where an individual feels comfortable with themselves ,

I only wish we had more of his callibre entering this sport , POW.

[libs]

Just wanted to bring this topic up again as I have had a sudden wave of feelin abit ****

 

Went for a walk around after work for some rabbits, clipped one through both ears I think which really ****** me off. On the way back to the car I spotted a collared dove with the guy I was with. I shot it because I could, was about 30 yards up and a safe shot againts the main trunk.

 

Straight through the neck and it was dead before it hit the floor, but still I feel bad because I think I shot it just to let out anger... and its only made it worse. Didnt fell like this at the time, Was just pleased to have made the shot.

 

Anyone else ever felt like this, just really weird as it has never even moved me before.

 

[neil smith]

My grandfather & his son, my uncle, were both game keepers & as a young bloke growing up I shot most things, but as I have grown older I dont like to kill anything, in fact I stoped shooting live quarry some 15 years ago, I now prefer to compete against my fellow shooters in competition & find that a far bigger challenge & much more rewarding.

 

Thats just me, I have no problem with anyone who shoots live quarry but its no longer for me, so remember there are many different types of shooting out there if you want to try something else.

 

N

[Harnser]

Anybody who can kill time and time again without some kind of remorse needs to stand back and have a good look at themselves .

Harnser .

[njc110381]

Anybody who can kill time and time again without some kind of remorse needs to stand back and have a good look at themselves .

Harnser .

 

 

That's very true. I often feel sorry for what I shoot. It doesn't stop me shooting it but I think it's a very good thing to realise that you've taken a life and have a little respect for the animal.

[joeshaw08]

My first experience of killing was a rabbit with a .22. I did feel guilty for a while afterwards but like alot of these posts say, it was outweighed by my excitement. Think of it like this with pigeons - you have put a great deal of time and effort to get them down, so when you shoot them feel proud that your fieldcraft has finally payed off and you'll be rewarded. A few months back I'd gone out and shot a couple of rabbits, and my stepdad said he wanted one for cooking and for me to leave it for him. Turned out that he 'didn't get round to it' and ended up throwing it away, which p***** me off abit. Make sure you keep eating what you've killed, then there is nothing to be ashamed of.

 

Happy hunting!