"The Hunter's Dirty Word"

[gator]

I had an interesting conversation last night, just as I was about to leave work. A young physician knocked on my door to ask me a question regarding some medications. No biggie, as this is my job. As luck would have it, I had "8 Gauge" pulled up, checking some stats, and making sure the blog was in order. CLICK FOR A VERY BIASED OPINION

[coonman]

That was an excellent point to an arguement and very well played. I really enjoyed reading that and keep them coming as I look forward to reading what you have to say.

[bigsprig]

damn doctors...

[Double R 2]

Good thoughts.

[cajun squealer]

Dear Gator,

You're "killing" me.

[Bamawebfoot]

Agreed, I don't harvest anything when I'm hunting, I kill it. To fail to understand that taking a life is part of the function of hunting, is to fail to understand hunting at all.

[lipsplitter39654]

Justin, keep doing the blog the way you have been as it is a great read every time you add a story. This issue is just like every damn thing else in our society, it has to be politically correct. No one will stand up and say they are a CONSERVATIVE, they are a moderate cause its popular. We cant call killers TERRORISTS they have to be called enemy combatants. We cant call it a war but an oversees contingency. We cant call a guy that believes he will be rewarded with 100 virgins if he straps a bomb on, wears a turbin, prays to allah and blows up a whole town square a MUSLIM EXTREMIST but rather a simple criminal. We cant stand up for the 10 commandments and the US Constitution but its okay for judges to legislate from the bench and create what they think should be the law of the land. It is just a sign of our horrible times. Like Will Primos said on a recent video I watched when he talked about receiving a letter from a viewer complaining about them high fiving and getting so excited about KILLING an animal on film. He explained and I agree that it is no different than a regular duck or deer camp. You get back to the camp build a fire, have a drink and high five and tell stories about the hunt. We live in a society where too many folks try to pretty everything up and make it more palatable. Why not speak the truth. I shot the turkey and killed him and had a blast doing it. Most of us give back to conservation organizations, introduce children and new hunters to the tradition and do our part to protect and conserve the land and the animals, but we still kill the animal. Any way enuff of my rant. Keep up the great blog and posts....

[crow]

Commercialization required the sterilization of our tradition so that it would appeal to a wider audience. Has damn near ruint it!

crow

[arduckslayer]

[kris Schaumburg]

the most offputting pics I've ever showed people had nothing to do with hunting, they were fishing pics oddly enough. When we kill tuna, we bleed them right away. It improves the quality of the meat. the best way to accomplish this is to use the freshly caught tuna's rapidly pumping heart to evacuate all the blood from his system. This is best accomplished by simultaneously slashing his gills (equivalent to our lungs and absolutely loaded with blood). and his tail which is also loaded with rapidly pumping veins. In effect you can drain all of the blood from a 100 lb fish in a minute or so. Well, when you consider how bloody a tuna is (think of the redness of the meat) and the quantity of blood contained in one 40-60 lb fish, you can begin to envision how much blood would be in 3-4 of them caught and bled simultaneously. You can fill the cockpit of a boat 8 ft by 8 ft, with crimson blood 4-5 inches deep. I once massed emailed these to people who had never fished, and got the worst responses imaginable. Having been exposed to this, I had never given it a second thought.

[cwink]

I'm to the point where I don't care what anymore. Chances are if I have to call it "harvesting" around someone they are not going to be joining me in the woods any time soon anyway. And just IMO I think saying "I killed 3 ducks this morning" instead of " I harvested 3 ducks this morning" shows more respect to the game.

[blindretrieve101]

When I hunt the animals I "harvest" are merely victims of outdoor medical malpractice.... Remember, hunters don't kill but doctors do!

[greenheadgrimreaper]

Paraphrased: "The word "harvesting" takes away from the initia skill, pursuit, etc for which they were created"

Very well put.

[stang67]

[Beaudog1]

Great write-up. Really enjoyed it. On a side note, am I the only one who goes half blind when reading Justin's blog? Something about the black background and small white writing makes me see stars (and I'm in my 20's, not an old guy). Anyone else?