So, tell me again why I should hunt with a rock, a long bow ...or a spear.

[Eleanors38]

Am I not up to the manly challenge? What are you afraid of? Why don't you play fair? Where is the skill, the challenge?

Discuss.

[LanternWaste]

1. Whatever it takes to receive maximum entertainment from killing a bear, have at it.

Whatever it takes to receive maximum entertainment from killing a bear, have at it.

[Eleanors38]

18. I prefer an appropriate rifle. Fun? Folks love the meat!

[underpants]

2. Me: flamethrower

You can eat it right there.

[Fla_Democrat]

4. There's no place to

There's no place to attach the bayonet.

[IADEMO2004]

53. This is one of my all time favorites

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Why hunt at all? We have supermarkets.

[Eleanors38]

17. I once saw a cow squeezed from a huge ketchup spritzer at Safeway.

[Xolodno]

32. I know some people...

...who supplement their protein intake via hunting. If they didn't, they would be eating a lot more ramen. Don't make enough to each much meat, but make too much to qualify for assistance.

[ronnie624]

58. Sorry, but I'm always highly skeptical of that claim.

In fact, I don't believe it for one second.

[Brickbat]

67. Which claim are you objecting to?

[ronnie624]

83. There is only one,

That someone in the US has to hunt to eat.

And I don't object to the claim, I simply don't believe it.

[Brickbat]

86. Well, it certainly depends on what you mean "has to" and "eat," I guess.

I do know people for whom deer season is the difference between a pleasant winter and an unpleasant one, though.

[That Guy 888]

80. It's possible in red States

They always try to reduce the number of people getting assistance, but not the conditions that lead to people requiring assistance. I imagine the people supplementing their meat intake either have reasonably priced hunting permits or poach. I suppose if you have the skills necessary it's an alternative to going vegan.

[underahedgerow]

57. Exactly. Indulging in pre-evolutionary practices for the procurement of foods that are

readily available in shops and markets is just, well, counter-evolutionary.

Find another amusement that doesn't involve the torture and slaughter of animals. Just sayin'.

[TipTok]

60. Poe's law strikes again...

[Adrahil]

63. Here's two reasons.

1) one reason people hunt is becuase it is for a source of inexpnsive food. If my sisters family doesn't get a deer or two, they don't get much in the way of meat.

2) with the destruction of most natural predators, hunting is necessary to ensure ecological balance. If deer become overpopulated, they destroy local food sources and the deer population starves, the destruction of food sources further impacts the local food chain.

[Vattel]

90. and then there are all the assholes who just do it for fun

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. Hunting doesn't appeal to me...

... unless I REALLY need the food.

If I hunt, I'm certainly going to take advantage of the fruits of human intellect when I do it. It's the only trait that gives humanity an advantage.

That's also why most athletics mean so little to me. Give me the strongest man in the world and place him naked against an adult Bengal tiger or grizzly bear. A lot of good those muscles will do him!

[JoePhilly]

6. Mountain climbers know that the mountain might kill them.

Me ... I hunt cows ... in their natural habitat ... at the supermarket.

[Eleanors38]

15. Heh-heh. I think the biggest hunting danger is a heart attack, dragging out a deer.

[Act_of_Reparation]

7. This is what I hunt with.

[Eleanors38]

20. Nice equipment. On occasion, I meet shutterbugs in the woods. Most seem aware

that the land they are on is often paid for by hunters & fishers through various special permits, taxes and fees. Some even pay for the federal "duck stamp," though they do not hunt (birders are esp. prone to taking an extra responsible step). Good habitat for game is good habitat for all flora and fauna.

[Act_of_Reparation]

23. Not my pic, unfortunately.

I do own an A7, but the 70-200mm F/4 is still on my Christmas list.

Wildlife photographers have a lot in common with hunters, though. Hunting isn't my bag of tricks, but I understand why people do it.

[awoke_in_2003]

38. I hope to, one day

have similar equipment to go on an African "safari" with.

[HereSince1628]

62. That'll get you longer hunting seasons for more species, too.

[NightWatcher]

8. You want a fun hunt? Come to work with me. I hunt people.

I'm a private eye. I'm working a guy right now. He's embezzled quite a sum and has multiple firearms. He's running from me while staying in town to make a deal. I'm not supposed to do anything but video the players in the deal, send it to a lawyer, and get out of town.

Hunt bad people. It's way more fun than a dumb animal that hasn't done anything to you.

[Eleanors38]

11. If you oppose hunting, fine. But some antis need to get their emotions/prejudices

in some working order. BTW, animals (last I heard) have not bought into humans' need for justice and retribution. Thank god, no? Who wants to burden them with that?

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

64. Ernest Hemingway:

"There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter."

[Eleanors38]

66. I guess the key there is "...and liked it..."

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

88. I don't know if I'd like it; I do know I wouldn't like hunting anything that couldn't shoot back.

[ileus]

70. Do you eat him after you harvest him?

[Eleanors38]

81. What an African-American Rosewood, FL pogrom victim asked a white lynch mob member

just before he was murdered, throwing into the mob's faces the old backwoods credo.

[Lance Bass esquire]

9. I fish.

I have state of art gear.

A worm on a hook.

Checkpoint advantage goes to the fish.

Most of the time i just drown worms all day .

Why it's called fishing and not catching.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. LOL! Me too. n/t

[Eleanors38]

14. Ha!

[63splitwindow]

12. You seem to have confused hunting with carrying an AR-15 to a political rally. Why?

[Eleanors38]

13. You seem simply confused.

[PJMcK]

52. Your statement is confusing

The OP was about hunting without a gun. Please explain your leap to "carrying an AR-15 to a political rally."

Thanks, in advance.

[Recursion]

16. I've bowhunted before. Only deer though

I really don't get people who do primitive hunting on bears.

[Eleanors38]

34. Atlatls, and presumably other spears, are legal means in MO and AL...

I don't know if those states have bear seasons, but there are plenty of deer a feral hogs. Much of the distaste for hunting comes, I believe, from the hoopin' and hollerin' and the high-five stuff that some feel compelled to engage in when a kill is made. I certainly am gratified when a deer I shoot goes down quickly with no need for a search, but why the Daytona beach party stuff has to infect the woods is beyond me. I do have reservations about spears, but much of the decision-making around legal means will probably come from one side's data on recovered game vs another's. Pretty murky area.

[flamin lib]

19. I have it on good authority that hammers are more dangerous than rifles.

Hunt with a hammer. Lots of gunners tell me that hammers kill more people than rifles so surely they are equally devastating against game animals.

Of course if your are too afraid to leave your house without a gun on your person perhaps you might want to man up and get a black belt so you can use your fists against the game you seek---gunners tell me that fists kill as many people as rifles so they must be equally dangerous to animals, right?

[Eleanors38]

21. Well, the topic is hunting WITHOUT a gun. Did you clear your post with GD hosts?

[sarisataka]

22. Are there any restrictions

On hunting with a can of beans?

[linuxman]

26. Not for thieves.

[Duckhunter935]

51. I have it on good authority that

Cans of beans are a very effective weapon and delicious too.

[bluedigger]

24. I like pitfalls, myself.

Sometimes, when I'm feeling cooperative, I like to join in with friends and drive a herd off a cliff using fire. Then we drink some light beers, to stay in manly shape.

[linuxman]

25. I wouldn't, personally.

Seems primitive hunting gives too much of a margin for error in making a quick, clean kill. Can you make a bad shot with a rifle and maim an animal? Sure. Is your chance of doing so with a knife/spear/atlatl a good deal greater? You bet. I'm not going to begrudge someone who does it, but if I were a hunter, I'd stick to modern firearms.

[Hoyt]

27. You use guns for more than hunting animals. You are a gun promoter, even using a gun reference

in your user name. So don't use the "hunting" excuse to rationalize what gunners have done to society, directly or indirectly.

[Eleanors38]

29. So, what is your position on hunting instruments? Spear or no?

EDIT: I don't promote guns for you.

[Hoyt]

31. We'd be better off if gunners could live with a spear rather than AR15s and a gun in their pants

when the go out to the store

[Eleanors38]

35. That would be an interesting sight. Some fashion statements could be made.

[safeinOhio]

28. I hunt for meat, but prefer

road kill. Cook it right and it taste like chicken.

[Eleanors38]

30. Where FL is way ahead of TX: It allows taking of roadkill. Quite progressive.

[dilby]

33. I used to hunt with a rifle but I had a friend who was killed my senior year of High School.

He was shot by another hunter so I stopped hunting for about 10 years, to many drunks tromping around the forest for my liking. I later took up hunting with a compound bow and never looked back, bow hunting is way safer. Anyways hunt with whatever you want, it's your life.

[Eleanors38]

36. That is very sad. Fortunately, it is increasingly rare. In Texas...

In the year 2015 only two hunters were killed by a firearm while hunting. One by shotgun; the other by accidental discharge of her own rifle. Most researchers credit mandatory hunter ed courses for the incredible drop in hunter death/accidents nation-wide.

[HERVEPA]

37. Calvin had it right

http://assets.amuniversal.com/b9a586e070e10132b90b005056a9545d

[Eleanors38]

39. Pretty funny.

[HERVEPA]

41. I take the basic premise more as serious than funny.

And I wish the deer had weapons and could use them against hunters,

[Rex]

40. It would help to know what you are talking about, some context might help.

What a strange OP.

[EX500rider]

42. Background:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1552064

Many hunters noticed that many vegans/etc have said hunting with rifles is too easy and they should try it the old fashioned way with a spear....somebody does it and the non-hunters screamed foul...

[Rex]

43. Oh okay, thanks that now makes sense.

Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't. Personally, I am impressed at the stupidity of anyone taking on a bear with a spear.

[Eleanors38]

44. You may recall the latest "Cecille the Lion" posting, this time someone killing a bear

with a spear. Lots of anti-hunting posts.

[Rex]

45. Okay thanks, I am impressed at the stupidity of anyone that will attack a bear with a spear.

Now, how about that guy that knifed a deer? Hiding in plain site next to the feeding trough! That takes skill!

[Eleanors38]

46. If folks are into ritual combat cum hunting, then take on hogs with a knife...

It's legal in several states, but usually involves hog dogs, both strikers and grabbers who can bay the animal. There is a video on Youtub of an Hawai'ian hog hunt where the animal is bayed, and the coup de gras is ceremonially delivered by a man with a large knife (matador-style), all to the soundtrack of an operatic "Ave Maria." The Alabama hunt was a little more boisterous.

[Rex]

47. Feral hogs are mean, nasty creatures.

Rip your leg up in seconds. I respect anyone that will take on a wild animal with primitive tools.

[Eleanors38]

48. I think I'd rather have a .30-30.

[Rex]

49. I think I would rather let someone else do it.

But yeah...gun...bear...gun...tiger...gun...anything that can kill me in an instant...gun.

[Eleanors38]

50. Never been drawn to hunts for "big and dangerous game."

[Warren DeMontague]

56. Was the bear attacking people? Was it self-defense? Did the hunter eat the bear?

No?

Then why the fuck kill it? Honest question.

[Eleanors38]

65. Honest answer: It was a regulated hunt (meaning SD is not required)...

I do not know the answer re: meat used. The last scandal over bear hunting featured a veteran hunter (over 20 bears) who kicked critics back hard, telling them she ate the bear meat. It would be foolish for anyone to post a pic of a kill and NOT saved the meat, either for herself & family or for donation.

Speaking for myself, I don't kill for SD. I hunt and kill animals for the adventure and the food. It is how we once were regarding what we eat: HONEST.

I will unashamedly hunt, kill, and eat this season as well.

[Warren DeMontague]

85. I take no issue with that.

[Warpy]

54. Hardcore paleo diet, anyone?

Yes, 80-90% of their diet was from gathering plant foods and snaring small game, both provided by women. However, for manly men justifying a diet of meat, meat, and more meat, the paleo hunting methods using a spear, bow and arrow, or large rock dropped off a cliff would be wholly authentic. Never mind that when hunting was lousy, grubs and termites were on the menu. With supermarkets around there is no reason for that nonsense.

This is the way to do it, up in the Rockies, flint tipped spear in hand. Authentic to the last.

[Warren DeMontague]

55. what provides you personally with the maximum entertainment value of killing for sport?

I mean, assuming you're not doing it for food, isn't that what it's all about?

[Eleanors38]

72. A little unclear, but I enjoy the pursuit of an animal which is superbly equipped for evasion...

and check-mating it (killing) for the purposes of eating it (this is challenging enough to put me on auto pilot, so to speak). Though I am old enough to get exhausted field dressing a deer, the activity is enjoyable as well, challenging you to remove non-edibles without spilling fecal matter and urine into the body cavity (I am prepared for that eventuality as well). There is pride in a clean, dressed carcass, all the way through the skinning, separation of lower leg joints, the head and the tail, then washing the animal, quartering, and packing it in ice as meat for the trip home. I have not purchased beef under celophane for over 10 years.

Sport is a debatable term, whose derivation is unclear. It has been laden with many meanings, often negative ones. Currently, it is used to separate modern hunting from "market" hunting (outlawed) and straight "subsistence" hunting (even here, hunters celebrate and enjoy the activity as well). Our culture has a long history of aligning enjoyment, sport, pleasure, etc., with a vulgar puritanism and thereby immorality. But we ALL kill to eat: Directly (hunting/fishing), indirectly (feedlot & factory slaughter), or by abstraction (agriculture, which displaces vast ecosystems which disrupt massive numbers of flora and fauna, most non-game). Which is your means?

[Brickbat]

75. This is a great answer.

The idea that people should participate in the hunt with only a heavy heart, after all other possibilities of feeding their starving children have been exhausted, and without any enjoyment or pride in the process whatsoever, is bizarre to me.

[Warren DeMontague]

84. My point there originally was, assuming you were only doing it for enjoyment, so to speak

pick the means most enjoyable.

I'm not a vegan, ethical or otherwise, so I don't take issue with people who hunt and then eat or otherwise have some utilitarian use for the animal which they kill. I suppose I do question the value in killing "just for the fun of it"- my issue isn't with enjoyment per se (far from it) but rather my take is what is inherently fun about killing something.

I acknowledge it's a subjective distinction and a rather arbitrary ethical standard, but I kind of feel it's better to actually hunt for the purpose of using the animal in some fashion other than just killing it for pure 'enjoyment' of the act.

[LeftyMom]

59. Why not find a less creepy hobby?

[Warren DeMontague]

61. Seriously.

And people say MY hobbies are creepy!

[Eleanors38]

73. Why don't you try hunting? We ALL kill to eat. Including yourself.

1) Hunting
2) Meat counter (proxy killing)
3) Agriculture (millions of acres of ecosystem torn up for soy beans, kale and spinach)

What is your favorite method?

[pnwmom]

68. Tell me again why you should hunt at all? For "adventure and food,"

try berry picking.

Or, if you want to get more risky, try collecting mushrooms.

[Eleanors38]

74. I have explaind this. Which method of killing to eat do you practice?

If you are vegetarian, then you have resting on a sufficiently numbed urban conscience the death of vast ecosystems which were inhabited by many species of flora and fauna -- including at one time my deer or two each year.

Agriculture is an ancient abstract technology, but it hasn't lost a bit of its power to kill the pain of knowing humans kill.

[ileus]

69. Rocks and Spears are dumb...long bow is nice and traditional in a Fred Bear kind of way.

But as for me and my family we'll stick to the inline muzzle loader, 308/270/243/223/7mm-08/300winmag, Compound bow, and last but not least Crossbow.

I'm not concerned about playing fair, I want to get this crap over with and get back to fishing. Hunting season is a freezer filler, fishing is entertainment.

[Eleanors38]

76. Good point. Play fair with a dangerous animal? No-o-o. There is greater "fairness" with

presumably non-threatening animals, but hunting for most (including me) is not Coliseum "sport." It is work, and it is enjoyable.

[jmg257]

71. Long bow could be cool, popular enough - but at that point I'd be choosing a Compound Bow.

Rock and spears, not so much (although spear-fishing is fun - though so is bow fishing).

[Eleanors38]

77. Not slaggng long bows, just one of the instruments thrown back at me by the Manly crowd.

[jmg257]

89. Oh understood! Wrestle a bear bare fisted or be a wuss!

[saidsimplesimon]

78. My regrets for repeating a comment.

The book, “Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Shaping of Postwar Liberalism,” quotes the Washington Herald’s Earl Miller as saying:

When ER became first lady, she refused Secret Service protection, insisting that she be able to travel as freely as possible. The agents complied with her wishes only after they discovered she knew how to shoot, and convincing her to carry a pistol when she drove alone. Intrigued by yet another example of ER’s independence, the press treated ER’s “packing” as front page news—especially after she nonchalantly remarked: “I carry a pistol, and I’m a fairly good shot.”

[Eleanors38]

79. Shhh. Don't tell anyone that!

[MicaelS]

82. You know there is no answer that will

Be satisfactory to the anti-hunting / animal rights tribe. You could kill the animal with you bare hands and teeth, and they would still be criticizing you. Go ahead and fill up your freezer and enjoy that good organic meat.

[Eleanors38]

87. Thanks, I will. So much anger, I think, because we all kill to eat.