Kill the rodent ?

[Fourtyfive]

Ok , I remember when killing things was cool ; now I wonder. Is it my age , or my brain ? When I was 16 and driving , if a squirll crossed the road it was fair game , I would even drive at it and hope I could hear it hit the tires ; now I steer the other way. My dad took me hunting for years , he is now 85 and the last thing he said about duck hunting was take me and I will call them, I don't care about killing. He was the best caller I have ever heard , and I have been to the national championships in Arkansas. Anyways , what is the deal, have I lost the desire to kill unless being fired upon , because I ain't lost that , or have I learned the life long lesson of don't kill ?

[Oh Shoot]

Aiming at them with a car at any age seems fairly twisted to moi.

Never understood folks who like to run over turtles and stuff. Hell, I never even did it to snakes if I could help it.

Hope you didn't put gasoline on dogs' azzholes and stuff like that growing up; I've seen some pretty cruel crap like that when I was a kid.

- OS

Edited May 27, 2011 by OhShoot

[Fourtyfive]

No , where did you come up with that sick idea ?

[Oh Shoot]

No , where did you come up with that sick idea ?

Dunno, just taking one cruelty toward an extended one by free association. Didn't really mean to accuse you of it or anything.

- OS

[Fourtyfive]

No problem , just reaching out.

[Oh Shoot]

No problem , just reaching out.

No worries.

Back on topic, I haven't killed anything since I was about 25. Just never liked it that much growing up, though I killed a pile of tree rats, rabbits, doves, quail (yeah, there used to be lots of quail), etc. Toward the end, watched some friends' farm they had bought for about 6 months, lived off the land much as I could; there was a couple three acres of feed corn previous owners had left in there. Ate a ton of rabbits and doves and squirrels that winter; ate my first whistle pigs that year, too. Couple of crows, soft shelled and snapping turtles out of a lake on the property, don't remember what all.

Anyway, after that, since I just never really got off on killing critters ('cept fish), and didn't need to for subsistence, I just never killed any more, even though I lived in the boonies for a good number of years after that where there was plenty to kill.

Understand though, I don't have one thing against lawful hunting though, just not for me. Hence why I'm not much of a contributor to this particular forum.

But I've been a dang prodigious fish harvester lifelong, fresh and saltwater -- always have been more of a table fisherman than trophy -- hoping to get back into fishing mode ere long after about a ten year hiatus.

- OS

Edited May 27, 2011 by OhShoot

[Jonnin]

I dont care what you kill so long as you eat it, wear it, or can honestly say it was a threat to you. Anything else, I have a problem with.

[Guest brandon_pitt]

Not a fan of killing anything non nuisance. Ill swerve to miss it, however snakes are my nuisance and I enjoy killing them.

[Il Duce]

killing snakes unless an you are about to be attacked is stupid. They keep the rodent population in check.

[peejman]

I dont care what you kill so long as you eat it, wear it, or can honestly say it was a threat to you. Anything else, I have a problem with.

Well said.

[DaveS]

I dont care what you kill so long as you eat it, wear it, or can honestly say it was a threat to you. Anything else, I have a problem with.

I live by this rule!

[memphismason]

killing snakes unless an you are about to be attacked is stupid. They keep the rodent population in check.

Not to mention against the law in Tennessee.

[DaveS]

A lot of people don't realize that killing snakes is illegal. I don't understand why, if a person is so scared of snakes....why walk to the otherside of a gravel road to kill it? Stay on YOUR OWN side of the road and let it be!

[bajabuc]

My landlord in Wyoming said "David, I have a prairie dog problem..you're welcome." Hunting P-pups with a flintlock is kinda grusome but at the time it was fun. You shoot. and there's a red mist where there was a dog and all the rest are back in the holes...By the time it's powder, patch, ball and prime they're back up. P-dogs are very dangerous to cattle and horses and they carry some wicked diseases...and they taste awful. When my son got his 10-22 the landlord bought him a brick of 22's a week.

Then Hunting season came around and I got three whitetail, two muledeer, an elk and duck license The whitetail was one buck and two does. Muley was either sex. Elk was either. I hunt with a .50 flinter only. Flintlock gives the animal a real chance. More chance than a compound bow.

We ate every thing...all indian style butchered...I used obsidian knives I knapped, no cutting across bones. The hides were braintanned and I made shirts, clouts and leggins, and dresses with that. I even went to the hide buyer and bought from him to get enough hides. My nextdoor neighbor butchered a steer every fall and I helped for the hide and one backstrap and the tendons.

We had a lot of deer killing by the state. Whitetail deer climb up on the haystack and pee on it...the cattle won't eat the hay like that so the state had "hunters" who shot the deer and hauled them in for the prison and the state hospitals and the orphans. The Californicators moving into the neighborhood objected to the state paying for it so my landlord and his kids killed the deer and dumped them in a gulch.

The californians down stream objected so he used up all the water in the creek for irrigating. The courtcase cost the californian complainers literally millions ( the state had to defend the historic right of first use law) and a lot of them moved. Oh...one of the things the cali people objected to was his drilling for oil...they hated that.

Edited May 27, 2011 by bajabuc

[bajabuc]

Duck hunting...now that's another story all together. You take a big piece of black visqueen and spread it on the ice in the crick behind the house. Then you cover the edges with snow. From the air it looks like icefree water. The ducks see it and circle down to land on the water...but it's not water...it's slippery and they go head over heels tumbling. A few break their necks and that's the ones we ate. I hate pellets in the teeth.

[Guest GunTroll]

Killing prairie dogs is the best. Ranchers loved them to be killed.

When looking into the scope at one they look sort of cute. A few onces applied to the trigger and I start thinking about taking this things life and what has it done to me. It has pups perhaps. It's sinless in this world. A few more onces. I hope I'm not doing wrong. last once of trigger weight. SPLAT! And then begins the blood lust. I only ever thought about those things for the first victim. The rest were for my pure enjoyment. Killing several hundred a day was considered a mediocre day.

Other than that killing isn't the greatest part of hunting/shooting for me. Its being away from my norm.

[Oh Shoot]

......and they taste awful. ...

Seems they'd be similar to rabbit, squirrel, whistle pig, whatever...

I see some eat them, here's a page of recipes:

18 Delicious Rodents - How to Cook Rodents - Rodents as a Food Source ~ Now That's Nifty

- OS

[DaveS]

Do I see another "flinter" on here? Holy crap....I thought I was the only "rocklock" shooter here! Never hunted prarie rats before, but tree rats is fun wit de flint gun!

[KahrMan]

I love killing animals. With that said, I only kill what my family and I am going to use. I have never understood the joy in killing only for the sake of killing. Everybody has their own set of morals. For me, I will not kill an animal unless it means me harm or I am going to eat it.

[DaveS]

I feel the same. I can't kill just for the sake of killing. Something of the animal HAS to be used. Meat, pelt whatever. Those that "kill for the lust", or the "sake of killing" has never been invited to or has been barred from my 180 acre primo hunting spot. I can't see it myslef!

[DaveS]

It's been many years since I heard the term "whistle pig". I remember my grandfather telling me, that back during the depression, "we used to hunt whislting pigs to eat and make shoes from their hide".

[Guest GunTroll]

I see some of you Ole' timers have never been to the killing fields, IE prairie dog town, to experience the lust yourself. Best shooting/marksmanship around (Note I didn't say hunting). Once you here the fwhoop, you will darn near burn out a barrel or drain your wallet on ammo before the sun goes down. Not to mention that keeping the numbers of all species is very important since our numbers are in crouching into their habitat and visa versa (think coyote). Black birds are about useless and they have a season here in TN.

But I still don't buy into "if its brown its down". I'm selective in my blood lusting .

[Guest Gopher6]

I never cared that much for hunting, not enough shooting to suit me. I did enjoy shooting prairie dogs, as Guntroll says, best unknown distance marksmanship traing most of us will ever get. Unfortionately, careless shooters have caused alot of ranchers to call the local BLM agent and they come out an poison them.

[Oh Shoot]

... Black birds are about useless and they have a season here in TN. ...

Starling, not blackbird.

Year round on starlings, actually; no limit.

- OS

[Guest GunTroll]

Thank you for the correction. Not sure how I have gone through life messing that one up time after time, actually.