Fledermaus - I try my best but am not a right wing militant veggie - I went veggie as I didnt like meat and then continued from there.

re the calcium etc. . . when I was pregnant the drs tried to force me onto iron tabs asuming I was anaemic as I was veggie- I refused until my bloods proved it- they never did~ !

I have read this thread with interest and whilst I don't get hunting at all like a few on here, I have no problems with people hunting for food (like others feel its better than factory farming). If animals need to be culled, not sure what I think, but I cannot get why you would want a caribou on your wall! They are in decline, are kind of struggling and I have no idea why killing one would be an achievement to boast about!

Gryph

I was never anaemic either, everything was fine until I got old, and then the calcium became a problem, so watch out for that please!

I understand what you mean about not liking meat, the texture used to do it for me. I still won't eat seafood, clams, mussels etc. that just grosses me out!

I'm not sure about the interior decor aspect of this either. Eeek

MMC can you explain when you can and can't take the head or antlers as a trophy? I was at someone's house for dinner, a moose he had shot, and when we asked where the antlers were he said that you aren't allowed to keep them?? Is is that you pay more to be able to keep a trophy? What about the bear/beaver/fox furs? What happens then?? Any ideas?

My issue is with the hunter coming up with hundreds of reasons why its everything but the kill that they do it for, when if that was true there are many better ways of achieving that aim

The reality is they are lying to themselves and others about their primitive blood lust

I think they all do know why they do it, just that they don’t like the reality of it being bandied around as it makes them appear to be a little lower on the social evolutionary scale to their counterparts

Mike, you're missing one fundamental point to reinforce the social-bonding aspect of hunting. If it were all about the kill, then a day's hunting that didn't result in a kill would be a failure, and cause for disappointment. How is it, then, that a group of buddies can go out into the boondocks on a hunting expedition and have a great time despite never getting a whiff of their prey?

A good day's hunting is absolutely not all about the kill. Sure, there is some primaeval instinct to do with provision of food which you are obviously sophisticated enough to have suppressed in yourself, but - as has been discussed endlessly here - the provision of food is not the primary purpose of a hunt in Western civilisations. Supermarkets can fulfil that need much more simply.

I disagree I believe that the social bonding aspect of hunting is more about likeminded individuals being together

The key bond being the desire for a kill, the fact that a day can go past without meeting the desire in no way break the group bond because it likely they be able to meet that requirement next time

A day’s hunting may not be all about the kill, but being a hunter is about the Kill

An analogy
I sometimes go paragliding and the day is blown out, but I often have a good time talking with colleagues about other more successful days or social things the day isn’t disappointing because it’s expected that some days just won’t work out…. But my primary reason is the flying otherwise I just wouldn’t be there

That I don't know????

When you see antlers displayed they are either as a result of collecting sheds in late winter or because the cost of mounting a head is more so they don't.

I know basically anything that is in our house if you kill it you keep it, it is up to you whether or not you get it mounted.

Most people who shoot a bear will get it full body mounted or make it into a rug (this can cost thousands and takes around 2 years to get done).

You can have the furs made into whatever you want - completely down to personal choice, or full or partial body mounted.

Hang on though am at work at the mo will just go talk to some of the guys out back to see what the issue is with the horns, antlers of the moose

Hey Fled just checked and the general concensus is that the guy is pulling your leg.

There are no stipulations as to not keeping the horns, you wouldn't shoot a trophy bull moose and mount it without its rack! So if there are no signs of antlers at all its probably a female, if there are little stubs then its just a baby not something that should have been shot.

On that note it may well have been the first moose he shot with a bow or something - so could well be a cow and therefore as his first would be something he would want to keep as a trophy!

He's been hunting all his life, so not the first he had killed. The family have a barn set up where they skin and butcher the animals they have killed. I doubt that he was pulling our legs either. All I could think of was that you may have to pay more to keep a trophy and as they hunt for food then they hadn't paid that money. This was in Northern Ontario, maybe different regs?

Can I just say that some hunts last for a good 10 days, so if you are out after something particularly hard to get, then there is every likelihood you will come back with nothing.

A very good friend of mine shot nothing last year but had an awesome time with the guys even so.

By all means

Your comment in no way surprises me, the harder it is to achieve your goal the less likely you will be disappointed with failure..
None of these thoughts conflicts with my rational, people hunt because they enjoy killing
The fact they feel better when doing this in a group environment is easy to understand
The fact that they can get more pleasure from going for the more complex and difficult animals and that here is pleasure in the process and build up isn’t a surprise, but in the end the process is completed with a kill, it could have been a photograph, but it isn’t, the desired end result is a dead animal

No when you apply for a tag (so when you hear a hunter say they have been been drawn for a bull moose) you get A tage for what you applied and paid for.

The tag is attached to the animal when you have shot it and its yours to do whatever you want with, be it eating or mounting.

Avoids the temptation to lower the tone

this is not Wales