Regrets and questions.A young hunter,

**treeman** · 27-07-2020, 10:34

Originally Posted by Dimitri

I think this is an excellent, thought-provoking post.

'Sounds like you have done a great job schooling your son. He understands the difference between killing indiscriminately and killing for a reason. Your reason for killing the monkey was to test the firearm's zero but Cody is quite correct:
1. The farmer did not ask you to shoot monkeys
2. The testing could have been done on a paper target

Give Cody a pat on the back.

************************************************** *
Farmer did ask "please if you can, try make the monkey problem go away", but this was more directed at around the house area. I shot the monkey because I have become callous.

Paper is the only way to test the rifle, I was not testing, I was proving a point.

I have shown Cody your post but not my post.
.......................and thank you.

**DaavG** · 27-07-2020, 10:39

Originally Posted by Dimitri

I think this is an excellent, thought-provoking post.

'Sounds like you have done a great job schooling your son. He understands the difference between killing indiscriminately and killing for a reason. Your reason for killing the monkey was to test the firearm's zero but Cody is quite correct:
1. The farmer did not ask you to shoot monkeys
2. The testing could have been done on a paper target

Give Cody a pat on the back.

This is a key point being that we don't need to kill indiscriminately. Hunting is more than just the kill and that's what I am aiming to instil in my kids as they grow up.

**Meteor** · 27-07-2020, 11:42

I have no place talking in this thread but I would like to add how I would have felt if it was my dad. I would have my feelings and express them too but my dad's response would not be measured on what he says about my thoughts, they remain mine and diluting them would make it harder or easier to figure out but in most cases harder. On this issue I believe it would be harder with input because I would make up my mind myself in due time. All I would remember is how he reacted about me challenging him. To me young men are young men all the same. The ideal outcome to me would be to have a dad that is not fazed by my ideas.

**Againstthegrains** · 27-07-2020, 16:24

Similar thing. My girls are ages 11, 13. They are fine with killing anything we are going to eat, but get angry with me at even the suggestion of taking a life of something we won't eat.... except mosquitoes.

I think part of growing up is establishing your own ethics and moral framework/boundaries with which you want to live with for the rest of your life.

**treeman** · 27-07-2020, 17:53

One of the craziest I have had with Cody, falls right into Messors post earlier. We were driving back from a crow cull and had shot a lot of crows, we had just got into town and into suburb when a car in front of us hit a crow.
You can guess the rest !
We can rescue it, its not a bad crow, it lives in town, you said you enjoy the sound of them at the house, can we / Please.
So the crow was collected and put in out room, fed and nursed. One day the young man decided it was healed and took it outside where it promptly flew off.
I like to think its one of the crows I hear outside.

**Messor** · 27-07-2020, 18:29

Treeman, the fact is you do you and let the child grow up and have his own opinion one day.
I’ve seen the pattern many times before, some people go from a shoot on sight indiscriminate killer to almost a Buddhist at old age. Some older men just give up hunting entirely and start to feed pigeons, which others then have to shoot because they become a problem. Some people are vegans until they get a taste for hunting.

Generally it seems with age comes an appreciation for life as you realize yours are winding down, killing becomes an issue for some. It does not change a single thing though criminals will still come into your home and torture you to death, meaning killing will always be there whether people condone it or not.
I remember walking after my father and picking up the birds as they fell, and damn he never missed, now he is the one feeding birds and I am like “really!”.

My children also bring injured animals along and I just want to wring the necks of whatever they bring.
I tell my daughter really, you want to save this bird but your cat catches 2 a day, it’s like me shooting two intruders but letting the 3^rd one sleep over in the spare bedroom.

That said and done, children lack fully developed brains and they also lack experience, that is why they don’t tell adults what to do. It’s the same reason they don’t create laws, just like the anc they lack the intellect and knowledge to do so. So I did not question my father then and my kids don’t come with this kind of crap to me now. This is africa and our kids are having a picnic now compared to what is coming, they will be living in a nightmare a few years from now, a nightmare only the hard will survive, it’s been cushy and comfy far too long this generation is going to have a rude awakening.

**Brenneke** · 27-07-2020, 21:54

Originally Posted by Messor

This is africa and our kids are having a picnic now compared to what is coming, they will be living in a nightmare a few years from now, a nightmare only the hard will survive, it’s been cushy and comfy far too long this generation is going to have a rude awakening.

This is the guy that was talking about big game bakkie hunters and saving Kudus ....
I need to pen a longer reply
But for now ...
Only the INTELLIGENT will survive ...

**Luker** · 27-07-2020, 22:40

Originally Posted by Brenneke

This is the guy that was talking about big game bakkie hunters and saving Kudus ....
I need to pen a longer reply
But for now ...
Only the INTELLIGENT will survive ...

Wrong:

According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.

Megginson, ‘Lessons from Europe for American Business’, Southwestern Social Science Quarterly (1963) 44(1): 3-13, at p. 4

In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment.

**treeman** · 27-07-2020, 23:46

Originally Posted by Luker

Wrong:

According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.

Megginson, ‘Lessons from Europe for American Business’, Southwestern Social Science Quarterly (1963) 44(1): 3-13, at p. 4

In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment.

**********************************
I hope we will chat again at some fire Luker

**FNBROWNING** · 28-07-2020, 00:00

Our footprint is already heavy. Much like the house cats that take an enormous toll on anything that moves. We have toys to amuse ourselves without causing unnecessary suffering in another. Things that we often reflect on with regret as we get older.