BMreformed wrote:Why on earth would you want to go on a deer hunt FF? Deer are beautiful animals
Absolutely agree with you.
As I said, I stopped shedding any innocent animal blood a long time back. The part of the world where I live now is famous for hunting and fishing. But people here are also very caring about the environment. Its sparsely populated, and one of the past times is hunting. Not indiscriminately, but in moderation. We have elk, and moose here, and a particular type of deer called the Mule and I think the white tail deer. These are bigger than the ones you see in your part of the world. And very wild.
I used to like seeing the effect a bullet has on a big animal. I have used telescopes, and felt the thrill of a direct hit! But then I also had the opportunity to study something called ballistics as part of my studies. Whereas in the early days, say during WW1, it was thought that the size of a bullet is what mattered, the pendulum has gradually swung the other way. It is now known that its the velocity and speed of the bullet is what counts. A modern assault rifle like the M16, or AK47 has a very small sized bullet (.22) but very high velocity. This imparts a tremendous kinetic energy as it hits human/animal tissues, and produces a gaping wound, and a shock wave that travels with it through the tissues. It just has to pass within a few inches of say bone to shatter it completely. The shock wave pulsates as it travels through the tissues, and sucks in debris from outside like clothes, shrapnel, pieces of uniform etc. This is meant to knock a combatant out of a war for good at minimum cost! All in all, a very unpleasant state of affairs. I have never wanted to subject any living being to it, in fact quite the opposite.
A bow and arrow is very very low velocity, and perhaps the most humane way to kill an animal.
Moreover, you have to get quite close to the animal in order to bag anything, or you come away with nothing