Agreed-Ground shooting-Not my scene
They have never felt the thill of a big horse between your knees over a Big bank with hounds in fiull cry. Almost as good as the first night of a Honey moon.. OLD DOG..
And you, and Feltwad, have not had the thrill of your 1st soft hen call in the dim light of dawn being responded to with thunderous gobbling from still roosted tom turkeys.
Neither of you have experienced working a bird for hours, the excitement building, the bird getting closer,,,, only to mysteriously hang up and not come closer, or worse, disappear. The excitement of a couple of birds so close you don't dare move to get the gun in position because there are too many highly tuned eyes catching anything that twitches.
Once again,,,, because apparently we can't make this clear to you two,,,,, I'll double space it, maybe then each word can sink in,,,,
The thrill and challenge, is not in the shot (though that head shot is not easy often times) it is in what it takes takes to get that shot opportunity.
It is a, "pleasure of process."
The calling and getting, or not getting, a response.
The many other challenges that these birds present in just getting an opportunity to pull the trigger.
I tried to speak slowly....
Often it is the many other things a turkey hunter gets to experience. Coyotes coming to the call and snatching decoys. Other predators responding to the calling. The many other animals seen close up as one sits stone still and as well camouflaged as can be.
Even if you two don't get it...
That's fine. You don't have to.
None of us really care if you two approve of it either.
Just move on and don't comment.
You are correct, I have no experience fox hunting on horseback. No interest.
So,,,,, I don't comment on it or share my thoughts about it.
But seeing as you brought it up here, where you two wish to denigrate something you know nothing about,,,,
Hunting is a blood-sport. Killing of a living thing is involved.
We eat the turkey. Maybe uses other parts for various things. We eat the pheasant, pen raised or not (I have a special loathing for one who wastes game), or the partridge, rabbit, woodcock, or squirrel. And poor and wealthy alike can generally find some way to participate and enjoy the benefits.
Fox hunting is a killing "sport." The fox is not table fare. It could have been killed by other means if we are to say it is being killed because it is a problem to game birds, poultry farming, etc. They are a wonderful challenge much like turkey hunting to call in for a kill.
But you choose to use an "sport" exclusive to the few as your example.
To you our turkey hunting looks like a simple headshot of a bird on the ground.
Your mounted fox hunt looks like a killing game for the over-privileged and elite to me.
This may not be 100% accurate. But neither are your, and especially Feltwad's, disparagments of turkey hunting. I'm sure the riding and such is fun and exciting,
I have not experienced it, therefore I usually don't comment on it.
I purposefully do not open and comment on Feltwad's game/hunting threads. But, apparently we are beneath him in his view to the point he can not extend the same courtesy.
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