Off Limit Game

I will only shoot it if I want to eat it.
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Same here (with the exception of vermin/pests), but in my case that means critters bobcat, cougar, bear, snapping turtles & raccoon are fair game. Hell, if the missus wouldn't freak out, I'd bag the groundhogs at the end of the road & cook 'em up.

I don't hunt birds or waterfowl, 'cos I'm a horrible wing-shooter (extremely cross-dominant) & don't like duck/goose. Doubt I'd shoot a fox, 'cos I can't think of a single good reason to, though coyotes are "shoot on sight" in my book, as are feral dogs & cats.
 
For the longest of times, I would not hunt dove. Symbol of:) peace, love, and all that jazz. Just didn't sound macho enough for my narrow-minded mindset. Besides, people who don't hunt anything else (at least in Arizona) will try their hand at dove......usually with a shot of tequila....with the attendant fratricide results.

Then I tried it. Some of the greatest, exciting, fast-moving, hard-hitting, challenging, just plain fun-loving bona-fide hunting experience anyone can have.

Oh....and they are kinda tasty, too.
 
I guess it's my own silly reasoning, but I wont normally hunt cottontails. There's not a lot of sport to it. I don't have a garden for them to goober up. And my biggest reason is if everything comes unhinged, I'd like to think I'd do my best to make table fare with rabbit before I would dishonor myself with (the theft of) shooting someone's cow or goat. May be false reasoning, but if I don't shoot them now- maybe more will be around if needed.

Mastodons. I can only think of two reasons not to shoot those. 1. I have no idea where to aim for best shot placement. 2. If I did manage to bring one down- nobody would believe me.
 
shoot on sight?

Interesting that some of us would shoot a coyote on sight, while others of us need a compelling reason before shooting the same animal, because we have seen that they were actually beneficial in our previous circumstances. I'm sure that too many coyotes would be a bad thing and I could shoot them. Now imagine a world without any coyotes. I think it's good to have some. So I won't shoot coyotes. Besides, when I camp out in wild places on a star and moon-lit night and hear their wild song, it makes me feel a certain way that the civilized world can't.
 
since the thread is game animals, & I don't consider feral cats as game animals...


for me it's doves... at least in my area there isn't enough ( they don't migrate here ) don't have much meat on them anyway
 
I can imagine (And remember) a world without coyotes. There were none in this area when I was growing up. I would not miss them if they were gone again.
 
I wouldn't shoot any canine, feline, or member of the weasel family without a compelling reason. I did hunt (unsuccessfully) one particular fox that kept eating my ducks for a couple winters, but I got sick of keeping ducks before I caught him. Honestly, I think it would have been a little anticlimactic and sad if I'd ever won our little battle of wits.

I enjoy hearing the coyotes at night, and will neither hunt them, nor allow any one else to hunt/trap them on my land.
We're overrun with turkeys in these parts, so anything that can kill more that 2 of them a year without breaking any laws is welcome company.

I'm in basically the same boat as many of the other posters. I really only kill things I intend to eat, or animals that are causing me undue harm. If I can build a better fence I generally try that first.

Nothing irritates me more than "hunters" who wander about killing whatever little critters they can see.

For myself, I enjoy sneaking about the woods in the off season and just watching the local fauna almost as much as hunting.
 
I'll also drone in with the "not unless I'm going to eat it" deal.

With a couple of exceptions.

(1) Something (anything) causing immediate threat/danger to a human or one of my dogs.

(2) A persistent pest that is being a pest where it shouldn't ( a spider, mouse, raccoon coyote ect..... out in the woods / it's own element, is not a pest to me. That's where they belong. In my house/garage, horse barn or pastures.....they gone ;)

Example:
Got out in the woods for the first time this year for archery deer season, this past Saturday. On the hike into my stand, I came upon an older (but very healthy looking) and overly friendly opossum. He got WELL withing booting distance, heck for a second I though he was going to climb up my leg and nest in the pocket of my sweatshirt.

I was carrying a crossbow. I know several people who would of shot the critter for no more reason than it being there, and then laugh about it. For myself, we exchanged a puzzled head tilt and both went on our way, me chuckling a little. there would of been absolutely no reason to kill it, other than someone just being a complete A hole. He was where he belonged, miles from houses in the middle of the woods.

My Dad and Grandpa taught me young that you don't kill or harm anything for the heck of it. If your not going to eat/use it, it's not gnawing your leg off and it's not killing your dog/neighbors kid/ or livestock....LEAVE IT BE.

As for game....no. If I will eat it, I'll hunt it.
 
I don't hunt anything I don't eat. I will however, help a friend with a pest problem. Hogs, Yotes, whatever. To me, that's different. I have a hard time with feral cats. I know the harm they cause, I just can't do it. I have no problem with others doing it. I just can't pull the trigger. That's my limit.
 
Armadillo. My son is highly allergic to yellow jackets and the armadillos keep most of the yellow jacket nests dug up and killed.
 
The only things off limits are:

1. Things which are endangered species by law, and
2. Things which I won't eat, or at least be able to give away to a friend, so that they'll get eaten.
 
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