My First Hunt

Valmont

Hi guys,

I've been reading this forum for a good while and have looking forward to getting into hunting. I couldn't get my head around getting a gun in Ireland but now that I'm living in Alaska I decided to take advantage of the lax gun/hunting regulations so I bought a small game hunting license and a Savage arms Mark II .22LR.

I've been doing a bit of practice shooting targets with my .22LR, some assault rifles and pistols to improve my aim and it's ok for a novice I think.

Anyway I went hunting for snowshoe hare today and I flushed one out of the tree line (accidentally, didn't know he was there) and believe it or not I bottled it and hesitated for about 10 seconds so it ran away. The whole "I don't want to kill a little bunny(well he was pretty huge)" thought popped into my head stupidly enough:pac::o

Anyone else ever had this hesitation or am I just not cut out to hunt? I still enjoyed the few hours I was out with the gun and felt really excited at the thought of having some of my own hare stew and I'm a competent enough outdoorsman but I bottled it!

Hopefully tomorrow I can pull it off.

Valmont.

ps. no pictures yet but I will post some in the next few weeks when my camera is fixed.

homerhop

Often, I think everyone who has ever took hunting has done this. There are days that I took out the gun and just went for the walk more so than for the hunt. Wouldnt worry about it at all.

Trojan911

Valmont wrote: »

Anyway I went hunting for snowshoe hare today and I flushed one out of the tree line (accidentally, didn't know he was there) and believe it or not I bottled it and hesitated for about 10 seconds so it ran away. The whole "I don't want to kill a little bunny(well he was pretty huge)" thought popped into my head stupidly enough:pac::o

Anyone else ever had this hesitation or am I just not cut out to hunt? I still enjoyed the few hours I was out with the gun and felt really excited at the thought of having some of my own hare stew and I'm a competent enough outdoorsman but I bottled it!

Hopefully tomorrow I can pull it off.

Valmont.

ps. no pictures yet but I will post some in the next few weeks when my camera is fixed.

No, you are not alone there. I hesitated on my first rabbit some moons ago. When I did shoot my first one there was a mixture of guilt and acheivement. But when I put him up on the plate after, the guilt went. I shoot deer now during the prescribed season & the only thing I make sure of is, it is a good deer before I shoot it, as the meat is fab....

The more you shoot, the easier it gets. So don't feel embarrassed about "bottling it".

It's a natural reaction (to most of us anyway).

Jonty

Valmont wrote: »

Hi guys,

I've been reading this forum for a good while and have looking forward to getting into hunting. I couldn't get my head around getting a gun in Ireland but now that I'm living in Alaska I decided to take advantage of the lax gun/hunting regulations so I bought a small game hunting license and a Savage arms Mark II .22LR.

I've been doing a bit of practice shooting targets with my .22LR, some assault rifles and pistols to improve my aim and it's ok for a novice I think.

Anyway I went hunting for snowshoe hare today and I flushed one out of the tree line (accidentally, didn't know he was there) and believe it or not I bottled it and hesitated for about 10 seconds so it ran away. The whole "I don't want to kill a little bunny(well he was pretty huge)" thought popped into my head stupidly enough:pac::o

Anyone else ever had this hesitation or am I just not cut out to hunt? I still enjoyed the few hours I was out with the gun and felt really excited at the thought of having some of my own hare stew and I'm a competent enough outdoorsman but I bottled it!

Hopefully tomorrow I can pull it off.

Valmont.

ps. no pictures yet but I will post some in the next few weeks when my camera is fixed.

I'm sure in the States they hate that description of semi auto centrefire rifles as much as we do here. We have the same problem in Ireland - every pistol is a dreaded glock, and when the public find out about long range target shooting, we'll all have sniper rifles.


You've just got the jitters man. Relax.

pullandbang

Yep, sounds familiar. Guilt over the first pigeon I shot but that didn't last too long. Mind you, sometimes I still get a pang when I shoot a beautiful cock pheasant.....but I think it's just a hunger pang!:)

Cass

Everyone hesitates at first, God knows i did. What was worse was a few years back i arrived home after a days shooting. My little girl saw the fox and rabbit in the back of the jeep and started stroking it and thanking me for getting her two new pets. When i explained they were dead i got called a murderer. Talk about "out of the mouth of babes". Didn't think it affected me until the next week when i went out and hesitated on the first rabbit i saw, all i could see was a four year old with big blue eyes with that disappointed look in her face.

Didn't last long and normal serviced resumed shortly there after. Anyway don't let it get to you Valmont, enjoy the stalk and when the time is right you'll pull the trigger.

Happy hunting.

pancuronium

happens us all i remember it well................. my first day out shot a pheasent couldn't believe i done it felt guilt for about a week after it lol wouldn't worry about it though!! best of luck next time!

westwicklow

Ah come on.... will you cop yourself on and don't be getting all soft!

Get back in the saddle straight away....

Hunt and shoot to kill!!

Valmont

Thanks for the replies. Good to see I'm not the only one with a bit of hesitation, I'll be going out most evenings up here as the sun doesn't set so hopefully it won't be too long before I spot another one. Problem is, the hares are perfectly camouflaged at this time of year so it can be hard spotting them.

Jonty, every single local up here I know has an assault rifle of some description and that is exactly what they call it, an assault rifle. I'm pretty sure Alaska is a bizarre microcosm when it comes to attitudes to guns.

ghostmantra

my first kill was a song bird when i was about 11 it was with a slingshot it still haunts me abit.........a lot of water under the bridge, and alot of rabbits happy hunting.:D
sorry should have said never thought would of hit let alone killed it ....

Dusty87

Try to remember if they got the chance they wouldn hesitate to shoot you! I wouldn worry about it, best of luck with it.

Jonty

Valmont wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Good to see I'm not the only one with a bit of hesitation, I'll be going out most evenings up here as the sun doesn't set so hopefully it won't be too long before I spot another one. Problem is, the hares are perfectly camouflaged at this time of year so it can be hard spotting them.

Jonty, every single local up here I know has an assault rifle of some description and that is exactly what they call it, an assault rifle. I'm pretty sure Alaska is a bizarre microcosm when it comes to attitudes to guns.

Assault rifles are fully auto though? I heard they were pretty hard to come by in the States. I just read about the "assault rifle" definition on www.thehighroad.org.

Here in Ireland, the vast majority of the public know very little about guns and laws are being changed regards ownership laws at the moment, so the mention of assault rifles makes people think of bad things. The press has a great way of twisting things in this country too.

Best of luck!!

syklops

Jonty wrote: »

Assault rifles are fully auto though? I heard they were pretty hard to come by in the States. I just read about the "assault rifle" definition on www.thehighroad.org.

Here in Ireland, the vast majority of the public know very little about guns and laws are being changed regards ownership laws at the moment, so the mention of assault rifles makes people think of bad things. The press has a great way of twisting things in this country too.

Best of luck!!

Assault rifles, such as AK47, Steyr AUG,, Heckler and Koch MP5, and SA-80, all have selector switches on them so they can fire auto-matic, or semi-automatic.

Other assault weaponry such as a Belt-fed Machine Gun, can only fire on automatic.

OP, I would be more worried if you shot your first animal and didnt feel anything.

Trojan911

Jonty wrote: »

Here in Ireland, the vast majority of the public know very little about guns and laws are being changed regards ownership laws at the moment, so the mention of assault rifles makes people think of bad things. The press has a great way of twisting things in this country too.

OP, the vast majority of this country is a joke also with the mentality of a simpleton, you are better off where you are in Alaska. I'd be back out of here tomorrow if I could.

Have you taken the shot yet?

yank_in_eire

Valmont wrote: »

Hi guys,

I've been reading this forum for a good while and have looking forward to getting into hunting. I couldn't get my head around getting a gun in Ireland but now that I'm living in Alaska I decided to take advantage of the lax gun/hunting regulations

I would prefer to hear those regs called "less restrictive". Lax implies that they are made up on the spot and serve no real purpose, when in fact those regs are reviewed yearly and backed by data provided by the thousands of hunters that visit AK every year.

Either way, I'm insanely jealous of the opportunites on your doorstep now - take advantage!!

peterdavmahoney

well done

yank_in_eire

Trojan911 wrote: »

OP, the vast majority of this country is a joke also with the mentality of a simpleton, you are better off where you are in Alaska. I'd be back out of here tomorrow if I could.

And the place would probably be better off without you.
Don't get me wrong, I'll be the first to moan about the extremely restrictive firearms licensing requirements and the hoops youhave to jump through to hunt in Ireland, but to tar the whole country with that brush is bang out of order.

like to hunt

hi. what else can u shoot up there.
is it hard to get permits for hunting in alaska or can u just go out and hunt.

i was thinking of a trip to alaska or canada next year.

Trojan911

yank_in_eire wrote: »

And the place would probably be better off without you.
Don't get me wrong, I'll be the first to moan about the extremely restrictive firearms licensing requirements and the hoops youhave to jump through to hunt in Ireland, but to tar the whole country with that brush is bang out of order.

You've missed my point completely & clearly misread my post.... Try again.

yank_in_eire

Trojan911 wrote: »

You've missed my point completely & clearly misread my post.... Try again.

Never mind......sheesh!:rolleyes:

Valmont

I've been out almost every day and I finally got one today. It's in the oven right now with some spuds and vegetables etc. The shooting part was the easiest part for sure.

I felt a bit bad because it was heavily pregnant but there is a hare problem here at the moment as they are on a 3 year population high and are destroying the willow trees so ah well.

The whole thing was pretty intense I must admit! Thanks for the words of support boardsies.

homerhop

one down and loads more to go

J.R.

Valmont wrote: »

I've been out almost every day and I finally got one today. It's in the oven right now with some spuds and vegetables etc. The shooting part was the easiest part for sure.

I felt a bit bad because it was heavily pregnant but there is a hare problem here at the moment as they are on a 3 year population high and are destroying the willow trees so ah well.

The whole thing was pretty intense I must admit! Thanks for the words of support boardsies.

Was it a hare you shot?...........are you allowed shoot hares in Alaska during the breeeding season?

EastTyrone

J.R. wrote: »

Was it a hare you shot?...........are you allowed shoot hares in Alaska during the breeeding season?

he says theres a hare problem, therefore they are pests there so maybe yes?

Trojan911

Valmont wrote: »

The whole thing was pretty intense I must admit! Thanks for the words of support boardsies.

Well done, it gets easier from now on....

Valmont

J.R. wrote: »

Was it a hare you shot?...........are you allowed shoot hares in Alaska during the breeeding season?

They have 4 to 8 litters a year. I'm in game management unit 20 where they are destroying acres of willow so there is currently no closed season for them.