Kind of OT- Are you a shooter or a hunter?

[Bluehawk]

Primarily a hunter I love shooting and have shot several forms of competition over the years and do love that but I would trade a week of shooting for one good day woods loafing with a gun in my hand lookng for game.

[Jayhawker]

I'm definitely a shooter at this point, making a point to get out to the range at least once a month. Haven't hunted in over 4 years and no burning desire at this point to go out and change that. I'm just happy shooting my hunting rifles.

[t.r.]

I'm glad big game hunting is just one season out of four. I need to rest up from all the hiking, dragging, and butchering. Typical year, 3-4 mulies, 2 'lopes, and a young elk get transformed into neatly stacked packages of frozen meat. We eat real good all year long.

I enjoy shooting prairie dogs with my friends but that's not hunting.

Trap shooting gets spendy real fast. No more than 3 times per year for me.

We like to shoot as a family. Informal plinking is enjoyed about once a month June -September.

TR

[cecil]

Primarily a shooter, reloader. Speculating about hunting is used for rationalizing more firearms needed/wanted. Usually am deer hunting every year, except back went south this year. One of these years might actually have enougfh points for a bear license.

Never been bear hunting, but got the 307, 444 and 45-70 plus loads to (:>).

[mikld]

Any hunting for me will require a several hour drive with much pre-planning and probably only happen once or twice a year. I can't wake up some morning and decide to go hunting, tommorrow or next week. So, I get my fun just reloading and shooting.

[Jarhead]

Both...I'm an avid Big Game Hunter, but love to reload and shoot as well.

[AJMD429]

Shooter only. I would love to learn how to hunt, but don't have a clue how/where to begin. I compete in 5 different silhouette disciplines. I'm one of those "shooters of collectible firearms".

I was only a 'shooter' other than assigned since age 6 to dispatch any feral dogs in our livestock after my dad died. I enjoyed the mechanics, aesthetics, and accuracy of firearms, as well as the political/freedom/independence mindset they fostered.

Around age 40 I began to hunt deer for the first time. It isn't hard. You just get an appropriate gun you're used to, practice, and plan where you'll hunt. If you can get access to a private-enough place you can actually practice in a deerstand during the spring by shooting 2-liter bottles you set on the deer trails approaching the stand you will have an advantage. I don't find you have to be as sneaky and scent free as some hunters say, but I hunt in populated agricultural areas where the deer are used to people and often come out of the woods a couple minutes after you walk by. (Hint - get a couple family members to walk to the stand and loiter while you get situated, then noisily walk away, leaving you there - deer can't count and won't realize you're there.)

If possible help someone field dress a deer (or even a squirrel - the principles are all the same) first, or at least get some video/DVD to watch on the topic. It is rather easy once you've done one.

Most places, you'll find hunters willing to help you out; ask around at gun shops or deer checking stations, sherrif departments, etc.

[Rexster]

In enjoy being outdoors, the more rural/wild the better, but don't consider it necessary to shoot the animals found there. I usually just have handguns with me because I wear a badge. Seeing the animals, big or small, terrestrial or aquatic, is the objective. The act of shooting is independent of setting. This does not mean I am against hunting game animals, and in fact something inside me is really interested in buffalo hunting, someday, when I get the time to develop the skills; I am really not an accomplished rifleman at this point in time. I will probably want to shoot a few deer or exotics first, on the road to that buffalo.

[Andrew]

I am a social hunter. I only go out with my buddies to chase squill and other assorted woodland creatures; almost never on my own.

OTOH, the range I use is almost always empty and I tend to spend a few hours there shooting all alone.

Yep, I am a shooter. I didn't know I was in the minority though(more hunters have posted) .

[Bigahh]

I love both equally as much. I am not a shooter during hunting season though, just a hunter looking for that 1 shot. If hunting season were year round I wouldn't be much of a shooter I guess. Thats probably why theres an off season.

[GANJIRO]

I'm not sure. I know I definitely was a hunter as I not only rifle hunted but also bow, and muzzle-loader hunted anything to keep me in the field stalking my prey, but now I'm strictly a rifle man. I have gone "hunting" dozens of time and had the opportunity to shoot at game almost as many times but decided not to take the shot. Of course here there are no closed seasons and I was hunting almost every week and sometimes several times a week so no pressure to put meat in the freezer. My most memorable hunt no one in the party fired a shot the whole trip. I do love guns tinkering with them and reloading for them. I don't really enjoy shooting at the range preferring my boondocks range on Maui and the freedom that entailed. I don't NEED to kill anything to enjoy my guns so I guess I'm a shooter just like my Dad, a gun and shooting enthusiast like no other but never hunted in his life.

Fishing, that's a totally different subject, I'm a fishing NUT!

[WyrTwister]

I'm curious as to how many people like just shooting over hunting, or vice-versa. Given the choice, would you rather spend the day hunting or at the range?

Personally I like them both about equal. Given the choice, though, I'd probably rather spend the day hunting. Maybe it's because I don't get to hunt as much as I get to shoot. If I could hunt as much as I could shoot, then the choice might be different. Just curious as to what y'all's take is.

Shooter .

Wyr
God bless

[BigSky56]

Dont have time for shooting so it must be Hunting, ahorseback. danny

[oldmax]

I think I am both a shooter and a hunter, But my bud's think otherwise

[Billy Boy]

I hunt with all my shotguns primarily for waterfowl. I have two leverguns that I only use at the range. If I DO ever decide to deer hunt; I'd he hard-pressed to decide between the bow(which I can hunt as a resident in NJ-which only allows bow OR slug-which I would NEVER use to hunt with!) or my Marlins in most nearby counties in NYS with.
With my shotguns, I'd prefer to be hunting. Seeing as how short the seasons are especially!
BB

[LeverBob]

Hunter mainly...even though I am an owner of my own range. Mustang Range near Silver Springs Nev. 22 acres back in the hills east of Hwy. 95. Also the areas hunters have a "public' range we go to in the Flowery Range 10 minutes east of my place. I am very fortunate to be out here in Nevada as we can hunt anything legal in both places. Have called 'yotes in both places. We set up our own moveable skeet and trap fields...around the clock only, if'n y'all know what I mean.

I'll take any chance to be out in the mountains hunting something, anytime, over going to a range...even my own!

I wish some of y'all could move out by me, this is a fine place to live & be a woodsman. I think y'all would like it. We need you to counter the kalifornia dummies moving into Clark & Douglas counties. Most of em' are stinking up the place..some are aok!

LeverBob

[Bramble]

I'm a hunter in that I love to hunt big game. Still find it a challange and a thrill.

However I decided this year that I no longer wish to "hunt", shoot reared game birds. I am quite happy to still shotgun vermin birds but I have shot enough reared birds for a lifetime.

I never could have imagined this just a few years ago, strange how we change with age.

Regards

[new pig hunter]

Definitely a target shooter .... I'd call myself a "hunter" but my actual experience in the field shows me to be more of an "armed camper" ... and if I could find them to ask them, the wild pigs would certainly agree with that.

Cheers,

Carl

[Jaguarundi]

I'll take a day hunting over shooting. That's likely 'cause the days spent hunting are fewer and farther between than days shooting.

+1 agreement !

[rangerider7]

I enjoy hunting with an old or vintage gun. It doesn't matter so much as to whether I kill something or not. It is the experience that counts. The only exception is coyote hunting. That has a purpose for me so I take the gun that will do the job best. Target shooting does not hold that much interest for me, it just a means to an end, but anything outdoors with a good gun is at the top of my list.

[Montanan]

Have to agree here:

+1

I'll take hunting over shooting, but shooting is still high on my list of fun things to do.

Would rather be hunting deer, elk and bear and moose should I draw a tag for it.