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I have compassion and respect for any animal I kill, but I do not feel remorse or regret for killing them. If I did, I wouldnt hunt. I love watching, hunting and interacting with deer, but I dont feel the least bit bad killing them. Now I do feel bad if I wound a deer, and it doesnt die quickly, but that feeling goes away as soon as I finish it off. Once the deer is down, I dont pray to or for it or tell it im sorry, I get the animal dressed out and begin getting the work done that comes with taking an animal. Im a big softy when it comes to alot of things, but hunting is not one of them.

Im glad to see this young 9 point made it through the season. He will be a really nice buck next year!

Lol ...... Apparently some are interpreting some of these reactions as being a hunter throwing himself across the body of the animal, sobbing and looking to the heavens and asking forgiveness for the evil deed we just have done. Yeah, I guess if I had that reaction, my hunting days would end right there...... . But I kind of doubt that that is anywhere near the emotional reaction that anybody has described in this thread. I like others here have periodically felt that little twinge of compassion or sympathy or whatever you want to call it. It really was not a traumatic, depressing, feeling, but rather just a passing, momentary recognition that I had just ended a life of an animal that I have quite a bit of respect for. It's no biggie, and hardly threatens my future of hunting.

Yeah Doe..Poor Oprah is in trouble...Drug charges... She went through airport security and they lifted her dress and found 75 pounds of crack.

Its too bad Oprah is off the air, you guys would make a great one hour special.

The silence that falls over the woods after a kill can be deafening sometimes if we don't fill it with a replacement. I'm not one to hoot and hollar out loud, although I always celebrate in my mind. Most times any more my post kill ritual is a silent celebration and a time of reflecting on the life I've taken giving thanks to the critter and his creator for putting us all in the same place. Guess I gotta admit, although I'm happy on the outside, I'm saddened on the inside. Truth is, the woods and wildlife in it have saved my own life personally from troubled times. When I go to them and take the life of one of the critters that live there every day even when I'm not around...well, that just makes me appreciate them a little more then some folks may.

The experience is different for everyone. Regret and remorse are negative emotions by your standards, not mine. I do not regret killing enough to stop hunting, I do however feel sadness for the animals I kill. It doesn't ruin my hunting experience, it is just a part of the emotions I feel after being successful. I do not enjoy killing, it is simply part of what we do.

I guess I'm one of the cold ones... although I am very sensitive towards wildlife and have a great love for animals.. I just never really get rapped up in the whole standing over a deer I just killed and feeling sad... I try to look at it as business... a means to an end... that end being the perpetuation of the species... I couldn't see myself being able to even pull the trigger if I thought any other way... I assume that maybe its the way I hunt... the fair chase element keeps those emotions in check for me... at least while I'm hunting.. I sometimes reflect on how lucky I am to be able to be a part of conservation, making sure that a species of animal will continue to exist because of the efforts made by myself and other hunters...but usually at other times than after a kill... actually it seems strange to me that I don't get more emotional, I'm much more sensitive than that away from hunting... I will say that being closeup to a whitetail after I have killed it.. I sometimes am taken by how majestic the animal is... almost a perfect specimen... but I'm never saddened by the event.

I have actually said I'm sorry to deer I have killed.I know they can't hear or understand if they could but I have done it.Then I did what every hunter does and filled out the tag and gutted the animal.I am never sorry when I sit down to eat the venison especially when sharing it with others.I am sorry for ending a beautiful creature's life but thankful for my success at the same time. The only people that have zero feelings about killing are insane or not willing to admit it in my opinion.

Remorse and regret are an integral part of hunting, anyone who does not experience these feelings after a kill is in need of help. These emotions keep us in touch with the reality and seriousness of what we are doing. It's easy for a non - hunter to buy store bought meat, yet be critical of hunters. They lack the experience of death & the finality of taking a life, yet they are still responsible for it. By killing our own meat, and accepting responsibility for death, we are some of the few who can truly appreciate where our food comes from. I'm often asked how I can claim to have the utmost respect for game, yet take life so easily. I answer that it is not easy taking a life & if I need to explain it, they would not understand anyway. I think I speak for most of us when I say that I truly love, respect and admire every animal, especially those I hunt.

Well.. many years ago when I first started hunting and shot a deer. I felt sorrow initially, but gladness afterwards for having killed a deer. My father, who spent three years in the South Pacific never picked up a gun after WWII (but knew enough to teach me to shoot correctly, was his only exception). I explained to him how I felt after shooting the deer. And he told me, that is a good thing, it just means that you have compassion. Nature is cruel, what you don't see on Walt Disney or the Nature channel is that prey animals such as deer and elk that are taken down by predators, are being eaten while they are still alive. OUR SITUATION IS - Man has a Conscience and we recognize our responsibility - and that is a very good thing. Here is a little prayer I keep in my pack - A Hunter’s Prayer 0 Lord, I am a hunter And life I seek to take But let me not attempt the shot Beyond my skill to make For Lord they are your creatures Given for our use But each one falls within your sight They're not for our abuse And when I loose my arrow Please guide it swift and true Or let it miss completely, Lord That pain be not undue A clean kill or no kill, Lord Such is my heart's desire Give me the skill to make it so Or let me hold my fire And when my time upon this earth The days they are fulfilled Grant that I may die at least As clean as those I killed

A Whitetail is perfectly capable of jumping the string of a 300+ fps highest tech available compound, even at short range. Its the Indian, not the arrow.

If it became legal, do you think there should be a BO requirement for spear season?