Here is my rant!

I always hear people say that hunters don’t need to hunt they just like killing. I can't take it anymore, I am tired of people saying that it costs me more money to hunt than to buy beef by the pound. It is not true for me.  I live in a rural mountain community in E. Tennessee and I can’t afford to buy enough Beef to feed a family of four. So I use reloaded bullets(which I only shoot 10-15 bullets a year which includes sighting in and killing 2-4 deer myself a year) in a 30-06 that my father passed down to me for free to kill deer which I cut up my self. (I did buy a vacuum sealer and an lay down freezer 10 years ago) but it costs me next to nothing to put 6-7 deer in the freezer every year. I also help a friend with a large garden so we can split the bounty (he has land, I have knowledge) It would be like saying I don’t need to grow my own potatoes I just like digging. I think deer meat is much healthier than beef as well. I know the meal. No one else handles it. My family will never have E-Coli from beef or tomatoes. although it does not bother me, I don’t like killing anymore than I like cleaning fish or picking blackberries. I like being outside and I like eating blackberry pie. I like being self sufficient. You have to kill a deer to eat it. I also like shooting guns. I shoot them at targets, coke cans, and furry woodland creatures that taste good. I didn't kill the can but I enjoy the challenge of marksmanship. I have no hard feelings toward trophy hunters. I receive most of my meat from trophy hunters who call me after they shoot a rack buck and I come and get the deer to cut up for my family ( win win situation they get the trophy, I get the meat).  However I do have a problem with the perception that all hunters are trophy hunters. I hunt because it feels natural. As natural as growing tomatoes.  More natural than driving to a large crowded building and pointing to a hunk of meat that another man picks up, wraps and hands to you. Even Though you have no idea where it came from.  I do enjoy my time in the woods........far more than time in the super market.  Your pal the Envirocapitalist.