"Don't shoot anything you aren't going to eat."

One of the dumbest things hunters will say to other hunters...

It’s often seen as a comment in an online discussion about predator or varmint hunting. Some hunter will post up a photo and a few sentences about how he took a particularly big coyote or how he shot a dozen rockchucks in one day and often someone will respond ignorantly with:

“Are you going to eat that coyote?”

“My daddy taught me to not kill anything I wasn’t going to eat.”

Or something along those lines - all the while disparaging the hunter’s accomplishment.

50 years ago working on an Idaho ranch I learned that cottontail rabbits, jackrabbits and rockchucks were eating, destroying, up to about 25% of the alfalfa the rancher had planted. Alfalfa he needed to bale for feed for his cattle. The rancher was delighted that I was so enthusiastic about reducing his varmint infestation. Work on a ranch is never really done - but after the day’s work I’d wander out to some key areas on the ranch, overlooking an alfalfa field. The rancher had a couple of 22’s, rifle and pistol, and was deadly with them, but I’d brought along my then-new 6mm Remington and some hot 75 grain hollowpoint handloads… We vaporized varmints out to 300 yards and beyond with that little rifle! It was great fun for us and eliminated a lot of critters. I ended up picking up a few more boxes of ammo in town because I’d run out of my handloads and my press was 600 miles away. With the 22’s and the 6mm Remington we reduced the population of alfalfa-eaters considerably.

This fat rockchuck has been living well!

Another crop eater!

The rancher was happy that I took this coyote with my 25-06 deer rifle.

I still have and use that 1974 vintage 6mm Remington 700 BDL. It’s probably taken several hundred varmints and predators over the decades as well as a number of deer.

The Idaho rancher kept a tally of the number of chucks, rabbits and rattlesnakes he dispatched every year. There was a notable increase in slain critters the couple of times I worked there. The next couple of times I worked at the ranch I brought along a handgun. Of all things, Dad let me drag along his beautiful old Colt Bisley in 38 Special! I had no idea it was actually worth anything, but it shot my 158 grain semi-wadcutter handloads just fine and accounted for a lot of critters. The next trip I had my own Colt Trooper MkIII, also using 38 handloads. The 22’s killed just fine, but it was fun to hunt with the bigger handguns and of course the 6mm Remington rifle.

The old Colt Bisley 38 is in fine condition despite me running around the sagebrush and lava rock of southern Idaho with it stuck in my belt all those years ago. It did a fine job on rabbits and chucks alike with 158 grain lead semi-wadcutter handloads, the kind of 38 loads I still favor today.

For several years on a Wyoming cattle ranch I hunted for pronghorn antelope and mule deer - both of which I find delicious - I was also offered the opportunity to reduce the number of prairie dogs and also the coyote population. My 25-06 did a fine job on a coyote at almost a quarter mile and I destroyed some prairie dogs with the 204 Ruger. No, we didn’t eat any coyotes or prairie dogs.

I’d brought the 25-06 with handloaded 115 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets for mule deer and pronghorn but it also did a fine job on this coyote.

Same thing with coyotes, mountain lions and even bears - ranchers and farmers suffer losses to their chickens, their calves and foals. One rancher I know finds lion scars on his horses time to time, but the grown horses are pretty good at taking care of themselves. Another rancher I know has a herd of longhorn cattle in the Cascade mountains of Washington. He told me that the longhorns don’t seem to have any problem dealing with big cats or bears. After looking at his longhorns I didn’t have any problem believing that! However, some ranchers have predator problems, which is probably why so many ranchers are dead set against the reintroduction of wolves into their area after a century of no wolves. These same ranchers are enthusiastic about lions, wolves and coyotes being hunted.

Studies have shown that black bear are extraordinarily effective at locating and killing the elk calves and deer fawns. Yes, bears are often hunted as not just a big game animal, but rather as a predator. The population of predators needs to be controlled for wildlife and livestock to flourish.

Mule deer fawns, also bear food…

Good sized Washington black bear I took years ago with the 375 H&H Ruger Number One. Large sized predator!

In 2023 and 2024 I hunted black bear in Idaho. There’s a two-bear limit in the area I hunted and the tags are inexpensive, even for a non-resident. Wolf and mountain lion tags are also quite affordable. Idaho is trying to reduce the number of predators so that their elk and deer populations grow.

I did my part to reduce the bear population! BTW, this one was eaten in camp, but I was just there for the hunt, I wanted to take another bear.

Years ago Dad shot a rabid skunk while we were pheasant hunting. It was near a farmhouse and absolutely needed to be shot. No, we didn’t eat the rabid skunk.

I’m told that often in Africa animals are “culled” - their populations deliberately reduced. This includes even elephant! Yes, in places there are too many elephant and they are destroying the environment. One answer is culling by government paid shooters - or letting more paying hunters come in and reduce that population while making a profit for Africans. That meat often does make it to market, but the intent is to reduce the population.

On a Brooks Range grizzly hunt I took a good sized bear and also a wolf. The state of Alaska was trying to help their caribou and moose herds recover and wanted to reduce the number of predators. Buying a grizzly tag also legally allowed me to take up to ten wolves! That’s a state working to reduce predator numbers. Neither the grizzly nor the wolf were eaten by humans, but I’m sure the carcasses fed other local wildlife.

Some daddies were just flat wrong. There are many reasons to kill an animal, other than filling the freezer with it. Perhaps it’s dangerous, or overpopulated, or for some other reason, it just needs to be shot.

I’m a lifelong hunter, a Marine veteran and retired law enforcement officer. Am also a certified firearms instructor. Thanks for reading my Substack blog! Hunt well.

Guy