re: #144 William Barnett-Lewis

I remember going squirrel hunting when I was much younger. My family had enough food so I didn’t need to bring home game. .22’s were affordable from my rather minimal allowance.

To make a long story short, I’d sit in the woods and practice my marksmanship by seeing how close I could get to the squirrel without hitting it. There were times when with my bolt action/tube magazine rifle I’d chase a squirrel up the tree with bark fragments urging him on then turn him around and chasing him back to the ground before letting him get away.

Not sure what that says about me, but OTOH, I just couldn’t see killing the critter when we had plenty of beef & chicken (and thus eggs as well) on the farm. I could do what needed be done then but the squirrel was just, somehow, different. Varmints - especially ones that killed the chickens - were a different story.

I killed gophers, squirrels, mice and rabbits with both my rifle and my bow but it was seldom. I preferred targets, whether they were a tree or a fence post or something else. It wasn’t until I hit my early 20s that I decided never to kill anything unless I absolutely had to.

I’ve only purposely killed twice since then, both times when an animal was hit by a car and flopping around in pain.