Geez. you guys make me feel smart
I thought it sounded like rambling, myself.
Unfortunately, I might have to lose some of the goodwill I seem to have garnered in order to avoid being slightly hypocritical. While I totally get off on nature and all the things I talked about, I am also 100% in favor of all hunter's rights, whether or not they reflect my personal brand of ethics. I disagree with certain practices and find them disrespectful to animals. Some people do things that I disagree with, but do so without any intention to be evil or sick. One example is hunting with dogs. To me, there's something kind of barbaric about it, and I won't do it. But I know people who do, and they at least *feel* the same respect for wildlife that I do. I can't account for the difference in our outlook though.
By the way, unless you're one of those asshats that empties a magazine of ammo at anything that moves, skillfully hunting with a rifle isn't as easy as it seems. At 500 yards, moving your barrel an inch will cause you to miss by something like 20 feet. Everything from wind to relative humidity, altitude above sea level and the physical structure of the bullet factors into making long-range shots. It's really a science if you are conscientious about it.
Thanks for all the nice thoughts, hope I didn't lose too many of you by not being the utter purist I sounded like :p