Enjoy shooting for all the right reasons

Defining what fieldsports really are gives us cause to reflect on our motivations for being in the field in the first place

- David Whitby

Born out of necessity, turned into recreation and now often a business, how would we classify game shooting? It no longer harvests wild produce, nor is it essential to feed us; quite the opposite, it holds precious little value as a food source. It is not a sport, per se, when the definition of such is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”.

Though we may pursue game, it is certainly not a game — it is far more serious than that. What we have done is placed game shooting under the umbrella of ‘fieldsports’. The definition or description of fieldsports is “the non-competitive killing or capture of wild animals for pleasure in a rural environment, also referred to as countryside pursuits”. The one word that so many have a problem with is ‘pleasure’ or enjoyment, the fact that we enjoy killing living creatures. To be honest, when applied to fieldsports, it does deserve an explanation.

Even when life on earth started as simple pond-living amoeba-like creatures, they had to hunt for food, the success of which meant a meal, and that gave pleasure. We often forget that we are just part of the animal kingdom. Today our intelligence and dexterity have allowed us to be faster on land, air and sea than any other living creature, but for our ancestors this was not the case. Hunting must have been a hard and dangerous activity, with success the difference between life and death.

Hunting instinct