THE ENJOYMENT TO HUNT!

I live more richly , more miserably, and more wholly during the ptarmigan season than at any time of the year. There is a mix of pleasure and hurt; for we who shoot know a guilt from knowledge that we kill and yet enjoy it!
If shooting a ptarmigan is no more that transforming a live bird into a dead one , it classes as a sin!
After shooting a ptarmigan , a short period of remorse sets in with regret and empathy for the thing you´ve killed....It might be called a not very sincere emotion , for to renounce this experience with a ptarmigan and a dog is something I couldn´t do. But it is a deep emotion even so , and it surfaces each time a ptarmigan is shot , together with the realization that the gunner´s act of possesing the wild is an intrusion.

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