Hunting with a valid reason (for food, population control, etc.) is acceptable and/or a necessity.

Hunting for funsies only - including all the BS safari hunting that are essentially glorified high tech fishing trips - is disgusting

It doesn't seem like a fun hobby and strikes me as unhinged for the most part.

Depends on the type. Hunting pests like rabbits possums pigs, inseason game like ducks, pheasant and deer is all great. I dont like hunting rare endangered animals or helicopter hunting with a machine gun except if its a pest culling like feral pigs.

For the activity I really enjoy it. Its a great outdoor activity to do with friends and family. I like getting up early and heading out across the paddocks in the crisp morning and seeing the sun come out. I dont like butchering because im pretty odd about textures and smells but i'll do it when i have to. I dont find it to be inhumane at all.

What I find interesting is the reasons you listed for why you love it basically describes camping, not hunting.

I would not call it more humane (it's murder), but I do agree it is less worse than factory farming.

It's a tough one, on one hand yes we killed their predators so we have to do it instead; on the other if those predators somehow come back then most often we just kill them again so we can continue hunting. I suppose my biggest issue with hunting is the seemingly inevitable wolf cull.

If there was no farmland, if the majority of this planets surface wasn't being used exclusively for human activities then I would have no problem at all with hunting; however that's not the case. Wild populations likely seem abundant but they are a fraction of what they were before industrialization/colonization (Overton Window) and further pressure on those populations, that are essentially holding on to slivers of the only land left for them, can only do harm (with the caveat of overpopulation).

As well, most hunters use lead bullets because they're cheap, so now all areas where hunting happens regularly are contaminated with lead, especially the predators (including humans) of that area (bioaccumulation).

I guess the least impactful way to hunt is to use copper/non-lead bullets(?) in rehabilitated farmland.

It's cool and good, but where I live it's becoming increasingly expensive. Yes to locals/workers hunting their own food on communal land. No to upper class bastards flying in to hunt, getting themselves and their setters airlifted back to a lodge for lunch, etc. And trophy hunting should not be a thing.

Does population control that way actually work?

I think killing animals is fucked.

We killed predators so we need to kill more. We could have instead not killed (and keep on killing) the predators.

I have to agree with everything you wrote - from my personal point of view. For me hunting is very… immersive?

One other thing is that if I had to nominate someone to protect / look after a herd, flock etc I’d choose either a “proper” vegan or a “proper” hunter to do that job. Both parties, in my experience, would have the best intentions - although admittedly for wildly different reasons.

Hunting is natural and sound.