I live in the country and am pro-hunting.

However, I am anti-idiot. You all have seen them. Those people who have no business hunting. They don't know how to properly handle a gun or anything about the animals they hunt.

Bad me, a small part of me smiles when I read stuff like this. After years of chasing people off my property and of having neighbors houses and stock shot by these sorts of idiots I must admit at times my amusement turns a tad ugly. I'd like to make classes mandatory to thin the crop of armed idiots.

A small personal story. I once had raccoon hunters trespass on my land. Standing on the deck I yelled into the woods that they were trespassing on posted property. They did not leave. So, my son and I got out our home made apple cannon and began lobbing potatoes and apples into the woods to disrupt them. they beat a hasty retreat. I am not sure whether they knew what was being shot or not but we were laughing ourselves silly. (yes I have an inner redneck)

At any rate, here is an amusing story of an armed idiot.

Sorry, that llama sure looked like elk
Photo of hunting mistake becomes Web sensation

By BRETT FRENCH
Of The Gazette Staff
A New York hunter may be feeling a bit sheepish after mistaking a feral llama in Paradise Valley for a Rocky Mountain elk, but he apparently did not violate any laws.

Rusty Saunders of Fort Edward, N.Y., called a Fish, Wildlife and Parks warden in Livingston in November to turn himself in after shooting the llama, according to Mel Frost, FWP information officer in Bozeman.

Since FWP does not deal with livestock shootings, they immediately turned the investigation over to the Montana Department of Livestock.

After investigating, the Livestock Department turned the matter over to Park County authorities without issuing any citations.

"We don't have any statute to prevent that kind of thing," said Steve Merritt, information officer for the Livestock Department in Helena.

A telephone call to the Park County sheriff was not immediately returned.

Photos that the Livestock Department took during its investigation showed the dark brown and black llama gutted and lying in the back of a red pickup truck. The photos included a shot of Saunders' notched 2008 elk tag, dated Nov. 18. Somehow, the photos ended up circulating through e-mails, trekking across the nation and even north of the border into Canada.

Under a subject heading of "hunting llamas in Big Sky Country," the e-mail parodied MasterCard's "priceless" advertising campaign"

".30-06 rifle with Leupold Scope - $650.

"Out of state license - $600.

"Gas to drive from New York - $700.

"Taking a trophy Montana llama - priceless."

The photos have ended up on blogs across the country, as well, generating derisive remarks from hunters.

It's not clear how Saunders realized his error, and it's not known what happened to the wild llama.

Messages left for Saunders on his home answering machine were not immediately returned.

Saunders is not the first person to mistake a llama for a game animal. On opening day of the 1999 hunting season, a 21-year-old Sun Prairie deer hunter shot a 300-pound llama on the Cascade Hutterite Colony near Fort Shaw, then gutted and tagged the animal. He didn't realize his mistake until he took it to a Great Falls meat processor, which turned him away.

The man turned himself in and the colony didn't press charges.

Montana's hunter safety education program emphasizes that hunters should always identify their target before pulling the trigger.

Contact Brett French at french@billingsgazette.com or at 657-1387.

i have a weedwhacker

dumbasses with guns

one year during deer season, someone put a bullet through the John Deere logo on my dad's tractor. he was pretty pissed off about that.
And since we had 50 acres they HAD to have been trespassing to do it

I'm from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. One year a drunk Baltimoron shot a pet goat & brought it to the weigh station! During hunting season my horses wore neon colored halters & were kept close to the house."H O R S E" was written on my friend's horses in orange cattlemarker.

OBAMA CALLS HIS A BUSH WACKER..........

One of my neighbors was standing in her kitchen doing dishes when a bullet came through the window and embedded itself in the wall behind her.

The hunter who did it in this case quite likely was trespassing as well since the house was set back several acres on a 140 acre farm.

My place is small. I have 25 acres but it's wooded and there's a small cemetery that adjoins it. The drive to the cemetery is a prefect spot for someone to park a car. So every year I find myself chasing off at least one trespasser.

Some times of year those of us who live in the country know we must be extra cautious.

SHOULD HAVE GOT AN OLIVER............

"If you think hunting is a sport...ask the deer."...the late great George Carlin...be seeing you

"If you put headlights and a horn on the bullet the deer will jump in front of it"
-Ron White

I like George but hunting, not those farmed fenced farces for city boys and "trophy" hunters, is indeed a sport.

It requires practice, concentration, commitment and skill.

Sure there are random asses that pay to get lucky and shoots stuff or pays for a guaranteed kill and calls it hunting but that's not most hunters.

Believe it or not it can also be a deeply spiritual experience.

Personally I think no one should be allowed to eat meat who hasn't at least once hunted or raised stock then slaughtered and cleaned at least one beast.