Bottom line for me is that there is no need to eat animals, but if one does, then shooting an animal that has lived naturally is profoundly more humane than eating factory-farmed meat.

Still... we don't need to eat animals so there is no justification for either method of obtaining meat.

The reason I abhor hunters even more than factory-farmers is the vileness factor - that except for a few pockets where obtaining meat can only be done by hunting, hunting is done for pleasure. Humans are still very much in the beginning stages of enlightenment if they can universally take pleasure in killing.