sunflowersFTW!,
I think you ridea of starting with small creatures and building up might be a good way.
Basically the more you do it the more you get comfortable with it.
I had someone make a wierd comment to me once. They had hit a deer with their car and it was crawling across the pavement into the ditch when I came along. They were just freakin’ out, not knowing what to do. So I got my knife out of the truck and cut the deers throat then asked them to help me put it in the back of my truck. They said somethng like “I guess I’m just not heartless enough to do something like that”
Being heartless has nothing to do with it. I have deep love for deer. In situations like that the kindest thing to do is take care of what needs to be done, deliberately, with no hesitation. I’ve seen people trying to club deer with tire irons after hitting them with their car but being such weenies about it that they ended up hitting the poor deer on the shoulders and across the nose.
So don’t worry that if you get comfortable with dealing with blood and guts that you will get more hard hearted. I’ve hunted for many years, I still feel sadness whenever I kill something. I skin, butcher, and tan hides. It just makes the connection more real and solid. Good for you for wanting to move past your block!!
I posted a link to a deer skinning article with pictures that I wrote here somewhere. I think it’s in a thread called “deer”.