WHY DO YOU HUNT?

[buckeye_hunter]

I have to hunt and fish. No explanation in words will ever be sufficient to give the reason why.

I imagine your initial quote is as close as possible to the truth. It is a primal urge that some posess and others do not. It's the same reason I can't make myself stop watching the fields and woods when my wife is driving. Often, even when I am driving...    

I couldn't win the fight against my need to be in the woods and on the lakes.

[econnell71]

I hunt for the enjoyment and it gives me a reason to make fun of all the sissy boys at work  

[Jim now in Kentucky]

I just hunt to let the deer have a good laugh!    I moved to western Kentucky to get a bigger audience.  

[BBWV]

Why I HUNT..It"s the core of my being. My brother and I have been hunting together for 40-yrs, along with our dad. Dad"s gone now but we still get out with our sons. When you get caught up in this fast spinning world, get away, back where things make sense. Take a look at live from a tree stand. It will keep you focus

[Huntschool]

Trite, but it is who I am.  

I learned from my father.  He learned from his family.  We have been in the US since 1643 and in Europe before that.  We have hunted......

There is something primal about it.  It strikes me everytime I kill an animal....

I have noticed in this thread that the majority of replys are new or infrequent posters....  Wondering why that is?

[S.C. Hunter]

I hunt because, I am alive in the woods. I look around and I take in the things that my creator gave us and I can smile. I have experienced so much in the woods even without taking a shot. I have seen and smelled things in the woods that everyday life has no place or time to experience. The hunt is a place where I am alive. Watching the sun rise and set the smell of the dirt, the sound of the animals moving all around me. Hearing my own heartbeat before a shot. It's funny in a place where I feel like I am just a small part of everything, it is where I am alive.

[McDave]

To go into the woods and hunt animals I intend to eat is an expression of my freedom to make moral choices in life.

I was a Marine in Vietnam in the infantry, and for many years after I returned from Vietnam, I chose not to hunt, because I had difficulty reconciling the drive to kill an animal with a more powerful drive not to kill a human being except in self defense.  Over time, I came to the understanding that killing an animal to eat is as justified morally as killing a human being in self defense.  It took me some years of reflection to come to the realization that my drive to hunt was as honorable as my drive to become a Marine.

I don't regret the time it took me to come to this realization, because we have to be careful about our basic drives, as many of them may be morally wrong or self-destructive, and we have to learn to supress the destructive drives as much as we encourage the constructive ones.

So I chose to return to hunting because I decided it was a basic, healthy drive that wasn't going to go away, as opposed to a destructive or immoral drive that I needed to suppress.

[yekrut]

thats me its always been me , to hunt!

[The Whittler]

I started hunting with my dad when I was about 5. And my son started hunting with me when he was about 5yrs old also.

 I am 61yrs old now so you could say I have been in the woods almost all my life.

I find it's not about killing something, it's about just being in the woods. Enjoying Mother Nature and all She has to offer and seeing things that most people would pay to see, and some would not believe you.

[S.C. Hunter]

David, I appreciate your response. Taking a life or watching a fellow Marine die are things that never go away completely. We have to re-group and move forward. I am glad  you moved forward. Semper Fi

[ti-guy]

'Cause I feel it, it's a calling.

[guspup]

Vittles :-)

[Bow Bum]

I've thought about this many times. When I explain it to myself, or others, it never really comes out the way I think it will. I suppose if one is asked "Why?" One would be inclined to come up with a reason. For me, well, I have so many reasons that there really is not one at all. Somewhere deep down inside its just part of me, it's natural. I believe the desire is natually occuring. I am blessed to have ready access to places to do it. Some may have "it", but do not have access to "it".

Why don't people hunt? I liken it to the fact that not all animals kill for food, therefore it would seem natural that not all humans would kill for food, or have the desire for meat for that matter.

So, why do I hunt? Ask me tomorrow and get a different answer    

Regards,

Brian

[myshootinstinks]

I hunt to get away....out into creation. To take in the sights, smells, feelings of being in the trees, hills, bluffs of Wyoming. The smell of being in an aspen grove in the autumn is incredible. To feel the rain, snow, sleet on my face. To enjoy the company of the best of friends in camp.
     If I happen to harvest an animal that's icing on the cake but it is not necessary for a successful experience. I love the outdoors.

[Molson]

Originally posted by *****:
I stopped shooting animals a couple of years ago, tho I still hunt every season.  I figure that I've gotten my share, and if I don't "need" the meat for myself or my family, why take a life.  I know I can do it. . . just don't need to.  If the day comes when I do need the meat, I'll go get it, but wanton killing just because you can isn't perfecting your skills, it's just greed.

I now hunt to out-smart them, keep my skills sharp, but don't need to kill.  Ain't hungry enough.

I mean no offense by what I'm about to say.  It's just my opinion.

If you enjoy getting out in the woods that's great, but that is just not hunting, its observing.  Hunting IS about killing.  To say otherwise is just not honest and just not hunting. There is a huge difference physically and emotionally when you look at an animal you intend to kill.  There is a personal responsibility that comes before and after the fingers release.

What is "needing" the meat?  Unless you are a vegetarian, an animal died for that meat you bought at the store.  Even if you are a vegetarian, something died so that veg could be planted. On the farm or in the wild, those chicken tenders came from a living, breathing creature whether you did the actual killing or not.

To say that you outsmarted an animal that you didn't shoot at is, in my opinion, just human arrogance.  It is not giving the animal the credit it's earned.  I have seen animals do amazing things between the time I release that arrow and when it sticks bloodless in the ground!

Why hunt?  Today, there are some that may fall under the greed or ego banner, but for most it's just inside you, from way back when people just like you kept everyone else alive.

YMMV!

[celticknot]

I hunt for food, I hunt to find myself, I hunt for friendship. I hunt to appreciate what the lord has given me, I hunt for a bond with nature, I hunt to keep traditons alive, I hunt for the animals, I hunt for the freedom, I hunt to know more than the city folk. I hunt to see from another man's eyes before my time. I hunt to look into an animals soul and see that it will feed me and not go to waste. I hunt.

[Bert Frelink]

Well said Molson, Thank you, I could not have said it any better myself
Regards.
Bert.

[Ky Double Lung]

Great post trad gangers! Let me start out by saying that hunting must be an important part of all our lives on this forum for many reasons. I myself started chasing squirrels at the age of 5. Bowhunting came along at the age of 8, that is when the internal flame was lite. A flame than burns inside of me year round! This evening was our last evening for the Ky. deer season. Although that flame may decrease some what, similar to a pilot light on a furnace. I can assure you when the time comes to get started on next season that flame for the hunt will be just as intense. The loss of my father a few years ago to cancer has put me in a much different mindset when I go to the woods. My dad wasn't much of a bow hunter but he could see the passion I had for archery and although he never killed a deer with archery tackle, he would never deny me a chance to hunt. I hope to pass this on to my son for it is the youth that must carry on our blessed tradition of stick and string. It is what this country was founded on, our heritage and our lifestyle.

[LoneWolf73]

I grew up playing in the woods and hopefully.... I will grow old in the woods. Hunting takes me to the woods.

Wow, that is the question I have never tried to answer but I'll try anyway.

I believe the thing that got me started was all the articles I read in study hall (HS)about Howard Hill and Fred Bear and their hunting adventures.  For some reason I remember the Hill stuff better. Thirty years later I can still vividly replay those amazing shots in my mind.  I was deeply in love with the longbow and hopelessly stuck in High School.....agony!

As the years went on, I found myself pursuing the Whitetail almost exclusively...focused on the big bucks....a true to life "horn hunter"

Then, further on I evolved a bit and started to enjoy the friendship/fellowship aspect.  Time at late dinners and around the evening campfire with the stories and laughs seemed to have become a close second to the hunt itself.

And finally, I think these days if I had a good opportunity for a shot, depending on the day, I may just sit and watch rather than going for the kill....

It is all good, every time...all of it!