For me and Eileen the primary reason has always been meat, which provides not just a wider array of tastes than domestic animals but a sense of independence. But both Eileen have hunted trophies pretty seriously as well, and found that contrary to what many believe, older male animals can provide very good eating. I’ve lived just about totally on wild game since about age 20, and both Eileen and I have during our 32 years of marriage.

But recently I had to ask myself why again, after two abnormal hunting years in 2013 and 2014. In 2013 my Labrador severely dislocated my knee on September 28th, and the only big game animal I got was a whitetail doe, taken late enough in the fall to gimp out there and get it done. Luckily, Eileen took three animals, but none with a lot of meat: a whitetail doe and fawn, and a pronghorn doe.

Consequently we entered 2014 without nearly as much meat as usual, but through some luck in Montana tags and two trips to Texas managed to put 10 big game animals in our freezers. Some were what Ingwe calls dinks, including two 50-pound pigs and another whitetail fawn, a mistake on Eileen’s part—she saw a buck chasing it during the rut so thought it was full-grown. But there were also a cow nilgai and elk, and a couple of mature if not trophy mule deer bucks, though Eileen’s would have had about a two-foot antler spread if one antler hadn’t been broken off short.

This fall we started with a September waterfowl trip to Alberta, since Eileen needed LOTS of ducks and geese for her upcoming cookbook on marinades, brines and rubs for wild game. We brought back around 150 pounds of cleaned birds, and then rearranged and cleaned our freezers, as we do every fall before rifle season starts, to see how much we might need of what. It turned out we didn’t need any meat at all, but there was enough space for a deer or two, so we’re out hunting, theoretically for antlers, though eventually Eileen decided she wanted at least one deer for experiments with really big cuts of meat.

Haven’t taken anything so far, and last night it was really cold out there. We started to wonder why the heck we were shivering in the woods, but while talking about it on the way home, with the pickup heater going full blast, we discovered we’re both essentially scouting for NEXT year. I even hiked up a long Forest Service ridge we’ve hunted off-and-on since we moved here 25 years ago just to see what was going on, since finding a deer or elk with large enough antlers was about as likely as finding a kudu.

Eileen has mostly been hunting whitetails on a big riverbottom, and discovered a bunch of interesting places, sometimes with a little help from me. Down there we even discovered some new places to hunt pheasants and geese after big game season ends after this coming Sunday, since we can always find a place to squeeze some birds into odd corners of the freezers.

However, we also eventually decided we’re hunting because it’s that time of year, and we can. One of the great aspects about living in America is we can hunt wild game that belongs to all of us, yet another reason for giving thanks on this November day. Good hunting and happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

I am a meat hunter with a particular affinity for venison and enjoy being outside in the mountains when I get the chance.


I hope you and Eileen have a wonderful Thanksgiving too.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and Eileen.

Hunt mostly for meat (except varmints),but,just enjoy being away from the daily grind. And the daughter went deer hunting with me this year,that's a added bonus.

I hunt (and scout) mostly just to get outdoors in country that I would almost never visit for any other reason.

I like to think that I am a trophy hunter, as the meat is not my primary reason for going but I haven't actually harvested a "trophy" for several years. I do kill an elk almost every year, mostly to justify the cost of hunting as a nonresident in Colorado.

Bird hunts (doves, quail, ducks and sandhill cranes, etc.) are almost always social events and don't add up to very many days afield in most years.

I guess that the primary reason that I hunt is that I think of myself as a hunter, and that's what hunters do.

Me too. Humans have always hunted, so without trying to divert the thread, the question should also be directed to non-hunters and why they don't hunt. I'm glad they don't, for most I'm sure it would be lack of exposure or opportunity.

I just love to hunt n' fish and quite grateful for it.

Funny, of all the strangers I've crossed paths with, the comraderie between other outdoorsmen have led to lifelong friendships and unforgettable memories!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

Hunting is not the most important thing.....IT'S THE ONLY THING....it's who I am, it's a part of me and has been since I was born......well....there's fishing too!

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL !

Well I can say that Eileen's not the only one to make a mistake judging an animal. I've done it before and did it again this yr. Shot a doe ? turned out to be a fawn. I really hate it when that happens but it does occasionally.

I hunt because I'm a hunter. I enjoy being in the woods, all the scenery and wildlife that's part of being 'out' doors. I enjoy surprising wildlife. Monday a buck ran a doe nearly into my lap, literally. That was his mistake.

Some yrs back I was deer hunting and a turkey spotted me, it didn't recognize what I looked like nor the position I was in. It came w/in 15' of me before turning around. If it had come on I was gonna try to jump it. Don't know if it would have worked but I was going to 'enjoy' trying.

As humans we have the predator instinct (as far as animals are concerned). There's an excitement and fulfillment when we are successful.

Whether WE kill it or not, EVERYTHING has to die for us to eat---including vegetables.

Kate (plus 8) said she got her meat>>"at the store where it's made", .. I heard her say that with MY OWN ears.

Death Sustains Life -- FACT and no apologies offered.

Happy Successful Hunting

Jerry

Hunting gives me peace and tranquility away from the weight of the real world. Wife could leave me, truck get stolen, loose my job and get evicted, but when I'm out in the woods or in a blind, nothing else matters. Oh, by the way, I love consuming venison and small game a whole bunch.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Jerry

Yep, I have no choice.

We hunt because it's in our blood to do it. We are hardwired that way and I can't offer anything more as a reason than that, because I don't know one.

Happy Thanksgiving every one!

Pretty much the same here. The predator in me surfaced more strongly than in most I guess.

I always thought it was abnormal for a man to not hunt/fish.

The ones with spots taste better...at least that's my excuse.

I hunt because I'm drawn to it. But it's not just the hunting, it's the totality of the adventure. I'm drawn more and more to the context of hunting and the actual killing part of it grows a little bit smaller each year. I love being out in nature, I love the unknown of every morning and the questions that reside behind every hill or unexplored part of a property. Trophies outside of big or rare animals exist and they are the texture of the adventure. Without those even the biggest animal would be bland and dimensionless. The simple fact that this land was here long before I set foot on it and will exist long after I'm gone tells me I'm part of a great story. I want to know as much as possible about that history and I want to involve myself as much as possible in the writing of its future.

There is so much to be seen and learned and hunting gives me a chance to participate on my terms. I'm away from my desk, my responsibilities, and not moving at 70 mph. I take a gun to insert myself in to this world in a consequential way. The ultimate goal is meat or even a trophy, but despite those tangible gains benefitting me directly, they really serve to extend the adventure beyond the present and that allows me to last until the next season begins.

Hunting used to be about survival, and now with our grocery stores and "solved" lives one could assume we have rendered the survival aspect null and void. However, I don't know if I could survive without it, let alone thrive. It's so necessary to my existence.

I'm going out in the snow right now just so I can watch my dog hunt, he enjoys it more than I do and it's fun to watch.

I am glad you brought this topic to discussion. While I was hunting this week for deer, I had some time to interact with my cousin's family. His wife was busy getting ready for Black Friday. She was going over her plan for where to go and what to get. I told her she would make a great hunter. She ignored me. I said she was merely doing what is programmed in our genes to hunt and gather. She missed my whole point merely muttering I am not hunting.

Whether its video games, shopping, gardening, or out in the woods chasing game all of us find a way to satisfy this innate hunger.

Well said John and best Thanksgiving wishes to all.

I too have made the fawn mistake.

I think I've heard you say that game meat can be considered a trophy and in our house it is considered as such. I receive great joy from sharing wild game at our table, especially with folks who haven't had wild game or perhaps have had a poorly cooked or cared for game meat. It's very rewarding to have someone say, "I never knew wild game was so good."

+1.

There is just something special about being out there with a tag in pocket and rifle in hand.

While we use and appreciate the meat, for me, the spent in the hills and woods with the anticipation of finding what I am after is what does it for me. I simply enjoy the time spent in the quiet while walking, waiting, and watching.

For me, hunting isn't a hobby or pastime. Even though I may not go after it with the zeal of my 20's and 30's, it is a way of life and I can't wrap my mind around not doing it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

John,

I still have the elk tenderloins, when are you coming over?

Hi Kirk,

We'll be over sometime in December. This fall really has been crazy, with a major surprise every month that's almost completely screwed up the planned schedules. Will let you know soon, thanks!

Great, it is gluten free, don't forget to bring Eileen...

She can actually eat gluten now, along with dairy, thanks to a year of treatment. So no problems there anymore.

As a more general comment, I was also one of those who somehow got more of the hunting gene than the rest of my family. The only other person among us who was a life-long hunter was my paternal grandmother. Dunno why!

What a great thread. Thank you JB, for that great essay to start it off. And I am thankful for everyone's contributions that vocalized so many of my own thoughts, and said them better than I could have.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving day, everyone.

The earliest memory I have is being out hunting with my father when I was 3, maybe 4. He let me shoot his rifle. I knew then and there why I was on the earth.

Fishing is just hunting done a little differently.

When I can do neither anymore I will die.

I know why I like guns, most of the it's for strictly utilitarian reasons. I don't know why I need so many. If I have to kill something with every one of them, I will never live long enough. But, I have accurate ammo for virtually all of the rifles and I could pick up any of the shotguns and go bird hunting without missing a beat.

Good post John - I also must have gotten more hunting gene(s) than the rest of my family. As a kid, nobody in the family hunted but my Dad and Grandpa did a lot of shooting. Before I was old enough to go, I remember my Dad going hunting with others but think it was more of a social thing as he never shot anything. I begged him to take me as soon as I was old enough and am still the only one in the family that hunts.

Hope you and Eileen have a great Thanksgiving!

As others have said, I hunt because that is who and what I am. I also hunt as I am a "gadget guy" and there is an endless number of gadgets one can get for hunting. A look in my basement, the bedroom, my wife's home office, the garage, all 4 vehicles, the cabin, the storage shed, and the poultry hut will quickly show this to be true.

I also live for wild game and it makes up a large part of our diet. I was more a bird hunter than big game but that changed when I got married as my wife likes venison and she brought a cabin with 60 acres with as a dowry. Before her, I headed out of state to chase birds during the MN deer season as it was not safe to bring a dog into the fields during that time.

I find a lot of peace and contentment when in the field, I have plenty of time to think about whatever I wish and watching what Nature brings into my view is always a joy. From mice and chickadees visiting me to bears and wolves walking by, one never knows what the day will bring. I also use hunting as an excuse to put off fall chores but that is getting harder and harder as the wife is becoming wise to that and is hiring a younger guy to do these chores at an overly high price. That eats into my hunting funds so I balance out the time to do these tasks and the money I meed. Now, if that young guy would just go away!

I used to be a fisherman but that ended when I got married. It is much easier to sneak in a new firearm, reloader, ammunition, and even a new dog than a new fishing boat. Besides, she insists on having a parking space in the garage which meant either a boat would have to go or the dogs and goose decoys. So, bye, bye boat...

I'd like to say I hunt solely for the meat, but I know that's not the only reason. We utilize the meat to the fullest and fill the freezers every fall. That's just a way of life for us. We count on it every year.

If I'm going to be totally honest about this, I hunt because I like to shoot stuff. That's the bottom line....

And Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm a trophy hunter.

A really, really, really schitty trophy hunter.




Travis

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

My Dad, sons, and I hunt simply because that is what we are, hunters. I cannot remember a time when I did not want to hunt.

Just got in from our traditional Thanksgiving morning hunt and getting ready to head over to the feast. It is not Thanksgiving for me if some hunting does not get done. Sometimes it is just a symbolic hunt, but every year for as long as I can remember, starting on my grandparents farm in Iowa the 70's.

We had an especially blessed year and have much to be thankful for, not only in the hunting fields, but life in general.

I spend a lot of time, more than I care for, in this environment:



Hunting is how I escape from it all. Hard to answer an email in a place that you can't get cell phone service.


(Not my photo, BTW, but you get the idea).

Aside from a freezer full of great meat and fish, it gets us out and away from cities and their stench. It fills the drive in us to gather food, and it's a lot of fun!

Hunting can be a tool to teach values. I have a wonderful willing student, my reason now to hunt.










It also makes my best Friends happy!




For all this I am very thankful every day of my life.

I just like to look around the country I guess, always have to see what's over the next hill.

Still love the river bottom though too.


And there has to be a challenge or it becomes boring. Guess that's where taking a mature buck comes into play.


Probably won't shoot a deer this year for the first time in about 10 years but that's okay. Anymore it's more fun to look than kill. That and there is no shortage of beef.....grin

I just finished reading Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset's "Meditations on Hunting" and that is exactly the point he makes: Human beings are hardwired for it.

RM

Only some of us Mike. We all know virtual hordes of men that are repelled by the thought of getting dirty, horrified at the thought of getting bloody, and scared schitless of things that go bang.

Genetically I always wondered what happened to them....


We evolved with canine teeth, binocular vision,trichromatic vision,we are meant to be omnivores......which includes being a carnivore.

It is an interesting conundrum, isn't it. I expect they've only survived for millennia by hitching their wagons to those who haven't been repelled by such things.

Thats my guess as well.

There. Fixed it for you.

Because it's who I am. Also, nothing smells better than burned gunpowder coming out of an action on a frosty, still morning. NOTHING

I love that smell!

Can't help but stare at every patch of woods or body of water and wonder what is in there. Makes my wife crazy when I'm driving, deservedly so, as I'll crane my neck hoping to see a ripple or tail flicker and struggle to stay on the road.

My algebra is simple: Hunting+Fishing=Me

Happy Thanksgiving!

I simply cannot imagine not hunting.

There is no finer feeling than being outdoors with a Gun or Bow and a chance to take some game. Even if I rarely pull the trigger. I just dont understand people that dont feel the same way. I like to hunt and I like to shoot stuff. No Apologies.

Every year between me and my son we strive to take one of Wisconsins 1 1/2 year old bucks. Those bucks have no fat on them to mention and the meat in the hind quarters is a reddish pink at times and an eating delicacy to me.

For the most part we don't shoot any does as we feel that the neighbors shoot way to many with all the extra tags they buy each year. This controls the herd in our little neck of the woods. Not against shooting does, it just is the way it has unfolded in our neighborhood.

Liking to try new to me bullets, this year I shot a 5 point with a 160 grain Hornady Flex-Tip out of a 30-30 H&R single that wears a Cabelas 30-30 lever action scope. The bullet provided a DRT and I couldn't have been more pleased. Last years deer came on a 170 grain Sierra FN out of a Topper that was scoped with a Bushnell Banner shotgun scope with circle X reticle. Wish I could sometimes spend more but when you have a champagne appetite with a beer income, choices have to be made.

The biggest thrill I get in my 48th year of hunting is being with my 40 year old son, 12 year old grandson, and a nephew here on family land that has been in our family since around 1885.

In the morning my grandson and I are heading to the woods in the stand made for two. Snacks and drinks in tow and a thermos full of coffee for me. Hunting is Life the rest is just details.

I am a human, therefore I hunt.

Those who do not hunt choose a practiced disconnect from reality.

Tom,

I also firmly believe there are people hard-wired for hunting who never know until they get a chance. Eileen’s a perfect example. She didn’t start until her mid-30’s, and it was instant addiction.

I hunt for meat as my first priority although if I'm on an expensive out of state hunt I will try to hold out for a trophy grade animal because if taken care of properly can be as good as a doe. Depending on what they have been eating of course.

I enjoy hunting deer, ducks and geese, and fishing for salt and fresh water fish.

I figured out when I was in my twenty's that I needed to consentrate on mule deer when I was young and could climb. So I have hunted mule deer in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Northern Kaibab of Arizona, West Texas, and Alberta.

For the past dozen years I have been in the whitetail phase of my trophy hunting, although I always hunted Texas for meat whitetails including does. For Trophies I have hunted Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

I've not felt I could handle all of the meat to hunt moose, Bison, and elk although I've eaten it and found it much more desirable than deer or beef.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.

I think it's built in, instinct.

If you watch hunting dogs, and they are bred to express hunting instinct, once they lock on to prey everything changes. Intensity, attitude, and so forth. And for upland game pure joy after a retrieve.

I find myself doing likewise with the immediate prospect of shooting game or hooking a fish. Focus locks on, the quality of the day, whether or not I feel cold, and other things irrelevant to the task at hand disappear. Senses sharpen. The mind quickens to find my best advantage. And I simply feel wonderful when I succeed.

Sharing the day with friends, enjoying nature, watching a good dog work, being part of the ecosystem rather than a mere observer, are all secondary benefits and great they are. But I believe it's that inexplicable desire to get out in the field that leads to the rest.

And this is probably an unpopular opinion, more so among those that don't experience it. We naturally don't like the thought of being manipulated by some unexplainable urge. It's an affront to rationality, an insult to the intellect. But of course unlike lesser animals we can control our instincts and direct them to good purposes. Like enjoying the day in the field with friends, family and dogs. And obtaining delicious provisions for the freezer.

I have hunted locally, out west, and later in Alaska and Africa.

Hunting has taken me to places I would never have gone, and let me see things I never would have seen, things that most people living in my crowded metropolitan area cannot even imagine.

To me the wilderness is almost a parallel universe, the real universe. I would have been much poorer for it if I hadn't lived and breathed it. Hunting is the reason for going there. Hunting itself, and the planning and anticipation of it, gives meaning to life.

Nicely thought provoking John - I hunt simply because I enjoy hunting (in it's many aspects).

This. As to what happened to them, they vote democrat...

Excellent post and wonderful replies..I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.

I just got back from "Deer Camp", took a doe and an 8 point that I was sure was bigger. Like Travis I am a poor trophy hunter.

I hunted on family property, mine that has been in the family since 1882. I took my Dad, Grandpa, Father-in-Law and 3 friends along in spirit. Including my 18 year old buddy who took his own life in August.

Life balances, I saw/participated in three youngsters take their first deer this year. They were all dinks to some eyes; but they were trophies to them and us.

I hunt because I wouldn't know what to do without it; it is as much a part of me as my beard. I wouldn't trade this life with a King.

KC

Great Thread! enjoying your new book also! I will also Hunt its something I have to do, if it was outlawed tommorow Id still Hunt. Love the taste of vension, we eat alot of it, I realy cant afford beef anymore. and ony buy steaks about 2-3 times a year for the grill, even in the spring im hunting, looking for morels!

I enjoy the solitude when hunting and the feeling of accomplishment after taking a game animal. I am also thankful for "participation trophies" (dinks).

I have hunted for big mule deer all my life, taking some nice deer along the way, and going 7 years once without finding a shooter. This year my boy(13) and I finally did it. After 5 days of hard hunting we killed the buck of a lifetime. I let him shoot it and it was an 8x10 nontypical that may never again be matched. I figure I have 30 years and a 1000 hours in finding a buck like this,and then to have my boy shoot it was priceless. I tried to post a picture here but couldn't get it done. Shot it on public ground.

I love that. I'm gonna steal it!


The participation trophies fill the freezer and our bellies and stave off low self esteem for those of us who can't kill big deer.....

VERY well said. Hunting has allowed me to see the northern lights, the southern cross.....and many things that "you shall need the tongues of angels to tell what you have seen..."





For point of reference take a peek at the scenery behind me....

I am pretty unsophisticated.I hunt for the kill,then I eat it.

Amen to that. There was an article in the Denver Post recently touting the benefits of hunting. The next week, several antis wrote letters in opposition. One poor woman couldn't understand how hunters could actually enjoy hunting. I wrote a letter in response but they didn't run it, no surprise there. Here's part of what it said:

On a typical hunt, I'll spend a week or two camping and hiking in the mountains with friends and family. I'll take in every sunrise and sunset, and everything in between. And if I'm successful I'll have 100-200 pounds of the best meat money can't buy; free-range, organic, grass-fed, carried down off the mountain on my back and processed by my own hands. What's not to like about that?

And speaking of Thanksgiving, I'm glad I live in a place where buying a tag, pointing my truck toward the hills, and taking off not knowing where I'll end up is still possible.

Yep. Great thread, thanks MD:

Well said everyone.... great thread!!!

We have enough wild game in the freezer so the muzzleloader season here will be an exercise in hunting with friends with them sitting on the best stands. I plan to try to knock down the coyote population while hunting with them.....

we have subsistence hunted my entire adult life (indeed my kids won't eat beef/pork - except for bacon!)

we have 9 of 11 tags filled this year so far (2 elk left)


one thing that really started to bug us several years ago was the fact that, even though we're lucky to live in a place where we can get 10-11 tags a year, we fill them all too quickly.**

** this is one of the bigger reasons we got into falconry, allowing us to hunt 3-4 days a week for 6-7 months of the year

This pretty well sums it up for me too. I love the planning the anticipation the gear the smells the sounds the dogs the equipment knives, guns, leather goods etc. Actually w/o hunting I really can't see the need to own a gun except for maybe a bedroom drawer pistol

Seems like a pretty good reason to me. Throw in the enjoyment of paying deep attention to animals in nature, and reloading and shooting (ostensibly to hunt! ) and the fact that it was passed down to me from the previous generation, would wrap up my reasons.

Sycamore

Some are hunters , some are not.

All or most of the above reasons are true and add to it.

Still and all , some are hunters, some are not.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to my friends and neighbors

As much as I love a full freezer (with the many recipes running through my mind), hunting season is a magnet for nourishing amazing friendships. I would not hunt in absence of that.

I find myself doing that a lot!.........

Hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving.

Casey

That is ONLY 1 of the reasons I hunt. There are several more. I would continue hunting w/o that reason.


Jerry

We eat a lot of deer,but we give most of it to our friends,and older relatives..I like to hunt,just like some folks like to raise a garden..I usually kill deer until I'm so sick of working them up that I quit...I probably don't enjoy hunting like I did when I was a kid,because I never get the urge to go squirrel hunting,like I used to.Mother made the best squirrel gravy,and she didn't even eat squirrel.

John:

That has been my experience as well, only not so much with hunting in particular but with firearms in general. I have found that many of my anti-gun friends have never fired a gun to begin with. So what I do is take them to the range; and while they may not always change their minds, often their rhetoric softens a bit. As a matter of fact, most of them come off the range saying "That was fun! When can we do it again?" It's funny how we can hold strong opinions about things we've never experienced, only to have them changed (or at least softened) once we do.

Mike

Me, I just HAVE to hunt. Probably don't hunt now as much as I'd like to[big game], But, I've turned my attention to upland birds. Big time. Something pretty neat about going after those birds with a good dog and my trusty 20ga. Really likin' this stuff. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.

I now hunt mostly to get out in the woods. I haven't shot a deer in several years now, and the squirrels have been pretty safe too, if you exclude the little bastards that raid our birdfeeder. I've found that they really don't like getting tagged with a paintball gun. We've got a couple very nervous booger green squirrels running around the neighborhood right now as a matter of fact. And then I discovered there's full auto paint ball guns.......

For me, it's become more about just getting out. My health issues the last couple years have really put a dent in my method of hunting. I'm a lot closer to the trail heads than I used to be, but I have become a much better still hunter, totally out of necessity.

I really enjoy watching the woods wake up in the morning. The owls settling in from their turn on the night shift, the grouse walking past my stand picking seeds, the mice and squirrels busy on the forest floor. The crows alerting their friends to my presence, and the little chickadees and whiskey jacks that always seem to find me. The day just isn't complete till a chickadee lands on my gun barrel. Now a days, the local chipmunk gets more of my cookies than I do, but that's okay too.

Now it's more about just enjoying being out of the office, and away from the house. I may never kill another deer, and that's okay, but then again, I still dream about hanging a tag on a nice buck and bringing it home. Right now though, the other stuff is way more important to me.

Ever since I was a little kid I loved to explore the woods in back of my house. My father was a small game hunter and we ran our beagle in those same woods. My uncles and cousins were hunters and that was my exposure to and start of my love affair with hunting big or small game.
This year has been a blast (even with no deer yet) in that a young gentleman from the office I worked at asked if I would teach him turkey and bowhunting. I have been going out regularly with him and showing him the ropes, critiquing equipment, showing him good spots to hunt etc. etc. He's got the hunting bug and I hope to nurture it as he is the future of our sport.

Thanksgiving day is past; hope all of yours was a good one. But giving thanks goes on.

As to hunting, fishing too, the love of guns, etc., I stand alone in all my family with the exception of a few cousins. But they were only mildly afflicted comparatively; I'm sure I've always been thought a bit of an curious aberration among my more liberal relatives, the recipient of some covert, throw-back gene. My sig line is, in part, a response to that attitude and that remarkable mindless goal of putting a small white ball in a cup. (If you are a golfer you should have developed a sense of humor). I digress.

While we eat beef, pork, and domestic fowl too my family (wife and two adult girls now) grew up on deer, elk (no elk on this year's hunt) but particularly pheasants which I think make some of the most exquisite table fare and are one of my favorites. But I love fish too.

Whether with friends or going alone, I enjoy it and am thankful for the interest I've been given and the opportunities to do it.

George,

For quite a while some of my family wondered when I'd "get over" hunting, but after a while they quit wondering, especially after I married Eileen and she became a very avid hunter too!

I helped look for a deer the otehr morning in rain and 40s. Then got Tiger out and let him find it for us. LOL.

Anyway soaked adn cold, I went back, ate, and headed out and put tiger in the stand, and then went down closer to the feeder to put a suppressed 240 smk into a doe to see what results would happen... Raining and harder than I thought.. forgot the binocs and rain pants in a hurry to leave. Sat in the rain and 38 degrees and 15 mph north winds for 2.5 hours. I finally got cold. Did not wear what I should have at all.

WHY? Because I enjoy all aspects of nature, just being out. Sure I wasn't happy that no does, only 12 bucks showed up, but thats life. Got to see a sparrow hawk take a sparrow out of the air in the process. TIger got some needed rest after jumping the wounded buck earlier, running him to a pond and swimming the 4 acre pond to wear teh deer out so a buddy could shoot the buck and finish him off.

I fish for the same reason. Enjoying the outdoors.

In fact I don't like some of the stuff that goes with outdoors, like reloading, cleaning guns, probalby won't like tying flies and such until I'm retired either. But its the evils that need to be done...

The harvest is wanted. Not needed, but wanted. And we rarely don't have game in the freezer, in fact I can't recall when we didn't... but its only probably 50% of the overall goal....

John, as you know I "got over" elk hunting!


Granted it took 35 years.......

Tom, after this year's hunt I'm darn near over it.

Mule Deer;
Belated Happy Thanksgiving wishes to you and Eileen John and thanks for the interesting reading your query and subsequent thread has been providing.

My late father farmed for a living, but was a hunter to the core of his being.

As I'm the youngest sibling, my family like to tell me of when I was maybe 3 or 4 and would become quite unmanageable when Dad would leave for his annual moose hunting trip and not take me along.

For me, the same as many here, I'm convinced it's deeply interwoven into my DNA.

Then too John, when I was a kid of maybe 5 or 6, I'd draw pictures of guys on horses hunting deer and moose in the mountains. The kicker is of course that as a Saskatchewan boy I'd never seen a mountain outside of a picture book or TV - but it pulled at me even then.

So then when my good wife and I drifted west into the BC interior, bought a small acreage and picked up a couple riding horses which I subsequently learned to hunt with - well one of the two anyway John - my family thought it was interesting that I'd finally arrived at the place I'd dreamed of and drawn so many years previously.

While I'm finding that I hunt with less "intensity" now than I did in my 20's and 30's, the call of the mountain behind the house still pulls me up there each September.

Those who know me best say they assume I'll continue that annual pilgrimage until prevented by health or death and I'd have to agree with them on that assessment.

Thanks again John and all the best to you and Eileen as we now run up into the Christmas season.

Dwayne

It's good to read this thread and get a glimpse into the grateful hearts of my fellow hunters.

I grew up the son of a hunter, which undoubtedly shaped my life in ways that defy description to a nonhunter. I am thankful beyond words for that legacy. My brother and I still hunt, and 2 of my 3 kids are hunters. The memories afield I share with these kin, and with some fine friends I've known over the years, are among my most treasured memories and are true gifts in my life.

My first wife was perpetually exasperated by my intense need to hunt, and even though she eventually gave up wishing & hoping, I never have been able to "get over it", nor do I want to.

I have fresh venison hanging today, ready to be carefully butchered and wrapped and frozen for winter suppers. I suffered a tragic loss of meat this past summer when the contractors I had building my new patio tripped a breaker and didn't bother to tell me, which led to my chest freezer going without power for a week... so I lost the better part of 100 pounds of good meat, and as a consequence haven't had venison nor wild game birds since June. Today's collection, the first meat of this year's hunting season, means fresh venison tenderloin on our plates tonight and is the harbinger of more good organic meat in our larder for the rest of the winter.

I am blessed to be a hunter who can hunt, and to have family who understand and share in the blessings.

Everything about hunting is right. All the prep work. Making sure you're up for whatever needs to be done when you step out, whether that be to reduce the varmint population or kill a deer. Sometimes you know it's going to be miserable. Sometimes you go places where it takes a few of you to get it done and come back home. Sometimes things happen and it takes everything you have to get back home.

When you eat what you worked so hard for and then so hard on preserving and preparing the difference between store bought and real food becomes unmistakable.

We've never talked about it, but I know my wife fully understands that I will either die doing this or very shortly after something stops me from doing it.

My Father planted the hunting bug in me. He even checked me out of school a few times in the first and second grade to go dove hunting and we have an old home movie skinning squirrels after the first time he took me squirrel hunting at my uncle's farm.

When my Uncle took a shot at a squirrel from the opposite side of the tree, and the spent shot start falling around me and my Father, I said, "Daddy, it's starting to rain"!

Later on, I trudged along after him with my Winchester 67-A Boy's Rifle .22 (unloaded of course) when we'd go quail hunting. Every now and then he'd let me shoot at some bird or something. One offhand shot at a blackbird about 75 yards away was one of the more memorable ones. I even took it to school for "show and tell" the following Monday and no one got upset!

I think I got the "gun bug" from an uncle on my Mother's side who had a "lot" of guns... a Model 70 Featherweight .243, a Remington 725 in .280 and a Winchester (43?) in .22 Hornet and a .410 S x S.

Why do I hunt...I don't know. It's just what I do...

For me it's about bringing "real" meat home every year as we don't buy any red meat at all. But second, family and friends in the outdoors together, the mn deer camp I host every year, my annual trip to Colorado for elk with dear friends and often it's also a trip to Mt. with my two boys...this year I drove 2 days to hunt 2 days in Montana. before I had to get my son home for him to fly back to work, but those 2 days camping and hunting with him in the west are key for maintaining our great relationship, we never even pulled the trigger.....but saw some great views and wildlife.
Oh and then there's the part of using one of my rifles!

I hunt because success is usually a big slap of reality. Hey, you killed this, now think about why and what for...
More people should grow, then kill and prepare their supper.

Hunting is and always will be in my blood. My paternal grandfather was a dirt poor (really dirt poor) farmer from the Michigan Northwoods. Since this was long before TV was invented, there were twelve children, my father being one of the youngest. In dad's family, if you wanted to eat, you hunted and fished. Game laws were ignored... I really don't know if there were game laws back in the early 1900's.

I grew up on a small farm outside Saginaw, MI. There was lots of small game and no big game at all. I was in my teens before I ever saw a deer near our home. This has changed over the last sixty years. The farming areas of the Saginaw Valley now supprt a very large deer heard. Back then our freezer was always well filled with pheasant and rabbit. Again, game laws were ignored.

Immediately out of college I started shooting rifle competition on the Saginaw Gun Club team. Our team ran the sighting-in days at the club and I refused to hunt big game... no way was I going out in the woods with the people who came to sight-in. I did start deer hunting when I was thirty when a friend invited me to go deer hunting with him in the far Upper Pennisula of Michigan. Ain't nothing up there but trees and more trees, very few people . I got lucky and bagged a yearling buck the first day. The next fall I went deer and antelope hunting near Buffalo, WY and, again, deer hunting in Michigan.

At that time I had a good job and plenty of vacation. Each fall, I would spend two weeks hunting out West and another two weeks deer hunting here in Michigan. My job was kind of intense and I did so look forward to spending that time away from telephones...

Now long retired, I spend a lot of time each fall just sitting in the woods and watching nature. These are good times as were the days I've managed to wander the Western mountains by myself. I no longer have a real need to kill animals... I've done that but I feel the same way about being in the woods by myself that Thoreau did about time spent fishing... that time is not deducted from one's lifespan.

Just ran across this thread, and have enjoyed reading it. I'm not capable of putting my thoughts into words as some of you guys are.

My dad took my mule deer hunting for the first time in 1971, and I've been hooked on the outdoors ever since. I will usually try and find a trophy mule deer or whitetail, but will always shoot at least 4-5 does, a couple for me and the family, and a few for friends or hungry folks.

I am hooked on the comaraderie offered by sharing deer camp with dear friends, an remain in awe of God's creation every time I stop foot outside. I hope I never lose that feeling.