Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Reasons that we hunt!

I have often thought about why I hunt. I come up with reasons for getting up in the wee hours of the night, and walking through the dark woods. I try to explain to my wife why I will sit on a stump, or walk through the quiet and dark woods at sun up.
I relish the snap of a twig, the fall of a pine cone, the snort of a deer. The sounds and the smells of the woods are difficult to explain to someone that does not hunt.
I guess in the end, I hunt because that is the time that I feel more like 'myself'. Even the best day at work does not begin to equal a poor day in the woods. That even includes those days where the truck gets stuck, your scope breaks, and it rains.

You don't need to ponder that one to long! We hunt because we can same reason a dog licks his nuts.

We are genetically "hard-wired" to do it.

Right on!!

Don

good thread, good thoughts by all. I have often thought the same question and have tried to put it into words on occassion.

But there is another question that this question leads to, especially if we believe that it is somehow tied up into our male genetics. That is "Why doesn't every man hunt? There are many men who never hunt, or, used to hunt and doesn't anymore. That's what I can't figure out.
Hunting is such an important part of my being and is of no importance to so many of my friends that I wonder if I am the odd one or are they? If the answer is found simply in the number of men who hunt versus those who don't, I'd have to say that it seems that we are the odd balls. Once I read that every man has a hunting gene but some men are good at corrupting it into chasing a golf ball or growing a business. I'm sure that the urbanization of America has a lot to do with it too. What do you think of that?

Wayne

I just want to get one, before they're all gone.

there are 2 things i don't like about deer hunting today.

1. not enough kids get try it.
2. the whole hunting industry pushes trophy kills way to much.

Why do I hunt? Because I'm not dead yet. I hunt so that in the evening of my life I can look back and say I have lived.

I have had a lot of friends that used to hunt with me from back here; out of a group of 8-10,I am the only one left who continues to travel out of state,shoots frequently,handloads,chronographs, etc.I don't think a single one can verbalize precisely why they no longer hunt,but I suspect it is a combination of age and general fatigue (too much work),and JUST MAYBE they did it back then because their friends did it,not because they truly loved it.Or,maybe there were other things they wanted to get out and accomplish.I don't know nor do I particularly care,cause I still love to do it because it provides one of the last sources of adventure left in an otherwise pretty civilized world.

Cause I like to eat meat! It amazes me how many people don't like to hunt, but ask them if they like deer meat and they say yes.

Wayne,

I've thought of that too. The only thing I can figure is that the hunting genes are being bred out of some men. My brother is uninterested in any kind of hunting, but I am. In the old days when you had to hunt for survival, any man who couldn't/wouldn't hunt died. That kept the gene pool in tact as far as passing on the hunting genes to the male children. But, today, men don't need to hunt for survival, and many of these "men" turn out to be anti gun liberals.

Don

It is odd that my father never hunted and neither of my brothers do. It is the only think I can't get enough of.
Last year my wife shot two deer and I can't describe the feeling as I watched my two sons 14, and 18 working together to drag my wife's deer out of the woods to the truck.
I don't know what stage I am at but it is almost lunchtime (hint).

Having been raised in a family where hunting has been a time tested tradition, I'd say in my case, it's in the genes. There are many other reasons though, too. The comraderie that goes with getting to camp for the opener. The smell of Hoppe's #9, and the protests of the old wood stove as it warms the cabin after a long day afield. The friendly chickadees (deer birds) that seem to seek out the bill of my cap or the barrel of my rifle every year for a perch. The crack of a distant gun shot to open the season evey year. The hiss of a dozen teal as they blast past from behind me and settle into the decoys. The wide eyed look on my boy's face as I regale him with the stories of my father, and his father from hunts gone by. The banter at the rifle range the last time before opener, as optimism reins supreme. The smell of liver and onions on the stove and the blisters and aching back after a long drag. I hunt for a lot of reasons, and it's hard to class one above the others. I certainly realize what an awesome gift my father bestowed upon me the first time he dropped me in his field sack and said, "we're going hunting, boy." Dad's been gone a long time now-way too long, but I think he'd be proud to see how I've carried on in his footsteps. His grandson looks just like him-the same slow, steady gait, the same posture and imposing size. When I see my boy slowly still hunting a hillside the same way my dad did, I know the old man is smiling up there somewhere-that's a big part of why I hunt.

Why do I hunt?

I was raised on a cattle ranch and in the fall my dad and uncle guided hunters on our land. As a child I was around hunting a lot, hanging around hunting camps and doing whatever little chores a child could just to help Daddy. Some of my earliest and fondest memories center around the fall camps.

When my brothers started hunting I was envious that they got to do something I didnt, so as soon as I was old enough I was ready.
I grew to love it and it became one of the most important things in my life. I have hunted almost every year since I was 13, except for one when I was pregnant with my daughter and one when I had a broken leg.

These days a hunt is just as much a chance for me to reminisce as it is a quest to take an animal. The smell of campfire smoke takes me back to the days Dad and Uncle Dan lied like gentlemen that the coffee a 10 year old girl made for them in an old blackened coffee pot was the best they'd ever had. The sound of wind in the pines on a cold night inside a wall tent brings the same feeling of being snug and secure in my sleeping bag that it did 25 years ago. The sight of fresh tracks in the snow bring the same excitement, and a clear memory of, the morning I killed my first deer. All those little things take me back to happy times and I love to immerse myself in the memories.

Hunting has always been part of my life.

Thats why I hunt.

That can also be a factor. LOL

The finest part of understanding nature...is being part of the cycle and balances that define life and death. I can't think of a better way to do/understand it...than putting my own animal on the table...and understanding all that goes into making it happen.

Plus it just rocks azz to be out there....

Just my humble opinion...

HoundGirl

STEAK

You do not need to justify why you hunt.

You are following the laws of the land and complying with requirements under law.

Equally, no-one has the right to criticize you in any way for your choice. It is called democracy, freedom to choose your lifestyle within the confines of the law.

You have more right to front an anti hunter who is breeching the law of the land, denying you the rights you already have, and attempting to steal your rights to decision making.

Anti gun, anti hunting people have voided the right to opinion as they attempt to steal your democratic right to choose. They are "Water melons", green on the outside and very red in the middle.

Know your enemy, hunting and firearms ownership are just tools of their trade, should they succeed, they do not go home and say we won, they simply move onto other rights you have now and invade your life further.

They will never stop and care nothing for the topics or tools they use in applying the 5% minority rule in overruling the 95% majority which also includes the complacent and "not involved" percentage of the general public.

AGW

AGW, in the context you are looking at, you are exactly correct. I think the question here was not looking for justification,rather what brought us to love hunting and enjoy hunting so much. Sorta like why do I like Maker's Mark Bourbon.

ET,
Then the reason is that I cannot not hunt. It is me. It structures the fabric of my character. I was born with interest in the wilds of nature with my earliest memories of my mother reading Man eaters of Kumaon by Col Jim Corbet. I guess I inherited it in that case, a genetic flaw I am very fond of.

My apologies, How'd I do?

PS, I own a bar so have embibed in a few burbons. I like Single Barrel and as quoted by Robin Williams, "if alcohol is a crutch, then Jack Daniels is the wheelchair". I concur.

AGW