For me it's not the adrenalin. If that was the reason, just to get me off, I would feel selfish, less of a man to have to kill something to get my thrill.

I just don't "think why"; I "worry why" these days. I've hunted all my life. I plan the hunt, execute the plan, feel satisfied having hunted, and still don't understand the "why" behind it. I don't do it for others. I do it because I've done it forever, am good at it, and can't seem to stop. I swore this year would be the last big hunt, but I've caught myself in the "planning phase" again.

I'm staring at a possible two-year assignment in New Zealand. The first thought that came to mind was HUNTING; not money, not beauty of the country, nor getting out of India after three years. It was HUNTING, pure and simple. If I go there, I can hunt.

I lost my mind to hunting years ago. It's a reflex now. If I receive any stimuli related to hunting, and I mean anything, I respond.

quote:

Originally posted by JudgeG:
NitroX:

If you are refering to me, I'm pretty sure that "dangerous" is a situation that I fully understand....

Not in particular. Bit touchy hey?

I really enjoy hunting dangerous game, water and cape buffalo and elephant so far only. Elephant hunting is great in fact and I'm addicted. Nothing like being in the middle of a herd of confused ele cows trampling down the bush. So I'm not knocking it at all.

But when planning to walk around a bush with a cow elephant waiting on the other side, knowing there is a PH behind you backing you up, makes a HUGE difference. Think about doing the same on your lonesome.

Statistically the PH has the far higher chance of being stomped than any client.

Also maybe a cultural difference, Aussies like to downplay danger.

I would think in terms of danger hunting in truely wild alpine terrain (terrain and weather) is far more dangerous than a modern hand-held safari.

JudgeG

To answer your original question in the first post.

Why do I hunt? Also hunt "dangerous" game?

Because it is in the genes. An unbroken genetic gene chain since when "Ugg" clobbered a saber tooth tiger with his club, or hunted Mammoth with a group of peers.

Because modern life is so incredibly mundane and boring, organised, controlled, monotonous, lifeless, somonified, ..... any individual with a spark of life has to get out there and do something different. To prove they are alive, at least to themselves.

Karen Blixen had an interesting quotation about Africans vs Europeans. That the thing Africans feared the most about Europeans was the threat of monotony.

People might ask when you tell them you hunt dangerous wild game, "what if you get killed?"

What if you never live? I think.


PS I wish we still had decent options of self-guided, self-organised safaris.

PPS I'm going out right now and hunt and kill something so signing off the keyboard.

Because I can, and those that can't just inspire me even more!

Judge G:

I have been hunting, with short interruptions, since I was 6 yrs old, when I got my first .410 shotgun. Back in May, I hunted a buff in Zim. Last month I hunted muledeer and elk in Colorado. Last week I hunted snipe in Veracruz and next month I will be hunting ducks and whitetail deer. I enjoy all types of hunting, although my favourite is certainly buffalo hunting in Africa. I do not hunt for trophies, but solely for the hunting experience.

I frequently get asked: 1) Why do you hunt? and 2) Do you enjoy killing animals?

My answer to question number 1) usually depends on who is asking it, and I think I have rationalized my instinctive urge to hunt in various ways not dissimilar to many of the opinions expressed here.

My answer to question number 2) has always been a simple and honest "no", as I do not particularly enjoy the killing part. However, I do it time after time, and I am of the opinion, pointedly expressed by Ortega y Gasset, that there cannot be hunting without killing.

I do not KNOW why I hunt. What I know is that my hunting imperative is borne out of irrational instinct, and that it is as powerful (and as expensive) as my sex drive.

My pet theory is that we hunters are evolutionary fossils, remnants from a time when as hunter gatherers we used to get the beautiful girls, because we put meat by their fire, and because they did not need costly cosmetic operations then. Instead, today we get mostly weird stares from them as soon as we mention that we hunt. Hunting has become so politically incorrect that I find myself avoiding talking openly about it, because in the meantime I find it increasingly boring to try to explain to a blind man what a colour looks like.

I do not know if there exists something like a hunting gene. What I have observed though is that the hunting instinct has the characteristic of a "gift", like having a musical ear or a predisposition for math or languages. One is born with it and whoever has it, finds he (or she) has to hunt from a very young age. Conversely, if you introduce or force someone who does not have the hunting predisposition to this activity, he will do it for a time, but later will change it for golf, parachuting or something similar or en vogue.

Real hunters, however, will always remain real hunters all their lives. They are the masochists that go camping in freezing weather in order to hunt, although they do not like camping as such. They are the ones noticing birds that no one in the city seems to detect. They see tracks on the walkways in their cities when they walk to the supermarket. When they are driving, they are on the lookout for animals. They are the ones who know the current moon phase, a totally useless piece of knowledge in modern urban society. They idle fantasizing half a year waiting for the hunting season. Some are wealthy enough to hunt in other continents to "flatten out" the waiting period. You know the feeling...

They frequently even sculpt their lifes around hunting. Some of them marry and become a nuisance for their wives and children, because they are hunting-junkies and simply cannot stop doing it. Some even become PHs against all logic, because they will never earn as much as Tiger Woods in this profession (avoid looking at this problem on a risk-adjusted basis, because PHs, and their wives, would then have to be classified as complete madmen...)

Rationalizing hunting is impossible. Only hunters (and their hunting dogs...) understand hunters and hunting.

Antonio

I have not (yet!) been hunting for dangerous game, but I have been hunting since the laws of my state allowed me to, over thirty years ago, and have been around the hunters of my family all my life. I have not yet been able to put into words, to my satisfaction at least, the answer to why I hunt. I do know, as others here have said, that I must hunt. I am very fortunate to have a wife that doesn't hunt but does understand that I have to. (She also likes having game on the table nearly every day.)
I don't feel as *alive* when doing anything else as I do when I'm out in the woods or in the field carrying a gun, bow or fly rod. (Trout fishing is a sort of hunting, though not generally dangerous.)
A couple weeks ago I snuck out of work early because a monster cold front was coming through with the temperature predicted to drop about 20 degrees: prime duck hunting! I went out to the marsh anticipating some fast pass shooting. When I got there it was raining and sleeting and blowing hard. There was thunder and lightning. As the afternoon became dusk, the rain turned to snow that fell in clumps that you could hear when they landed. It was wet and cold-- and there were no ducks. But I was having a ball. I was the predator in that environment, just as much as the hawk or the coyote. Had I been sitting there in that cold marsh without a shotgun in my hand, I would have been just sitting there in the cold.
Now, could I explain to my wife of eighteen years why I have to do that sort of thing? I've tried, but I don't think she quite gets it. (As I said before, she's happy to see me do it anyway.)But you folks do, I'm sure.

Antonio: That was a GREAT post. From my perspective, it was right on the money. Bien Hecho! jorge

"We humans are predators; have been and always will be. "

true true...

with our eyes on the front of our heads, not the sides...that says it all.

Asking "why" we hunt (be it dangerous stuff or not) is like asking why we breath... same answer - to live.

Hunting is not something you can teach someone who's not interested. Neither can it be totally removed from someone who is. You can take the former hunting and maybe he'll even be successful but that doesn't make him a hunter. The latter can stop hunting but his interest will always be piqued when he over hears a conversation of game.

Yes, for the true hunter, hunting is to live and to explain it to a non-hunter is fruitless!

I hunt elephant to test myself, to test my hunting skills, shooting ability, calmness under stress and yes to test whether I have the balls to handle a dangerous situation.

465H&H

Antonio:

That was a good post. I have structured many things around my life that enable me to hunt...my spouse, for example. I just cannot be with any woman who could not or would not tolerate my hunting habit. I structured my work life around hunting - I started my own software firm not because I wanted to drive BMWs, but because I wanted the flexibility to hunt when (time off) and where (money) I wanted to.

The danger stuff, et al is a bunch of crap IMO. I climb mountains for fun too, and I can guarantee that is more dangerous than any DG hunt. Annapurna has a death to successful summit rate of nearly 40% - meaning that for every 100 successful summits, 40 have died trying.

But at the end of the day, while it is a lifestyle, I can guarantee that if I knew I was dying tomorrow, I would not be hunting nor would I be mountain climbing. How you answer that question tells you what is really important in life.

quote:

Originally posted by 465H&H:
I hunt elephant to test myself, to test my hunting skills, shooting ability, calmness under stress and yes to test whether I have the balls to handle a dangerous situation.

465H&H

me too, for the exact reason and i'm good at it and getting better. b the time i reach 30 elephants i'll be sorted.