Seriously why do you hunt???
I've hunted as long as I can remember and will continue as long as I'm able but I have began to wonder why I/You/We hunt?
I live for openning days of whatever I'm hunting,dream of hunting big game world wide.
But if ask the question why I'm not sure why I do.Is it the chase,the adrenaline rush or just being out there.All I know is I do and I enjoy it very much but I just can't seem to put my finger on exactly why.
Why do you hunt?

It is in me. To not hunt would be un-natural to me. I long for the chase, successful or not.

It is a primal urge that can somehow skip a generation as my parents were not hunters. I do not know where I got it, but I certainly have it.

I understand your confusion on the issue. Why do you hunt? It is not an easy question to answer as we do not have to hunt to feed ourselves.

Why does my bird dog sit at the back door and tremble at the sight of game in the backyard? Because it is in him.

God gave me canines, teeth the tear meat apart. God gave me a stomach that is suited for digestion of animals flesh. God designed me to be a predator. God put my eyes on the front of my face, like a predator, instead of on the side of the head, like the food that the predator eats.

God made me a carnivore, a predator, a hunter. I am not unlike every other person in my physical and biological makeup.

I hunt because it is in me, it is who I am.

Given this information, a more appropriate question should be posed to a non-hunter.

Why don't you hunt?

With me, it�s genetic. My father hunted and therefore I hunt. I am who I am and what I am because my father took me hunting when I was young, and it was a good thing. My father also taught me to be a man, so putting my love of hunting off on him could not be a final answer. After a certain age, I had to come to terms with this obsession, this addiction, this willingness to spill the blood of Creation�s creatures for a drive that I find hard to explain 40 years after I carried my first gun into the field.

Hunting is ritual as well as skill. Over time, man turns important things into ritual without knowing why or even that he is doing it. Death is a universal truth; all things have a life span. Hunting is a connection to Nature that the non-hunting visitor to a national park or an urban ecology center can never understand. It takes a lifetime engaged in hunting to comprehend a few of its mysteries, and when we hunters finish our lives and hang up these bodies, most of why we hunt remains a mystery. That is how it should be.

I am a hunter and proud of it. Hunting is a human tradition and a fine tradition, learned from those who came before me. Before man civilized himself, he was a predator. It is good that some of us remember, revere and practice the ancient skills of the hunter. Not all men have to be priests, professors, engineers, or even hunters, but a few must keep alive the ancient skill of the hunter. I am one of them, one of the select.

I hunt, among other reasons, to get away from the industrialized, computerized man society insists I be. I take to the field to reach back in time and touch something primitive that I and humanity would be poorer for, if lost. If humanity looses the hunter, we will all become like an amnesia-plagued man that can�t remember who he is or where he came from or why he exists. Hunting is so old it is in man�s genetic makeup, an art so ancient we will never know its origin, except in our imagination. My ancestors were hunters long before there were modern animal rights activists and industrialists.

Hunting is a boiling down, a distillation of virtue, a human endeavor with its own ethics. Hunting is a connection to primitive man�s first virtue, that of caring for his family and keeping them fed and warm and safe.

I hunt, because the animals I stalk are the noblest creatures in creation. Who cannot marvel at the grace of a whitetail buck jumping a fence, or a bull elk running up a slope that makes a man dizzy just looking up? What heart is so hard that it will not flutter at the sight of a duck or goose setting wings over a slough at sunrise?

I hunt because the animals I pursue really have very little trouble outsmarting me, and that puts me and my reasoning mind and my modern tools and my university education in perspective. The animals I purse had the wit to outsmart me back when my ancestors were throwing rocks as weapons. Elk and deer aren�t impressed with my wealth or education or the money I spent on gold plated bullets and silver mounted weapons.

A fair young lass once told me in all seriousness that man has a thousand years of technology that should rid humanity of the awful practice of hunting. A thousand years between humanity and hunting? Shut down electricity and transportation system and it�s more like two weeks. If you need practical reasons as to why I hunt, the skill to survive is what I loathed to give up.

Mostly I hunt because of the solitude I find on the prairie and on the mountain. I am alone, but I am not lonely when hunting and in that solitude, I find the best in myself.

I hunt for the campfire and company of companions that share my passion.

I know in the scheme of man�s doings, hunting isn�t important. Considering the cost of meat in the store compared to what a pound of elk steak cost me, it�s really quite foolish, at least from an economic point of view. But while a supermarket can put a price tag on a prime steak, what price tag would adequately value a tenderloin cut from a fresh kill and grilled with companions over an open fire next to a mountain?

I hunt because doing so isn�t important, except to me; it�s who I am and what I am when I am alone and no one is watching.

Just as my Schnauzer is a hunter born and bred, so am I. I was also a soldier, knew I would be from the age of 4. Now, I'm not the best hunter, might not have been the best soldier, but as Popeye says, "I am what I am and that's all that I am."

Like you rws2, I don't really know. I used to hunt because I found it thrilling. I still do, but not to the same extent. I think part of it is that when I'm out hunting I can relive earlier, simpler, better times.

The stresses of work can be set aside for a while, and I can feel connected to my youth, and the people that I knew then, and have since died.

My battery gets re-charged just being out. I love to lock-in on a trophy. From first sighting, through the stalk, and finishing with the shot I am totally focused. I don't kill in a casual way. I think there is something primal about it.

I suspect that the majority of the people that don't hunt have had it bred out of them. The civilized world has allowed them to survive. Their ancestors would have been weeded out centuries ago except for the fact that we learned to domesticate animals and raise grains, so even the weak survived.

I just love to the thrill.

Has the leader on my hunting team say: "We hunters have no need for skydiving!" And that is true.

When I make a good kill I get all shakey. Last autum I was hunting grouse with a friend. A grouse shot out at my left at maybe 15m. I turned quicly and got a really good shot on him. He was going the opposite way that we where walking so I had to turn 180* to get him.

It was a good hit. So I whent down to pick him up. I called my friend and we had a short stop there. I picked it up and my hands where shaking. And my friend commented that my hands where shaking. A said of course they are! That's why I hunt, for the enomus thrill. I feel that same about moose, roe and other game birds.

So I hunt for the thrill of the kill and also I love to game meat to. I like to do it myself from the animal is alive to it's on the dinner table.

Johan

The fact that most of us haven't really thought about why we hunt is a clear indication that hunting can be considered to be a natural thing for humans. Hunting has kept us alive since dawn of man (no political message about evolution or no evolution woven into that sentence). Our ancestors liked hunting, became good at it and therefore they survived. These traits have been passed on through generations and survived til our days when it is no longer essential for our survival.

The same ancestors passed on other traits from the lo-food times in the past. Among many other things, these traits makes us eat too much in the autumn as a preparation for the winter. Our bodies prepare for high energy costs and lower prey abundances. Today, winter isn't associated with starving, but still we eat as if it was.

The rate at which human life has changed during the past 1000 years or so, is way to fast for human evolution. We simply can't keep up with the pace. Therefore, our construction and behavioural patterns are becoming obsolete. We become sick from the way we live and we do irrational things like hunting even if the freezer is full.

If we stopped doing all these irrational things we would probably get sick from that too...

[ 05-01-2003, 20:18: Message edited by: Olimahtes ]

I hunt because I can't not hunt, and I think it's the same for all of us on this board.

Hunting is a lifelong understanding of the skill and knowledge it takes to outsmart animals on their own turf, then using them to do it. Whether I use a rifle, a handgun, a camera or just go out to show someone else what a deer looks like, hunting moves me out of the false world we humans have made for ourselves and closer to my Creator.

Okie John

Hunting has always been a revered sport in my family. I can remember when I was a small lad, my Grandfather and Uncles checking the sights on their deer rifles and getting ready for deer season. I couldn't wait to get big enough to join the hunt. I guess the memories of those times are some of my most prized ones. The Good Lord has blessed me without measure and I have trophies from 5 continents and hope to make it 6 in the near future. I have one Uncle left that's 92 and he still kills his deer every year with a 44 Mag pistol. I get great joy in sharing my pictures of hunts around the world.

After reading the replys and thinking about it most of the day I will have to say my reasons are very much the same as everyone elses.
Without hunting I would be a very unhappy person.

Best topic and posts that I have read!!!!!!!!!!Why I huntI can not put it in to words, However I dream of hunting, enjoy hunting and its rewards, and am proud to be a hunter, and will always be a hunter!

[ 05-02-2003, 02:45: Message edited by: DickPal ]

To eat. I'm in Appalacia West, and subsistence hunting is very neccesary here for many. There are enough tags available for deer during regular season to fill most peoples needs.

I grew up hunting, I started following my Dad and uncles around at about 4, got to carry the bb gun at about 6, and my first shotgun at about 9. I don't really remember not hunting. I hunted, trapped, and fished all through my school years. As for a reason, I think it's much the same as the rest, it's just part of me and where I come from, and what I am. My Dad grew up during the depression years, and for them it was a way to survive. I find it comforting to know that if it came right down to it, I could feed my family with a garden and a gun and little else.

DGK

What else am I gonna do ........

Golf ?
Yard work ?
Hang out with the wife ?

You're kidding aren't you ?

The part of my brain that deals with the rat race and all the other daily grind crap gets to sleep, and the part of my brain that really loves life awakens when I hunt.

It's what I do.

I love the outdoors and all the challenges it offers.
I love the taste of wild game.
I am a very competative person by nature and my prey is allways willing to put up a good chase.

The day I'm no longer able to hunt, for what every reason, is the day I'm no longer free.

I get tired of shooting at paper and cans.

To get 20 feet closer to God. (It's an East coast thing)

When I began hunting I did it because I loved it, everything about it. The enrichment of the soul that just being in the great outdoors provides, the comaradery, (sp?) the smell of pancakes on a grill at O-dark thirty, four wheeling through the worst terrain on earth under horrible conditions and having a ball. And of corse the thrill of the chase.

About the first time I killed an animal and gutted it out I began asking the same questions, and I think I figured it out. I hunt to stay in touch with reality. When you watch carnivores doing their thing on the discovery channel, THAT is reality. That is the world we live in, like it or not.

I dont think cleaning out an animal that I just shot is much fun, but it dam sure makes me appreciate what it takes to make up a hamburger. And now, whenever I take out my knife and begin to clean out my quarry, that I as a man have been meant to have dominion over, I do so humbly and with a profound appreciation of what it all means. I think about how significant this bit of subsistence is, and yet how insignificant this one kill, that is mine, is in the grand scheme of things. We arent living in disneyland, there is a real world and mans dominion over animals is a part of it. Always has been and I will continue to hunt as long as it still is or until I am too old to gut um out.

Seems to me that a lot of Hollywood types could do with a healthy dose of reality thesedays.

Hunting, fishing, it's all good. Besides, I don't have to shave. It's a good change from the ratrace we call life. No phones and no computers.

Nobbody in my family ever hunted, but I feel an instinctive need to hunt. watching nature just doesn't do it. I love finding the game, getting close, and killing it. I love eating it, it is the best meat in the world.

Very interesting reading and good answers! Was a little bit afraid to here answers like "I'm born to kill" and "nice to practis on living targets". Can admit that many people in Sweden thinks that many americans are gunfreaks that shoots at everything!

Well I'm not sure why I hunt! Food and joy. Compete against the animals I admire (specialy the predators). The adrenaline kick. To improve my skills. To feel the connection with the ancestors. The feel of independent the subsistence hunting gives.

My dad hunted, out of five boys, I am the only one who hunted to any extent. Waterfowl is what I grew up hunting, along with all the other small game. I bought a 30-30 and the rest is history. From the 30-30 up to a .416, where next is anyones guess. I now hunt everything in North America and dream of Africa in 2004. Why, I still cannot say, my five grandsons look at all the mounted heads and rugs, and ask for the storys, which I am happy to recount. I shoot extensively, reload everything my whole family shoots. My son is 33 and has never shot a factory rifle load, nor have any of the grandsons. Keeps me out of grandmaws hair on cold winter nights I guess. Why do I hunt, when I find the answer I will post it here first. Good shooting.

[ 05-09-2003, 00:41: Message edited by: phurley ]

phurley,

Reading your post takes me back to my first Mallard. Slipping along the creek bank through the willows and flushing about 25 Mallards, I shot at the bunch and hit nothing. I was sick about missing out on getting one, but then one old Greenhead came up by himself and I swung past him and slapped the trigger on my dad's old parker double. My heart stopped as the big drake settled back to earth. I will carry that picture with me to my grave.

It gives me a good reason to get out close to nature. I see things that most moden humans will never see, except on the nature channel.

I like to eat what I kill, stuff out of the ordinary. Truth be known that's why I started in the first place. I was a wine salesman and very much into wine and food. One day I read how well game pairs with fine red wine and decided to do something about it. First and only one in my family.

I like being different from most of the folks around where I live. (NY)

I like the stuff. All the accoutrements, equipment, tinkering with guns, optics, all of it.

It's not a game, it's serious stuff, though we don't always have to serious about it. It is life and death.

It keeps me from having to play golf.

Recoil Rob

I've hunted ever since I shot my first pheasant (at 7 years of age, with my brother's RWS Diana .177 air rifle).

Why do I hunt? Because I am a hunter.

There are hunters, scavengers, and prey.... LOL! Dutch.

INTERESTING QUESTION...
I started walking pheasant fields with my father when I was 7 with my cut down Remmy 20ga.

Killed my first deer shortly thereafter.

Hunted all the time I was growning up. Deer, Moose, Bear...
then at age 21 I started a different kind of hunting.
I started hunting bad men. I became a police officer in one of the most violent cities in the United States. It kind of "colors" how you look at the rest of the world. When you are crawling a ghetto alley at 0 dark 30 looking for a junkie who just shot up a couple of people because he is desparate to fix...it gives a who new definition to hunting "dangerous game". When you are going into a ghetto high rise to seek out a guy who commited a double homicide, "stalking" takes on a whole new meaning. I also spent over 5 years working undercover narcotics. Went to Miami to "play" with the Cubans, to Chicago to "play" with the Mexicans. Went places and did things that people just shouldn't have to but it was the job. Got hired to kill people along the way.
I retired from my "jungle" mostly intact, and now work for a little rural dept.(it beats practising law) where the people wave with all FIVE fingers and the most serious crime of the month is the one minor bar scuffle. I still hunt, NOT for the thrill, because it just isn't the "same", but for the simple reason that the feeling of being out in nature somehow tends to cleanse my spirit from all the baggage I carry from my previous life. If I get something fine, if I don't fine too.
Pretty much the same reason I crawl up on my R1100GSA, to escape.

I hunt to be out "there"

Its not about the thrill for me. For me it is the chance to be outdoors and do something where I am alone and on my own.

I get as big of a kick out of simply watching a couple bears eating grass as I do from shooting one. Proabaly less from shooting one actually.

That just means work. Gotta gut it and pack it out of the bush. Load it in the truck. Get it hung up. Get it butchered.

Damn bear sausage is good too though.

After a year of stress and bullshit from my boss, job, ex-wife, current wife, kids, traffic, taxes, and government intervention, I have to say I hunt just because I like killing stuff... It makes the voices go away!

[ 05-11-2003, 16:11: Message edited by: Pa.Frank ]