Works for me!

Mostly for food, I don't care about trophies. I prefer the bush to the city.

I outgrew the trophy stage long ago, I hunt today for meat. That simple. Now my kids, I think they are in the trophy stage.

ASS_CLOWN

Mental ironing. Hunting or fishing time is the only time I can really relax and think clearly. Something inside of me just knows it's right. Can't explain it.>John

Trophies are nice but I am a meat hunter pure and simple. I do hunt for the enjoyment of the outdoors. I like all outdoors activities. Hunting is a form of relaxation for me, a time to think. But the meat is very important to me and I take several Doe every year. The meat does help the food bill as I butcher my own deer and grind my own burger, and even have started making my own venison sticks. It also allows for variety in my diet. I am fortunate enough to have a rather rare food allergy which makes eating beef and pork extremely hazzardous to my health (I like breathing). As a result venison forms a staple in my families diet. It does make it nessesary to do most of our cooking the old fashioned was ... from scratch since beef and pork are included in many things even under the label of "natural flavoring". Companies can use this term so long as the natural flavor makes up less than 1% of the food. Unfortunately that is enough to cause significant discomfort and other problems. Its found in all sorts of stuff like Chips of Hoy cookies (pork), ready bake biscuts (pork), BBQ sauces (beef and sometimes pork), bullion cubes, canned chicken soups and other canned or boxed chicken products (usually pork), and many other snack type foods. Processing my own deer allows full control over the process to include the grinding of the meat. If a processor was to grind my meat he would have to grind it first thing in the morning following sterilization of this equipment. If he ground beef or pork first I could not eat any of my ground venison. I am that sensitive.

There is a silver linning though ... my wife can NEVER tell me I CAN'T hunt.

I hunt because hunting makes me an active participant in nature as opposed to a spectator.

Jeff

I hunt because damn near have too. Not for economic or food reasons. But if I didn't hunt I couldn't be me... Quite honestly I think that it's genetic.

My parents were not hunters, but my grandfather is/was (he's 90 and doesn't get out much). Must skip a generation.

The first books that I remember reading over and over were hunting and outdoor books. I begged for a BB gun when I was around 8 and got a 22 when I was 10.

A divorce limited my hunting for a while, but it got me moved to a small town in Oklahoma for a few years where I could squirrel and rabbit hunt a bit.

Even then all I could think about was hunting and outdoors. Burned through books on hunting and the outdoors. Scouting helped satisfy some of that longing.

Eventually moved back to Oregon and as I got older could follow my own direction. First thing I did was buy an '06 and start hunting in earnest. Still have that rifle. Killed a lot of stuff including a leopard and a few other record book class african animals with it. But as we all know it's not the killing. Just the logical conclusion. It's the hunt that's important.

I still am obsessed with it. Some days all I can think about is hunting. Most of my best memories are around hunting (besides my wedding and birth of my son). It's all that my son and I have in common any more.

When driving or floating a rive, I'm always scanning for animals and planning stalks.

I've been around the world and seen some of the greatest cities on the planet. None of them give me the feeling of waking up in the high desert after a early morning rain and smelling the pungent odor of wet sage brush.

I've sat next to Bill Gates on a plane in first class to London. I'd have rather been next to a fire in my hunting camp in sub-zero weather, swapping lies with my buddies.

I've walked the Great Wall in China and I'd rather have been crawling on my belly trying to get just a few yards closer to make a shot.

I don't need to hunt. I have too...

-Steve

(Sorry, feeling a bit sentimental lately)

.............cause I suck at tennis and ping pong. I hunt because it is something that I was born into as many generations of my family were. It is as much a part of my life as all other things that make me...me. I would feel pretty empty about mid-fall without hunting and I miss it alot during the off season.

"Why do I hunt?"

There is nothing more Beautiful than a Flourescent Sunrise on a cold peaceful morning out in the Wild.

There is nothing like being in the peaceful wild and seeing all of God's beautiful creations. I can watch the squirrels play, hear the birds chirp, watch the deer graze, etc., etc.

A place where I can breath fresh air, relax, and be away from all of the noise from our day-to-day lives. There is just nothing like it.

I thank God everyday for the things he has allowed my family and I to do and all of his wonderful creations for us to marvel.

Some people need therapy, I think they just need to experience nature.

God Bless!

Reloader

Because I love it. Because it is primal. And because I can't not do it.

Is there anything more beautiful than some wild animal lying on the ground writhing and twitching after you just shot it in the back of the head? I think not.

cheaper than beef and more exciting than watching wheel of fortune.

I once had a young fellow ask me why I hunt. I simply told him "because it is a part of me". I think it was Chief Geronimo who said "when the buffalo are gone we will hunt mice for we are hunters" (or words to that effect). Sums up my sentiments quite well.

Great Posts,
My best answer would be because it is who I am. Nobody loves the animals I hunt more than me, as evidence by the pictures on my walls. Try explaining that to a anti.
I love the meat, but I get my biggest thrill when I outsmart a real trophy (rarely happens).
The thrill of a Elk bugle, when he is so close that I expect that I'll have to lower my head and do battle with him, just to get out of there.
The honk of Canadian geese. Watching the flocks of ducks who have figured out when shooting hours are over, as I trudge back from my blind.
It is the life I love,

I love the feeling of doing every single step with my food, from the forest to the table. Really great to do everything yourself, and konowing that my food was never in a cage.

Also it�s the challenge of the hunt and the rush. I have a friend that said it the best, "if you hunt, there is no reason to sky dive."

Johan

First, I'm a predator.
Second, I like the outdoors.
Third, I like the meat.
Fourth, in this politically correct society, it sets me apart as an individual.
Fifth, it lets me reaffirm my place in the food chain.
Sixth, it is my communion with God, and if I am very very lucky, he will call me just before daylight on opening morning
Russ

I hunt because my killer instinct tells me to do so. I just enjoy killing animals.

You know, I have to agree with what Indy and many others have said. It really is great to get out away from it all.

Sevens

Thank you for all the replies. It is funny how we can all agree on this one question with two pages of posts.

As hard as it can be to plead a case for meat hunting to others when it is much easier to run to the local grocer to get your meat, to me, hunting serves several purposes. First and foremost, hunting has always been a means of providing food for family and friends. As a college student in my last semester, It helps out a lot not having to but meat all the time. A freezer full of venison is great. Also, hunting has been and always will be something that I have grown up with and can share with my family and friends. Without getting too philosophical or sentimental, hunting is an important part of me and I believe that having a passion for something, whatever it may be, makes anyone a better person. Some race cars, others build furniture; I have an undying passion for hunting and the outdoors. I hope and pray that I can share the experience with my children and that they will pass it on to theirs as well. Just my thoughts in a nutshell.

Wyo

I have been reading a little Peter Capstick and it made me a little philisophical. In his foward to Death In The Long Grass he ventures his explination as to why we as modern day humans hunt. That got me to think about why I hunt. I do agree with Mr. Capstick that it does have something to do with a genetic predisposition as a predetor. I also agree and I think more so in my case is the challange of the hunt itself.
The closest thing to a dangerous game hunt that I have been on was a Black Bear hunt in Colorado a year ago. As I look back I think of the dangers that I placed myself in, not including the slim chance of a bear attack, but the slippery trails, the deep ravines, and the simple fact that you are in some of the most remote country that the lower 48 has to offer. Hunting is the last great adventure that we as civilized people have left.
Think about it. We have our thrill rides, bungee jumps, sky dives, mountain climbs, and bull rides but it all pales in compairison to a week in the outback of this world pursuing the game of choice whether it be for the table or for the wall.

Why do I hunt. The honest answer is I want to put heads on the wall.

Sevens

I hunt because it helps on my food bill, plus I love hunting, & working for my dad sence I was 8 or 9 years old out in his shop doing Taxidermy. So naturaly I have a fondness for lookin at all of my deer heads & other critters, that I have threw the house & out in my shop.

I always find that I enjoy hunting because it gives me the opportunity to be out in the real world; getting back to nature and what-not. A few days rummaging in manzanita brush and star thistle make me appreciate my air conditioner and running water.
For me it's not even about actually bringing home an animal (which doesn't happen very often) but more of just getting out there and trying. I end up with more pictures of flora and fawna than meat in the freezer!

79

Why?

Have you crouched behind a log, with golden aspen leaves falling like coins, while a 6-point bull elk stood 20 yards away, so close you could smell him?

Have you rounded the top of a hill just at dusk and come to an open park with a herd containing at least 25 bulls?

Have you stood on the open plains, with nothing to tell you which century it was, while a pronghorn buck gazed at you across the sage?

Have you lived on the tundra where there are no beer cans and no cell phone towers, and watched the caribou herds migrate as if it were the Pleistocene?

Have you seen a 9-foot bear without a fence between both of you, and wondered why it felt differently without the fence?

Did you ever wonder what the geese were crying when they came haunting across November's moon?

Why do I hunt? How should I know. Maybe because I want to know how it was before humans walked this earth, and how it will be again when we are long forgotten. Maybe I don't want to be counted among those puny beings who have nothing to look forward to but lying on the sofa and watching someone play football.

I hunt . . . .



to listen to the woods awaken at tweety-bird time in the early morning,



to watch all of the birds flit about,



to watch squirrels tightrope walk on grapevines with materials for a winters nest,



to see a fox follow my trail through the woods only to find it ends at the bottom of the tree my stand is in,



to smile at the fox as he looks up and sees me perched high in the tree looking down at him,



to watch a raccoon wander about the woods searching for a hapless mouse or persimmon,



to wake up in my treestand after 30 minutes of truly restful sleep,



to shoot a fine animal and end up with an excellent roast like the one we had for supper,



to share time with like minded individuals where time is unimportant,



and where one can see the glow of enjoyment from just the story of a track sighted on the trail,



of a glimpse of a fine animal with NO chance of harvewst, but joy of sighting it just the same,



to listen to tweety-bird time late in the afternoon as most of the woods bed for the night and,



just before the second best time to be in the woods,



I HUNT , , , , , , , ,



TO have NOT played golf.

I hunt because it is natural, and to spite those who think they know better. Look at what the politically correct have done for California. Now they are all either scrambling to get out of the shithole they created or engaging in same sex marriages.



Didnt those weenies ever get wild kingdom for chrissake? How about that "animals are people too" fool who fed himself to the grizzlies a few months back? I guess he really showed us primadonnas where the bears shit in the woods. Pathetic.



fug-gum. I shall continue to hunt until I cant hold a gun.



Oh, why do I hunt? Because I love it!