Why Hunt?

27 December 2001, 14:34

HunterJim

If you have not done so, I recommend Jose Ortega y Gasset's Meditations on Hunting.

Or the North American philosopher, Sitting Bull, who is reported to have said:

"I decided that unless I become a vegetarian I'll get my meat by hunting for it. I feel absolutely unabashed by the arguments of other carnivores who get their meat in plastic with blue numbers on it. Anyway I've seen slaughterhouses, and anyway, as Sitting Bull said, when the buffalo are gone, we will hunt mice, for we are hunters and we want our freedom." Thomas McGuane, An Outside Chance, 1980.

For me our species is about 250,000 years old, and it is only the last 10,000 years or so that the farmers came into the picture. I hunt because grew up hunting. Now that I have been doing it for some while, and thought about the why of it and my experiences with animals in the field I hunt because I am a hunter. If the Animal Rights Fanatics succeed in banning hunting, then I will hunt them too.

jim dodd

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"if you are to busy to
hunt, you are too busy."

27 December 2001, 14:46

Wendell Reich

Gonzolas,

I presented this same topic a few months ago and got some good replies.

I had a different angle however. I asked the question to prepare you for the answer when you are asked to give it, whether it be to a small child or a grown adult. Our heritage is in our hands and it is solely up to us to protect it. Unless we can competently answer this question, we are finished.

I look forward to hearing others chime in on this one.

Good topic.

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Wendell Reich
Hunter's Quest International

[This message has been edited by Buffalobwana (edited 12-27-2001).]

27 December 2001, 15:55

Aquavit

Why do people pay 5 bucks for a cup of coffee?

Why is Malthus so misunderstood?

Why the need to explain yourself?

27 December 2001, 17:13

<ovis>

I have to chuckle when someone equates "spiritual mumbojumbo" and hunting in a bad light. We all have reasons, however personal, for doing what we do. We all have to believe in something, however foolish, it may seem to someone else. It may behoove us all to look at what we have in a more spiritual aspect before we blink and it's no longer there.

27 December 2001, 17:40

McCray

I like to keep it simple.

I hunt because I am a hunter.

There is always a market for making the clear complex.

27 December 2001, 18:05

If the anti gunners succeed in banning firearms and hunting they will not stop at that, fishing will be next, followed by trail bike riding both those sports are already under scrutiny. These so called "greens" are the scourge of the earth, they are insecure people whom attempt to display an individuality by wearing clothes from opp-shops, protesting and getting there hair styled with dreadlocks. What they don't see is that they are also following a crowd, and in there attempt to be different, are in actual fact bigger sheep than those who just live there lives and not attempt to identify with any societal faction. I do not harm anyone with my hunting, or attempt to impose it on those who wish not to hunt, but why should I and my fellow companions be subjected to a lifestyle of sitting in cafe's drinking coffee, because some moronic ignorant selfish individuals in our society feel that I should conform to there pathetic non-founded unsubstansiated values and beleifs.

So I often pose the question to these people, how would you feel being on the end of having something you love and enjoy being taken from you, such as dope, dreadlocks and welfare payments???.

Regards PC

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27 December 2001, 18:13

Eterry

I grew up hunting, have hunted almost all of my life. Without too much psycho-babble, I truly enjoy being in the woods, it is quiet, away from the hustle and bustle, I love to see the different animals. I have never hunted for trophies, they were just a bonus.
Like my high school friend and life long hunting buddy says;"Hunting and fishing isn't cheap, but it sure beats therapy."
Good luck and good hunting

27 December 2001, 18:55

Brian M

My reasons are few and simple-

1)Hunting is ingrained in my personality.I have been hunting since infancy (in a backpack carrier on my father's back).If you had been say,a classical pianist since infancy,my bet is you'ld probibly play until you simply couldn't anymore.Same with me and hunting.

2)I like to eat wild game.Sure beats eating drug fed cattle.

PC is correct,the anti's will not stop after firearms and hunting are banned (and trust me,they will be some day).Once firearms and hunting are gone,they will stop fishing and all outdoor activity.Then they will try to close off all the forests to ANYTHING.Why?Well,99% of all anti's live in big citys which they've never been out of.They could care less about the forest,since in reality most have never seen one other then on cable.BUT,they simply cringe at the thought of a snail being stepped on,and they just won't stand for that.

One day,hunting will be gone.PETA is already jobbying congress to have the law against harrassing hunters dropped,as in their own words they say they are "defending the wildlife".You cannot legally harrass someone on the street,so I see no reason why they should be able to do the same thing but only in the woods.

We are having quite a few problems with PETA folks here.A bunch of them will drive out on a ridge during deer season,and simply blaze away to scare the deer off.This season I hunted most every day,and every Friday or Saturday,from one location (different each week)there would be a minimum of 1,000 rounds fired,and in a fairly short time.There is no way someone even blazing away could do this-it was simply shooting done by PETA to scare away game.I tried to chase them down several times but they were always a step ahead.I have heard about this happening in other locations as well.What really frightens me are the extremists-like the ones who skied between hunters and buffalo a few years back.Some PETA and PETA related orginizatiosn have even threatened physical harm to hunters.I don't know about you,but about the last person I'd try to threaten or hurt would be someone with a rifle or shotgun in their hands.

Ok,my ramblings are done!

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I'm out to wrong rights,depress the opressed,and generaly make an ass of myself!

27 December 2001, 19:41

Fred B

Peta was up here last week in front elementry schools trying to convince kids that milk was bad and anything to do with diary animals was evil. Is there a minimum cal you guys can recommend for a Peta member or woould it be lost in a pile crap.

Happy Hunting

27 December 2001, 20:14

8MM OR MORE

For me, hunting is very simple. I like deer, elk, moose, wild game of most any kind, better than beef. it is better eating!! There is some science studies that have shown wild game is better for you than beef!! A week in the mountains is a pleasure even if you don't get your game. While there are a few bad apples, for the most part hunters are pretty good people to be around and converse with. I'm sure there are plenty of nice folks who don't hunt or eat meat, I guess I have't been exposed to very many of them. I don't really have a problem with them, as long as they realize that I feel my choice of hunting and eating meat is OK for me, I don't force it on them and expect the same from them. I wish they would realize that death by a well placed bullet is much more humane than starving, being run over be a car, being chased down by their pet dogs, for the typical game animal. I think I had better quit before I find I can no longer be civil!!!

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Good Shooting!

27 December 2001, 20:28

Saad

Well, I have following thoughts on this matter,

Most of the normal human beings have one or more passions, hobbies or interests in their lives. Everyone has the right to choose his/her hobby/interest UNTIL & UNLESS that hobby (or whatever you call it) does not harm any other human being or exploit the Natural Resources.

IMHO this planet earth and its all resources (and for that matter whole of universe) is the property of God and we the human kind are its custodians. All human beings are created equal, thus have equal share of these resources. We have to pass it to our next generations, after the PROPER UTILIZATION of it. All of these resources are created for OUR benefit, be it by consuming them or conserving them or both. We cannot survive without utilizing any or all of these resources.

Now if someone utilizes nature's resources throughout his/her life i.e., eating grains, vegetables and fruits, drinking water, inhaling oxygen, using wood, coal, oil and gas, wearing cotton, wool and leather, smoking tobacco, sitting in the shade of trees, enjoying the sun, ploughing the earth to grow crops and animal fodder, digging the mountains to extract metals and minerals, using rivers to generate electricity, using chemicals and plants for medicines, erecting our homes on the face of earth, burying our dead in the soil or burning them to ashes to be flown in water or scattered on earth, disposing our wastes in earth, water and space.... THEN WHY ON EARTH cannot eat meat and harvest animals, birds and fish. Can any of bunny huggers or so called animal right activists deny ALL above mentioned utilization of natural resources? NO. If not then why criticize a hunter? Hunters equally own natural resources, including wildlife, and no one has the right to remind and interpret to us about any rights possessed by animals.

If one could understand the process of nature, order of food chain, importance of wetlands and forests, impact of wildlife and its habitat on human life and agriculture, it will be obvious that legitimate hunting & fishing in no way harms natural resources but is a must to conserve them. Hunting do provide funds to manage these resources.

Hunting is a hobby that is healthy and natural and does not harm other human beings and does not exploit natural resources. If I have the right to choose my hobby and I care about its impact on others, on nature and on our future generations, I will choose to hunt. If anybody wants to play football, I do not object. But if anybody wants to use his/her ideology to stop me from practicing my hobby, I will object.

Saad

28 December 2001, 02:20

<gamecock>

I would also recommend Ruark's "Horn of the Hunter." There are several passages therein that should make you pause and stare deep into your ancient ancestory; if it does, then you will know why you hunt.

28 December 2001, 03:15

<heavy varmint>

I do love to hunt but even on cold, rainy, or snowy mornings when I would rather stay under the nice, warm covers I force myself out of bed to go hunt just as I would to go to work so there has to be a deeper reason than just a sport we enjoy.

28 December 2001, 03:25

<hunting1>

I would symply have to say that it is like air for me. Other than my family it was I live for. I could never explain it , but I try with my son.

It is indeed spirital. I also enjoy the meat a great deal, but I truly love the animals I pursue or respect either way it it has been in me since a young age and I have no idea what I would do if I were told I couldn't anymore.

God Bless and good shooting!

28 December 2001, 03:31

D Humbarger

Gonzolas who let these morons in the school to poison our children in the first place. If this had happened here in the states I'd be right in the school boards face & it wouldn't be pretty.

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NRA Life member

28 December 2001, 05:28

Fred B

Bear Claw,
They wern't in the schols they stayed on the outside like protest rallies at certain schools. They were at some and not at others.They would go up to kids who were walking home. And there was a stink about it, as soon as they were found out it was shut down pretty quick. It just shows you what type of people they are by picking on kids.

28 December 2001, 06:40

<1LoneWolf>

I get that question all the time.

Best response, if you know the person, is to question their favorite sport. Such as, "Why golf?" "Why Racquet Ball?"

I mean, I love golf myself, however I see less reason to repeatedly hit a ball, follow it, and hit it again, when compared to a hunt.
A hunt supplies people with food, a hide that can be used for numerous things, and an "adventure". I mean, you never know exactly what is going to happen on a hunt.

When was the last time anyone brought something home you could use from a day golfing?
And I don't think I have ever seen anything edible on a racquet ball court.

29 December 2001, 01:03

Rusty Gunn

I suppose I could say my people(Inupiaq Eskimos) have been hunting for thousands of years for their mere survival, and being a decendent I do likewise. But, they'll likely say something stupid to offend me and my people, so I imagine(never having been asked) I'd say something like, "I'd hunt for you as well, but I don't feed vermin!" ~~~Suluuq

29 December 2001, 01:23

<Reloader66>

Why do I hunt? Simply put, I hunt because it is Gods Plan as it is written in the Holy Bible, so shall it come to pass. Genesis, Chapter 1 Verse 26 Read The Passage. No other explanation is needed. Gods Holy Words set to print is known as Devine Law and no man can change Devine law for His Holy Spoken Words Is The Law Unto The Land set in print and can never be struck down by mortal man.

29 December 2001, 03:59

<DuaneinND>

I hunt because my father hunts, and his father before him and his father and on and on. This country exsists because somebody learned how to hunt- up to that point the colonies didn't survive. Hunting is part of our Heritage, and should be Honored, preserved and taught in that context.

29 December 2001, 04:53

<X-Ring>

I have many reasons why I hunt.
I was born into a family of hunters, but thats not all of it.
The only good memories of my father when I was a kid are of hunting with him, but thats not all of it either.
As a Christian, as Relaoder66 stated I feel it's my God given right.
Why do I hunt? Because it is who I am. I am S.C. Blair I'm a Husband, Father, Christian ,Biker, Son, Brother,Uncle, and yes by all means I'm a hunter! And if you ask the right people there are a few other things I have been called

X-Ring AKA Scooter

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Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition!

29 December 2001, 18:17

Socrates

The thrill of the hunt, the adrenilin of going after something large, or elusive.

Only difference is, I decided I would rather take a picture, but, I understand the hunting urge.

My experience with surfing, scuba, and snorkling are about as close as I could get to the gentlemen here and their hunting.

I surf because I like trying to chase down waves, catch and ride them.

Snorkling, I enjoy chasing fish, seeing if I can catch, or spear them.

Only thing is, I usually decide the fish should be allowed to live another day, or, they are way better in the water then I am, and stay out of range.

I think it's a really primal essence of our being to hunt, and stalk food. It goes to the core of who we are, and, what we are.

As long as that urge doesn't over power, or destroy the object of our hunt, on a spieces level, no one's right to hunt should be abriged.

One caution. When you combine hunting, and great economic gain, you have a recipe for destruction.

29 December 2001, 18:56

Wstrnhuntr

Last deer hunt a friend began getting irritated and difficult to be around because his chances of scoring were growing slim. He said "Im a meat hunter, I dont do this for the hell of it I want to put meat on the table". I hooked my trailer and left and wont hunt with him again. Venison in the freezer is great but there is so much more to it than that. For me its not how many fish, its the size of the biggest one.

Theres many reasons for hunting but I agree with socrates, its the thrill of the chase, the CHALLENGE of bringing home a trophy, and also the pure pleasure of everything it involves. The gear, the strategy, the outdoors and the wildlife. Never have I been more "in tune" with wild animals than when Im hunting them. We visit their homes, their young and observe everything about them.

Its the same reason that people play sports, the same reason that many sick individuals enjoy their jobs. Its a great and wonderfull challenge.

30 December 2001, 07:43

Fred B

I think Wstrnhuntr sums it up about perfectly.

Happy Hunting

30 December 2001, 14:07

<TomA>

Why do they wear leather shoes? Why do they eat at McDonalds? Why do they eat seafood? Why do they eat food they didn't harvest? Why do they drive SUV's that never leave pavement? Because they've got it easy, they are soft and lazy. They are ignorant, egotistical elitists that think since they've never seen it, it doesn't exist. Most are athiests or agnostics, that live half their lives on a phychiatrist's couch trying to justify their guilt ridden lifestyles. They ONLY wear loafers, slacks, and funny looking socks and always have their hands in their pockets. They sip wine and eat fish bait and pat each other on the back for non-existant accomplishments. Most have no real friends and they backbite anyone that has to be near them. They cheat on their spouses, have alternate lifestyles and think recreation has something to do with drugs.
Well, now that I've got that off my chest, I meant to say they are jealous of you and your ability to sustain yourself and your sanity. They can't stand to see someone really enjoy theirselves.

31 December 2001, 00:25

Socrates

I have to agree with the intune with nature.

While surfing outer reefs, with one or two friends, we are hunting monster waves, and the beauty and thrill is beyond imagination.

I used to go surf a place called Keana Point, with one friend, and it wouldn't break, unless the swell was at LEAST 20 feet.

The experience was really draining. It was so beautiful, yet, at the same time, so stressful.
The best way I could describe it is you have a certain number of hours, maybe 2, where the adrenilin overcomes the fear. After that, you had better come in...

We saw the most incredible things...
You guys want to hunt? Try watching a SIXTY foot whale, breach, with 50 feet of his body out of the water, and come down, less then a 1/4 mile away, with the sound and impact of a 105 cannon(easy comparision, since we could hear 105's going off in the mountains over the surf spot).

Getting out was an amazing experience. You had to weave through huge waves, on a path about 5-6 feet wide. It was a sand path through the coral, and it was like following the yellow brick road.

I am sure getting close to massive animals, like buffalo, and elephants, is similar, if on a MUCH smaller scale(dig, dig, dig;-)

We only had to worry about Tiger sharks eating us, and they only get 25 feet, and the size of a small submarine.

None the less, nothing can come close to sitting in the middle of the Pacific, around a 1/2 mile or more from the beach, and experiencing these things. Simply incredible.

I'm sure hunting in Africa is the same.

It evokes the primal nature of man.

(Steps on to soapbox)
It never ceases to amaze me that we try and legislate away patterns of behavior that have been going on for 10,000, or more years.

We try and tell 14 year olds they can't have sex, when 100 years ago, or less, and in many other current countries, the age of 14 is old enough to both marry, work, and setup a family...

We try and tell people that hunting, something ingrained in the DNA of man kind, is no longer permited. How long has man hunted, 500,000 years?
Our audacity at trying to tell our fellow man what he should and should not do is truly amazing.

01 January 2002, 13:53

<Paladin>

I hunt becuse it is my heritage, both from genetics and my culture. Enough said.

Paladin

01 January 2002, 15:16

Nickudu

No activity I have experienced has given me greater peace, satisfaction, contentment ...
Nothing I have known has felt so right, come as innately or received my efforts so willingly. Somehow, I know there is nothing else ... not for me.

03 January 2002, 04:33

Mike in SC

It looks like half the responses here are at least a little combative or argumentative. I know we expect some PETA member to jump in our face one day and try to belittle our pastime. But it is vitally important that we are prepared to respond in an articulate way why we enjoy hunting, why it matters to us so much. This is for the curious child or adult who may one day take up the challenge of hunting. My father didn't own any guns, hunted once as a teen and was turned off to it by someone in the hunting party who did something gross. He grew up on a farm, so the killing for meat was already a way of life. I wanted to hunt since I was a child, but had no one in my family to take me, no one who even knew anyone who did. I started at the age of 30 and had a pretty steep learning curve. Now my dad is interested, partly because of my descriptions of the time I spend in the woods, the excitement of seeing different game, and the heart pounding moments before and after the kill.
It's important to take the question seriously now, get your answer ready. Some of these people honestly want to know, others have made up their minds. Mike.

03 January 2002, 09:11

<Delta Hunter>

Like the late great Finn Aagaard, I hunt because I am a hunter, pure and simple.

03 January 2002, 09:54

Recono

[This message has been edited by Recono (edited 01-03-2002).]

03 January 2002, 12:31

<csj>

I think Neil Smith said it best in his short story Letter From a Killer Ape.

For uncounted millions of years -- since long before they were fully human, in fact -- people have hunted animals. If there's anything for which we human beings are best suited, anything for which evolution has naturally selected us, it is this.

For better and for worse, not only in my own opinion, but in that of such diverse thinkers as Robert Ardrey, Jose Ortega y Gassett, Louis B. Leakey, and Ernest Hemingway (to mention only a few), hunting is what made us what we are. It's often regarded by the ignorant and naive as a source of evil; far likelier it's the source of whatever kindness, nobility, and aspiration we possess.

Unfortunately, just like a lot of other basic, earthy human activities -- like sex, for instance, like childbirth, like Cuban cigars -- it can't adequately be described to the uninitiated, and can be understood (if at all) only by someone who has experienced it.

I'm a hunter. Although I fail to fit the popular image of a loudmouthed beer-guzzling machinegunner of the countryside which the media have invented (and have come, themselves, to believe). I'm a scholar, a philosopher, the author of seventeen published novels, many short stories, and numberless essays like this one. Unprovoked, I'm a relatively gentle soul, a reader, a student of economics and history, a writer, a husband and father, a changer of diapers.

Yet I've held big game animals in my rifle and pistol sights and felt my pulse throb, felt my blood sing with a melody vastly older than the human race. I've pulled the trigger and ended the life of a creature my own size. (Understand that "sportsmanship" has nothing at all to do with it. The animal is prey and I am a predator, from an ancient, honorable line of predators whose natural weapon, from slingstone to scoped rifle, is technology. Is the cougar concerned with sportsmanship when she breaks a rabbit's frail neck with her massive fangs? Then why should I -- an organism just as natural as she is -- be any more concerned than she is?)

I've butchered an animal my own size with a knife, been steeped in its blood up to my elbows (certainly not the most pleasant of experiences, but one you accept as a responsibility of the hunt), smelled its hot viscera steaming into the morning mountain air, and taken it -- my own weight in meat -- back home to nourish my family. No camera "hunt" can touch on this primal experience, any more than a trip to the grocery store can. I am a "killer ape"; I acknowledge it; I accept it; I rejoice in it. Hunting has given me the place I occupy as a creature of history and nature, it took men to the moon, and it will take them to the stars.

In localities where people don't hunt, they often kill each other by the thousands, instead. People who won't hunt animals -- people like the anti-hunting simpletons infesting the media -- usually spend their time and energy hunting down and murdering other people's dreams. Don't talk to me about animal rights -- animals have no rights, only humans do, since rights are a purely human idea which without a doubt arose in bands of humans hunting together. People who claim to speak for the rights of animals are no more entitled -- and no more credible -- than those who claim to speak for the non-existent rights of the not-yet-human fetus.

To deliberately hunt members of your own species (especially at the behest of man's natural enemy, the state) is a perversion. However, to murder the dreams of others in order to aggrandize yourself is even worse than a perversion, and there may be no adequately disgusting word for it. So leave me and my dream, my primal experience, my communication with my ancient heritage -- alone.

And I will leave you alone to pursue your own dreams and experiences.

[This message has been edited by csj (edited 01-03-2002).]