Why Do You Hunt?

[TheKnack]

To me there is an easy-

I grew up hunting with my father.
Have always had a desire to get into the woods every chance I can and still do.
Hunting to me is not a race or contest to see who is the best. It has always been me one on one, trying to outwit whatever it may be that I am hunting.

As I grew older the same bucks that got my blood pumping when I was young became less challenging to me to get each year. "Any deer you get is a good one as long as you are happy with it"...Regardless of what anyone thinks.

The challenge or what I consider a challenge became very important on me deciding to shoot or go home empty handed more every year.
I still enjoy the woods with the chance of me getting my own personal idea of the perfect smartest buck.
I hunt solo more than with friends because it is hard to find guy's as "Crazy" as I am so they say...They enjoy sitting in camp and relaxing more than I ever could bear but I do not look down on them.
I congratulate them each year whether they get a doe, buck or have a outrageous story to share. They are still my friends.

It seems to me that each year many forget why they hunt.
Is it to challenge ones self against nature or is it to get away from the hustle and boring routines of society.
Maybe it's a combination of many things.

I hunt for the challenge, sites, sounds, memories and so much more that keep me going back each year.

To me it is ashame that I see a trend where many are looked at as bad hunters because they do not shoot the biggest buck.
If a guy shoots a deer under 180 it's just a dink....Heck it could be the guy's dream buck but of course there are better.
Really sad to see some treat the sport like it's a job with everyone trying to be a CEO in charge.

Who here feels that they are a failure if they do not get a monster buck each year?....You should't! Enjoy your hunt and your ultimate idea of a succesful hunt regardless if you got a deer or came home with nothing but great memories.

It is easy to get caught up in the present world of monster deer videos, super succesful monster deer hunters, pictures and stories.
To most of us deer we see taken each year or in film are a once in a lifetime acheivement. Maybe that is what keeps us coming back for more.
Maybe this will be the year I get my dream buck we think to ourselves.

Enjoy the woods for none other than your own reasons.
I know I do.
Wish you all the best in your time in our great outdoors
Best,
Jerry

 

[Roy]

UTROY
Proverbs 21:19 (why I hunt!)

 

[polarbear]

I hunt because it is spiritual like to me. I am not religious so I find my salvation and inner peace in the woods or on the water. A person can leave all of the hang-ups and problems of life at the trailhead or boat ramp for little while. I also hunt alone most of the time, it enables me to focus more clearly on my task at hand. I dont have to worry about messing up someone elses hunt or havin them screw up mine. I raise beef cattle, so I dont need the meat. I find a greater inner satifaction by just being in the woods without the pressure of having to bag something just to fill the freezer or prove that I am a man. I only shoot quality animals for that reason as well. I have nothing against folks that hunt for meat, I use to do it as well. I have come to a point in my life where passing up an ok buck and coming home empty handed is just as satifying as shooting a big one. The outdoors is my church and I worship as often as I can, but not as much as I would like.

Eric

 

[nfh]

its a good time for me to spend with the family. the food and being in the outdoors, also the challenge and i set my goals bigger and bigger every year.

THE NORTH FORK HUNTER

 

[clyde]

along with family traditions, I hunt for the pure enjoyment of being one with nature when I'm in the outdoors. Youre senses our heightened and you get that deep down feeling that I can't explain in words but we all know it and it draws us in.



clyde

 

[ktc]

That was pretty good Knack.

I think anything used to be good years ago, then I challenged myself to do better. I have lots of decent bucks that I am proud of, but not that one monster.

I do want that one that is truly big and it would leave no doubt about his big size. I do get a little jealous sometimes at these guys who seem to have it down year after year. I have done the best I know how, but that one big buck has never presented himself. I guess that keeps me interested in getting up at 3 a.m. searching for the one I could go to my grave happy with.

I think I also go because I don't know anything different?

 

[WyoXtec]

A big part of it is simply the challenge and love of the outdoors. When you spend a good portion of your life either thinking about hunting, wishing you were hunting or even playing the NR tag games and looking forward to the draw results (or not) then you know you love to hunt. The actual time spent hunting is never enough, that is why most die hards are more or less trophy hunters. They can't stand to end a hunt early so they hold out for a pig and enjoy the opportunity of that small amount of time actually spent hunting. My two cents.

WYOXTEC

 

[HunterHarry]

PolarBear.
Eric,
Everything you said.
I was going to write the exact same thing word for word.
HH

 

[oneshotonekill]

Why do i hunt? I like what someone said about, about not being very religious and hunting is spirutal. Too get up at 3 or 4 in the morning, make a long treck up a mountain road to the ridge were you are going to make ur hike up to your favor hunting spot. Breathing the crisp mountain morning air. Everything is soo quite, you are at peace to yourself. My grandpa told me..you can't be any closer to god than on a high peak in the mountains. To past and the traditions of marking the days off on the calender to when you leave for the big hunt, setting up tents and stoves for a week in elk camp. Its what i live for. I think you can learn more about life hunting than alot of other things in this world. And to live for the day when you get to pass on all the tricks and trades of the sport to your own kids. To show them how to respect the land and gods creatures. Thats why i hunt, because its a piece of me, its what makes me who i am.

one shot

 

[nmtaxi]

Life sure does seem more simple when we're out there, huh? The only time you're in a hurry is to get up the mountain before the sun's up. Then, everything moves slower. You find joy in the simplest things, like a fresh pile of crap on the ground. I can't think of any other situation where that would actually excite somebody to the point they would pick it up and squeeze just to make sure it's as fresh as it looks .

 

[Phantom Hunter]

I hunt because I love it. I love being outdoors and connecting with the wild. I would like to kill a huge trophy like anyone else, but that is not the most important thing to me. I feel a great satisfaction in providing for the table, although I could afford store-bought meat. My family loves to eat elk and deer. A small, non-typical, messed-up-rack buck is just as good as a doe on the table. I also hunt to spend time with my kids, both of whom like to hunt.

Phantom Hunter

 

[wehunt]

hunting is my sex, my night out at the bars, my addiction. hunting has been so much to me that I can't even find the words. four years ago I found out i had a heart problem while on a bow hunting trip to montana. I got home and went to see the doctor and in two days they were in my heart opening a blocked artery. before going into surgery while laying on the table all i could think of was my family and how many hunting trips i will miss with my son, its all i look forward too. I have been lucky and shot many big bucks, but the ones that give me that special feeling now are the ones that i help my son and my good friends get.

 

[Bob D.]

Hey, for you guys who are good at putting this kind of thing into words, you ought to enter this essay contest the Sierra Club is putting on. The subject of which is "Why I Hunt." The prize is a hunting/fishing trip to Alaska worth over $12,000. Sure wish I was a better writer. I'd give it a try. If you want to check it out:

http://www.sierraclub.org/huntingfishing/whyihunt/

 

[peakfreak]

I love hunting because the scenery never changes. I love going back to the place I shot my first buck and reliving it with whoever I'm with. It's a tradition I can't live without. What I don't understand is why I like killing animals I love so much. When I was young if it moved it was dead. Now I say let them grow old then take em before something else does.
Nothing brings family and friends together like hunting. My fondest memories are of going hunting with those I love most. Long live hunting the greatest sport I've ever played.

 

[Califelkslayer]

Let me name the reasons. It might be sharing the anticipation with my son 30 minutes before daylight when the bulls are bugling, it might be ducks landing in the dekes before daylight with ideal weather conditions, it might be watching the dog when she gets her first whiff of a covey of chukar and I decide how I'm gonna get to them before they take flight, it might be when my horse locks up and I see the tan hide of elk through the trees, it might be spotting that muley buck 1&1/2 miles away that is just getting ready to bed, it might be the lead cow coming to water under my treestand. The common idea here for me is the anticipation. Other than seeing my son harvest and the excitement that goes along with that, the rush you get right before something happens does it for me. The kill is a distance second.

I forgot to mention the things you see while in the woods, desert or marsh that you would never experence if you didn't hunt.

 

[eelgrass]

I also like hunting for all the reasons most of you have so elequently stated. I would only add, for myself, that a big reason I hunt is to kill the animal I am after. I can enjoy all the rest of it during the long off season. When hunting season arrives I try and lock in on that one goal. That's not to say I don't enjoy the rest of it, I do. But during season a primal instinct takes over. I want to possess the animal, put my tag on it, and carry it home proudly. For me nothing makes hunting more enjoyable than the sweet smell of success! Ethically and within the law I should add!

Comming home empty handed is still much better than working though!

Steve

 

[shadowstalker]

why not just hike and take pictures ? Because the thrill is not the same .Bet $20 on the roll of the dice and then bet $500 . feel the difference?

 

[freedivr2]

Real good thread, Jerry, thanks for putting it up. Actually this is a tough question because there are many reasons, and all of them are important in different ways.

My family loves the taste of deer, dove and quail (and if I ever get lucky enough to take an elk, I'm bettin they'll like that a bunch). Wild game isn't full of hormones or fat, and that makes me feel good about providing it to my loved ones. I love learning new skills and techniques every year that improve my ability to locate and stalk close to critters, and I feel I'm doing better every year. I love the smell of sagebrush, walking in the black timber and hearing partially felled blowdowns rubbing together, sounding like a creaky old house in the wind. I love the unexpected shrill call of a bull elk bugle when least expected. The anticipation of a covey of quail you've located that are about to flush, and you realize it's not a few birds, but numbering in the hundreds and you just plain freeze up at the wonderment of the birds flushing all around you.

Living near the beach, I don't see a lot of Aspen or Black timber year round, so walking in it for just one week out of the year is a treat in itself. Being the first human being to touch my dispatched deer or quail is special all in itself, and it is just as special and seemingly new to me every single time it happens.

After operations on both my knees, I truly appreciate the fact that I can hike all day long and again the next day up and down mountains and traverse sidehills and negotiate shale.

I love passing on a few dinks the first couple days of the hunt looking for Mr. Big, anticipating that he could be just over the next ridge or popup in an aspen grove at any minute.

I love the way your mind races about everything during a stalk. And the way your mind wanders during an early afternoon snooze under an aspen.

Hunting has become a very special food for my soul that I will try my best to enjoy and give something back to as long as I physically can do so. God I love a good hunt.....

 

[ridgerunner]

I hunt for the escape it offers me from this crazy messed up world we live in. For a chance to go back to a simpler time where it was only up to you whether you ate meat that winter or not. For the opportunity to be out in some of God's most awesome creation. For the thrill of hearing a bull elk bugle in the timber, or the anticipation the night before opening day of what memories will be made the next day. For the love of spotting deer high in an Alpine basin without a care in the world. To provide healthy food for my family, I hunt becuase it is a part of me and helps me feel more alive. Hunting season is always too short, but thankfully there are many memories to recall or dreams to dream of another great hunt. At one point I became focused on the size of the rack, no longer, although I one day will tag the buck of my dreams.

I hunt becuase I cannot imagine how empty and dull my life would be if I didn't.

 

[moneyman]

Because I suck at fishing and golf is GAY.

 

[powderburn]

It's one of a couple things that I do that take me back to that childhood thought process where you live for the moment and remember for a lifetime. No worries about tomorrow, next week or next month just the moment at hand. My father-inlaw used to say you jump on the merry go round of life and it does nothing but pick up speed. Hunting to me is stepping off the merry go round and smelling the flowers.