I always use a stabilizer on my hunting bows........I'm for one not a fan of "Ultra Light" bows. The extra mass weight provided by a stabilizer helps steady out my aim considerably.....the trick is finding one that compliments your set-up.
A good stabilizer will not only help your aiming process , many of teh better ones do take quite a bit of any left-over shock , noise, vibration out of the bow when shot.
So now it's doing 3 things for me........making my aim steadier and quieting the bow noise, as well as making the bow more pleasant to shoot.
I want pin-point accuracy when I hunt regardless of yardage, so I shoot hunting set-ups very similar to what I will shoot in 3D competition. I know I shoot a heavier bow better, so my hunting bow is going to on the heavy side.
In my mind the animals deserve the best accuracy I can muster and for me hunting without the aid of a good stabilizer is a disadvantage.
Would I make 99% of the shots that I would make WITH a stabilizer?....probably, but to me the extra cost is worth the piece of mind.

But that's just me........if someone is just as confident in their ability and don't feel like their set-up can benefit from a stabilizer by all means that's the way you should hunt. I personally will always compliment my bows with a good stabilizer that helps the balance and shooting characteristics of each set-up.To me the benefits outweigh the potential negatives but that's something each shooter needs to assess for themselves.

Vaughn , in your case I can completely understand you not hunting with a stabilizer on your set-up. The inherent balance in your 2002 BowTech Patriot dictates that uinless you like an extreme forward tumble, you'd be better with an ULTRALIGHT short stabilizer , no stabilizer at all, or as many shooters did, add back weight in the form of a small heavy stabilizer.