If this question was asked a hundred years ago, the answer would be simply to supply table fare. As a means of providing food, something that everyone did because they had no other alternatives. Today that has changed because any supermarket packs their shelves with all sorts of available food items that would seem to eliminate the necessity to hunt for our food. My point here is that I do not hunt strictly to provide food for my family. Hunting to me is a rite of autumn, something that has been instilled in my blood. I won't be coy and say that I hunt to be closer with nature, to hear the sounds of birds, or to see the forest awake at the beginning of a new dawn. I certainly experience all those things, but I hunt for the chance to go one on one with the animal in the woods and under his terms. The game plan has been set. I am told where I must hunt, when I must hunt, what I can and cannot shoot, what I must wear while hunting and what type of weapon I can and cannot use. All this has been regulated by my state in the efforts to ensure a safe and fair hunt and to ensure all that matters are in the best interest of the hunted. I must make that important and pesonal decision when the opportunity arises whether to take that animal's life or not. My decisions always are made at that precise moment, and me and only me, at that moment in time, will determine if that animal will live to see another day. If yes, wonderful, if no, wonderful, for I have served my purpose. I do not kill for the sake of killing, but I understand that will be the end result if the decision is made to end the hunt successfully. I have much understanding and respect for the animal that I hunt and consider it a special moment in my life when I have the priviledge to finally see him in his own environment. Whether he wins or I, it really doesn't matter, for the chase was fair.