I' m putting together a speech for one of my classes and the object is going to be attempting to persuade people to hunt. One of the requirements is to have some sort of testimony from people, so I figured you guys can be my guinea pigs.

Aside from the wildlife management and conservation aspect, why does everyone here hunt? What kind of experiences do you take with you into and out of the woods that keeps you coming back year after year?

Those with the best responses will gain pseudo-important stature as sources for my speech. [8D]

I get back to my predator instinct. I get away from the concrete jungle that surrounds me in everyday life. I enter the wood as a human, the top of the food chain, I match my skills against my prey who has every advantage over me except logical thinking.I leave the woods with something every time, not always game, but a memory of a day of being in the wild, I leave with an image of maybe an unforgetable sunrise or sunset or other wildlife in their natural habitat.
I become one with my surroundings and make the most of what it has to offer, if I am lucky/good enough to reap what nature offers me,well, thats a bonus. Wildlife is a resource, a renewable one. I am a true steward of the woods.

Thats what I get out of it. The purity of the meat is just the bonuses of the above. Real meat, in its truest form.

I hunt for the usual reasons of simple recreation, basic enjoyment, meat, etc.. But I also hunt to regain the connection of belonging to the natural world; something we have lost in modern society. Unlike hiking or biking, bowhunting (specifically, primitive bowhunting with handmade equipment) allows me to become a part of nature, and not just an observer of it. Put succinctly, I hunt to feel alive.

[8D] My son started showing interest when he was 14. Since then he has bagged 4 bucks and 2 does. He is now 17 and needless to say has become an avid hunter with considerable skill. I have bagged none, nada zippo! To me the mere pleasure of watching him harvest and meticulously field dress his deer with some pointers from dad, have been some of my fondest memories, ever. From his experiences he has decided to go off to college next year and study environmental science. Had he not been encouraged to pursue his interest who knows what direction his life might have taken. I am so proud of him. My only wish is that more dads encourage their sons and daughters to get out and see for themselves what the Creator has provided for all. If more dads take that special time to reveal nature to their children we would all enjoy a more serene and greatful future.

Opening day, you' ve scouted around and picked out the ' perfect' spot. Nothing!
Three weeks later and you are too hard headed to give up that ' perfect' spot and all of a sudden there it is! You heart is pounding so hard you see stars. You try talking yourself into calming down, and can' t. 20 yards away now and you can' t remember how to shoot that bow!! Somehow someway you get it drawn back and attempt to aim! You know any second now that deer will be gone and it' s up to you to decided if it lives or dies. You let the arrow fly and it' s gone!
Now your body is shaking and you desperately try to remember what exactly happened 10 seconds ago and can' t! You can' t remember aiming! Did you miss? Should you get down and check? Has it been long enough? Do you hear the animal crash?

You get down and your heart almost explodes as you see your arrow stuck in the ground covered in blood! You' ve hit it, but how good? Can' t remember!

Now you try to track the deer. YES, a spot of blood the size of a pin head!
YES, another! Now you begin to sweat and you' ve only walked 10 feet!

*****Fill in your next experiece here********

THAT IS WHY I HUNT!

Frmcntry that story gave me goose bumps made my hair on my arms stand up and gave me a craving to leave work sick.

The meat that I put on my table is free from pesticides, steroids, antibiotics, and God knows what else is in beef now-a-days! Bowhunting is almost painless to animals when a good clean killshot is made. Razor cuts kill by bleeding as the animal falls asleep versus a bullet which kills by damaging the body(yeah I just started something with that! bring on the flame wars )

Wild game is healthier by far!

Very nicly put BenFromVA.

The adrenalin rush of having a deer that is so alert and so wary within feet of you and within your grasp as the premium preditor at the top of the food chain is un-describable. Try to describe how cool having kids is to somone who has none. Try to explain the feelings, physical and mental, of having intercourse to somone who never has. You just cannot put it into words and properly convey the entire experience. We as humans were given all the lower creatures by God. We are preditors and meat eaters. Prey have their eyes on the sides of their heads to look out for danger, preditors eyes look forward focusing on the prey in front of them. We have canine teeth to tear meat. It is only logical that we should enjoy what we were ment to do. The meat from venison is much better for our bodies than beef in terms of colestrol, fat, no added groth hormones or steroids, etc. Non hunters have a hard time differentiating between the entire hunt and just the kill. The kill is really only a small part of the big picture. My 7 yr old has helped me track a few deer. He gets so excited to be able to follow the deer from one drop to another.

I tried to explain deer hunting to somone who never hunted this way once..
It is the ultimate game. The odds are stacked in the deers favor in many ways. The playing field belongs to the deer, they know it intimately and live it every day. The deer get to make all the rules, also in their favor. The deer are allowed to change the rules anytime and without notifying us. Their nose, eyes, and ears are hundreds of times superior to ours. They even seem to have a little esp once in a while. We have only one thing on our side and that is a highly intelligent brain capable of reason. We learn constantly from being out in the woods and from others. Don' t think however that the deer don' t learn. They do, and with survival as a motivational reason, it goes into long term memory.

I was into guns. I liked shooting. read about hunters taking deer at incredibly long ranges. I wanted to try. I read everything I could along the way. I have humped 100' s of miles thru the woods. I got into bow hunting because it just sounded so cool. I like to test myself and my mastery of weapons against nature. I enjoy the kill. I enjoy the days in the woods where I see nothing but squirrel and woodpeckers. I absolutely delight in putting the meat on the table. I like the comradery of that 3 or 4 am ride to the hunting area. The stories you get to tell afterwards. FarmCntry totally captured the thrill of the hunt. There is that and so much more. I make no apologies for the fact that I am a predator.....a carnivore. A hunter. I can' t wait to get my boys out there as well.

David