Why do you hunt?
01-27-2005, 01:08 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 50
Why do you hunt?
I'm sure many of you have faced this question in the past. What kind of responses do you give?
I'm currently writing an argumentative paper for school about hunting. I'm just having a hell of a time trying to put into words why I hunt. Just seems the answers I can think of are either too vague or just sound weird.
Thanks.
I'm currently writing an argumentative paper for school about hunting. I'm just having a hell of a time trying to put into words why I hunt. Just seems the answers I can think of are either too vague or just sound weird.
Thanks.
01-27-2005, 01:37 PM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Michigan
Posts: 3,476
RE: Why do you hunt?
#1 To get into the woods and enjoy nature
#2. To enjoy the mental quiet and solitude for working things through
#3. To reap the benefits of a succesful hunt, be that matching wits, obtaining great table fare, the thrill of the chase, the track....
#4. To reap the benefits of an unsuccessful hunt...the lessons learned
#5. To get into the woods....etc..and on ...and on ...and on
#2. To enjoy the mental quiet and solitude for working things through
#3. To reap the benefits of a succesful hunt, be that matching wits, obtaining great table fare, the thrill of the chase, the track....
#4. To reap the benefits of an unsuccessful hunt...the lessons learned
#5. To get into the woods....etc..and on ...and on ...and on
01-27-2005, 02:03 PM
#3
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location:
Posts: 6,357
RE: Why do you hunt?
I like to cook, and game meat makes a spendid meal. I like to hunt to provide excellent viandes to my table.
I also like to hunt because it connects me to an ancient, noble, and universal human endeavor -- hunting animals, to kill them, thereafter to eat them. Believe me, there is a strong sense I feel of being connected with the pre-historic people's when I detect some feature of my hunting ground -- for example a natural funnel -- which is going to tend to direct deer, thereby providing me with an excellent ambush opportunity. There is an exhilerating sense of the light going on and realizing that I have an advantage suddenly on the deer which heretofore were inscrutible and outside of my reach. Surely people 10,000 years ago felt that same rush of delight when they perceived similar funnels. Yes, my weapon -- a modern powerful rifle -- is way more powerful than their weapons, but we confront the same problems. Also, if you solve the problem well enough this obviates the need for a weapon to strike from 250 yards away -- 15 yards is plenty in some hunts, and that is close enough for bow and arrow and/or for a spear.
Of course I too like getting out in the woods. The hunting gives me a feeling of being integrated into the woods in a way I don't feel while simply hiking. I'm an outsider hiking -- a bystander, an observer only. When hunting I see things differently, the time references are different, I am an active part of the environment -- a predator seeking prey. This is more satisfying and deep an experience of the woods than just hiking (not to denigrate hiking).
I also like to hunt because it connects me to an ancient, noble, and universal human endeavor -- hunting animals, to kill them, thereafter to eat them. Believe me, there is a strong sense I feel of being connected with the pre-historic people's when I detect some feature of my hunting ground -- for example a natural funnel -- which is going to tend to direct deer, thereby providing me with an excellent ambush opportunity. There is an exhilerating sense of the light going on and realizing that I have an advantage suddenly on the deer which heretofore were inscrutible and outside of my reach. Surely people 10,000 years ago felt that same rush of delight when they perceived similar funnels. Yes, my weapon -- a modern powerful rifle -- is way more powerful than their weapons, but we confront the same problems. Also, if you solve the problem well enough this obviates the need for a weapon to strike from 250 yards away -- 15 yards is plenty in some hunts, and that is close enough for bow and arrow and/or for a spear.
Of course I too like getting out in the woods. The hunting gives me a feeling of being integrated into the woods in a way I don't feel while simply hiking. I'm an outsider hiking -- a bystander, an observer only. When hunting I see things differently, the time references are different, I am an active part of the environment -- a predator seeking prey. This is more satisfying and deep an experience of the woods than just hiking (not to denigrate hiking).
01-27-2005, 02:09 PM
#4
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Michigan
Posts: 735
RE: Why do you hunt?
1. I love Nature and quitness from the city
2. Time to think about things you normally wouldnt at home
3. Love the adrenaline of seeing and hearing deer
Killing deer isnt complety my reason. I look more forward to getting away and having a good time with my hunting buddies up at the cabin, and then getting into woods is also all part of it. A successful hunt would add to the exitement in more ways than one because you can share the Big "How I got em" story with your buddies and also listen to their "Almost had em" stories as well.
2. Time to think about things you normally wouldnt at home
3. Love the adrenaline of seeing and hearing deer
Killing deer isnt complety my reason. I look more forward to getting away and having a good time with my hunting buddies up at the cabin, and then getting into woods is also all part of it. A successful hunt would add to the exitement in more ways than one because you can share the Big "How I got em" story with your buddies and also listen to their "Almost had em" stories as well.
01-27-2005, 04:15 PM
#5
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Rocky Top Tennessee
Posts: 683
RE: Why do you hunt?
When they ask me how I can shoot bambi and eat him, I ask them how they can't. 20 million years of hunter/gatherer evolution has made it something some of us can't do without. If they take away huntin' before I croak, I'm gonna beome a poacher. [:@]
01-27-2005, 06:32 PM
#9
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5,716
RE: Why do you hunt?
The feeling you get when you hear that rhythmic crunching of leaves on a frosty October morning... Your heart begins to race... Your legs are trembling, you have a hard time breathing... The bow rocks back to full draw, still - undetected... A shot. You think you heard him go down, just around the break... But it all happened so fast... Was it a good hit? Time will tell...
When you get soaking wet and skunked for five days straight, and still can't wait to get out there in the morning... You can't even sleep the night before...
The legends of yesteryear, the history, the future, the present. It's a vacation from the stress of the 40-hour week and a chance to go back to not just my own roots, but the roots of all man.
That's why I hunt.
When you get soaking wet and skunked for five days straight, and still can't wait to get out there in the morning... You can't even sleep the night before...
The legends of yesteryear, the history, the future, the present. It's a vacation from the stress of the 40-hour week and a chance to go back to not just my own roots, but the roots of all man.
That's why I hunt.
01-27-2005, 07:22 PM
#10
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: PA
Posts: 50
RE: Why do you hunt?
Some great answers. Thanks guys, helped me to answer the question a little better for myself. I read in an article that answering that question is like trying to explain why you love someone. The reasons are there its just that sometimes we have trouble expressing our emotions logically in words.