Thought I'd say hi and introduce myself with a short reply to comments from several of my non-hunting friends. I'll look forward to reading the posts and contributing on occassion. I thought I'd post here since my main hunting passion is upland birds.
Why Do I Kill Things
by Karl DeHart
Non-hunters just don’t get it! I’m constantly asked the question, “Why do you like killing things?” That is all the people who ask that question see when they look at a hunter, someone who kills things. Anymore, my initial internal reaction is just a big sigh. How do you explain something that needs to be experienced to truly understand it? My second reaction is the comment that “the kill” is my least favorite part of hunting. If I just wanted to kill things I wouldn’t spend so much time, so much money, and so much energy to do it. I would just go to a game bird breeder, put the birds on the ground in the yard and shoot them. That isn’t what hunting is about. I'm not bashing non-hunters, some of my closest friends do not hunt and do not fully understand my passion for upland bird hunting.
So what is it about? Well, there sure isn’t one answer to that question because hunters are all different. For me, hunting is about many things and the list would be a whole page in itself. I recently missed a completely doable shot at a spike elk at 250 yards in the meadow out my front door and for the entire day at work I couldn’t relax! I was wired, totally wired for the whole day because of a 10-minute episode that transpired just after I walked to my truck to go to work that morning. Hunting is about the rush, admiring the upland game birds, the smell of the woods, being out in beautiful places, not being surrounded by beeping cell phones, working your dog, laughing with a hunting buddy, putting organic meat in the freezer and the unique experiences of each hunt. Each hunter can add dozens of things to this list.
Every hunting trip is an adventure and creates a memory. I rarely hunt without seeing something that becomes etched in my mind for the next few months or years and most times it has nothing to do with killing something. I love to see my dog point, especially downhill. She crouches low for some reason. This crouched point is my favorite as it seems to me when she points in this fashion she is the most serious about what is upwind of her. I just sent Devon to hunt my favorite chukar spot, I figured he would come out with 4-8 birds, nothing, he didn’t see anything and that has me as wired as missing the elk, “Why weren’t the birds there!” I am just finishing last year’s elk. When I cook up each steak I still picture the hunt and then dragging the elk down the mountain to my house with my dog pulling on the ear uphill, like a big tug-toy. The ear was completely frayed by the time I got to the house. I watched a goshawk catch and carry off a squirrel that was screaming at me. As my dear friend Glenda put it, I have a relationship with the animals that I harvest.
Hunting keeps me healthy; mentally, emotionally and physically. I was asked since I am so active why I don’t take the stairs at my work; I ride the elevator to the fifth floor each day. My answer is in the five months of Idaho's bird season I walk uphill more than most people do in years! Even I need a break. Most people have something in their lives they get lost in, mentally I mean. You focus, get in the zone and forget about the troubles of the world. These are the times I’m not worried about the bills or the relationships in my life. I’m hunting and that is all I’m doing, well besides enjoying watching the all the other interesting things I see while I’m out.
