Author Topic: Why do you hunt? (Read 719 times)

Hodr · « **on:** August 21, 2010, 03:19:49 PM »

Here's mine.
I learned to hunt pheasnt to please my parents. Being pulled out of school for pheasant season was my reward for B or better grades. I trained upland game dogs on the side to make a little money. All toll quite a few pheasant fell to my Win 20 guage. Dad liked to show my kill to others as a father's pride thing and that was great, but to be honest I had more fun training the dogs and a lot less praise for doing it.
After Army,(3yrs) and getting married, hunting and a lot of things were put on a back burner to raising kids and making the mortgage. The kids grew up, moved out on thier own and my wife and I moved out of the Calif. delta country in 2002 upon retirement. On arrival here in Az. I started picking up firearms to go hunting with my brother-in-law. he is a strange and totally self made individual, 1/2 to 3/4 red neck and the best friend I have probably had in the last ten to fifteen years. He is also one of the most generous and upbeat people around. Last he loves to hunt.
We were chasing elk about 7000' up when I thought I had a heart attack. I thought about it long and hard then gave away some highly unique firearms to friends and realtives along with ammo and reloading supplies. I kept only a 65-5 S&W and a Win 357 mag trapper. Turned out a year later it was diabetes and joke was on me. Brother in law talked me into hunting again after I had Rouen bypass sugery. We went down to Texas and about 4 hogs fell over with one round apiece from my little trapper, blind luck and Buffalo Bore ammo. Then he talked me into elk again and I found a Handi in .308. Once again blind luck and a single round dropped LadyElk out about 150 yds.
So I now have 6 handi rifles, a couple of .22 lr, and a shotgun or so in H&R. I have purchased some neglected ones and have shortened them down, cleaned them up, redid the stocks and seem to give them away about as fast as I find them. To be honest I have more fun rebuilding and taking them to an accurate point than I do shooting them. Although I am supposed to be hunting, I have more fun as camp cook than I do actually hunting. To be honest, let me add I prefer my meat from Safeway and it is a lot cheaper everything considered.
Best of all though going hunting gives me sunrises and sunsets in drop dead gorgeous Mogollon Rim country with that brother in law who is one of the best individuals I have ever met.
That's why I hunt,

blindhari

teamnelson · « **Reply #1 on:** August 21, 2010, 03:29:02 PM »

Quote from: blindhari on August 21, 2010, 03:19:49 PM

Best of all though going hunting gives me sunrises and sunsets in drop dead gorgeous Mogollon Rim country ...
blindhari

That's where I killed my first tree rat, and learned to shoot my Ithaca .22 single shot lever gun. Beautiful country - yep, I'm jealous!

I haven't hunted in a while although I am hopeful to change that in the near future. I hunt to eat, because God made animals tasty ...
and I sincerely believe hunting is a part of the stewardship God gave man over the earth.

southernutah · « **Reply #2 on:** August 21, 2010, 03:38:11 PM »

Ask Ted Nugent it's his fault , he's why

Swampman · « **Reply #3 on:** August 21, 2010, 03:58:38 PM »

I hunt because I'm a man.

hillbill · « **Reply #4 on:** August 21, 2010, 04:08:54 PM »

when i was young i hunted because thats how i was raised, im old now and i hunt because thats what i like to eat.

yellowtail3 · « **Reply #5 on:** August 21, 2010, 04:13:51 PM »

I hunt because I love to hunt. Didn't start until my late 20s, and didn't really start in earnest until 40. I'm making up for lost time...

The Hermit · « **Reply #6 on:** August 21, 2010, 04:51:04 PM »

I'm usually in the woods everyday and always carry something that goes bang. I love it. I feel one with nature. I only shoot when I need food or when necessary. I enjoy the changing of the seasons and spend lots of time at my cabin in the woods, just soaking it all in. I catch the Canadian geese cycle both comming and going, watch fawns growing up, coyote pups playing, turkeys roosting, suckers running upstream, black bears eating MY berries, and humming birds in the feeder.
I have the last of the foster kids visiting for awhile and he got worried about me today because it was getting late. He found me asleep leaning up against a big old white spruce tree with the double barrel on my lap. He said " you looked just like Rip Van Winkle laying there ". He had dinner waiting too. Boy am I gratefull.
I know I'm a little off topic, but hunting to me encompasses a lot of the things I love. Now I gotta go clean the bird poop off my hat. Dang bird must have done that while I was sleeping.

The Hermit

nw_hunter · « **Reply #7 on:** August 21, 2010, 04:57:53 PM »

Not sure!........I've hunted since I was a young lad. It was the thing to do in the South I grew up in.
Mostly Small game until I was out of the service. Then it was Deer, Bear, and Elk after moving to the NW. I have always enjoyed the hunt, and the kill was just necessary to put meat in the freezer and on the table.

The older I get the harder it's becoming to pull the trigger, and I enjoy target shooting, and taking the grand kids hunting more than hunting myself.

Dee · « **Reply #8 on:** August 21, 2010, 05:10:29 PM »

I've limited twice a day during dove season, had three deer on the ground the second day of season, killed hogs and either gave them away, took only the hind quarters, or left them pests lay, killed squirrels, and rabbits, all my life. Now, I look a lot more than I shoot, and sometimes, (most times) I build a small fire, spread out my tarp, make a cup of coffee, and or take a nap. I still love the woods, but I don't kill it any more unless I'm gonna eat it myself.

Scibaer · « **Reply #9 on:** August 21, 2010, 05:16:42 PM »

1 its fun
2 i get to shoot guns
3 connects me to nature
4 i like wild game
5 i get to shoot guns
6 im a man
7 i like every aspect of hunting
8 its a survival skill
9 its excersize
10 why not hunt ?

scootrd · « **Reply #10 on:** August 21, 2010, 05:35:12 PM »

Because I love venison, and because the woods are the only place this crazy world ever made sense to me.

When I left the military I tried city life , lasted a whole six months , I had to quit my Job and get the heck out,
I was losing who I was and my sanity. I never understood how or why people choose to live in a concrete Jungle.

LONGTOM · « **Reply #11 on:** August 21, 2010, 06:17:29 PM »

I hunt for three reasons.

1 - I love to eat wild game, it's so much better than store bought.
2 - It gives me some time alone, out with mother nature where I can watch a beautiful sun rise and set, hear the gentle rain as it falls,
see all sorts of things that happens in nature that no one that doesn't hunt ever gets to see, like a blanket of new fallen snow with out a
single track in it, the chance to be as one with the earth and all it has to offer made possible by our lord GOD.
3 - It is one of the few rights we have left that we can trully call our own!

LONGTOM

Sourdough · « **Reply #12 on:** August 21, 2010, 07:23:39 PM »

I grew up eating what my Grandfathers and Dad shot. As I got older we lived in a farminbg area, and I knew all the farmers. I would take my bow and shoot any thing ediable. I killed Groundhogs, rabbits, squrrills, phesent, and Deer. Feral Goats and Hogs. The farmers would tell me about livestock that had gotten loose, and if I could shoot and kill it with my bow I could have half. I was always reading Outdoor life, and read about Fred Bear. I read everything could find about Fred Bear, and watched all the TV shows that featured him. As a teen I dreamed about hunting the Wood River in Alaska like he did. Now I have done that. I live near the Wood River and have a cabin close to the Wood.

Today I hunt because I love getting out into nature. If I shoot something fine, if not oh well. This year I have told my partner I do not want a Caribou, and I will only shoot a Moose if it's bigger than 60 inches. I'm not looking for Caribou or Moose this year. I want Bears and Wolves, and maybe a Dall Sheep if he walks down to the river bank and makes it easy. Otherwise I am going to enjoy the float.

We just decided this afternoon to go float the Wild River this year. We had been planning to go into the 40 mile country, but the road is washed out and will not be repaired this year. So in leau of that we will drive the Haul road (Yes the one Ice Road Truckers drive). When we get to Prospect Creek we will call and get Beattles Lodge to send out a Cessna 206 to take us to Beattles. Once there we will take a Beaver on floats up to Wild Lake. We plan on spending a week on the lake where we plan on hunting around the lake with our rafts. I will take a small 3hp outboard Then after a week we will pushoff down river. It will take us three days to float the river to the Koyakok then down to Beattles. From there we will take the 206 ride back to our truck on the Haul Road, and drive back to Fairbanks. If anyone ever decides to do a self guided hunt in Alaska that is one that is so easy, and for Alaska relatively inexpensive.

mo.hunter · « **Reply #13 on:** August 22, 2010, 12:36:20 AM »

For me its the sun coming up, hitting dew covered leaves. it looks like the woods are sprinkled with diamonds. seeing that first fat doe walking toward you opening morning of bow season. taking my great neice and nefew hunting for the first time this year, like I did there daddy 23 years ago. I never felt more in touch or alive, for me its not the kill, its more like being in the woods feeds my soul.

saddlebum · « **Reply #14 on:** August 22, 2010, 12:46:12 AM »

Good food and fun!

bobg · « **Reply #15 on:** August 22, 2010, 01:17:10 AM »

My father got me into hunting 50 years ago as soon as i was old enough to get a license. My grandfather was a big time deer hunter. Dad wasn't really into hunting but did fish alot. Dad thought my brother and i should learn gun safety and at least try hunting. I stuck with it. Dad hunted with me for the first four years and came home one evening and put his gun away and never hunted till 25 years later. I had a great rabbit dog and talked Dad into going with me one last time. He got his license and we went. We killed six rabbits that morning. When he passed away my mother told me to take the only two guns he ever owned. He wanted me and not my older brother to have them.

GH1 · « **Reply #16 on:** August 22, 2010, 02:12:48 AM »

I hunt for the meat. While I'm certainly not an expert hunter by any means, I am a fairly acclompished cook, and I enjoy preparing different things. Cooking wild game is just another facet of my cooking passion, and since I can't always rely on friends to give me venison, I decided I better learn how to hunt myself. Now I'm thinking of expanding my menu to squirrel and eventually, wild hog.
Having said that, I also find being in the woods incredibly enjoyable, I like the serenity that comes with it. There's nothing like being in the woods in the early morning hours and hearing them come to life as dawn approaches.
GH1

Tommyt · « **Reply #17 on:** August 22, 2010, 04:05:46 AM »

Love the Woods ,enjoy the harvest ,I love the shot more than the hunt Its just special
Placement Placement Placement, as a Kid or younger I was in it for the Prize that changed
Love the Smell of Burnt Gunpowder in the Morning

Tommyt

kynardsj · « **Reply #18 on:** August 22, 2010, 05:09:58 AM »

I just love the woods, especially dawn when they're waking up around you and you're watching it all over a good cup of coffee. When I was much younger I'd hunt anything that was in season. Now I won't hunt anything that I don't eat except for predators like coyotes and such. Way too many of them around here. With the exception of the yotes all of my hunting is deer and hogs with an occasional turkey.

Wyo. Coyote Hunter · « **Reply #19 on:** August 22, 2010, 06:00:05 AM »

I have hunted since I was 5 with my grandfather first, then alone when he passed away when I was 12.....It was in me before I was born...there here hunters, and there are people who occasionally hunt, I am a hunter...I was born a hunter...I cannot imagine not hunting...when we look at places around the country, my first thought is how is the hunting....

squirrellluck · « **Reply #20 on:** August 22, 2010, 11:07:50 AM »

Why do you go to the grocery store? I eat meat therefore I hunt. My father is a hunter, his father was a hunter,as was his father before him as far back as our familly can remember. We hunt for food. When I no longer eat meat I will no longer hunt.

billy_56081 · « **Reply #21 on:** August 22, 2010, 01:09:02 PM »

The top reason I like to hunt, is that I enjoy killing. It brings me joy and tranquility. I also enjoy the meat from some of the animals I kill. Trophies and bragging rights are another reason. I think I have a primitive urge to kill and conquer and hunting allows me to do this legally.

Spirithawk · « **Reply #22 on:** August 22, 2010, 01:35:01 PM »

Being Tsalagi ( Cherokee) it's tradition and a way of life. It's love of the outdoors, the challenge, the fresh air and exercise, the rewards too numerous to count. Eating meat I harvested myself, no chemicals nor preservatives and good for my heart. Sharing experiences that non hunters never get to, nor even dream of. Seeing things they only see on tv or in books. It's about sharing it all with family and friends. I've hunted all my life and will till I die.

wreckhog · « **Reply #23 on:** August 22, 2010, 06:44:18 PM »

The deceased Col. Charles Askins said that he hunted because he was no longer allowed to kill men. I think that there is a bit of that in all of us. Anyway, for me, I think that is is about enjoying the outdoors, combined with a desire to keep score.

briarpatch · « **Reply #24 on:** August 22, 2010, 08:41:43 PM »

The men on both sides of my family grew up hunting. I'm from the south, the Appalachian area and I knew very few boys that did not hunt. We never missed an opening day on any thing and hunted as long as it was open.
I got as big a thrill hunting squirrel as I did deer.
We hunted for meat and the pleasure of being in the woods. It was what we were drawn to, what we sought to do and where we realized great pleasures in growing into manhood.
I dont know of a more relaxing feeling than on a crisp cold morning, the sun coming up bathing you in its warmth. I dont fight it and have not in along time I just lay back and sleep.
When I hunt now its to sleep, relax and enjoy the great beauty that we have been giving.
I dont think I would shoot anything. The best way to ruin a good hunt is to shoot something, from that point on its work.
I do like to see the youth hunt and enjoy it like I did. When they get old they can decide to sleep and pass on a big rack.

v-man · « **Reply #25 on:** August 23, 2010, 02:48:28 AM »

On the tangible aspect of hunting, I am a gun nut. I love to carry my guns and shoot them and other than the range and all it's "rules" the woods is by far the best place for that. While there you get to see a lot of stuff you don't see downtown or at the mall. I love to cook and eat wild game and hunting is the best place to find that. Here in North Florida hunting public land is not the most productive expereience but I'd still rather be in the woods than behind a desk. On the less tangible side of the subject, I think there is a part of me that wants to know that I can still provide food for me and mine the old fashioned way. Some have said "survival", others have said being a man and others have alluded to what may be described as an inate preditorial inclination. I think all three are part of the passion. I only wish I had access to a good lease like I used to.