I sit here and i think of my hunting life and why do i hunt and how much the answer to that question has changed throughout my life. I started hunting when i was 12 years old and my stepfather is the person that got me into hunting and bought me my first shotgun. I had to wait until i was 12 years old to hunt because i grew up in PA and you cant hunt until you are 12 years old. If you asked me when i was 12 years old why do i hunt i would have told you because i like to kill things and then eat it. I grew up doing deer drives on public land in PA and farms that we had permission to hunt. I always looked up to my stepdad because he taught me a lot about being an outdoors man and the animals and shooting and surviving and i could go on for days. I owe that man alot for who i am today. I moved to Texas when i was 16 years old to live with my Dad. The day i left PA was the first day i saw my Step Father cry. That day opened up my eyes to how much i meant to him. So my Dad was also my idol growing up. I only got to see him in the summers so you can only imagine how i could want to move and try living with him too. My Dad took me hunting in Texas and it was totally different than what i was ever used to. One reason is baiting is illegal in PA and TX it is not. So we sit in stands and shoot deer under a corn feeder. "This is different". So you ask me when i'm 16 why do you hunt i would tell you i hunt for the sport and to shoot a mature deer and eat it and manage the deer population. Fast forward 15 years. I am now 31 and have 19 years of hunting experience and 90% of it is Whitetail hunting. Hunting good whitetail and not wanting to empty your bank account in my part of Texas dont go together. Dont get me wrong there is public land but we all know how that goes. I find myself wanting to hunt big game and public land DIY hunts. This has brought out the excitement in hunting that i haven't had since i was a young teen hunting with my Step Dad waiting for the first monday after thanksgiving to load up the slug gun and go hunt. My appreciation for the land and the animal have changed alot since my last why do i hunt question. So, now today im 31 and you ask me why do i hunt. I will tell you i hunt to get to spend time with those family and friends you only get to see once or twice a year because you live in Texas and they live in Pennsylvania (my step dad and i plan hunts together so we can get time together), Or that i love going out to the untouched land of man that hasnt been paved or bulldozed. I love watching the animals and learning and if i dont harvest one its not the end of the world. Because i was out doing what i love. Its my escape from the every day city hustle bustle. So thats why i hunt.


So..... Why do you hunt?

Because golf is boring.

True dat.

I like to eat

Because I have never found anything that gives me the same feeling I get right before I pull the trigger on an animal.

Golf is boring, I agree. I’ve tried it a dozen times too for anyone who says...give it a chance

I hunt because to me it is hard, not the killing aspect.

I could kill an animal 90 percent of the time

I hope a tree hugger googles this and reads it, I pass on many. Maybe hundreds

I check my cameras all the time, find that odd deer and I zone in on him/her

I say him/her because year we had a doe we named “white ear”. She had a mutation and she really had a white ear.

I didn’t get her but she was my trophy

I do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, run, workout and hunt all for the same reasons. I like hard and I don’t know why

I wouldn’t do a caged hunt if I had Jerry Jones money but I don’t hate on anyone who does

If it ain’t hard, it ain’t for me.

That’s why I do it

I love everything about it.

Being out there, hearing the birds wake up and start flitting around.

Hearing the sound of squirrels cussing move down a long tree line, as they announce the progress of a bobcat on the prowl.

Watching a buck fuzz up, pin his ears, and do ‘the walk’ at another deer in his area.

Seeing the frost on the pasture as the sun breaks over the ridge.

Feeling the adrenaline come on as I see a deer I’m sure I’m going to shoot. Feeling it grow as you raise the rifle, not knowing if you’ll complete the action and get the shot before the deer moves on. Calming your nerves and breathing, snicking off the safety, feeling the sear slip and welcoming the satisfying crunch of recoil. Watching the bullet hit home and the deer react.

Congratulating the other hunter or being congratulated as you load God’s provision in the vehicle.

Sharing the latest family new, hunt report, or sports results over a meal with your family and friends.

All a part of it.

I am not sure why. I just have to do it.

procraft05- I can relate to that.

I hunt because it is something I missed as a kid. I was raised by my grandparents after my mother was killed in an accident. The grandparents were frugal and had no interest in hunting, but I read every book/magazine
I could lay my hands on about the outdoors and hunting adventures.
I own a ranch in the hill country, I am a certified gun nut and my children and grandchildren hunt regularly.
I am at an age where I prefer to watch others hunt and get some satisfaction in introducing "newbies" to the sport.

I recently had to ask that question. I'm 76 YOA and in good shape. I have my own place(don't live there) South of Bowie, and have hunted it for over 30 years. Also hunted quite a few other places for elk, antelope and mule deer. Hunted Africa last year Taught my Grandson and his buddies how to hunt and shoot. I enjoyed that. But, now the boys are grown and have busy lives. They still show up and help the old goat fill feeders. I kinda feel like Puff The Magic Dragon. Killed but didn't find a decent/legal buck this year. My fault and no excuses offered.

Anyway, I was laying in bed a couple of weeks ago and was going to shoot a doe for meat. I asked myself why. I realized that doe hunting doesn't offer the anticipation of seeing/taking a nice buck. I have ZERO interest in camera hunting. No interest in shooting coyotes or hogs. Kinda like kissing your sister. It's still a kiss but...

Not sure where it will go from here.

I hunt for meat. Filling the freezer with high quality protein free of chemicals and hormones. When I was growing up in CO I put in for or bought every tag I could get: mulies, whitetails, elk pronghorn, bear, sheep, goat, moose, lion. I ended up getting them all but the moose tag. I mounted a bunch of these. Then I went to Africa 5 times where I racked up a bunch of other species. Hunting for things to put on the wall lost its appeal for me. But hunting for meat is still something I am passionate about.

Like the OP I went though most of those stages you describe, probably about the same age. Now I hunt because it is what I love to do and it is my escape, my hobby. I really enjoy being out in nature and watching the woods come to life. I don't have to shoot something any longer to be satisfied. I also hunt to make certain my son has the same opportunities for memories that hunting has provided me and to show him how it is done.

Here lately as I get a little older I catch myself wanting something different. Most of my hunting experiences are related to whitetail and dove hunting. About 8 years ago I took up waterfowl hunting and have been hooked on that. I would love to go hunt other game(elk & mule deer) out of state but I find myself not really knowing how to get started. I could easily book an outfitter but I am not sure that would satisfy my hunger(ego) and I am not sure I have enough time(young kids) to learn it on my own.

I spend a significant amount of time and money hunting, here lately I have been questioning some of my motives for the first time ever.

It is in my genes and I like to.

I like shooting stuff..

x2

Ive never tried golf, and probably never will. From the outside looking in the only positive I can see about golf is cold beer.

I like the sound they make when they hit the ground.

Why do I hunt? When I started some 60 or so years ago it was because it was what everyone did. Grew up on a dry land farm and every rabbit meant that some of our crops would be eaten if we did not hunt and kill them. It grew from there to something I loved to do, hunt and kill. As I grew older the game changed but there was that desire to kill some game. It grew from rabbits, dove and quail to dove, quail and deer, still had to kill every time it seemed. My hunting desires changed to add elk and antelope but still felt that there needed to be a kill, to have a successful hunt. Then as I aged, I started changing, the kill was not as important. It seemed that life, whether mine or the game I hunted mattered more. I grew from the need to kill to the want for a good hunt, whether there was a kill or not. Just as long as there was some game to eat I was satisfied. Then a round of fighting cancer really changed my perspective of life, now a hunt does not have to have a dead animal for it to be a good hunt. On our last lease we were on for a little over 4 years I never fired a shot at a deer, coyotes but no deer. I carried grandsons and let them shoot their deer my youngest son when he came back from Iraq and let him shoot a deer. This made it a "good hunt" . I still enjoy getting out into nature and seeing game animals, I still enjoy shooting my firearms and I still enjoy eating wild game. I just have lost the need "to kill".
Durwood

lol on all the golf haters.


Golf is fun. The entire lifestyle of it I could never get into, but in and of itself it isn't a bad game. What I have a hard time understanding is following professional sports to the extent of large scale traveling, memorabilia, season tickets, etc.


I like to Golf (only do it maybe 1-2 times a year ) I like to fish, like to snowboard, like to wakeboard....but I love to hunt. I would never spend the time or money I do hunting on any other hobby...its my passion.

I think 90% of the fun I have hunting is in the strategy, setup, and learning/implementing wildlife management. I had a blast this year. Saw tons of deer, but didn't take any myself.

I enjoy having friends/family come hunt with me and share the thrill of their success. There were 5 does taken on my property. Neither my father nor I got one, but we still considered it an excellent season.

There is nothing quite like sitting in a deer blind watching the fruits of your labor pay off. Seeing the deer grow and multiply is an amazing feeling.

I hunt because I am a hunter.

The same reason a bird flys, a fish swims and a dog barks.

Golf is not boring when you are good. Once hunting season is over the golf clubs come back out for me.

I hunt to get that adrenaline rush of spotting that animal for the first time and if it is what I want my heart really gets pumping.

That is what I hunt for

To add to my post, I’m 37 and have spent many hours in the stand

I’m not there yet but I can feel in my gut the want to kill getting weaker, I’m not there yet but I’ve recognized it

My daughter who is 12 just got into it last year and got her first kill.

Honestly, it was like her birth to me. She is my oldest, my baby girl and her face and excitement really changed me. Money couldn’t buy that.

If taking her and letting her do it kept me from ever doing it again, I’d do it

I’m real curios what 2019 brings to her and if she wants it like I did

To Kill

Because it’s cheap!

My urge to kill has been tempered as I continue to live my life.

It hasn’t left me, but the relaxation of being emersed in wildlife is most important now.

Eating healthy meat is still a big reason. I have started hunting more with the camera.

Golf is a waste of good deer habitat.

My son and I were walking back to the house coming out of the stand last Sunday. Last day of the season. We were talking about how excited we were for next season. That's why I hunt. It is just in me. It's a passion.

I think I was born this way. From my earliest memories of crawdad fishing, bb guns, pellet guns, I have always felt most complete being in God's creation and being on the hunt. And for me, being on the hunt means discovering all the intricacies of the flora and fauna. Feeling the seasons change, identifying birds by sound, knowing plants, the smell of the land after a rain,the cold black winter sky full of constellations. My first kills were birds, rabbits, squirrels and my grandmother would cook them for me. I felt complete during those times and now that I am 66 this legacy has been passed down through the family. I went through the common phases, in my 20's-30's wanting to tag out, 40's-50's, good with one or two deer and holding out for a good buck, to now, I don't care who kills it, I still need to have game in the freezer.I like staying behind at camp with the boys in the blinds. I'll cook, rest, make a fire. It's just being there now that makes me the happiest, and knowing the legacy has been passed on and that they will still be there doing it after i am gone.

I hunt because I'm human, it's an instinct we're all born with, it's not a game and it's not a sport. This instinct that dwells withing every living person is what has put us at the top of the food chain. Do we need to hunt? At this point and time the answer is NO, most can provide everything the family needs by hitting Walmart, HEB or what ever is closest but don't let yourself be fooled. We as the human race have defied all odds and have managed to not only survive when other species went extinct we flourished. The hunter gene runs deep!

I love reading everyone's responses and just seeing what it means to each person. Thanks All.

I have bought, and sold, 5 sets of golf clubs in my life. Every time I used the proceeds to purchase a firearm or ammunition. Golf is a hard game. The PGA guys on TV have hit literally millions of golf balls to get to where they are.

I would rather hunt.

While hunting I have been with the best people, looked at the most beautiful scenery, eaten the most delicious food, drank the best beverages, and been the most at peace.

Taking an animal is the icing on the cake.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

Hunting and fishing are how I satisfy my ambition to achieve, the wilderness is where I practice my religion...I go as humans go to worship. From my perch, on the trail, in my blind or on my boat I view my past, dream of the future and, with an unusual acuity, am allowed to experience the present moment...my vision cleared, my strength renewed. On each journey I celebrate creation and am reborn.

I've played golf at a high level so I enjoy everyone's take on it. I think the two are similar in my opinion. For both it's more about the journey than the destination and anytime you can apply that mentality, the activity becomes as enjoyable as it gets.

Exactly my thoughts Bigfoot plus I can't smash on the gridiron or diamond anymore so golf is about as close as I can get to it...

X2

"In our rather stupid time, hunting is belittled and misunderstood, many refusing to see it for the vital vacation from the human condition that it is, or to acknowledge that the hunter does not hunt in order to kill; on the contrary, he kills in order to have hunted."

"Life is a terrible conflict, a grandiose and atrocious confluence. Hunting submerges man deliberately in that formidable mystery and therefore contains something of religious rite and emotion in which homage is paid to what is divine, transcendent, and in the laws of Nature."

I can't say it any better than José Ortega y Gasset says it.

There are several evolutions of a hunter:

1. Just happy to go.
2. Happy to get the first animal.
3. Happy to get several of what the person is hunting.
4. The need to have a full limit, nothing else matters.
5. The need to get the largest of what the person is hunting.
6. Finally, just happy to go.

If a person hunts long enough, he will go through all of them.

for me, its not about the KILLING, nature is beautiful..

I personally like to hear the pigs squeal when I put one in their gut.

Hells yes!

Finally someone is speaking the truth!

I thought he was talking about his love life.

I grew up in a hunting family in CO. We went as a family for deer, elk, pronghorn, pheasant, waterfowl etc... It was a time for the family to get together and just have fun. Trophies didn't matter and we just hunted for meat but along the way we took some good bull elk and mulie/prongorn bucks. I went into the Navy and found I had the disposable cash to begin seriously thinking about trophy animals including hitting Africa 5 times. To date I have taken 68 species of game and have a number of really good trophies. As I retired from the Navy I found I had drifted apart from most of my family and my father, my primary hunting buddy, passed on due to lung cancer. Now I do all my hunting solo and have reverted back to seeking only meat. I haven't shot a buck or a bull in a long time and only target does and cows to fill the freezer. That's why I hunt.