A question I've asked myself since I've started hunting, why do I feel the need to be out in the woods and hunt. The reason I've asked myself this is because I was raised in a family that didn't hunt but yet one day I felt like buying a bow then not long after that I felt the need to hunt and when I did I liked it, just sitting in a tree waiting for a deer to walk by just felt right and I don't know why. So hopefully someone can help me with my question I cannot figure out. Maybe the answer is so obvious I just can't see it?
I have asked myself the same question more times than I can count. I didn't grow up hunting either but I remember as a kid finding a Field and Stream magazine and reading it cover to cover. I also remember getting a little red Bear bow and shooting it in my backyard over and over. I never hunted until I was in my 40's and have not quit since. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's who we are. It's something in us that likes the solitude of the forest. To get back to our roots and to know if we had to feed our families, we could. I love all aspects of the outdoors. Gardening, Fishing, Hunting. It's who "You" are!
Its one of the only things on earth that puts you exactly where you're supposed to be. Above the animals and below God.
I believe it was a direct result of the fall of man. Adam was told to till the land. Later Noah was told that all the animals were now food. We are providers. Every man has that drive. Some don a suit and tie and work 70 hrs a week so they can buy food from someone else. We just prefer to put the highest quality meat on the table and do it ourselves. The bonus is being in God's creation and realizing how Big he is and small we are. There is a certain satisfaction in knowing that if the chips were down, you could still feed your family. Nothing like it!
It's in your genetics. Man was meant to be a predator. To live outside and off his land and its animals. Not be couped up in a concrete prison. Enjoy the fresh air. Anyone that doesn't love it is insane in my books. “In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.” -Theodore Roosevelt
It is all just right when you are in the stand. It is, as others have said, what we are supposed to do. My Dad never took me deer hunting only because he wasn't in to it. We always quail hunted. My friends got me in to deer hunting and now it is my thing. Other than family nothing else excites me more than setting in a tree stand being part of nature. It just feels so right setting in a tree stand watching mother nature in all her beauty.
Although I don't work 70 hours per week, I do have a desk job and I do generally speaking "don a suit and tie" I hunt for my own food and I butcher my own deer. I work in healthcare, I know a few doctors who also hunt deer and other game. I think your explanation is fine, but I wouldn't go so far as to assume because someone wears a suit and tie or makes 6 figures or whatever you want to say - it doesn't mean they don't have this same urge to hunt/provide. Just because one can afford to buy food from the store, doesn't mean one wouldn't rather go out and get it themselves. I would argue that the majority of people on this forum are pretty well off, many of them land owners and business owners - they all hunt for a living. When I get off work at 4:30 I rush to a tree stand and when I don't I ask myself the same question being asked in this thread.
You answered your own question, it just feels right. I love playing sports, and hiking trails, running....so on and so forth, and I'm ok at most of them. Nothing feels more right to me than hunting. Nothing feels more natural. Every time I'm out there it's like that's the best ME I can be.
Very positive thread fellas. I can agree with alot of you when I and you all say its where we belong. Most of my family on my mothers side grew up as hunter gatherers an im sure everyone before there parents did the same. My dads side wasnt farmers at all he never really fished much or hunted he got most of his gardening from my mom she was raised on a farm an all my uncles hunted whitetail but on a personal note it just feels right when I become one with nature an when im in gods creation living off what he offered us long ago I love hunting an fishing an I do it to keep that set of skills as sharp as possible its a means of survival.
It's what nearly all people had to do to survive for the vast majority of human existence. It's evolution, and we are descended from that lineage. The concept of getting food from a store is only the tiniest most recent development in the grand scheme. Hunting is how we are wired, and I will not deny myself the experience.
This is a very interesting question, one that I've been thinking about actually the season for some reason. Perhaps it is because I've been mentoring two new hunters in the process and experiencing what it has meant for them. For myself hunting is a means of rest and relaxation. I hunt for the same reason that I can do, or camp, or rock climb or fish or anything else. I heard because I find it relaxing and enjoyable. Enjoy being in nature enjoy doing things the hard way and having to work for something. For me the access to meet is an added bonus but I would probably hunt even if that wasn't a perk. I enjoyed being around the animals and experiencing their life in the woods and in nature. I enjoy unplugging from my often too busy life. For me it is the sum total of everything that bow hunting is about that makes the experience worth pursuing. It's the scouting the hard work of setting up stands, matching wits with the animals, getting away from the busyness of life and enjoying the solitude of a sitting in a tree, the work and mechanics of refining my form and honing my shooting skills, every bit of that is why I hunt.
If you'd like another reason why you feel the need to hunt. Here ya go. Kids all over America just ate this.
