What are the benefits of hunting?

[Guyon]

I'm curious here how some of the members here respond to this question. I'm sure that the answers are very different for each of us, but that we have a great deal of overlap. These reasons we hunt might be personal ones, or they might be wider in their perspective.

I hunted a bit as a child--quail with my dad and grandaddy, squirrel with my cousins. And it is only after a fairly long hiatus from the sport that I have come back to it. Now I hunt dove, turkey, and deer, and I look forward to each successive season. I hope to try some duck hunting in the not-too-distant future, and I'd like to eventually hunt something really big out west.

Now, I find that I have a newfound respect for nature and its cycles, as well as a greater knowledge and respect for the game that I hunt. I've even become more aware and knowledgeable about non-game animals that I see while hunting. I find myself trying to stay in better shape for the hikes necessary for hunting certain areas, and I am a better survivalist in the sense of being prepared for some unfortunate event (weather, accident, etc.)

I'm a better shooter because I practice to get the shot right when it counts. I'm also more aware of the consequences of a shot, and thus I'm a more responsible carrier of my concealed weapon.

I find myself more concerned with conservation, and I put my money where my concerns are. I've joined conservation groups, and I worry about what we're going to leave to our children. Seems like a new strip mall goes up every minute, and I frown every time I see a new one built.

These are some of the attitudes and opinions I've developed since coming back to hunting. What are some the benefits of hunting for you?

 

[Art Eatman]

You touched on a couple of key points: Knowledge, and attitude.

I've mentioned this before: The satisfaction of a successful do-it-yourselfer. You've provided for your own meat without hiring others to do the "scut work" for you. Nobody else did the feedlot thing with that deer. Nobody else killed, butchered, cut and wrapped the roasts, steaks or deerburger.

A rarely mentioned aspect of hunting is an awareness that everything dies, one way or another. Nothing lives except that something else dies. For me, this knowledge diminishes the fear of my own death. I know it will come as it came to my grandparents and will come before long to my parents--and later, to me.

For most city folks, hunting is as close as it gets to an understanding of life and death insofar as personal action is concerned. Farm and ranch kids learn this at an early age. For chicken dinner, Grammaw had me go out and catch and kill a chicken.

IMO, this sort of knowledge is beneficial in that one leaves the warm and fuzzy swaddling-cloth world and finds reality. Some are comfortable with reality; others are frightened.

An absence of fear is, I believe, a Good Thing.

, Art

 

[Alabaster Jones]

There are many benefits. To the environment, to the heard, to you, and most of all, to the people you pass that legacy on to. There is a certain satisfaction from doing all the dirty work, and then reaping all the benefits by grilling some teriyaki venison chops. I also believe that in all of us, we have a desire for our traditional roles in the animal kingdom. Men have traditionaly been thought of as the hunter and the woman the gatherer. Not that women can't or shouldn't hunt, I plan on taking my sister-in-law hunting this season. I just believe that there are certain stresses and tensions that can only be helped by playing your part in the animal kingdom. There is a certain almost need to release all of that pent up frustration and fury from dealing with the daily grind, and frankly nothing helps with all of these problems quite like feeding your family something that you had to invest time, mental and physical energy into. We rule the animal kingdom, it feels good when we act like it.

 

[Dave McC]

We've been growing our food and living in clumps for a few thousand years. Before that, we hunted and gathered for maybe millions of years.

It's no wonder hunting is a recreation, that's RE-creation. It's a drink from the wellsprings of our being.

Hunting is our job, and the Predator Way is in us, buried down in the DNA. Every facet of our bodies and our societies is influenced and molded by this, from our stereoscopic vision to our language to our admirable ability to co-operate in times of need. As social predators go, we're an all time success story.

Dammit, we're SUPPOSED to hunt.

In a world more cruel and crazy than we like, re-enacting our oldest job is a good way to decompress.

Hunting's a reminder that the food chain is a wheel and not a pyramid. Some of our ancestors called it the Sacred Circle(Thanks, John Gierach).

And, putting food on the table ourselves gives the same sort of satisfaction a gardener has when the corn, tomatoes and cukes are on our plates.

And, it has "Redeeming social value". Prey and predators need each other. Predators need to eat, and prey need their numbers kept in balance with the habitat.

And when we hunt, waiting in a blind for the morning flight or slipping through the first pink light of dawn in a hardwoods like a cougar, we're part of Nature and not just observers.

 

[C.R.Sam]

All of the above in spades. Plus

One who is adept at hunting; be it with boomstick, spear, arrow or wristrocket; will likely have a higher level of situational awareness and therefore be better able to defend. Self, home, family or country.

And a wealth of other reasons.

Sam

 

[Dan Morris]

Ole mother nature is a pretty good class room, if I take the time
to look and listen. Besides the food offered, I see the surroundings and things that make it happen.
Also, being a minor anthropology buff, I sometimes get involved in thoughts of the people that walked the area before me....why...
what were the dreams....where did they go from there...problems they encountered.....
I have always tried to teach son to respect all of the above and to
enjoy the outdoors.
Dan

 

[crowsnest2002]

why do I hunt?

I hunt because its a tradition, and more than just that. I remember going to our cabin in winter and reaping the benefits from all of those small game taken in the fall. My hunting buddies and I make squirrel, rabbit, and chicken corn soup. Its not a question of why I hunt its a question of why wouldnt I?? Its also a place to shoot the sht and fart, and do what you know best, tell hunting stories that are told every single year.. I have a famous poem that best reminds me of this time.


PALACE IN THE POPPLE

Its a smoky, raunchy boars' nest
With an unswept, drafty floor
And pillowticking curtains
And knife scars on the door.
The smell of a pine-knot fire
From a sovepipe thats come loose
Mingles sweetly with the bootgrease
And the Copenhagen snoose.
There are work-worn 30-30s
With battered, stell-shod stocks,
And drying lines of longjohns
And of steaming, pungent socks.
There's a table for the Bloody Four
And their game of two-card draw,
And there's deep and dreamless sleeping
On bunk ticks stuffed with straw.
Jerry and Jake stand by the stove,
Their gun talk loud and hot.
Bogie has drawn a pair of kings
And is raking in the pot.
Frank's been drafted again as cook
And is peeling some spuds for stew
While Bruce wanders by in baggy drawers
Reciting "Dan McGrew"
No where on earth is fire so warm
Nor coffee so infernal
Nor whiskers so stiff, jokes so rich
Nor hope blooming so eternal.
A man can live for a solid week
In the same old underbritches
And walk like a man and spit when he wants
And scratch himself where he itches.
I tell you, boys, there's no place else
Where I'd rather be, come fall,
Where I eat like a bear and sing like a wolf
And feel like I'm bull-pine tall.
In that raunchy cabin out in the bush
In the land of the raven and loon,
With a tracking snow lying new to the ground
At the end of the Rutting Moon.

By John Madison

DEER CAMP!!

 

[Art Eatman]

Neat poem!

, Art

 

[JohnDog]

Late Nights at a Camp

Dan McGrew?

I've been known to launch into the "Cremation of Sam McKee" when I deemed it necessary during late nights around the campfire at Elk Camp.

Of Course.... as to the formentioned Dan....

"The woman that kissed him and--pinched his poke--was the lady known as Lou"

JohnDog