WHY? Why do we do this?
Contributors to this thread:General Topic
From: Scar Finga
15-Jul-17
So I have been reading several different posts, some about gadgets, worst or best, some about getting and staying in shape. So I have a question, WHY DO WE DO THIS? We have broken bones, high blood pressure, torn ligaments, rotator cuffs, ripped tendons and muscles.... we put ourselves in financial binds, for what? So, why do we do this? We hurt ourselves for what, to kill an animal? A trophy whatever? I am just curious, I am guilty of ALL the above, and I don't really have a good answer other than... I LOVE IT!
From: ElkNut1
15-Jul-17
It's a way of life for me! I wouldn't have it any other way!
ElkNut1
From: jstephens61
15-Jul-17
It's better than being a couch potato quarterback
From: Glunt@work
15-Jul-17
Because people have been risking, straining and enduring hardship for thousands of years pursuing animals. We are coded for it.
From: Brotsky
15-Jul-17
I'd rather be broke and injured and hunt than not hunt. The alternative is not an option.
From: cnelk
15-Jul-17
Because tomorrow is not a guarantee
From: Backpack Hunter
15-Jul-17
Because I like to.
From: casekiska
15-Jul-17
".......this......", has many different definitions. Bowhunting. Fastest quarter mile, Trout fishing..,etc., etc., etc.
WHY?
Because it's there. Because of the challenge. Because we can. Because we want to be able to say we did.
Because. Because. Because.
The "because" is different for each of us.
From: Dyjack
15-Jul-17
It gives my life meaning.
From: Charlie Rehor
15-Jul-17
Someday we will be left on the porch when the "next" head out.
What will your reflections be?
From: Fulldraw1972
15-Jul-17
Because I suck at knitting.
From: Scar Finga
15-Jul-17
Awesome Gents!
All the reasons are the same for me!!!! I love it and I love the common goal we all share:)
God Bless!
Scar.
From: MonkeyEyes
15-Jul-17
The love of the game! And they just taste so darn good!
From: sticksender
15-Jul-17
If you'll place your fingertip under your top teeth and slide to the third tooth over, you'll feel a sharp point. That one, and the 3 other incisors that evolved in your primate jaw, have but one purpose. Mystery solved!
From: WV Mountaineer
15-Jul-17
It's in my blood. Couldn't imagine a life without hunting and fishing. I'm driven to do it. I kill to complete me. I hunt to be me.
From: krieger
15-Jul-17
"Because people have been risking, straining and enduring hardship for thousands of years pursuing animals. We are coded for it. "
Yes
From: Jack Harris
15-Jul-17
The hunting part is in my blood. My father hunted, my grandfathers hunted, as did my great grandfathers. I grew up hunting everything! Rabbits, squirrel, grouse, woodcock, pheasants, ducks, geese and whitetail deer. At age ten, till about 18 or so, deer was my least favorite. It involved "gang hunting" with shotguns, saw what true a$$holes grown men could be over deer, and when I took it upon myself to take up a very used old Ben Pearson "Critter Getter" at age 21 in 1985, it was the most liberating experience I ever felt. Hunting deer in October? November? All by myself? Reading every magazine I could find, absorbing information like a sponge... I quickly forgot about ducks & geese and small game, as NJ archery was starting to overlap all those. To this day - I can't imagine myself NOT bowhunting for deer. That's the WHY as to why I bow hunt - the gadget part - not so much.
As for "staying in shape", I still do that just to get l##d at age 53 :)
From: Shaft
15-Jul-17
It's part of my genetic makeup. Trying to outsmart an animal on his own turf. Hunting is all about the "The thrill of victory.....and the agony of defeat". Not to mention they taste pretty darn good. : )
From: Shaft
15-Jul-17
It's part of my genetic makeup. Trying to outsmart an animal on his own turf. Hunting is all about the "The thrill of victory.....and the agony of defeat". Not to mention they taste pretty darn good. : )
From: Flynarrow
15-Jul-17
It's a lifestyle. I don't hunt because I want to, I hunt because I have to. Carnivore by design, predator by nature.
From: IdyllwildArcher
15-Jul-17
Glunt X 3
From: Trophy8
15-Jul-17
Easy to answer. ...Lifestyle
From: Woods Walker
15-Jul-17
What else should we do? Golf?? I'd rather slit my wrists!
Hunting is either in your blood or it's not. If it is, then you just do it because that's what you are.
I came from a family of non-hunting city folks, but yet I wanted to hunt from when I first understood what it was and I'll be doing it until I'm either physically unable or six feet under. Hopefully the six feet will come before the "unable" part!
From: oldgoat
15-Jul-17
It's in my DNA!
From: 12yards
15-Jul-17
Because there are several tall hills in Iowa that I have to get to the top of. And once I get there, I have to be able to draw my bow. And once I shoot one, I need to be able to drag that sumbeetch out of there without dying so I can do it again next time. That's why I run and strength train. Oh, and I want to go elk hunting again.
From: Pigsticker
16-Jul-17
Absolutely no clue, been driven since the beginning to wander aimlessly afield seeking purpose and intent . 'Maybe this is One essence of being human is that you are an adaptable and nomadic creature. Your innate preferences are layered like layers in sedimentary rock that allows geologists to read the history of a place over millions of years. Your deepest feelings come from the oldest parts of your brain that still recognize features of an environment that appealed to early mammals and perhaps to more ancient creatures such as reptiles and dinosaurs. Hominids evolved in Africa and followed a lineage from tree-living primates who ate plants and insects to ground-dwelling creatures that wandered further and further as time went on, perfecting the attributes and skills of nomadic hunters and gatherers.'
From: BULELK1
16-Jul-17
After years and years and years it is just my way of life.
Good thread Scar----
Good luck, Robb
From: wilbur
16-Jul-17
Because without something of substance in our lives they revoke your man card. The lord has only given each of so many sunrises we each strive to see as many as we can. Others have different ways to feel whole for us it's the hunt.
From: Guardian Hunter
16-Jul-17
It's as much a part of me for me as making a living for my family. Sometimes we spend much time chasing the dollar when all we really want is peace. Hunting provides the peace for many of us.
From: ELKMAN
16-Jul-17
I do it because it's in my nature. It is what I am. God gave it to me, and not using it would be a sin...
From: Woods Walker
16-Jul-17
Let's be honest now......it's to P*SS OFF OUR WIVES!
What's marriage without a little drama? BORRRRING! ;-)
From: killinstuff
16-Jul-17
For me, hunting is all about the how and where, not the kill. Honestly if all I ever did was sit in a tree waiting on a deer or rifle hunted with a 30-06 with the sole intent of taking a life I'd NEVER hunt. I've done it, it's way to easy, and I'm bored by it. I'm a hunter, not a bushwhacker. Sure I like to kill stuff (and it is killing, hunters don't harvest lives) but the killing ends the fun. The way I like to hunt extends the fun for me. I like fine SxS shotguns, dogs that point and longbows. Watching my dogs slam into point on a covey of Huns, sneaking up on a big bear to within 10 yards, the smell and sounds of a Georgia swamp looking for hogs. That all trips my trigger. I guess I hunt to extend my life experiences of seeing what's out there in the world. Most of my photos are of where I have been, not the dead things I haul home. And I remember the places I see longer and more vividly then a pair of lifeless eyes.
From: HDE
16-Jul-17
Everyone can not hunt. Only a select few do.
What a boring life to do nothing but go to work and "honeydo's"...
From: Scooby-doo
16-Jul-17
Jack Harris times 100. It was the same for me. Shotgun hunting and deer drives, grown men making aholes of themselves!! I then killed my first good buck with a bow in 1989 and that was it. I still much prefer to deer hunt on my own. The last 10 years I have spent 25-30 days in November hunting by myself. It is work but I like the work involved. I hope I never want to stop. Shawn
From: Crusader dad
16-Jul-17
I bowhunt because nothing else in life gives me the same high.
From: greg simon
16-Jul-17
"It's not just what I do, it's who I am"
From: sfiremedic
16-Jul-17
It's the only place I find peace.
From: TD
16-Jul-17
Too windy to stack BBs......
Hunting is but one of many things to which Coach and I don't understand each other. 40 years later..... same thing..... apparently not understanding is not a deal breaker....
From: Brian M.
16-Jul-17
I....just....can't.....stop.
From: Alpinehunter
16-Jul-17
Funny that some people can't describe the joy of their own gig without being critical of what others choose.
From: Pigsticker
17-Jul-17
Such philosophical question and so limited thought. I have explored this to a great degree and come with nothing tangible to help me understand my intense desire to go afield to pursue.
From: elk yinzer
17-Jul-17
Hunting is family. Because my dad and grandpap are great men first, getting their priorities right. Because they began letting me tag along when I was about 3 years old and put my brother and I first for well over a decade. Because they taught me it's about the hunt, not the inches of antler in a record book. No doubt they sacrificed their own chances of tagging something at times to tutor us. Just as I will do for my kids someday, and my old man is getting to that point where I'll be dragging his deer out soon to repay him. Sadly my grandpap cannot hunt anymore and that reminds me we only get one healthy body, and to take care of it and get out in the woods and waters every chance we get.
Yeah, it's in my DNA too, but without them I'm not sure I get the privilege of having it activated.
From: GaryB@Home
17-Jul-17
Because we are predators. All predators risk injury in pursuit of their prey.
From: Bowriter
17-Jul-17
I spent 20+-years in professional rodeo. Ever wonder why we did that? Ever consider what would make a man with a broken ankle, pay a $50 entry fee, climb on a bull with a 99% buckoff record for a chance to win $500? We do what we do. Today, I have a body that is total wreck...because we do, what we do.
From: greenmountain
17-Jul-17
I have to be honest with myself. The thrill is in the preparation and anticipation. I look at faint game trails months before season and watch fields weeks before the event. I set up in the perfect stand on opening day and wait. Seldom do I score on this day. This is when the persistence pays off. Day after day I adjust my tactics and locations until I take a deer. The actual kill takes less than a minute but the practice and scouting fills the year. In recent years the kill has lost some of its impact but the hunt becomes more important. You have to be prepared to kill to hunt but you don't have to make a kill to have a great hunt.
