The hunt or the kill ?

[hoochiepapa]

This is the thing that anti's and non-hunters don't understand. If you want to call it communing with nature, so be it, or being "one with the mountain"..
But I started cf hunting in 1974 when I got out of the military. Then it was a .300 Win. Mag with a clip of three. Then it turned into a single shot Ruger, and I tried bow hunting, you get the picture, I just wanted it to be more of a challenge. I didn't want the shots to be 300 yards anymore, anyone can do that, I wanted to teach myself to hunt. And things just started unfolding. I saw critters I hadn't seen before. Silver fox. Hummingbirds flying right up to my blaze orange. Coyotes, mountain lions, I found I could sneak up on herds of elk, hear the mewing and see the glint of the sun in their eyes. Woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches investigating me from the safety of their branches. And it taught me to love hunting even more, because I found the natural world is so astounding. The kill is icing on the cake, even with the work that starts in packing out, but I enjoy God's wonderful creation even more than I ever imagined.

 

[Spikebuck]

My response is a lot like Wattsy's. HOW I hunt is very important and is why I have never hunted with a modern firearm, save one time with a 44 mag. I bowhunted only for 30 years, much of that with longbows and recurves. So obviously the hunt and "fair chase" is extremely important to me.

But I am also very motivated to take all that practice, scouting, etc and meet my goal of taking game....which the last 10 years has been mature buck (4 1/2 or older) or mature doe with antlerless tags. Or small game!

If I did not care at all about the kill, I'd carry a camera instead of a weapon. Somehow, though, I don't think I'd get out of bed as early, or go out in as bad of weather, or sit for as long. So to be completely honest with myself, the kill is an important part of my hunting. I don't HAVE to kill to have a good hunt and I have many very memorable hunts where the fact I got outsmarted and didn't kill was the highlight, but it's still one of the important goals of my hunt.

 

[smo]

I like the prep of getting things ready for the hunt and the hunting more than the kill. We do enjoy the meat but if I get skunked it's not that big of a deal. :idunno: Remember once you shoot the deer is when the work starts. :wink: :rotf:

 

[Matt85]

its probably 50/50

a hunt without a kill is an incomplete hunt.
a kill without a hunt is an incomplete kill.

least thats how i see it.

-Matt

 

[Richard McCullough]

I love being out there hunting, If I harvest an animal or bird, then that is a bonus.

 

[Dausener]

I enjoy the hunt the most. I also hope to take a deer or two so there will be meat in the freezer for the rest of the year.
Each year I take vacation the first week of January to hunt deer during the late ML season. I can't put to words how much I enjoy being out there in the woods on those cold days. I just love it. To me carrying my flintlocks just makes the experience more enjoyable.
I sometimes pass on deer because once my tags are filled, my season is over. I try to fill one tag early then I'll pass on deer until towards the end of the season. I like to have two if possible in the freezer.

 

[stinkyfeet]

I love to hunt to get the kill. I guess I'm funny like that. But I would usually say the hunt until I see some idiot trespassing on our property then it always ruins the hunt because you have to get up and explain the guy, that it private property and there was no way possible he thought it was stateland since there none with 15 miles of there. That ruins the hunt for me.

 

[Vaino]

I think it's much more complicated than "the kill or the hunt".

Early on I lived on a poor farm w/o electricity in northern Minnesota and the beef and pork were preserved by salting and stored in large earthenware crocks. Well, after being in the crocks for 6 mos or so and seeing fresh meat was scarce but very welcome, one day at the age of 11, shot a nice doe in July. This "fresh meat" was a real treat seeing the only other fresh meat were chickens that no longer "met their quota of eggs".

Later moved to a large city and that's when the "Minnesota woods" were greatly missed. Gravitated towards the wilder parks and river banks in the city...but these were a so-so substitute for northern Minnesota.

Hunted large and small game w/ "meat" as the primary reason, but again it's more complicated than that....the "feeling of being "at home" in the woods and outsmarting the wild critters was also important and as I became older, an evolution took place...."meat" was no longer the main objective....just being there was. Can't say that "wild" meat still isn't important...just that it's not the primary reason as in my younger days. Still immensely enjoy "wild game" meals...not only do they taste good, but help me to retrieve memories of past hunts......Fred

 

[Little Wattsy]

My response is a lot like Wattsy's. HOW I hunt is very important and is why I have never hunted with a modern firearm, save one time with a 44 mag. I bowhunted only for 30 years, much of that with longbows and recurves. So obviously the hunt and "fair chase" is extremely important to me.

But I am also very motivated to take all that practice, scouting, etc and meet my goal of taking game....which the last 10 years has been mature buck (4 1/2 or older) or mature doe with antlerless tags. Or small game!

If I did not care at all about the kill, I'd carry a camera instead of a weapon. Somehow, though, I don't think I'd get out of bed as early, or go out in as bad of weather, or sit for as long. So to be completely honest with myself, the kill is an important part of my hunting. I don't HAVE to kill to have a good hunt and I have many very memorable hunts where the fact I got outsmarted and didn't kill was the highlight, but it's still one of the important goals of my hunt.


Matt85
a hunt without a kill is an incomplete hunt.
a kill without a hunt is an incomplete kill.

Both stated just right....
:hatsoff: :hatsoff:

 

[larry wv]

It's the hunt for me don't care much for the killing part unless its really big horns or a Coyote or weird horns. Larry

 

[Spikebuck]

Here are two clips from Primal Dreams. I think they probably speak to what most of us feel. I know these are traditional archery flicks, but the meaning is the same:
http://video.search.yahoo.com/vide...TAILS,+PRIMAL+DREAMS&c=3&sigr=11aruu3ir&&tt=b
http://video.search.yahoo.com/vide...HUNT+-+Primal+Dreams&c=7&sigr=11a5g5oq5&&tt=b

 

[jamesthomas]

I'll be hunting this coming weekend for only the second time this year and it will be about both. I love being out in the woods but being able to bring home some venison will be the iceing on the cake. I think Matt85 said it best.

 

[smo]

Hope you get a Bigun' AK :thumbsup:

 

[graybeard]

Yeah, what you said. I hunted with nothing but flintlocks this year and don't expect to change. I love camp, the fires, the old stories retold, a few energy drinks in the evening, and a feeling that probably uncountable ancestors did the same thing. graybeard

 

[Moose Guide]

I'll bet that 90% of hunters wouldn't hunt if there was no chance of a kill, thats why the woods are very quiet after the season! If you say that the kill is not important to you but you don't get into the woods much in the off season, you are lying to yourself IMO! I hunt almost every day from Sept. 10th to Nov. 30th but very little the rest of the year, I am very serious about putting meat in the freezer!!!

 

[cynthialee]

I really enjoyed the hunt and time outside. Hanging out with a like-minded soul and talking black powder was very nice.
But I was out there for meat. If we would have filled our tags one day one that would have been the end of it. So I am happy that didn't happen but it is what it is.
So, I got to enjoy the actual hunt and nature, but my purpose out there was to be a simple deer killer.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Gene (and Barry) Wensel are the best. If I never meet them in life I hope to at least have a drink with them at Fiddler's Green before we move on.

:hatsoff:

 

[Spikebuck]

I have had the pleasure of meeting Gene and Barry as well as Mike and Mark Mitten. All great people whom you just feel comfortable talking to. The Primal Dreams videos are simply the best..Ultimate respect for the wildlife and NO selling of any kind. Just good music and breathtaking wildlife videography. If ever my philosophy of what hunting is to me was portrayed in video, Primal Dreams is it.

 

[Billnpatti]

It's not about how many, it’s all about the how.

Let me say a loud AMEN!! to that.

 

[roundball]

I'll bet that 90% of hunters wouldn't hunt if there was no chance of a kill

I am very serious about putting meat in the freezer!!!

I don't think the question was about "if there was no chance of a kill"...I understood the question to be asking about the primary driving force behind hunting...the hunting or the killing.
For me it's absolutely not about 'killing to get meat' because I give away any game I take to a needy family(s) out in the countryside around where I hunt.