I don't understand hunting...?

Question

I need someone who understands about hunting to explain to me about it. How is it a sport? And if it isn't a sport, what is the point of it? What is the excitement...just to see if you can shoot something? I'm not sure why that's so interesting and/or fun. Please explain everything to me.

I mean I can understand for someone who would need to do it for food, and in that situation it's not really for fun I suppose. But in this day and age, most of us can just go to a grocery store to buy meat, etc.

I never said I was against it...I am neither for it or against it because I don't know much about it...I am simply stating the facts that I DO know, and asking questions about it? What are some people's issue?

Answer 1

Ten thousand words could be written to try and explain hunting, but to no avail.
You cant understand hunting by reading what I write, or what others write.
To understand you would have to feel the experience fires hand, not read it.
The passions, the tensions and excitement, no words known to mankind could express that which can not be expressed.
How do you even try to describe how it feels to be with in 20 feet of a 16 point non-typical Monarch, how do put the power to words to describe when seconds feel like minutes and minutes feel like hours while you wait for him to offer the shot.
How do you describe the experience of your 22 year old son, when he comes over to help his farther with his deer, and he realizes the true magnificence of the ghost that they have been hunted for the last 3 years, now lays before him.
No words can describe the trembling to such a point you must lay your rifle against a tree before you drop it. No words can describe just how long it took for him to breath again.
How do you describe the years spent with your son in the woods.
When I thank back, the best part of that day was watching my son,
This is not the description of hunting, but an attempt to prepare the way for that description.
For the best description to hunting takes but three words, It is Honest.

Now what will come of this, easy I’m still hunting with my son and you still don’t understand.

I must confess I too took you for one of the many non hunters.
For that I do apologies.
At the end I stated you still don’t understand it’s true.
Could you truly feel you could express your greatest passion in a way I would under stand.
I believe a common experience is needed.
Like can you image what it’s like in a tree stand 1 hour before daylight and around 10 am
You spot a deer moving towards you slowly, your lock on that deer every now and again you slowly look around to make sure nothing slipped in on you, you go back to watching your deer and now he in range your bows up your release is locked on the string you just start to draw an 80 pound bow your eyes are locked on target, then out of the clear blue a red Squirrel running 90 to nothing runs up your leg and is now on your chest.
It was not until I got my release hand free and had knocked the Squirrel to the ground 20 feet below me that I realized it was a Squirrel.
I still don’t know how I stayed in that tree stand during that little adventure.
And the deer the only danger he was in was having a heart attack from some fool bow hunter screaming foul language and defending himself from what could well have been T-Rex for all he knew, sorry but you really have to be there fighting T-Rex when you least expected it.
And the Squirrel is alive and well last time I saw him, it’s the little things that make fun.

Answer 2

Hunting is a sport, because, for the most part, it is a challenge. If you hunt like you should, you go out in the country and try to find whatever it is you are hunting. However, some people have made it so that it's not really a sport, and they hunt at fenced in "zoos". I don't consider this hunting. Lazy people pay big bucks to go shoot a "trophy", and then they go back and tell their friends some big story about stalking the savage beast. Since you have never hunted, you don't understand what the thrill of hunting is. It's something that can't really be explained. You either like it, or you hate it, and there really is no in between.

Answer 3

I've played football and basketball during highschool and middle-school and i learned alot. They tought me things like brotherhood, pride, spirit, and many of my best memories are of that football team i was on. Now its over, im a senior and the season is over... but i still have hunting, and i'll have it until i die. There are things the woods and being alone for hours on end can teach you too. The overwhelming feeling of being out surrounded by nature can teach you more about life than any other experience. As for the actual hunting part.... try hunting for the whole season, almost everyday...at least 3 or 4 hours a day, and you havnt seen anyhting...your freeeeeezing and suddenly a big buck walks out and stares straight at you. My heart jumps out of my chest when i see a little bambi deer, watching them in the woods, seeing how close you can get... its all a sport of itself. I get more adrenalin of kicking out a deer than playing football. I think i'll always miss football more though. Oh and another thing, when your out in the woods its a good time and place to think bout stuff, which some people need to take a chill pill and do. If everyone picked up a gun and started hunting, or a rod and started fishing there would be no wars. So there is alot more to the sport other than just baggin the biggest deer out there. (or fish for that matter)

Answer 4

I am a farmer i would say that i hunt for food i like deer meat but i would be lying like you said we can go to the store for that. I do it because i feed the deer the Turkey and all kind of animals all year long and some time not by choose but i hunt the deer on their terms i haven't got high fences i don't have feeder for them i like getting out in nature and see the bird and other animal's running around and ween a doe comes in or a big buck and i take them out i get the felling that i have token a great animal and it will make some great eating and a great mount that i can put on my wall to lock back on the time that i had out in the field and a norther thing is with out hunter helping with the population we would have a lot more car accident hitting animals and you would be paying more at the grocery store for your food because we could not raise en-of crop because all the wild animals would eat it all up so it is a balance hope this help but if you wont to hunt give it a try but if it's not you cup of tie don't pass judgment on some won that Doe's their just doing what the love and helping the farmer with population.

Answer 5

I use to be just like you and not know why people hunt. Until I met my husband. I use to not think that i would be able to kill an animal. I use to think that it was cruel. But now I know. I deer hunt. And love it. I do hunt mostly for horns (trophy hunt) but everything we kill we process ourselves and eat. I don't think of hunting as a sport. I think of it as a hobby. The reason why I hunt is the adrenalin rush. When you sit and see a deer even your heart starts racing. And when you see that big buck that's when you start shaking and hyperventilating. It is exhilarating. Now if you have never hunted you should try it. Not take a gun but just a camera and take pictures. It will be boring at first until you start to hear something moving. but if you see that deer you will know what i mean. I also don't like shooting doe's and i have a theory the bucks ( male deer) are the same as most men they just "do" them and leave them. the doe's take care of the babies. I let my husband kill them. Sorry this is so long but it takes a lot of words to explain exactly why "true sports"persons" like hunting.

Answer 6

I don't consider it a "sport", but I do believe in conducting yourself in an ethical sportsmanlike manner while hunting. I've squirrel hunted since I was 12, started with my Grandfather whose Father started him when he was 10 years old in 1923. I still enjoy squirrel, rabbit, and deer hunting and do it because it's how I was raised and I enjoy the meat. It's nice just to be outdoors for the day whether you see any game or not.
I probably spend more time outdoors in a month than most people do in a year though between camping, hunting, fishing, and riding the ATV and Harley.
I enjoy being outdoors and hunting is one of my favorite things to do there.

Answer 7

You should go on a tour of a slaughterhouse.You'll see some hunting there,alright.Just go to the grocery store to get your meat?Where does the grocery store get it?Hunting is more than walking out to the woods or fields and ordering up some prime rib.Until you give up the notions that the hunted animal just runs into a bullet and that a t-bone just appears in a package in the butcher case,there is no use in explaining.You criticize what you don't understand

Answer 8

You're right, people can buy food instead of hunt for it. In that sense hunting is a outmoded activity.
By the same token, people can buy sweaters from a store rather than knit it themselves, yet people still choose to do so.
I like to think that the appeal of these sports/hobbies/whatever to be a form of heritage rehearsal. Let me explain. Hunting is traditionally a male role. Spinning, weaving and knitting, largely female roles. Hunting became less necessary when humanity created agriculture, and could stay in one place and not have to follow migratory herding animals. Hunting eventually became less important and eventually mutated into a leisure activity. Also, wild animals are attracted to produce which created a new phenomenon; the "need" to "cull" populations of wild animals who’s numbers can balloon from crop eating and yet face less wild habitat to live in. Industrial mill looms made spinning one's own fabric redundant after the industrial revolution. You could buy it more cheaply than you could produce it yourself. One militant group, known as the "Luddites" actually attempted to destroy industrial looms to reclaim the job roles they had lost to machines.
Making clothes and hunting would have been so important to humans existing in wild nature that some of us may feel an instinctive desire to participate in them. The tools and technology around has changed drastically over the last few centuries, yet people remain the same in body and mind.
Also don't discount the influence of role models, if we see someone from our gender doing a THING that makes them successful or respected in society we may subconsciously be moved to learn as much about it as possible. Things can carry on quite a bit past their date-of-usefulness this way, and how else can you explain the current and inexplicable popularity of pirates? In some of the less lawful places in the world were piracy can done it is still done.
Hunting is a behavior, good or bad, it is learned and was once was very crucial for survival and still exists as "sport" so people can fulfill their need practice the skills associated with it, as a form of emulation or a form of preparedness within such traditional roles.

Answer 9

I'm 56 years old and have been hunting most of my life. I enjoy it because it brings me back to my natural desire to provide food for my family. Most go to the store and get their food. I enjoy fishing, hunting and gardening as a natural way of providing for my family. It has given me countless times with my Father and Brother in the great outdoors.I eat everything I kill and grow. If you would like to experience a hunting trip there are many guides that will take you on a trip. Try it you might enjoy it.

Answer 10

Everyone sees hunting in their own way. I was taught to hunt for the food not for the sport of it. Killing just to have the head stuffed is a waste in my opinion. I eat what I kill ( rabbit,squirrel,deer,elk,moose and whatnot). I don't find it exciting really,waiting around for hours to snag some food gets boring. Although my other family members seem to enjoy the "thrill" of the hunt. But hey, I save a lot of money eating meat I got myself rather than buying it at the store,and I guess that's the main reason I hunt.