“Why do you hunt?” Have you ever been asked this question? If so, then you
know how hard it can be to answer in a way that covers all the bases. In my own
case, the first answer that usually comes to mind is, “Because it’s part of who
I am.”
Truthfully, though, we fail to satisfy an important duty when we give such a short answer. We’re most likely to be asked this question by non-hunters who are truly seeking information because they have not yet developed a stance one way or the other. As stewards of the land and its wildlife, we have a duty to educate these folks, so each of us needs to sit down and formulate his own answer so he’ll be ready when the question is asked.
When formulating your own personal answer, keep this in mind. Every reason we hunt is an expression of truth. and truth is on our side. That’s why it’s so easy for us to counter the ravings of militant anti-hunters and to successfully educate others about why we hunt. In both cases, truth is the common language that people capable of understanding will accept if we present those truths in an accurate, personal way. Since each of us will describe those truths in a different way, I can’t tell you how you should do it. As an example, though, here’s how I describe them.
First
Truth:Every person has a duty of stewardship of wildlife, and hunters meet that
duty better than any other group of people. Regardless of whether one is
a hunter or not, everyone benefits from the state of the natural world. In fact,
humans could not survive without it. Accordingly, we all have a duty to protect
and conserve it.
Protection and conservation are not just matters of
control. The Book of Genesis specifically says that God gave man “dominion” over
all animals, and dominion is control and care. Together they are the very
definition of stewardship. Over the last 100 years, no group has been as
directly responsible for the success of wildlife conservation efforts than
hunters. The proof is there in the recovery of waterfowl, game fish, and
whitetail deer, and all one has to do is look at the sky, ocean and woods to see
it.
Second Truth: Hunting is the single best way to plant the seeds of good character in young people. I can directly trace my first early understandings of fundamental character traits back to a dove hunt I attended with my grandfather in the mid-1960s. He was very old at the time, and I was about 8 to 10 years old. He had allowed me to take along the new Stevens singleshot .410 he had given me the previous Christmas, but I ended up playing the role of bird dog more than hunter. The first dove I retrieved for my grandfather was still alive when I found it, and I took it to him in that condition.
As my grandfather took the dove from my hand, he looked
directly at me and held my gaze. I remember that after a few seconds I felt my
head nod. He then quickly broke the dove’s neck over the butt of his shotgun,
slipped the bird into his vest, and we both turned our eyes back toward the sky.
No words had been spoken, and yet even at that young age I clearly understood
the lesson about our obligation to the game we had just taken.
Later life
added flesh to this first lesson in stewardship, each time broadening my
understanding of it, and proving its truth instead of offering alternatives. It
was years before I understood what the Book of Genesis meant by “dominion.”
Likewise, I later observed the full extent of the huge contribution hunters have
made to conservation of both game and non-game wildlife.
That dove hunt
was also my first lesson that respect cannot be asked for but must be earned.
After the hunt, it took us awhile to gather my grandfather’s things and make our
way to the gathering of hunters at the barn, and we were the last hunters to
arrive. I distinctly remember the great respect the other hunters gave my
grandfather, every single person stopping to speak to him and shake his hand.
Several of the hunters described to me how my grandfather had privately helped
them through some tough personal times.
There is a reason why these early
lessons about stewardship and character stuck with me through the years. The key
is that these lessons were not told to me, but were communicated to me by direct
participation while hunting with my grandfather. Whether you’re young or old,
the best way to learn the deepest aspects of something you don’t understand is
to participate in its processes.
Third Truth:
Hunting benefits overall functional health better than any other single
activity. Now, before you raise your eyebrows, realize that I’m not
saying that hunting is the best activity to meet a specific health goal such as
building muscle, increasing cardiovascular capacity or losing weight. These are
narrow goals that can be better achieved by narrow activities such as lifting
weights, running and eating better. Rather, I’m talking about “overall
functional condition”— performing the best you can in every aspect of your
life.
Hunting exercises your brain and body. For example, by now most
hunters are studying and learning quality deer management principals. We also
have to do some or all of the following: figure out how many food plots to plant
and where, locate sites for them, determine what forages to plant, clear brush,
evaluate soil tests, prepare seedbeds, calculate fertilizer blends and rates,
and most of us who aren’t made of money also have to calculate the most
cost-effective way of achieving our management goals. Later, we’ll need to
scout, analyze our scouting data, topographical maps and other sources of
information to figure out where that big buck we saw last year will be this
coming November, and then stalk him.
Hunting also provides stress relief.
Most of us work hard during the week and run to keep up with family activity
schedules and handle the daily pressures of life. Nothing clears you out and
recharges you for the next round like a day in the woods. Heck, even non-hunters
don’t need us to tell them that. All they have to do is read the bumper sticker
that says, “A bad day in the woods beats a great day at the
office.”
Hunting exercises your senses. As hunters, we know that anytime
we’re in the woods we’re more attuned to sights and sounds. Civilized life can
tend to dull those senses with constant background noise, and hunting can help
reset them.
Hunting even helps foster healthy interpersonal
relationships. John Donne was correct when he wrote, “No man is an island,
entire of itself.” Humans are designed to interact with other humans. Unlike
some other activities, the folks you hunt with are like-minded people, which is
required for true fellowship to occur. The proof is in the duration and depth of
your friendships with your hunting buddies — those are the people you know you
can call at any hour of the day or night if you need them.
Fourth Truth: Hunting is the most objective way to broadly
test your performance. Hunting allows you to test your performance in a
broad range of areas. My own personal test is to try to sneak up on a whitetail
and take him in his bed with an iron-sighted handgun.
Each time I try, I
stack the odds in my favor by planning, and that planning requires that I
consider every possible variable, from where he’ll be to how I’ll approach and
when. So far, I haven’t passed the test — I’ve been “busted” every time, and
most often the reason has been that I failed in one aspect of planning or
execution. When it comes to standards for measuring success versus failure, the
real world pulls no punches, especially when a whitetail buck is involved.
Fifth Truth: Hunting is fun and
rewarding. There are few things that bring me a sense of quiet, inner joy
like the little things that happen to each of us only when we’re in the woods.
There’s the feeling you have as you watch the first sunrise of the season from
your stand, or when a robin lights within inches of you in a tree where you sit
in full camo on a bow hunt. Each time I witness those things, I think about how
much my nonhunting friends are missing.
Nothing is as rewarding as
having hard work turn into success, and nothing could be harder than going after
a particular big buck and winning. You have to scout, figure out his patterns,
set up on him and then not blow the shot. A single error anywhere along the way
means you lose. But even when you lose, you still gain in that you learn, and
eventually it will all pay off.
So, that’s my answer to “Why do you
hunt?” I hope it will help you decide how best to answer the question yourself
in a way that will truly educate non-hunters who ask. Obviously there are lots
of reasons you could come up with to explain why you hunt, but remember the key:
the truth is on your side. If you ask me that question, though, I’ll probably
just stick to saying, “Because it’s part of who I am.” After all, as hunters you
already know what I mean.
