I didn’t have a dad to take me hunting growing up. I’m 40 and have never hunted. 80% of guys I know hunt and they talk about it 90% of the time.
It seems expensive, complicated to get tags and permissions, and it takes all of their vacation time..
Besides camping and “free” meat, what do you get out of hunting?
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It’s a bonding activity for men. I don’t hunt, but that’s how I’ve observed it when my family did it.
Some goddamn peace and quiet, I assume
It’s a man hobby*
You get friends, you get items to attain and work towards, and you have a shared hobby that you gives you something, you could give to others
Combine that with the concept of there being firearms, “roughing it” in nature and using your finances towards getting “better” at the hobby over time, and in a lot of ways it makes sense why men would gravitate towards it
I’m in the same boat; lived in the Deep South for a couple of years, and had friends who’d take me out hunting and would teach me how to shoot. Personally, it’s not my cup of tea but I can very well see why others enjoy it
EDIT: Didn’t see that this topic blew up since yesterday. To add more context: I was answering this more for how OP and others initially viewing it (hunting as a concept for men and why they do it)
But overall, it’s also an activity that families also enjoy doing as well. So apologies if it came off as me viewing it as more male-centered, it’s pretty much for anyone that’s passionate about the hobby
About 100 lbs of clean nothing added tastey meat.
I never went with my dad also. I just felt a little hypocritical eating something without being involved with it’s death.
What’s not to like? Hanging out with the boys, guns, fire, atv’s and booze. Sometimes you shoot something and have to clean it but the rest of the experience is alot of fun.
Everyone has their own reason and they are as varied as cars are. Some it is the competition of getting the game. Some like myself it is just getting out and away where you can commune with nature and get back to the more barbaric side of yourself. That is also why some people can’t stand doing it. It forces you to face your true self. You have to spend time with no outside stimulus and your mind takes you places a lot of people can’t handle going.
I live on Northern Canada and it’s necessary to hunt or you starve. But also lived in Southern Canada cities and even if food was cheap, which it isn’t now, it’s extremely unhealthy processed food and was overweight until I moved up North on my own land.
Caveman level satisfaction knowing you’re able to provide for your family.
I’m not a prepper, but for me basic survival skills are similar to knowing CPR.
– How to swim.
– How to start a fire without matches.
– First Aid.
– Hunting and Fishing.
Besides being cheap meat, I know it’s good quality and just an animal in nature that eats a natural diet. I also just enjoy being in nature. One of my favorite things is getting set up nice and early and watching the forest wake up and come to life around me.
Hunting can be pretty cheap or super expensive. For an initial few hundred dollar investment you can be up and running, probably less if you have hunting friends since I’m sure one of them has a tree stand they won’t mind lending you or selling cheap. Get a used bow, just have it checked out by a shop. And Craigslist has a ton of used hunting clothes. Or, you can be like a friend of mine who always buys the nicest and newest gear and has thousands worth of equipment, but I don’t and have no problem filling up my freezer.
Meat. Glorious meat.
My Dad did it to get away from…the rest of his life, really. He had a with a wife with whom he had long since fallen out of love, 3-4 kids to whom he felt an obligation, and constant financial strain.
Looking back, it makes perfect sense to me.
Nature, challenge, thrill of the hunt,
Sounds fun
I grew up with a dad and he hunted often, I only went a handful of times, quickly realizing it wasn’t for me. My issue is with the butchering: I just don’t have the stomach for it. Could I if I _needed_ too? Yeah, it wouldn’t be done very well and I’d hate it, but sure. But it just makes me sick and – personally – I think if you’re going out hunting and you don’t butcher the animal yourself you’re a f-ing pussy who isn’t hunting, you’re just “killing”.
But I do see the appeal, especially duck hunting (I’ma bit of a boat guy). It’s peaceful and it really does bring you in tune with the natural world.
I always wanted to go hunting, especially wild boars/pigs. Consider it a act of goodwill for the land owners to get rid of an invasive species that tears up their crops. But also the bonding between fellow men is good for the soul.
Hunting was a big thing where I grew up in PA, I went a handful of times but it’s so god damn boring. Basically wake up at 5 am and spend 12 hours in the woods in 20 degree weather and sometimes you wouldn’t even see anything to shoot the entire time. Also my dad always butchered the animals, I don’t think I could do it.
It’s a challenge, requires patience and persistence. When you actually kill an animal and that animal provides nourishment for you, family and friends. There’s s sense of accomplishment.
I know literally one adult man whose *family* even still hunts. And I’m in hunting country (Western PA does a fair bit of hunting, and the kids still get off school for “Deer Day.”) Guys I know just don’t care.
I really think you’re underestimating how much some of us like being in the woods and free meat. Even better if you have a few buddies to do it with.
It’s nice just to be outside and with nature. If you see a deer or duck/goose that’s awesome and it is thrilling, but that’s only part of it. I grew up in suburbia, my dad didn’t hunt, most people I knew didn’t hunt. I didn’t get into it until my late 20s early 30s and I enjoyed it.
I enjoy thenprimitive factor of it, man going into wild to get food thing.
Time in nature, quality time with my friends, silence.
I picked up hunting in my 40’s and honestly, I didn’t care for it. I love the outdoors but I’d rather just go hiking/camping/backpacking. I have enjoyed shooting clays though. I found that I just couldn’t enjoy the outdoors if I had to be focused on the hunting part, which again wasn’t interesting to me in the end anyway. Just my experience.
It’s funny, but I grew up hunting and fishing for food with my family, and I kind of hate what hunting has become nowadays: just another excuse to go camping and party in the woods.
When I was growing up, hunters were quiet. Up before dawn and stalking around. Basic snacks. Maybe no campfire. Maybe you got up really early and drove an hour or two into the woods, and then went around on foot.
Where I live now, I go out camping in the fall, and there will be three trucks with their lights on and a generator, blaring country music until after midnight and guys yelling and hollering. The next AM, it’s all quiet. They’re all passed out and sleep until 9AM and then they fire up their side by sides and tear around through the woods like bats out of hell.
It’s funny – I’ve been driving my old 4Runner down some of the back forest roads, slowly, in low range, and had to pull over so people in atvs could scream by – wearing blaze orange and each with a rifle. I let them go by and then slowly and quietly drive down the road, and I’ll see deer and elk coming back out of the woods after they’re gone.
When we hunted and fished, we came home with hundreds of pounds of meat that we then froze, smoked or made into sausage (and then froze). It was still fun, but it wasn’t a party.
I’m a huge hunter, I work part time as a land manager for a hunt club for the elderly.
It’s the peace and quiet and the beauty of nature, I hardly shoot much anymore.
I love deer so much that every tattoo I have on me has a deer in some fashion. It was one of the few hobbies me and my dad bonded over when I was a child.
I love watching the animals, feeding them all year, getting to know their personalities on camera. I love kids harvesting their first animal and the sense of pride they have on their faces after such a great accomplishment, I love watching the elderly finally shoot the big buck they’ve been after since they were 11 years old. It’s an amazing community and bonding experience that I cherish very much. At one point I worked second shift so I could go to the land at 3:30am every day before work and hunt and watch the world wake up. I’ve had the most beautiful experiences watching the sunrise and the planet take its first breath in the morning. One time I was sitting there dosing off in my tree stand a bird landed on the barrel of my rifle just singing a song to me.
That hobby is truly where I find god and peace on earth (I’m hardly religious).
Getting tags in most states is as easy as going to Walmart, like any hobby you make time for it if you love it. And not gonna lie… it put me through college, tags were 20 bucks, I harvest 6 deer and I’m eating steaks for 2-3 semesters maybe even more. If you hunt public land and you put the time in you’ll have very good success and it’s very cost effective… but like any hobby… it’s easy to throw money at it for more luxuries and better tools. I highly suggest it for its just a beautiful sport being part of nature and the wonderful world we humans have grown away from in the modern age.
I went hunting with my dad when I was a kid through late teen years.
He enjoyed it, I liked hanging with my old man.
I don’t currently hunt, and haven’t for more than 40 years, because I discovered this Magic Meat Machine at the market where I can get all the meat clean, bled, and conveniently wrapped in plastic, I want without getting up at O:Dark:30 in the morning, and moving through sodden plants to ‘maybe’ harvest some meat.
Now, I am a dedicated carnivore, so if the Magic Meat Machine at the Market ever stops working Bambi and other tasty animals need to keep an eye out for me.
Idk. Fishing and hunting isn’t for me.
I’d rather just sit in my car or go walk around a Walmart if I wanted to get away from something/one.
Meat and quiet
Yeah I don’t get it either. A lot of hunting is done when it’s freaking cold out. 6ou have to sit still and quiet for hours sometimes.
To be fair I hate camping and just stuff like that generally so hunting won’t appeal to me
I’m not a hunter but I am a fisherman. Most of the enjoyment comes from being outdoors honestly. You have a completely different set of circumstances when you’re out there on a trip.
Twitter and Reddit don’t exist out there, Facebook and Insta are nothing but nagging memories. It’s a disconnect from the things that trap us in everyday life. For my cousin (an avid hunter) it’s not really about the meat. It’s about being connected to a different bit of life. When he does have a successful hunt it’s awesome because venison steak is amazing, but even when he comes back empty handed he still sees more positive out of the trip than anything.
Same as I get out of camping, nothing. I was army for enough years I got all I ever want to get about being wet, cold, uncomfortable and hobbies that involve any of that can fuck off.
Hunting and guns are for the unsophisticated alpha males to demonstrate dominance over other species on the planet. There are plenty of other hobbies which don’t involve killing unprovoked, defenseless animals by cowardly shooting them.
I think it’s cruel. I know most of us eat meat but going out and enjoying killing an animal seems borderline sociopathic. I was never taken out when I was young but I think I’d feel the same way
People are talking about unplugging, just walk in the forest, have a gun but only use it for protection??
Dinner
For me, it reinforces the bonds between humans and the natural world. It connects you to your food and reminds you that your life and the lives of your ancestors were perpetuated by the consumption of living, thinking, feeling beings that are now a part of you and you are part of their world as well. It imparts the knowledge that life is simultaneously a great gift and a perilous trial