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Slavia · Moderator

I just finished a magazine article on why people hunt. The author described the motivation for hunting as a space within a triangle defined by harvesting/killing, pure experience, and challenge:

According to the author, the balance between those three motivations can change from day to day. For example, on the opening day of deer season you might be looking for that trophy buck you've been scouting all summer (challenge). Then you find out the neighbor down the road already got that buck, so you settle down and just enjoy the outing (experience). On the last day of the season your empty freezer beckons, so harvesting becomes important.

The author also maintains that hunters go through several phases in their hunting career:
1. "Shooting" - i.e., killing/harvesting
2. "Limiting-Out" - proficiency at killing/harvesting (challenge)
3. "Trophy" - competetive hunting (challenge)
4. "Method" - branching out to different types of hunting (eg., bow, black powder, or airgun for the experience)
5. "Sportsman" - pure experience

The article finishes up by asking the reader to consider how the balance of hunting motivations today might influence the fate of hunting tomorrow.

A few weeks ago we discussed the hunting vs. killing thing to death. That part aside, does any of this describe why you hunt?

Previous discussion on what is hunting: http://www.airgunhome.com/agforum/viewtopic.php?t=3111&start=0

Magazine article:
Winand, C.J., "Kill Or Harvest," The Journal of the International Hunter Education Association, Spring 2009, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 6-8

sniper · Silver Status Member

if rodents count. Mr. Green

experience and challenge. and visa-versa.

a good test medium for pellets...

edit: i posted in that thread. Smile

kanyon · Silver Status Member

food....pest control...I like walking around the hills ..
it keeps me fit....

funny..I have been thinking of getting another crossbow

Pete

Crosman140 · Senior Member

Hey, where is the "Fun" option in that article?

I hunt for fun. Smile

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

Because killin' is all I got.

oddtodd · Silver Status Member

I hunt for the challenge I guess. I just don't like the birds crapping all over everything I own. Shrug

dummyracer36 · Senior Member

i have never gone "hunting" in the traditional sense, walking around our old property in florida shooting squirrels, i would more consider pest control. but i do plan on taking a "proper" hunting trip this fall.

but if i had to classify ... i would say challenge, i like over coming all the variables involved with shooting live targets in the field.

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

My buddy knows I've been shooting birds out the window, and he is a dove hunter during the normal hunting season with his shotgun. I offered to let him shoot a bird out my window and he told me that he just lets them be, and doesn't like to shoot them unless he's out "hunting". I found that ironic.

I guarantee that if he sat at the window, he'd either spook the bird or get off a bad shot at it because it is not just shooting fish in a barrel. You still have to apply hunting tactics in nearly any situation where you are killing game.

He also said that city birds are dirty and not to eat them or touch them. I laughed. The poor guy doesn't realize that these birds migrate and the same bird that is eating out of the garbage can in his backyard might be the same one he shoots this fall up north.

dummyracer36 · Senior Member

Roger, i wasnt insinuating that what you do, i do or any of do isnt hunting, by "proper" hunting trip, i simply meant, traveling somewhere, walking the woods for a weekend, the "whole 9 yards" so to speak.

and actually in retrospect, when i was 9 or 10, a friends neighbor took us squirrel hunting once. didnt teach us ANYTHING about shooting, gun safety, or hunting, he just set us loose in the woods with shot guns.

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

blas · Member

Fun...i guess american bison was lot of fun. Also i dont like the idea of the dead zone aroud my house. From point of airguns, it's illegal to hunt here with airgun, bow, crossbow.

fritz · Silver Status Member

Well... if it was hunting just because it's in the woods... that must have been one of Cheney's excuses.

I don't actually hunt half the time when I'm "hunting". It's all for the peace and quiet (or lack of it- damn birds).

sniper · Silver Status Member