Is the hunt about more than killing for you ?

[bobman]

I love shooting my longbow but no longer enjoy the kill.

I've actually considered selling some of my deer rifles ( haven't used them in 20 years) and buying a good camera with the cash. Saving the guns for grandkids I guess.

If it wasn't for my bird dogs I think i might not kill anything anymore.

Fwiw I've killed probably easily over a 100 deer, just don't like to anymore and I can't explain why.

[J-dog]

Yeah torn on that one, I want to kill or I wouldn't go fpdragging this bow around just for fun?? I love to hunt with anything? But I love to kill with a bow??? Mainly and 99.9% time I am skunked? So I might as well not be dragging the bow along!  I know I'd fulfill the kill with a rifle easier and more but I love to kill with the bow so I take my beatings on the knowledge that I will succeed.

J

[Danny Rowan]

Has never been about the killing for me. Just being there is what does it. If I kill something, great but if not that is great too. I get more out of the experience of it all. Watching the birds and other critters doing their thing.

[Covey]

It's definitely about the hunt for me! I got a late start into my hunting life ( mid twenties, I'm 44 now) and killed my first deer with a gun, never picked up one to deer hunt with again. Life and work get in the way sometimes so my kills are few. Passed several last year that I'm pretty confident I could have taken, but just couldn't drop the string. Time spent in Gods creation and the animals that he created are a blessing and I do not take that for granted. Hopefully I'll be blessed with a big healthy doe next season, but if not, I'll love it anyway!

[Gooserbat]

Honestly I hunt for a lot of reasons.  There is a thrill of the kill no doubt and any person who has any primal instinct gets it.  Now the two things that I enjoy the most about hunting is the mental aspect of out whiting prey to the point that I can be selective and kill the animals I target do to size, age, and or my need to fill the freezer.  Second is I really enjoy the table fare and will eat wild game as much as possible..

[Possum Head]

Some of my most memorable hunts were those when an arrow never left my quiver.But aint nuttin like wallerin in a gut pile!

[BWallace10327]

Originally posted by Bisch:
 If the killing were the only thing that mattered, I would be a rifle hunter.

Bisch

I resent this statement. Killing is killing and hunting is hunting, no matter the method.  I guess it wouldn't matter much if I was elk hunting with a rubber mallet...the adventure is what matters, and it'd still be a blast, although I am happy to have not purchased cuts of beef at the store in all of my adult life.

Originally posted by BWallace10327:
 

Originally posted by Bisch:
 If the killing were the only thing that mattered, I would be a rifle hunter.

Bisch

I resent this statement. Killing is killing and hunting is hunting, no matter the method.  I guess it wouldn't matter much if I was elk hunting with a rubber mallet...the adventure is what matters, and it'd still be a blast, although I am happy to have not purchased cuts of beef at the store in all of my adult life. [/b]

I think you are mis-reading what I was trying to say! What I was saying was this: To me, if the the only thing that mattered was the kill, then I would use the most efficient weapon that would give me the highest percentage chance to kill something. That is not the case though, and I hunt with my longbow to get the total experience, and a lot of times I do not get a kill.

And btw, I cannot remember the last time I bought any beef in the grocery store. Pretty much any recipe that I make that would call for beef gets venison! I have been eating deer meat so long, to me most beef just does not taste right.

Bisch

[TGbow]

I have had a passion for hunting with the stick bow for 40 plus years.
If I was just wanting to kill something I would choose a different weapon.
But, I'm always out there for the kill. Thats a big part of it or else I would take up photography.
I always enjoy the hunt whether I kill or not, but I'm hunting to kill and enjoy at the same time.

[BWallace10327]

Bisch- My misunderstanding, sorry about that; sometimes words can conceal meaning of a statement when delivered in a typed format.

[bwcollins]

I enjoy the time outdoors in God's world, and meat in the freezer, and well big racks! Heck I love it all actually!

[Trenton G.]

When I first started trad hunting, it was about the kill. When I went into the woods, my only goal was to kill a deer. However, the better I've gotten, as well as beginning to hunt on the ground have both drastically changed my perspective. Just being in the woods and experiencing it is well worth my time. This past year I hunted exactly 50 times and never drew my bow. I was close a few times, but it never quite came together. Looking back, I can't think of a single one of those hunts that I would consider a failure or waste of my time.

"A hunt based only on trophies taken falls far short of what the ultimate goal should be."
                                          Fred Bear

[highlow]

Now that I'm retired, I probably get to hunt ten times the amount of more than 90% of the members here. Most of those sits, or walks, end up with zero results, but it is great to be out there. However, I have to say that closing the deal on a whitetail or longbeard is the desired end result for me. Hunting is the reason I get out in the woods.

[Car54]

I enjoy being with the guys & sometimes killing something. I pretty much have the opportunity to shoot something when I hunt, but choose not to shoot. Its all good.

[GRAYBEARD]

I'm such a lousy hunter I should be a vegetarian but I still love being in the woods and a part of God's process. Rarely get blood on my knife but I never come out of the woods without something learned.

[JEFF B]

its all about having FUN and if ya happen to get something along the way thats a bonus.  

[Shadowhnter]

Originally posted by TGbow:
I have had a passion for hunting with the stick bow for 40 plus years.
If I was just wanting to kill something I would choose a different weapon.
But, I'm always out there for the kill. Thats a big part of it or else I would take up photography.
I always enjoy the hunt whether I kill or not, but I'm hunting to kill and enjoy at the same time.

Well said. Seems there is more then a few of us that feel the same way.