Why Choose Hunting?

The most common question that I get from friends and family is “What made you start hunting?”

To be honest, I usually respond with the quick and easy answer of “FOOD!”.

I am sure most hunters will give this answer as one of their main reasons for hunting, but if the answer was food alone many would argue that there are much easier, less time consuming, and surely less expensive ways of acquiring food.

This is where most of us have more of a why, yet we rarely convey it. Here is a new hunters attempt at that!

After fishing for a few years I started to love and even crave the silence and calm that being immersed in nature provided. Furthermore, the attention and skill required for every single fly fishing cast forces your mind to be fully present, while experiencing a deep sense of calm. With the fishing season in the streams of the Foothills being fairly short, I began looking for more ways to push my limits and expand my skillset in the outdoors. Enter hunting.

So why DO I hunt?

• Experiencing nature is incredibly humbling
• For the challenge of outsmarting incredibly cautious animals
• The extreme physical demand
• The camaraderie between hunting partners
• Forces you out of your comfort zone
• Invites a desire to learn new skills
• And yes, our freezer is now full of lean, high quality meat.

Now, these are just a few of my reasons. I do find it challenging to express the feelings of reward, accomplishment, and frustration that make up each and every trip out to the field.

-R