Why I Hunt?

By Clayton Kern

“Why I hunt” isn’t just your normal everyday “why” type question. “Why I hunt” is more like asking me why I live, why I breathe, why I eat. Hunting has as much to do with my existence as does anything else, it is a right of passage, it is proof that I have not given into the lies of our modern 21^st century existence. To me hunting is not a sport; it is a way of life.

Hunting not only allows me to simply observe nature and its many aspects, but it also incorporates me, and makes me part of nature. The biggest driving force in nature is the food web, and the predator prey relationship. Without it, nature as we know it would crumble and fall out of existence. By entering myself into the food web I become part of nature, like the wolf, the bobcat, and many other predators. There is no feeling in the world like that of following the tracks and the sign of an animal that you know just passed by minutes before. It strikes an ancient primeval feeling deep within me that nothing else in the world could ever do.

When I hunt, the way I see and the way I experience the world changes. I see the world through the eyes of an animal, a ruthless predator. I see the trees, I see the rocks, I see the tracks, and I see what needs to be done. I must learn the patterns of my prey, I must learn the way he lives, and through that it then becomes possible to take down my prey and continue living.

Death is necessary for life; you can not have one and not the other. Death is as much a part of life as living. My parents taught me that fact early in my life. Death has been hidden by our modern convenient lifestyles. No longer do we need to kill first hand to obtain meat to live. The grocery store and the fast food restaurant are right down the road. By taking death out of our lives, we in fact become less like humans and more like machines. Our automated, convenient lifestyles have turned us into little more then thinking and operating robots. We eat at prescribed times of the day. We get our food handed to us on a plate. We get our water handed to us in a cup. We have no concept that an animal had to loose its life to give us life. By this process we take advantage of food, we have no respect for food, and what went into producing it. We throw it away without a second thought. I hunt so that I understand what goes into the food that gives me life, I hunt so I don’t become a socialized robot, I hunt to help me understand that I am simply part of the Earth, and nothing more.

Hunting gives my life meaning, and purpose. It makes me strong, both physically and mentally. It brings me down to Earth, and forces me to respect, and value nature, more then anything else can. I learn what it is like to really live and truly exist when I hunt. What the majority of people nowadays call life is nothing more then a mask to cover and hide our humble and primitive beginnings.

Hunting has been the most integral part of human existence since the beginning of the human species. We can find the evidence of ancient hunting in the spears, arrowheads, and other hunting implements made by our ancestors thousands of years ago. We can see the result of hunting in our bodies manifested as our pointy carnivorous canine teeth. The human race was made to hunt; it is in our genes, and in our body.

I am human.

And that is why I hunt.