I am sure you have heard this question asked several time before, if you are a hunter. There are many reasons we can give, to explain why we hunt. To get away for a week or two, the adventure, the alcohol at the camp, and the best of all we are providing meat for the family. They all sound good, but we know deep down, these reasons are not the real reasons we take to the woods in the fall, at the opening of deer hunting season. Opening weekend of bow hunting season in Georgia was on the 12th of September and that weekend the real reason became clear to me. It started out with the usual preparations, seeing who could shoot the best with a bow and arrow, a traditional rivalry completion between the bow hunters. The boys (Little Samuel and Dale) came up with a new way to make it interesting, by shooting at slices of potatoes?, still not sure where they came up with the ideal, but they seem to be enjoying it. Next year I am sure they will figure out something else to shoot at and see who can come closest. I will say they lost less arrows this year then in years past, so the bows their using are getting better or their aim is getting better. Then came opening morning of bow hunting season! We were all up before we needed to be in anticipation of that first bow hunt. To our dismay it was a very uneventful day, was as if someone had informed the deer and hogs, we would be laying in wait for them. All this leads up to why we hunt. I have been deer hunting for more years then I care to mention, but I too was excited about the weekend bow hunt. On Sunday afternoon, I was tucked in my lock-on tree stand, waiting on that big deer or hog to enter the area. About 20 minutes before I had to get down and take that long journey back to camp it happened! A large doe appeared in the small clearing, approximately 20 steps from my stand, well within bow range. The adrenalin kicked in and it hit me, this felling is why we hunt. It is not the thrill of the kill but the trill of the adrenalin rush when we are about to harvest a large animal. I did not get a shot at the cagy old doe, but I was satisfied to have had the great felling of the hunt and the rush of adrenalin. I know there will be many more bow hunts in my life and if each one starts with this rush, I will be a happy bow hunter. I have been deer hunting many years and to this day I still fell the blood rushing through my veins as a animal appears in my field of view. It as if this was the first time a deer had entered into a area where I had a chance to harvest it, I hope this felling of adrenalin rushing through me never quits. In that point in time, there would have been nothing that I would have rather been doing. So the next time someone ask you "why do you hunt", just smile and say "the adrenalin rush is so overpowering". It is like a drug and we are all addicts to this felling. We could find many ways to do the reasons we normally give but this adrenalin rush can not be duplicated, if it is in you, you are a hunter and nothing will satisfy this adrenalin rush but hunting. So go forth and hunt.
