Hunting has been in our DNA since the dawn of humanity. Our ancestors were excellent hunters, having no choice but to reach the top of the food chain or starve.
While the hunting-gathering days are over, hunting continues as an exciting hobby with many potential benefits.
Let’s go through some of the benefits of hunting and why anyone can, and should, become a hunting enthusiast.
10 Reasons Why You Should Take Up Hunting:
Hunting is a great activity to have as a hobby. It doesn’t take a world-class sniper to hit a deer or a butcher to carve one up. Anyone can get into hunting regardless of skill level.
Here are some reasons why people take up and enjoy hunting.
Hunting Brings You Closer To Nature
The great outdoors is a hunter’s playground. Every bush is a potential hiding spot. Every tree is a potential shelter.
Hunting allows you to escape the trappings of urban living. You get to escape the big city’s smog, the hustle, and the bustle and enjoy the fresh air.
A good hunter disturbs as little of their environment as possible. They know every leaf, plant, rock, and water source in their stomping ground and understand their prey.
Hunting Keeps You Fit
Hunting is a fairly physical activity, especially if you’re hunting prey quicker or heavier than you. Tracking, killing, and cutting up an animal for its fur and meat is no mean feat.
You will need the endurance to be able to trek across a forest or plain while tracking your prey. You need to have the stability to make the shot. You will need to carry your carcass back to your car.
This makes hunting an excellent hobby for those looking for functional strength and stamina.
Hunting Gives You Skills
As rifle scopes grow more advanced and gadgets like trail cameras become more prevalent, it’s important to remember that hunting is all about the hunter and their prey.
Hunting allows you to gain useful skills that work outside the forest.
Hunting allows city folk to learn how to tie knots, start fires, find food, and process it. It teaches you marksmanship and how to use knives. It teaches you self-reliance.
Hunting Lets You Make Friends
Hunting as a hobby is rarely ever done alone. There’s strength in numbers, and it’s much easier to catch your animal when you can cast a wider net and base of the fire.
New hunters looking to start can go to their nearest hunting group and should find that they’re very accommodating, passionate, down-to-Earth people who want to share the hobby.
Hunting Releases Stress
The great thing about hunting is that it requires 100% focus while still giving you enough downtime to enjoy the tranquility Mother Nature provides. Your mind needs to be in the moment.
This is great for taking your mind off of the everyday stresses.
Studies have shown hunting to be a natural antidepressant, lowering blood pressure and giving outdoorsmen higher levels of Vitamin D. It’s great for relaxing and decompressing.
Hunting Gets You Food From Forest to Table
Most people have no idea what’s in their food or the length it goes to reach their dining tables. They’re detached from the process, simply consuming mounds of fat and sugar.
Hunting allows hunters to be involved in every stage of the process. You will find your meat, kill it, skin it, divide it into meat, freeze it, and eat it.
This is more humane than what most animals used for meat go through.
Hunting allows you to try different kinds of meat beyond the normal beef, poultry, and fish. You get a sense of achievement and a delicious meal out of your adventure.
You Help The Local Community
The hunt doesn’t begin when you park your car outside the reserve. It starts when you pay your dues to the community where you plan to hunt. It starts with getting permits.
These dues help contribute to the local economy and aid in preserving and maintaining the park or wildlife reserve where you plan on hunting.
Some towns also need hunting seasons to prevent invasive species from spreading and wreaking havoc. You’re doing these communities a favor by culling these animals.
Hunting is Lucrative
Hunting isn’t just a financial drain with the amount of money you’ll spend on gear and bullets. It also lets you make a pretty penny, selling fur, antlers, and other parts.
A single deer can provide over 50 lbs of meat, while an elk can provide over 200 pounds. This can help save you so much on groceries. You can also make money selling it.
Every part of the animal you kill is worth something to someone. You can do some research to find out how and where you can sell your animal to make some cash.
Hunting Makes You Creative
Hunting is a matter of life and death for the animal you’re hunting. You can waste a day if you don’t nail it, but it loses its life if you plant the winning shot on its side.
This game of cat and mouse forces you to think outside the box. This means learning the animal’s habits, knowing the terrain and how to use it, and even making traps.
New hunting techniques are still being found because of how quickly the situation changes when hunting. You will need to be ahead of the curve to succeed.
Hunting Can Be Passed Down
As our ancestors passed on their wisdom in subconscious habits, you can pass on hunting to your children. If you start them young, they will take those skills into adulthood.
Hunting teaches people from a young age to respect nature, not waste food and resources, and be self-reliant. It teaches you to be careful and aware of your surroundings.
Conclusion
Hunting is a great hobby for those willing to learn and who aren’t squeamish. It makes hobbyists more skilled, self-sufficient, capable and united with nature and with themselves.
