Thread: what makes a true hunter?

been pondering this on n off for awhile im a farm fringe hunter and paid meat hunt user i do check out doc land spots if i can find them
im a quadhunter due disabilty so dont get into true wilderness hunts as some do but have been in some awesome places due to hunts with forum members frm here or the "old" forum also been on some paid meat hunts aswell
Does that Make me less of a hunter than every other hunter ?

my goals for hunting have changed then when i first started ie wanted rep heads of fallow,sika,red,goat and good boar

now just happy hopefully getting way more often than i have in last few years and its more about meat and different areas to explore than bone nowadays

A worthy question.

I'll watch this with interest.

i think a true hunter is a combination of a few things some of these would be a genuine interest in hunting not just out there for some pics to put on social media respect for the animal and the environment your hunting in a proper understanding of your tools and maintaining them having self control sometimes letting the animal walk away if its not what your after instead of just shooting everything you see using the animal not just killing for the sake of killing something learning about what your hunting and ive always said theres shooters and then theres hunters your a hunter @quadhunter260

I always considered myself a hunter, started way back '74. And then one day in Marlborough, I had sent my mates away to look at all the good spots and I was mooching around the hut, went for a walk up the 4WD track and looked over the gully, back towards the hut area. There was a hind out feeding from the bush edge, and I watched her for a good 20 minutes, and saw her fawn come out of the bush and have a feed from mum. So I lay down on the track, got myself a good rest, closed the bolt and quietly squeezed the trigger, on an empty chamber. Confident that I could have had venison in the freezer had I so wished, I snuck back to the hut, dropped my pack and rifle and boots, and stalked that hind in my socks. Got as close as about 30 metres in the thistles, watched her for ages, looking for the fawn. The fawn never appeared again, but I got some amazing photo's of that hind, with a crappy old camera. Still have that photo, one of the most memorable "trophies" I have. That day I worked out I became a hunter, not a shooter. I love to hunt, I hunt for huntings sake, but I dont enjoy the killing. However thats a necessary part of the whole thing sometimes, especially if you want to put meat on the table.

A true hunter? Only you can answer that question and fuck what anybody else thinks.

It's an artificial construct with no absolute answer

Originally Posted by MB

A true hunter? Only you can answer that question and fuck what anybody else thinks.

I'd be inclined to agree with this. It's easy for us to fall into the trap of constantly comparing yourself with others, especially by seeing photos online, and TV shows, and social media etc. While it's interesting, you have to be careful it's not making yourself unhappy with your fitness, your limited time to go hunting, your gear etc etc. So my $0.02 is we should set our own standards and goals, and respectfully work with that. Find out what makes YOU tick...forget about other people and just be grateful we live in an awesome country where we can do this stuff.

guess my bad choice of words opened a can of worms somewhat i guess what it means to me might be different to someone else 👍😎

A true hunter is someone who goes hunting.

I don't think its too much about where you go (or can't for some people for many reasons) but your ultimate respect for animals (including game animals and pests), their environments and other people - after that its mostly about ethics and integrity . . . getting out there and doing it

Fishermen are hunters too; so are wild food gatherers. Agriculture, the foundation of civilisation, has its roots in hunting and gathering.

Perhaps it might be helpful to frame the question in terms of what a true hunter is not.

For example, a true hunter is not somebody who shoots an animal to bits for fun.

My odd man was annal about this.
Respectful of his quarry, only kill what you eat unless it’s pest control. Quick clean deliberate kills not winging it and see what happens. Knowlage of the animals, the seasons and it environment. More time watching them interacting in nature than pulling the trigger on the first mother with a baby to stave to death.
All this takes time in the hills and there’s only so much you can read about to know it and a big one is learning off your mistakes.

my old cocker spaniel is a true hunter......he nearly blind and slowing down a lot....but if there is a hedgehog in section,the nose drops and its all on...put him in dingy zooming around the lake and the nose is up hoovering in the smells of birds,happy as a pig in shit lieing in the sun on side of boat with dead goose beside him to smell.

what makes you a hunter??? well I dont know,I was born this way and its not going to change.take my rifles and shotguns and I will take up the bow,take that and it will be a snare or spear....sight fishing for trout is one form of hunting,but then so is drowning a worm in deep pool,in both cases you are taking on animal in its home enviroment,pitting your wits and tools against animals wits n senses......
so at what range does it become shooting and not hunting????? again its personal thing,you still have to locate animal...
hunting on well stocked farmland is more HARVESTING then HUNTING......same as fishing in a barrel/pen..... canned hunting/fishing its referred to as....its life Jim but not as we know it.

Originally Posted by Max Headroom

Perhaps it might be helpful to frame the question in terms of what a true hunter is not.

For example, a true hunter is not somebody who shoots an animal to bits for fun.

what about someone that shoots an animal to bits for food?plenty of that going on these days with some of these long range wannabes around.