8 Reasons Why You (or Your Spouse) Should Know How to Hunt

Benefits of Hunting

I know that many of you can not even imagine pulling the trigger on a firearm and taking the life of an animal.  That’s OK.  This is why we have grocery stores and husbands.  Even if you never want to harvest your own food from the wild – I think there are many benefits to knowing how to do it.  

I personally am not a huge hunter – but I am surrounded by them.

Whether you want to harvest your food from the wild or not, I think we can all agree that there are some tremendous benefits to knowing how to hunt & prepare wild game.

DH is beyond passionate about it and our children are being brought up to know the ways and hows of the huntsman.

8 Reasons You Should Know How to Hunt

#1:  Free Food

If you are purchasing your food from a supermarket – organic gets really expensive.  Raising the animals on your own land is cheaper still, but will still cost you (feed, vet bills & processing).  Hunting for food is almost free.

Here in Kentucky, it doesn’t cost much to walk out on your own land and shoot a deer.  Ammo is cheap enough and since we own a pawnshop gun shop we pretty much have all the bows, firearms and ammo anyone could ever need.

The deer we harvest from our land cost us about nothing.

My youngest took took this buck 2 weeks ago during youth weekend.

#2:  Organic Food

I love to eat clean, organic food.   I think hunting is a great way to obtain some of the cleanest meat out there.  Because the animals are living in the woods, they are eating what they were designed to eat and free from GMO’s or any hormones that could be found in commercially raised meats.

#3:  Local Food

Unless you go on a hunting voyage to a far away land, hunting is usually going to net you some locally raised foods.

#4:  Sustainability

I am far from self-sufficient – but I am getting there!  I love the idea of being able to live off my land.  I dream of never entering a grocery store again.  I get stupidly excited about sustainability.  Sustainability is basically the ability to use products from my farm to raise other products on my farm.  Here’s a couple examples:

• We raise chickens on compost, garden scraps & kitchen scraps.  Go here to read more on that.
• We raise hogs on waste raw milk, clabber and whey (among other things)
• We use the manure from the cows, rabbits and chickens to raise our gardens..

Hunting on our land for rabbit, deer or squirrel is another way we can sustain ourselves without leaving the farm.

#5:  Population Control

If we didn’t have ‘hunting season’ here in Kentucky, I think the deer would take over and we would have to move.  Every fall the deer go into the rut (this is mating season).  The bucks are chasing the doe and it gets wild.  There are dead deer littering the highways and bi-ways because they were hit by a moving vehicle.  It is dangerous for the deer and the folks driving the cars.

I can’t imagine how many more deer related accidents we would have if we didn’t have hunters.

The year my oldest son got his first deer – he got his second deer 2 minutes later.

#6:  Knowledge & Life Skills

Most of the world is perfectly happy purchasing all their consumable goods from a vendor.  Then there are those of us who want to know how to do it ourselves.

If you know how to hunt, you will probably never starve.  No matter what happens to the world, the stores, the stock market or your bank account – if you can hunt – you will eat.

#7:  Stop & Enjoy the Sunrise

DH’s favorite time to hunt is morning.  He likes to get up about 5am and be in his deer stand by 6:00 to watch the sunrise.

If you are not familiar with hunting, you are probably wondering why someone would get up at the crack of dawn when there’s plenty of daylight after 8am….

Deer Hunting 101:

Deer are nocturnal.  They bed down during the day (mostly) and move around & eat at night.  This is why if you set up deer cameras around your property most of your deer pictures will be from the middle of the night.

The magical times for deer hunting are during sunrise and sunset.  These are the 2 times when the deer are moving.  In the morning they are going back to their ‘nest’ to bed down for the day.  In the evening, around sunset, they are getting up & going looking for food.  This is why ‘first thing in the morning’ or the ‘last hour of the evening’ are the best times for deer hunting.

#8:  Traditions, Family & Identity

Hunting is a tradition here at our place.  Even our child who has never spent a second in a deer stand can appreciate the energy, passion and anticipation that accompanies every person who heads out into the woods.

Those of us at the house eagerly listen for the sound of a gunshot and cheer when the crew comes back to the homestead from a successful hunt.

I know hunting is not for everyone, but around here it is more than just free, healthy food… it is family, it is tradition, it is part of who we are.

Happy Deer Season!

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XO,

Candi