Alex Killman is a guest writer for SCWF sharing his experiences of connecting with nature, enjoying the outdoors, and advocating for conservation – all through hunting. 

A Different Perspective

There are some things in this life that just can’t be understood without experiencing them firsthand. Being married, having a child, witnessing the Northern Lights – all things that hold so much weight that they often change one’s view of the world indefinitely. On the surface, hunting doesn’t seem to be on such a level. Those outside the hunting community often see the harvesting of an animal as nothing more than the pull of a trigger, high fives, and a rack on the wall. And to be honest, you can’t really blame them. After all, the hunting industry doesn’t market towards non-hunters. It markets toward those who are most apt to make a purchase. And those individuals love to see highlights of a hunt, followed by pictures of a proud hunter holding up a big rack. For non-hunters, this can be off-putting. But for hunters, the joy we feel stems from the full picture of our own similar experiences.

The Effects of Nature

For most hunters, the harvest is just a small part of the hunting experience. Though it truly is the end goal, the reward of hunting is in the pursuit itself. If hunting was boiled down to the simple act of walking to a stand with the certainty of seeing an animal, followed by a trip to the processor, hunting would have died off not long after the Agricultural Revolution took root. It’s not the act of harvesting an animal that’s so alluring. And it’s not always just about the meat, either. Although there are many hunters who feed themselves and their families on wild game all year long, it’s the entire experience that draws us in. It’s being immersed in nature. It’s being at the mercy of something bigger than ourselves – a feeling akin to a spiritual experience. For many, it’s the only time when all our cares seem to pause, even if just for a few hours. It’s a time when our God-given senses take over. When we’re completely focused on every sound for hundreds of yards – the squirrels jumping from acorn to acorn, the wind whipping over the wings of a hawk, the distant gobble of a turkey. There’s a peace that seems to only be available in a natural environment. Because our short lives can feel so long, and modern life is all we’ve ever known, we often forget that concrete and sheetrock are new. When we take a big-picture view of our world, 99% of human history has seen us living in nature, not a county over from it. Because of this, there’s something that comes alive in us when we step back into the wild places we were designed for. It’s something that can be almost impossible to put words to, but it’s what drives so much emotion when someone sees an image of a majestic animal in front of a breathtaking natural backdrop. I believe there’s some switch inside us all that we’ve flipped off through the constant removal of nature from our lives, and hunting has been found by many to be the method for flipping it back on.

To Feel Human

For most people, it can be easy to understand the merits of spending time in nature, but there’s another piece of the hunting experience that can be hard to understand, and even harder to explain – the act of harvesting an animal. To some, it seems completely unnecessary to take an animal’s life when we can simply purchase our meat from the grocery store. But what that notion neglects, is the fact that a life was already taken to make that grocery store meat available. Hunters are simply choosing to be a willing participant in the process. There’s an overwhelming sense of realism that hunters enjoy when we confront the reality of where our food comes from. When we harvest an animal, we remove the farm and the butcher from the equation and add a little piece of realism back into our lives. And when we sit down at the table with the fruits of our labor in front of us, we feel something more real than this virtual, computer-driven world can offer. We feel human. To a hunter like myself, hunting isn’t just a way of life. It is life. It’s the full embodiment of what it means to be alive on this planet.

Now, I feel that I should wrap this up by saying I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with not hunting. I also don’t believe there’s anything wrong with not eating meat. We all have our convictions, and everyone’s convictions should be respected. For the non-hunters, I hope I gave you a better understanding of why we as hunters do what we do. If you find yourself having questions, or feeling the pull to learn more, the hunting community is here to help. There are countless online resources available, and I consistently post articles at https://southeasternbowhunting.com/. I’m always available to chat, and can be reached via Instagram or Facebook @southeasternbowhunting.