The Essence of Hunting
Hunting with a dog and a gun is delightful in itself, but let us suppose you were not born a hunter, but are fond of nature and freedom all the same; you cannot then help envying us hunters.
IVAN TURGENEV
A SPORTSMAN’S NOTEBOOK (1850)
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The emotions that good hunters need to cultivate are love and service more than courage. The sentiments of the hunt then become translated into art.
JAMES SWAN
IN DEFENSE OF HUNTING (1995)
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If a man undertakes a dangerous enterprise with determination to succeed or lose his life, he will do many things with ease and unharmed which a smaller degree of energy would not accomplish.
MESHACH BROWNING
FORTY-FOUR YEARS OF THE LIFE OF A HUNTER (1859)
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The wildlife of today is not ours to do with what we please. The original stock was given to us in trust for the benefit both of the present and the future. We must render an accounting of this trust to those who come after us.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CIRCA 1900)
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If there’s a law about it at all, though who ever heard of a law, that a man shouldn’t kill deer where he pleased!-but if there is a law at all, it should be to keep people from the use of smooth-bores. A body never knows where his lead will fly, when he pulls the trigger of one of them uncertain fire-arms.
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER’S NATTY BUMPPO
THE PIONEERS (1823)
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In wildness is the preservation of the world.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
“WALKING” (1862)
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I have seen him set fire to his wigwam and smooth over the graves of his fathers … clap his hand in silence over his mouth, and take the last look over his fair hunting ground, and turn his face in sadness to the setting sun.
GEORGE CATLIN (EARLY 1800s)
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If the only satisfaction to be derived from the sport lay
in killing birds, I would have quit the game long since.
BURTON SPILLER
MORE GROUSE FEATHERS (1938)
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The hunter is the alert man.
JOSÉ ORTEGA Y GASSET
MEDITATIONS ON HUNTING (1942)
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We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes—something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.
ALDO LEOPOLD
A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC (1949)
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There is a passion for hunting something deeply implanted in the human breast.
CHARLES DICKENS (CIRCA MID-1800s)
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Why should I not be serious? I am speaking of hunting.
RICHARD CONNELL’S GENERAL ZAROFF
“THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME” (1924)
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Like the predator he pursues, the wolf hunter is often as reviled and hated as he is praised and honored. Many despise him because he is killing a symbol of their idea of wilderness. On the other hand, ranchers, hunters and victims hail him as a hero, feed him dinner, and learn from him. This human in wolf’s clothing helps keep Nature’s most efficient canine predator in check.
CHRISTOPHER BATIN
WOLF HUNTER (1990s)
Have you looked over your shoulder lately? There is a beast that lives in the rural forests, a beast that often watches you without you knowing; perhaps as you fish a stream, or maybe as you hunt birds in the local forest. This beast has stalked and killed sportsmen, ambushing them when they least expect it. And there’s one out there now, waiting for you, as you head out on your hunting trip with friends.
CHRISTOPHER BATIN
NIGHT OF THE BROWN BEAR (1990s)
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Any autumn. Every autumn, so long as my luck holds and my health, and if I win the race. The race is a long, slow one that has been going on since I started to hunt again. The race is between my real competence at hunting gradually developing, and, gradually fading, the force of the fantasies which have sustained me while the skills are still weak. If the fantasies fade before the competence is really mine, I am lost as a hunter because I cannot enjoy disgust. I will have to stop, after all, and look for something else.
VANCE BOURJAILY
IN FIELDS NEAR HOME (1984)
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The Daniel Boones among us notwithstanding—and I haven’t met one yet—the average hunter pays his dues for every head of big game the same way that dues are exacted in other pursuits.
NORMAN STRUNG
HUNTING WITH LADY LUCK (EARLY 1990s)
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If you happen to hunt a great deal, or if you spend a lot of time in the woods for any other reason, there always seems to be a half section of land, somewhere, that fits you better than it fits anybody else.
TOM KELLY
FORTY CROOK BRANCH (LATE 1990s)
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We are measured more as hunters by the things we choose not to shoot, than by those that we do.
NORMAN STRUNG
“THE MEASURE OF A HUNTER” IN
FIELD & STREAM (1985)
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If one were to present the sportsman with the death of the animal as a gift he would refuse it. What he is after is having to win it, to conquer the surly brute through his own effort and skill with all the extras that this carries with it: the immersion in the countryside, the healthfulness of the exercise, the distraction from his job.
JOSÉ ORTEGA Y GASSET
MEDITATIONS ON HUNTING (1942)
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“Everybody,” he said, “should be allowed to brag some about what he did good that day, and to cover up shameless on what he did wrong.”
ROBERT RUARK
THE OLD MAN AND THE BOY (1953)
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There is a code that you do not quit in the middle of a hunting trip. It may be a barbaric or juvenile expression of the stiff-upper-lip philosophy to go on when you do not want to, but it is the only thing you can do.
FRANK CALKINS
ROCKY MOUNTAIN WARDEN (1964)
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He knew the troubles of tracking, The business of camps and kits, And the pleasure that pays For the pain of all, The ultimate shot that hits.
JAMES MELLON
“BREAKFAST AT MIDNIGHT” IN
OUTDOOR LIFE (1969)
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We cannot change the ultimate lives of the creatures we harbor in our world, but now and then by watching them we can gain some sense of what we are and just where we stand on the shelf … somewhere between the owls and the moles.
GENE HILL
“AN EVENING WALK” IN
A HUNTER’S FIRESIDE BOOK (1972)
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We believe that we are instinctively born knowing the wilderness, that we are nowhere so comfortable as in the forest primeval, and that we are quite fully capable of hunting and killing with dispatch anything from hummingbirds to elephants, even if we choose not to do it. To admit ignorance … somehow runs against our grain.
TOM KELLY
TENTH LEGION (1973)
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Of the reasons I go hunting again, the most irresistible, whether or not it’s much of an argument, is familial.
VANCE BOURJAILY
FOREWORD TO SEASONS OF THE HUNTER
EDITED BY ELMAN AND SEYBOLD (1985)
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In order to discover the extremely cautious animal, he resorted to the detective instinct of another animal; he asked for its help.
JOSÉ ORTEGA Y GASSET
MEDITATIONS ON HUNTING (1942)
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Man may have originated as a vegetarian, but he became the fiercest predator of all, with the power to control all the other animals and build the civilizations we have now.
LEE WULFF
TROUT ON A FLY (1986)
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I like sporting guns because they are tools that help us fit into the natural puzzle; and fine sporting guns because they are wonderful objects.
STEPHEN BODIO
GOOD GUNS (1986)
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Elation rules the camp when I bring in the deer. The scene could easily be from five thousand years ago, when the hungry people applaud the hunter as they realize that they aren’t going to starve just yet.
JIM HAMM
BOWS & ARROWS OF THE NATIVE AMERICANS (1989)
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At a minimum, a good gun must be useful, beautiful, and well-made enough to last a lifetime.
STEPHEN BODIO
GOOD GUNS (1986)
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One last time before the season slips completely into the past, I want to listen to the silence and see again the stars reflected in the quiet water.
STEVEN MULAK
WAX AND WANE (1987)
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I can’t tell you what makes one man a hunter and another not. But I can tell you how this all happened for one hunter.
JIM FERGUS
A HUNTER’S ROAD (1992)
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I am never in a hurry when I am hunting. If I am in a hurry I don’t go hunting.
HAVILAH BABCOCK
“CALLING ON MY NEIGHBORS” IN
MY HEALTH IS BETTER IN NOVEMBER (1947)
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For a place we visit only one week out of the year, we worry about it far too much.
RICK BASS
THE DEER PASTURE (1985)
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As long as there is such a thing as a wild goose I leave them the meaning of freedom. As long as there is such a thing as a cock pheasant I leave them the meaning of beauty. As long as there is such a thing as a hunting dog I leave them the meaning of loyalty. As long as there is such a thing as a man’s own gun and a place to walk free with it I leave them the feeling of responsibility. This is part of what I believe I have given them when I have given them their first gun.
GENE HILL
“THE FIRST GUN” IN A HUNTER’S FIRESIDE BOOK (1972)
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Predators kill for practice and want to be as good as they can be at the skills that keep them alive. Instinctively they know that some day life will be severe and the best of their breed, the ablest killers, will survive and the less capable will die.
LEE WULFF
TROUT ON A FLY (1986)
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Old deer hunting friends are better than new ones. They took the test of time and passed. Old deer hunters are better than young ones. They know more and their hearts and legs make them move more slowly.
JAMES R. PIERCE
GUNS AND HUNTING (1993)
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This youthful desire to go into the woods and build a camp away from one’s home, to pass secrets and share intimately with one’s friends while enjoying the changes of the season, must have been carried from childhood by some of these hunters. Returning annually has become a ritual, a re-creation of their childhood memories and experiences.
JOHN MILLER
DEER CAMP (1992)
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If there is a sacred moment in the ethical pursuit of game, it is the moment you release the arrow or touch off the fatal shot.
JIM POSEWITZ
BEYOND FAIR CHASE (1994)
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Once a hunter decides to shoot a gun or release an arrow, there is no question of catch and release.
JAMES SWAN
IN DEFENSE OF HUNTING (1995)
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By now the sun was halfway to noon, and as we worked along a little creek bottom, a fallow field upslope flashed what must have been a million cobwebs lacing each dried weed. None was larger than a man’s hand, and all were backlit by the sun through melted frost in brilliant splendor. It was as though Nature had sewn sequins on a gossamer gown and dressed herself for a ball. I can still remember the loveliness, and thinking how impermanent is beauty.
DAVID HENDERSON
SPOOK AND OTHER STORIES: TALES OF A BIRD DOG (1995)
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How do hunters know to hunt this field, this day? How do they know where to sink their pits? … It is not such a bad thing to feel, this anxiety. It is a kind of longing …
RICHARD FORD
“HUNTING WITH MY WIFE” IN
SPORTS AFIELD (1996)
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You could tell how cold the morning was, despite the exertion, just by watching the steam roar from the [antelope’s] abdominal cavity. I stuck the knife in the ground and sat back against the slope, looking clear across to Convict Grade and the Crazy Mountains. I was blood from the elbows down and the antelope’s eyes had skinned over. I thought, this is goddamned serious and you had better always remember that.
THOMAS McGUANE
THE HEART OF THE GAME (1990)
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Oh how my heart will ever ache; when memory calls me back again; to crystal mountains, azure lakes, with eagles dancing in the wind.
BILLY ELLIS
HUNTER TO THE DAWN (1988)
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When he finally came mincing through the trees all puffed up and blue in the face, the sun lit up his red wattles, and the copper and bronze lights in his body feathers were magnificent. I can still see his tail fanned full, turning this way and that in the early-morning sunlight as he sought the hen he had heard calling from where I sat.
JEROME B. ROBINSON
IN THE TURKEY WOODS (1998)
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For [certain] men, the long wait until hunting season is like the long night before opening day. They are restless, tossing and turning and waiting for first light—or autumn.
Their lives would be more placid and serene without hunting. But then, the churchyards are filled with serene, placid men who did not hunt.
JOHN MADSON
GOING OUT MORE (1974)
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It boils down to this: Accept your hunting partners like your mate—for better or worse.
JOEL VANCE
BOBS, BRUSH, AND BRITTANIES: A LONG
LOVE AFFAIR WITH QUAIL HUNTING (1997)
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What, after the fat is boiled away, is the essence of hunting dangerous game? In a word, it is challenge in its most elemental form, the same challenge that provided the drive that brought the hairless, puny-toothed, weak, dawn-creature that became man down out of the trees to hunt meat with his rocks, clubs and pointed sticks. This daring still lives, in various degrees of mufti, under the flannel breast of the meekest shoe clerk …
PETER HATHAWAY CAPSTICK
DEATH IN THE LONG GRASS (1977)
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We kill the game to eat it. Tasting it, we thank it. Thanking it, we remember it: how we hunted it, how it tested us, how we overcame it, how it finally fell.
CHARLES FERGUS
A ROUGH-SHOOTING DOG (1991)
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She squeezed the trigger and saw the eye explode, the dark bulk fall, the dream enact and love and blood meld into a stream, in the solitude, the hunter’s solitude, and she murmured, “I am so terribly goddamned sorry,” and cried again against the walnut stock of the rifle in the silence.
JACK CURTIS
DAWN WATERS (1998)
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I don’t regard nature as a spectator sport.
ED ZERN
HUNTING AND FISHING FROM “A” TO ZERN (1985)
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The best part of hunting and fishing was the thinking about going and the talking about it after you got back.
ROBERT RUARK
THE OLD MAN AND THE BOY (1953)
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… the boy’s arrogance was quickly dispelled by the next step of his induction into the fraternity of hunters. Gutting is, ordinarily, the responsibility of the man who shot the deer. This time, Russ did the honors (as do many uncles) of instructing the boy.
JOHN MILLER
DEER CAMP (1992)
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I’ve got eleven months to go—before it’s mid-November and bitter cold, And the sun is rising and I am growing old …
PETER J. FIDUCCIA
WHITETAIL STRATEGIES (1995)
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Despite his many faults in the field, I’m grateful to him in a way. Now I know what to avoid when somebody new asks me to go hunting with him.
ROBERT F. JONES
DANCERS IN THE SUNSET SKY (1996)
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Humans are not inherently violent creatures. We are predators, but predation exists within the natural order while violence exists beyond it. Loud violence estranges us, and quiet violence is the state from which we’ve been estranged.
ALLEN JONES
A QUIET PLACE OF VIOLENCE (1997)
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Here was a boy of depth, character and awareness. A bowhunter. An athlete blessed by God, and I, a father, blessed with him.
TED NUGENT
IN SPORTS AFIELD (1997)
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The wilderness reminded him that everything he did had a consequence.
STEPHEN BODIO
ON THE EDGE OF THE WILD (1998)
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