How many friends have you made hunting?

[tigris115]

With any hobby, you're almost always going to find someone with your interests and hit if off and hunting is no exception to this rule. So how friends have you made on your outings?

 

[enysse]

I think of hunting as a lifestyle not a hobby. I have met a lot of great friends through hunting and shooting.

 

[Velo Dog]

Hunting is my religion.

Fishing is just hunting with no loud "bang".

Almost all of my friends hunt.

Most I have met through introductions from like minded fellows.

I have probably never met a single soul while actually engaged in hunting.

I have met a few in organized hunting camps / primarily safari company employees - and those were mostly in Africa (but to a lesser degree, in North America as well), again through introductions there at the table or around the fire pit.

 

[Pheroze]

I started hunting as an adult and this made finding "hunting buddies" very tough. Most of my friends are from a time before I hunted and do not share my interest. This is something I undertook as I got more and more disgusted with our food industry.

I would agree with enysse that it is a lifestyle. Definitely, it is a way of looking at the natural world that is not well understood by, in particular, urbantie non-hunters. For me it was a decision to be responsible for the gathering of the animal I chose to eat. It was also a rejection of the chemically saturated food we are served every day. This can sound pious to non-hunters who do not see the horror that is the factory farm. To them we are arbitrarily killing bambi, thumper and whatever other anthropomorphic commercial fodder Walt Disney flogs on us. To digress, I noted that even in the Wolverine movie the opening scene involves him taking revenge on a group a cartoonishly degenerate hunters. Hunting is a lifestyle that can be hard to explain to the uninitiated because, I believe, it is a cultural paradigm shift. As a result, the decision to go out into the field was done with a very comfortable sense of isolation.

But, having friends is also having mentors. I think the actual act of hunting is something that is very personal and I found most hunters have their groups that they hunt with and this is a very private affair. I found the people I meet in the Bass Pro or wherever to be very friendly. But, it is one thing to talk to a relative stranger and quite another to ask to spend a week in a remote cabin with them! So, I made my hunting buddies - my sons!

Fortunately, social media such as this site has been a great way to meet like minded souls and gather information. I guess I would say that my hunting buddies are this motley crew of adventurous personalities OK group hug!

 

[tigris115]

With your views on anti-hunters, I think that most people think of hunting as something of the past. Like something that's "too savage and uncouth for them." You get what I'm saying right?

And yeah, I should've put lifestyle in there too.

 

[CAustin]

Many of my friends hunt but not all. I've never had anyone question the fact that I hunt but have had people question why I have some of my guns.
I belong to a hunting club that has been a great gather place for those of us that just love being in the outdoors enjoying what nature has to offer.