What makes a "good" hunter?

[Dubz337]

And chew Zyn?

Yes

 

[Forkyfinder]

And chew Zyn?

 

[Moserkr]

The sneakiest dude is the best hunter.

No kill necessary.

 

[SCliving Outdoors]

That's a good question.

There aren't many really good hunters that are also really good advocates, and vice versa.

Most of the best advocates I've known are pretty mediocre hunters. Most of the best hunters I know are pretty mediocre advocates. Seems a bit unfair to try to define a good hunter by advocacy or try to define a good advocate by how good of a hunter they are.

IMO, the hunters that pay attention to details make pretty good hunters. They control the things they can, like being able to glass, having the best equipment they can afford, maybe handloading to increase accuracy, spend time on the range, etc. Another thing they do is they try to not make success about luck. Every time I shoot an animal, catch a fish, I try to figure out why they were there. Of all the places an animal can be at any given time, why were they there? Food? Water? Pressure? Security? Slope? Aspect? Time of year? blah, blah, blah. What is it? I can guarantee one thing, they weren't there by accident.

The thing I learned pretty quick is animals don't do much of anything by chance. They live out there every day, their whole lives. Their survival depends on the choices they make and how they use the land. They screw up bad, they pay the man and it's all over for them. You have to store that "why", write it down, and think about it, apply it smartly in the future.

Patience is another and being mentally tough. The guys that wake up after 10-15-25 days in a row just as excited on day 25 as day 1, they end up getting it done. Hunting hard and staying focused for an honest 7 days, it isn't as easy as it sounds. Staying focused for 10, 15, 20 days straight, not many people I've hunted with can pull that off. It beats you down, more mentally than physically.

The other thing about good hunters, they typically have a solid network of other good hunters they can lean on, share info with, etc. It's not just everybody that good hunters share information with, and every good hunter I've been around can sniff out a bullshit artist in about 10 seconds.

Patience, persistence, connections, and continuing to learn every time you're in the field goes a long way to being a good hunter.

Being a good advocate? Pretty similar only you're dealing with people who aren't always real rational and not too interested in the same things you are. Much tougher to be a good advocate, IMO and admire those that are good at it. Not easy at all.

This is a darn good answer.

 

[Gr8bawana]

Describing a "good hunter" is like the question "what is the best BBQ sauce"?
It's subjective to whoever is giving their opinion.

 

[Benfromalbuquerque]

I interpret option “A” as
hunters who plaster up social media for profit, instigate fights with vegans/PETA, or perversely support hunting only because of 2A. I can’t hang with that.

Option “B” is a small group. Sounds lonely.

Option “C” is vague because what is that? Someone who only pays dues to RMEF or a certified hunter ed instructor are far different kind of advocates.

Option “D” is a high level of excellence that is elusive and hard to maintain as good shooting is a perishable skill. Though a hunter could drill a heart shot while aiming at the neck because he lost his zero. Or flinch, shoot way off POA and accidentally destroy the spine. Both go bang flop and will be counted as good shots.

 

[Elky Welky]

Describing a "good hunter" is like the question "what is the best BBQ sauce"?
It's subjective to whoever is giving their opinion.

Yes, it is highly subjective, which is why it wasn't much of an insult when I saw it used in the context above, because the person making comments about how "good" other hunters he's never met are probably doesn't share the same values as me or them.

I'll now throw in my 2 cents:

To me a good hunter is someone who is passionate about it and continues to be humbled by the process.

Like many here I'm sure, the best hunter I know is my own father, who used to chase elk in the winter up Gallatin Canyon when they had a late season archery hunt back in the 1980s. Using a recurve bow, he'd cross country ski in at 3 in the morning, typically in 20 below, to try to stalk in close enough to elk that weren't talking. In my lifetime, he's taken a cow on public land during the rifle season 2/3 of the time during the 5-6 days he had away from taking care of our family, building our house, his career, and ferrying me and my sisters between sporting, music, etc. events. The older he gets, the more he enjoys camping and spending time with his hunting buddies, telling stories, and letting me and my cousins put in more work.

I appreciate impressive antlers, but so often the people showing me pictures of big animals killed them from a side-by-side with a guide, or had a friend of a friend who simply picked up the phone and told them the animals were on their property that day. I'm not impressed by that style of hunting. I can be happy for them and appreciate the animal, but many kills and big racks don't factor into the equation at all for me. Money and connections help people skip the line, but a good hunter--to me--puts in the blood, sweat, tears, and many, many, many failures to find whatever their personal success happens to be. A good hunting story beats huge antlers every day in my book.

Part of that passion for hunting I would say should be shown through advocacy, but to what degree and how much is up to each individual. No matter what, a good hunter simply loves hunting.

 

[bayoublaster7527]

That's a good question.

There aren't many really good hunters that are also really good advocates, and vice versa.

Most of the best advocates I've known are pretty mediocre hunters. Most of the best hunters I know are pretty mediocre advocates. Seems a bit unfair to try to define a good hunter by advocacy or try to define a good advocate by how good of a hunter they are.

IMO, the hunters that pay attention to details make pretty good hunters. They control the things they can, like being able to glass, having the best equipment they can afford, maybe handloading to increase accuracy, spend time on the range, etc. Another thing they do is they try to not make success about luck. Every time I shoot an animal, catch a fish, I try to figure out why they were there. Of all the places an animal can be at any given time, why were they there? Food? Water? Pressure? Security? Slope? Aspect? Time of year? blah, blah, blah. What is it? I can guarantee one thing, they weren't there by accident.

The thing I learned pretty quick is animals don't do much of anything by chance. They live out there every day, their whole lives. Their survival depends on the choices they make and how they use the land. They screw up bad, they pay the man and it's all over for them. You have to store that "why", write it down, and think about it, apply it smartly in the future.

Patience is another and being mentally tough. The guys that wake up after 10-15-25 days in a row just as excited on day 25 as day 1, they end up getting it done. Hunting hard and staying focused for an honest 7 days, it isn't as easy as it sounds. Staying focused for 10, 15, 20 days straight, not many people I've hunted with can pull that off. It beats you down, more mentally than physically.

The other thing about good hunters, they typically have a solid network of other good hunters they can lean on, share info with, etc. It's not just everybody that good hunters share information with, and every good hunter I've been around can sniff out a bullshit artist in about 10 seconds.

Patience, persistence, connections, and continuing to learn every time you're in the field goes a long way to being a good hunter.

Being a good advocate? Pretty similar only you're dealing with people who aren't always real rational and not too interested in the same things you are. Much tougher to be a good advocate, IMO and admire those that are good at it. Not easy at all.

Aside from addressing the OP very well, some pretty good advice in there on becoming a better hunter.

 

[TOGIE]

very complicated and subjective question. but i would start with what i feel is the the most basic and distilled down answer to the basic question.

the oxford definition of a hunter is "a person who hunts wild animals for food or sport; an animal that hunts its food"

by that logic, if you beat the odds time and time again and fill tags every year, you are a "good hunter" because you have successfully hunted.

a tiger or lion that doesn't eat is a bad hunter, a hunter that doesn't fill tags is a bad hunter.

bundled into that "good" individual is often, intrinsically, but definitely not always, someone Buzz described.

and yes, people can not fill tags and be excellent, if not some of the best, hunters. but, that is a different, somewhat irrelevant nuance to the basic question IMO.

edit: i'd like to add - and it's why this is such a hard question - that i've never not filled at least one tag any year since i started hunting, but i definitely don't consider myself to be a very good hunter, i just prioritize it more than my friends that rarely fill tags. so, who the hell knows what really makes a good hunter.

 

[3855WIN]

A good hunter is one that gets game killed. A good sportsman or conservationist falls more in the other boxes.

 

[FairWeather]

These are the topics I love to see discussed. Ones that require self-reflection about what we want that to look like.

For me, being a good hunter looks like 2 things, and you need to have both.

1) Ethics. Always stay within the confines of the law, to the letter. Above and beyond that, having the fortitude to make those hard decisions to behave ethically, even when the unethical option is still legal.

2) Don’t quit. Sure we all have our days when being cold, tired, hungry, a long list of other things to do, etc. gets the better of us. But when you stop really trying at all, that’s when you’ve really failed.

In my mind, you can’t be a good hunter without either of these attributes.

 

[FREAK]

I’ve always enjoyed trying to learn as much as I can from guys that I consider great hunters. They usually don’t really know how to put it into words. I think after so many years you begin to develop a six sense when it comes hunting and finding success.

My group of friends vary from the lift run shoot, spend 50 days afield with 8k dollars in the latest gear type. They usually stack up a pile of dinks every year.

Then there’s the guys rocking realtree camo from 15 years ago with their old solocam bow. They may make it out 3 days a year but somehow knock down a nice mature animal. Like clockwork around September 15th you get a text with something like “stumbled into a good one.” Those are the guys I envy. They just have a knack for it.

 

[Ought Six]

I’ve always enjoyed trying to learn as much as I can from guys that I consider great hunters. They usually don’t really know how to put it into words. I think after so many years you begin to develop a six sense when it comes hunting and finding success.

My group of friends vary from the lift run shoot, spend 50 days afield with 8k dollars in the latest gear type. They usually stack up a pile of dinks every year.

Then there’s the guys rocking realtree camo from 15 years ago with their old solocam bow. They may make it out 3 days a year but somehow knock down a nice mature animal. Like clockwork around September 15th you get a text with something like “stumbled into a good one.” Those are the guys I envy. They just have a knack for it.

This^^

 

[Doublecluck]

A good hunter is someone or something that thinks like it’s prey. You know the weakness of your prey because you know its thoughts and behavior. You know what it’s going to do before it does it. You know how it uses its habitat and environment to evade being captured or killed and you take advantage of that. Don’t matter if your hunting a lizard on a wall by sneaking up behind it because it can’t see you, a gobbler or bull by getting on its level and playing on its emotion, or by dressing up as a wolf and driving a herd of buffalo off a cliff. Period. Has nothing to do with conservation or advocacy. Those are separate things with separate definitions.

 

[GrantK]

I'd consider a "good hunter" to be someone with a diverse skillset, the ability to think and learn in real-time, and mental and physical toughness to stay in the game as long as it takes, they can be dropped into any hunt with no scouting and figure out how to make it happen, while keeping impeccable ethics.

I think a lot of these people are also good advocates because with all of that comes a deep understanding and caring about the resource, but at the root of it conservation is a different thing...

 

[noharleyyet]

"Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.”

-attributed to British author C.S Lewis.