Only Meat?

Why do you hunt? Maybe you’ve never taken the time to think through the question. I know I haven’t until relatively recently. In my younger days I would have answered with something like "because it's awesome" (as Kid Rock once said, at that time my thoughts were short and my hair was long).

As I've gotten older, I've felt the need to answer the why question about many of the things I do in my life. Helps weed out things that maybe I shouldn't be doing. Except, I don't know that I've been able to exactly pin down a single reason why I hunt.

I definitely like the adventure but you can find outdoor adventure other ways. I like the stories I can tell while looking at a big buck skull on the wall. But some of my favorite stories didn't end in a kill and stories alone don't get you out of bed before dawn when there's freezing rain falling outside. I also think the food aspect is significant. Sharing meat from an animal you worked hard to scout, kill, drag out, butcher, etc. is an amazing feeling. But I'm not sure that alone does it either. Maybe it's a combination of all three (and probably a bunch more other reasons). Maybe it changes over time.

I'm still working through this question. Why do you hunt?