I’m an “Adult onset hunter”, I think a great many of you need to strongly consider your prejudices and judgement. I started hunting at 35, that was 13 years ago.
I didn’t have the privilege to grow up with parents that hunted. They were both successfully trying to escape the poverty they grew up in and hunting wasn’t in that model. My grandfather was a subsistence hunter but he died before I could learn anything from him. I found the outdoors by myself as an adult and found solace. My interest in cooking and food was cultivated as an adult also. When I started hunting at 35 it was because I was between jobs, loved eating rabbit and frustrated about the difficulty finding this ingredient in American butcher shops. I started with bunnies, graduated to birds, then deer and finally elk. I was lucky to find a few mentors along the way but big game has been a solo backpack venture from the get go.
If we’re going to talk stereotypes most hunters I encounter winded, near trailheads and generally burnt are lifetime hunters who are trying to find access with atvs, hunting out of a 5th wheel, and just not up to the task physically.
I came to this pursuit with a bevy of outdoor mountaineering and hiking experience. It was taking that and connecting it to food and cooking that was the draw from me. There were never any issues or concerns with effort, wilderness skills, wayfinding or survival, that was dialed. It was all about adding protein, and bolstering ingredients in the kitchen.
What I don’t think some folks on this forum appreciate is most outdoor pursuits are sufferfests. Folks that enjoy and live in that space genuinely like to suffer and what we experience on a hard elk hunt is par for the chorus.
Will all these adult onset hunter Peter out after meat eater’s followers drop, maybe. I’ve been hunting as an “adult onset hunter” for 13 years and I don’t intend to slow down any time soon.
I didn’t have the privilege to grow up with parents that hunted. They were both successfully trying to escape the poverty they grew up in and hunting wasn’t in that model. My grandfather was a subsistence hunter but he died before I could learn anything from him. I found the outdoors by myself as an adult and found solace. My interest in cooking and food was cultivated as an adult also. When I started hunting at 35 it was because I was between jobs, loved eating rabbit and frustrated about the difficulty finding this ingredient in American butcher shops. I started with bunnies, graduated to birds, then deer and finally elk. I was lucky to find a few mentors along the way but big game has been a solo backpack venture from the get go.
If we’re going to talk stereotypes most hunters I encounter winded, near trailheads and generally burnt are lifetime hunters who are trying to find access with atvs, hunting out of a 5th wheel, and just not up to the task physically.
I came to this pursuit with a bevy of outdoor mountaineering and hiking experience. It was taking that and connecting it to food and cooking that was the draw from me. There were never any issues or concerns with effort, wilderness skills, wayfinding or survival, that was dialed. It was all about adding protein, and bolstering ingredients in the kitchen.
What I don’t think some folks on this forum appreciate is most outdoor pursuits are sufferfests. Folks that enjoy and live in that space genuinely like to suffer and what we experience on a hard elk hunt is par for the chorus.
Will all these adult onset hunter Peter out after meat eater’s followers drop, maybe. I’ve been hunting as an “adult onset hunter” for 13 years and I don’t intend to slow down any time soon.
