Hunting is not something I am particularly in to, but I can kind of understand the lure for some people. I think people that hunt get something out of it for a number of reasons. First of all, there is clearly a level of skill and challenge involved. Of course that depends on the type of hunting. I am sure tracking a deer and then taking it down with a clear shot is very satisfying for a hunter. Anything that requires skill and is a challenge tends to be quite actively stimulating. And so, one reason people might like it is the craftsmanship in itself. They love the sport.
Secondly, I'm not sure the way in which people use this word is always fitting, but I can see how it can be 'empowering'. There is an element of self-sufficiency in being able to catch your own food. In a much broader sense, I think of something like outdoor survivalism or rather bushcraft. Bushcraft is basically a complete mastery of your environment. It is self-sufficiency at its highest level. I suppose you could call it the purest form of independence. I think there might be an element of that to it. There is a degree of pride and satisfaction in your own self-sufficiency.
You said it very eloquently for me. I get what all the people that responded to me were saying, but there has to be an element of pleasure in the killing regardless of how much people want to say otherwise. You CAN go to the store and you CAN get meat from sources other than hunting it yourself. I wasn't aware that we had test-tube grown meat, and I've certainly never seen it around, but I'm happy to look for it.
My father loves to hunt. He loves eating what he killed. So yes, he does do that. But he also takes pleasure in the hunt itself. It's a challenge. When he takes down a deer or a pheasant, he gets giddy like a little boy. You can't tell me that there isn't excitement in that kill. There is. You've hunted and killed something that you put work into.
You said you would tough through the meat to get the trophy. You want the trophy so the food part is the way for you to feel that is OK.
This is another way to put it. You want the trophy - the trophy of "the hunt". If "you" didn't like the hunt, you wouldn't be doing it, again, especially because there are ways of getting said meat other than going out at 4am, sitting up in a box somewhere and watching for a deer to decide to pop around a tree.
I don't have a problem with any of it. We have to hunt meat to eat it. I'm just pointing out that there is more joy in the killing than people want to admit to. You like the thrill of the kill. It is what it is, it's how humans are made but let's not act like the act of hunting is some sort of "well I have to do it to eat" type of thing, because it's not. You/we don't have to hunt anymore. We have (cruel, potentially yes, sustainable, most definitely) ways of gathering meat.
You might like to fish, sure. You might like to shoot your gun, sure. But I want someone up in here to tell me that when they shoot that deer or they pull that fishing line up out of the water, there isn't a certain sense of satisfaction that you've just "won" your hunt and you now have something to show for it that you'll cook up later. Argue with me if you like, but the end result is you've just killed something. That is the end result.
And just to stress,
I don't have a problem with any of it. I'm not even criticizing. But I also am not going to sit here and go "yup, uh huh, you're only doing it because it's more fresh tasting than anything you buy at the store. And now you feel terrible that you've had to kill that thing for you to eat." No, it's because you like the hunt. And what's the hunt about? Killing.