I am truly amazed, that even with quite a few archery deer under my belt, that I still get such a rush from shooting at a live animal.  You learn to control your emotions during the shot, but I am still an absolute basket case afterward.  As I write this it has been a full 24 hours since the arrow left my bow, and still I can’t help but to replay the shot over and over again; replay the exact moment I touched the release; and the exact moment I watched the arrow make contact.

I suppose, if you were an outsider looking in, you could take the above comments and spin them in a way that makes it look like I enjoy killing, and that that is where the rush comes from – from killing an animal.  But that simply isn’t what it’s all about.  And while hunting is a complex emotional experience – that most anti-hunters don’t understand – the rush doesn’t come from the killing of the animal at all.  We definitely feel the elation of a job well-done, and of being successful, but that isn’t strictly associated with the kill.

A lot of the emotion comes from the entire experience – from the preparation and hours of practice; from miles of walked ground in search of sign in order to find the right spot; from being that close to a live animal – and having all of that time spent riding on this one moment.  It can take the most calm and cool individual and turn them into a knee-knocking blubbering pile of mush in a matter of seconds.  I’m here to tell you, and I say it with a lot of conviction, that if a few drug addicts experienced bowhunting, and the adrenaline rush that comes with it, they would never need their preferred drug again.

The sure experience of the hunt tends to bring about a sort of humility and sorrow as well.  Taking a life is serious business, and to be that emotionally involved in a death can do nothing but make a person aware of how precious life is, and that we need to appreciate and protect it.  A contradiction I know, but so true on many levels.  If you hunt, you know what I’m talking about.

Ultimately, though, I think the rush, and the sorrow, and the whole experience that is bowhunting is what makes it so addicting.  It is the best way that I know of to allow an individual to experience life – truly experience life.  It involves death, but it is ultimately a celebration of life; a celebration of flesh; and a celebration of food.

The emotional experience of the hunt – the highs and the lows – are ultimately attached to the projectile; for the projectile is just an outward connection to one’s soul; it is the means by which we truly connect ourselves to the animal.  Without the projectile – the arrow or the bullet – we would never have any connection to the animal at all.

The projectile initializes the entire experience, and ultimately leads us to the hands-on experience that is hunting; it leads us to the animal, and eventually allows for that animal to become sustenance for the hunter……and his family of course.

And I think that is why I keep replaying the shot over and over again – because the flight of the arrow is what starts the whole emotional experience.

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