It’s not easy dating someone that you don’t hear from for days without explanation. It’s not easy to dine on your love’s ‘kill’ let alone hold the leg while they gut the dang thing! It’s not easy to understand what motivates your sweetheart to get up at 3 a.m. to sit in a duck blind only to get skunked. Dating a hunter takes a special kind of person!
First, understand that hunting is a way of life that needs to be respected. It’s okay if you don’t hunt, just know how much it means to your love and don’t EVER try to change their mind about hunting–IT WON’T WORK!
Know that they will be in very remote places where charter planes may not be able to get them in and out of hunting areas due to weather, breakdowns, or political situations–your sweetie is not trying to delay his/her return home to your arms. He/she REALLY can’t get out!
Hunting can be lonely and we hunters want to stay in contact with the person we love, but sometimes cellular or satellite phones won’t work. I remember being in Cameroon’s jungle crawling up to the top of a makeshift water tower to place a sat-phone call to my sweetie; 95% of the time the call would drop.
Familiarize yourself with what the difference is between horns and antlers or shotguns and rifles. Ask to participate in things like scoring antlers, plucking feathers and cooking game-meat. Study the specie that your sweetheart is in pursuit of; it’s always fun to say, “So you’re hunting elk this week; did you know that another name for ‘elk’ is ‘wapiti,’ which means white-rump in Shawnee?” Your darling-hunter will be impressed and happy to see that you show a genuine interest.
Know that you don’t have to be a hunter to date a hunter; just understanding why we hunt and never trying to suppress this desire is the most important thing.
Do you have any tips for dating a hunter?
