Hunting can provide a lifetime of satisfaction. Photo courtesy of Steve Sorensen

The Rolling Stones got a lot of mileage out of the song “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” Everyone knew what they were singing about because everyone experiences disappointments. But the truth is that almost all of us do get satisfaction because if we don’t find it in one thing (whether it’s romance, a profession, a hobby, or anything else), we change focus to seek it in another.

Many years ago I helped coach my son’s Little League team, and the parents of a left-handed kid insisted he should be the catcher. It’s not impossible for a southpaw to squat behind home plate, but for two reasons it almost never happens.

One is that throwing is a critical skill for a catcher, and baseball has other more suitable positions for lefties. Those with good arms are needed on the pitcher’s mound. Many are good outfielders. Big players who are good hitters will play first base where a lesser arm isn’t a deficiency. The other reason is that a baseball diamond is set up for right-handers. A throw from home plate to third base, for example, takes longer for a lefty, especially if a right-hand batter is in his way.

So no, managers don’t want your little lefty to be a catcher, and it’s too bad you spent $200 on a left-handed catcher’s mitt. My son’s manager wisely suggested the parents find an activity in which the young man would find more success. That was good advice, except that I’d substitute the word satisfaction. Don’t chase success in something that doesn’t satisfy you.

So why am I talking about satisfaction instead of hunting? I am talking about hunting. Satisfaction is one of the biggest reasons we hunt. I met a woman this week who told me her son wanted to hunt, and after he shot a deer, he was satisfied. There’s no shame in that. He probably could have found more satisfaction, but what he found was adequate.

For me, hunting has been highly satisfying. It’s not because I enjoy killing. It’s not the killing alone that satisfies the hunter unless he’s controlled by some sort of interior psychopathic rage. In Pennsylvania’s recent deer season, I did not kill anything. I did not pull the trigger. But when I’m in utterly silent woods, when I can see far, when snow muffles my steps so wildlife can’t hear me coming, and when I’m exhausted at the end of the day — it’s all truly satisfying.

Hunting is, however, partly about killing. Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) said, “The hunter does not hunt in order to kill. He kills in order to have hunted.” I can’t put it into better words, and as years pass my understanding of what he was saying increases. We can’t isolate the kill from the whole experience.

I won’t deny that I’ve found satisfaction in killing, but less for the killing than for the hunt itself. It was very satisfying when I shot a cagy 6½ year old buck in his bed, as I did in 2024. Shooting a deer with a flintlock rifle, with an arrow, and with a .44 magnum revolver climaxed very satisfying hunts. And shooting a buck I called in, as I did last season in New York.

Satisfaction is not just because of a particular buck — whether old, or big, or cagey — or the weapon I use. It’s often because a plan comes together. A few years ago, I was in the woods in March and marked a spot in my phone mapping app, “Check this out.”

The following fall I picked a day with ideal wind and weather. I took every precaution against making sounds, spreading scent, and being seen, and spent almost three hours working my way to that spot and found a 7-point buck feeding only 80 yards down the hill. I get more satisfaction when I go make it happen, than when I wait for it to happen.

“I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” is not in the lifelong hunter’s hymnal, because the hunter gets mo’ satisfaction from hunting than from almost any other pursuit.

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When “The Everyday Hunter” isn’t hunting, he’s thinking about hunting, talking about hunting, dreaming about hunting, writing about hunting, or wishing he were hunting. If you want to tell Steve exactly where your favorite hunting spot is, contact him through his website, www.EverydayHunter.com. He writes for top outdoor magazines, and won the 2015, 2018 and 2023 national “Pinnacle Award” for outdoor writing.