What Hunting Means To Me

Jim Chapman reveals what makes him tick, and what fuels his insatiable passion for airguns and the outdoors

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Terry Doe for several years now, and at various airgunning events we’ve had occasion to sit and share our views on guns, gear, hunting, and life in general. So, when he asked me if I would like to do an article on what hunting means to me, I approached it as an extension of one of those fireside chats.

I grew up hunting in my native Southern California, chasing ground squirrel, rabbits, dove and quail with my pump-up Benjamin air rifle first, then with the .22 rimfire and single-shot .410 shotgun I’d received when I was 11 or 12. At that time, there was an abundance of open land, bean fields and orange groves to wander over. A little later I had the chance to hunt deer and feral hogs in the central coastal areas, and by my seventeenth year, was wandering all over Arizona and Nevada to hunt as well.

Then came my college years and other things captured my interest, and although I did still break away for the occasional wing-shooting trip, or a deer or hog hunt, I was doing more spear-fishing, rock-climbing and skiing with my friends. Even then, there was a realization that hunting had a deeper meaning to me than any of these other activities.

After grad school, I moved to Texas, followed by New York, and a couple years later a move to Europe. I lived in the Netherlands, Italy, and Belgium for several years. My work kept me on the road, travelling to two or three countries every week, and between work and a new family, hunting remained in the background. Every year during that time, we’d return to the States for a few weeks to visit family, and on those trips, I’d get a little bit of hunting and fishing in with friends.