By Simon Guild.

This is a question that is often asked in the hunting world.

For some, it’s about finding out your tool of choice – rifle, bow, spear, nunchucks, etc. For others, it might as to whether you’re a free range ‘spot and stalk’ guy or someone who is happy to hunt behind wire or from a blind.

But I’m going to put a different spin on it – when I ask someone what kind of hunter they are, I’m really asking do you hunt for external recognition, or internal satisfaction? 

The reason I ask this is because much of hunting these days seems driven by external recognition. Grand Slams, Big Fives, Record Book Top Tens. These are people who love to hunt, but also love the plaudits that the big scores (and corresponding big chequebooks) earn them.

But I believe – in fact, I know first-hand via my clients – there still exists the type of hunter who hunts for his or her own internal satisfaction. He doesn’t care what the score is, as long as it’s big enough for him. She couldn’t care less about how big the trophy was, as long as the hunt was a challenge. The family that isn’t worried about the mount count as long as they enjoyed some special time in a special environment together.

For those after recognition, the opinions that matter are those of their fellow hunters – the group they aspire to belong to and the people they want to impress. For the internal satisfaction guys, the only opinion that matters is their own.

I think you get the picture – the point being that the two different types of hunter illustrated here often have vastly different criteria for selecting destinations, species and outfitters to satisfy their motivation.

The trick is to work out which camp you belong in, and make your choices based on that.