Hunting in Skyrim is great fun

[Hrolf Alfblod]

I actually enjoy hunting rabbit. They are more skittish than the deer, so stalking them can be difficult, and hitting their small bodies with an arrow can be quite difficult, especially if they are on the move. I also don't see a problem with hunting fox.

[Jabberdave]

I actually enjoy hunting rabbit. They are more skittish than the deer, so stalking them can be difficult, and hitting their small bodies with an arrow can be quite difficult, especially if they are on the move. I also don't see a problem with hunting fox.

Nothing wrong with it. Different strokes for different Orcs. I think you need twice the number of pelts to produce leather with a fox (I could be confusing them with goats) and they don't provide any meat. The rabbits provide meat with no pelt. I just don't hunt them when larger game produces far more with less work. Elk and deer provide ingredients, pelts and meat. Like one stop shopping. Or shooting.

[Hrolf Alfblod]

Oh, I agree, the deer and elk provide more. The fox pelt creates one leather, like a wolf pelt does. It's the goat hide that take two for one leather. If I kill a goat, I usually hope to have them drop a leg, for a meal.

[Dohva.]

My Bosmer likes to decorate her house with fox and sabre cat pelts.

[Finn Wolfshorn]

She also likes hunting hagravens...hey, they're not real people.

I take exception to this statement.

OT: I have no special preferences as to the prey I hunt, but I generally avoid killing foxes for, um, superstitious reasons, I guess. It's bad luck to kill a fox ; I don't know why, it just is. (Only in Skyrim though; if I caught one around our hens IRL it wouldn't fare well.)

[Br3admax]

Afraid that Talos will smite you?

[Finn Wolfshorn]

Not exactly, it's more a feeling of spiritual or totemistic kinship between my characters and the foxes - both are quick and agile, less brawny than most other predators, but boldly go where no one has gone before. Also when you meet one you never know, it's name might be Hans.

[Just_Mad]

I've actually done this a little TOO much- I currently have around 4 or 5 different Bosmer Hunters, A Khajiit, and a Nord, all are devoted to simple hide and fur based gear, and are forced to eat at least twice daily- Sunrise and Sunset. I enter towns only to sell what I haven't eaten, and to purchase more salt, arrows, and occasionally treating myself to some Veg- (Never on the Bosmer though, Yffre doesn't like that)

I love to undertake my expeditions with a quiver of only 30 Iron, or at best, Steel arrows, and using only Long or Hunting Bows. I don't craft replacement arrows, and I don't take any time slowing perks for my archery, nor invisibility allowing perks for stealth. I also carry an Iron Dagger for 'skinning' the fallen. I never leave without my faithful companion, Meeko at my heels. It is truly a pride-filled moment when you loose an arrow that doesn't quite down an Elk, only to see it flee over a rise in the land, with Meeko hot on it's tail....upon cresting the hill, you just see the Elk's corpse, and the beloved hound staring up at you with those adoring eyes...you all know the look.

I typically only invest in Archery and Sneak, rarely dabbling in (the lightest of) light armours, and rarer still in Smithing. I have no real use for the money earned from my hunts, but I sell whatever hides I can, restock my quiver back up to it's upper limit of 30, and after a night of rest at the tavern of whichever settlement I find myself in, prepare myself to leave once more. Elk, Rabbits, Fox, Wolves- they're all fair game. We avoid Sabre Cats- Legendary difficulty without any armour perks teaches you that as an essential habit, and refuse to acknowledge the existence of 'trolls'- only realistic wildlife.

Seriously though- Try this. I have spent TOO many hours roaming, especially in the Autumn forests of the Rift and Whiterun's Tundra- But I have regretted none of them. When you finally master plonking an arrow into the heart of a deer so far away that it's head appears smaller than the tip of the arrow that you intend to plonk it with- THAT'S satisfying.

[Khali]

I did something similar with my latest character. Alternate Start - Live Another Life Mod lets you pick where you want to start the game. One of the options is as a property owner and you can choose from the vanilla houses in Whiterun, Markarth, Solitude, Windhelm, or a newly added farm outside Dragon Bridge. You start with minimal weapons a just a little gold and some plain clothing.

I went with a Wood Elf in Whiterun owning Breezehome. The houses have all the upgrades already done so there is some gold and junk to pick up around the houses you can sell. The Breezehome option also gets you some weapons, a basic bow, 50 or so arrows, and a one handed weapon. I took said weapons and used the gold I found to buy a pick so I can mine ore while I was out. I then proceeded to hunt every deer I could find to the west of Whiterun out to where the road runs north and south. I also mined all the ore in that area and picked all the alchemy ingredients I could find. I got enough leather to tan and ore to refine to make a full set of leather armor and steel weapons and upgrade them all. Its really a lot of fun to start with nothing and go out and find everything you need to fully outfit a character by just hunting and mining so you can craft a bit when you get back to town. Oh, I also made all my own healing potions from what I found on my hunting trip.

I really like this mod, it removes the need to go through Helgen and deal with the main quest. You can go pick up the main quest if you like. Its relaxing to just run around and not have a Journal full of quests that need doing.

[noobishlord]

Hunting can be a blast, yes, you'll always need that leather for something. Though unlike some, I avoid killing defenseless rabbits. I may be a crazed mass murderer (depending on the character,) but I'm not evil. The bunnies can live.

For non-mage characters / ranged characters, Elk and Deer provide a great amount of challenge for me. Those speedy buggers are hard to chase down on foot, the way they change direction all the time. Ranged characters I end up having to worry more about Sabrecats and Bears, assuming I don't one-shot sneak attack them. Those two creatures are surprisingly fast as well, and don't mind mauling my face.

Illusionists, on the other hand, get it really easy. A simple Fury spell makes Elk and Deer pretty much a stationary target, and Calm spells can make those big beasties easier to kill as well.

[CBR JGWRR]

For non-mage characters / ranged characters, Elk and Deer provide a great amount of challenge for me. Those speedy buggers are hard to chase down on foot, the way they change direction all the time..

Fus Ro Dah then stab. Problem solved.

[noobishlord]

For non-mage characters / ranged characters, Elk and Deer provide a great amount of challenge for me. Those speedy buggers are hard to chase down on foot, the way they change direction all the time..

Fus Ro Dah then stab. Problem solved.

I always end up forgetting I can shout. I don't know why, my finger is on my SHOUT key all the time since I rebound it to Mouse-5.

[Just_Mad]

How the hell have I spent so long Hunting, and never thought to implement Fus Ro Dah?! HOW. My hunters just don't shout- I think one might have had Aura Whisper...I have to do this. - On second thought, I should probably train Meeko to stay out of the way first, last thing I want is to throw my dog at that cluster of deer.

[Aranel]

I love hunting in Skyrim! I just hate it when the animal runs away quick enough, and you can't keep up with it, no matter what. xD It's a real pain when you have a low archery skill. When my characters learn firebolt, I sometimes use that though, when I run out of arrows or whatever.

I've been planning on eventually making a character on Skyrim that is primarily a hunter/alchemist (the go hand-in-hand pretty well), who ends up taking up their A game onto dragons later on. Though this character I'll want to be "maxing out" - ie: slay as much dragons as possible, and maybe getting ride of Alduin, before I go and do Dragonborn. I have a dark elf that went to go to Solsthiem and she actually encountered her first cultist there, and now Miraak is stealing a lot of my dragon souls... of which I barely have any, since she started the main questline pretty late (past level 20) and she only killed like three dragons by the time Miraak started stealing souls. Eek.

But yeah, I'm glad on how fun hunting in Skyrim can be. owo
I'm also really happy that Dawnguard added the option for fletching. I thought it was kind of dumb that you had to buy all your own arrows, but you could make your own weapons and armor other than them... XD

[Khali]

Since I have been doing the hunting thing on my new Bosmer I have had to re think my feelings towards foxes. I used to think they were cute and not worth killing since all you got was couple of leather strips. I pretty much left them alone. Now they are public enemy number one and they get shot on sight. Why you might ask? Its simple, when the deer and elk see a fox they take off like it was a pack of wolves after them. Nothing like trying to sneak around a ridge to get a shot at some deer only to spook a fox out and have it in turn spook all the deer into running for their lives.

Rabbits are not worth the effort to me. I still let them go.

Prospecting and Herb gathering go well with Hunting and I do all three while out and about. Yet there is one more thing I can be doing while hunting. I could be filling petty soul gems when hunting all those critters. Since most of my targets drop in one shot it does not even have to be a high level of soul tap on your bow so it should be fairly easy to make your own early on. Since I use the Acquisitive Soul Gems mod I don't even have to worry about wasting soul gems by getting a petty soul in a larger gem so I can carry assortment of soul gems for those animals that have lesser, common, etc souls.

If your interested Acquisitive Soul Gems by bluedanieru will stop you from wasting the more expensive soul gems by filling them with a lower level soul. Nothing more annoying than filling a Grand soul gem with a petty soul.

Acquisitive Soul Gems by bluedanieru http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/5312/? ... w%3D&pUp=1

[CBR JGWRR]

Could just drop the soul gem, that empties it.

[noobishlord]

Thanks to the Alpha Horses mod I just installed the other day, I've found the fun of hunting on horseback. Chasing down the elk and dear and bashing them on the head with a warhammer makes one giggle.