When you operate outside the constraint of the Rule of Law and local/state game regulations i'm sure most of what makes the hunt 'The Hunt' is lost, as well as your reason for pursuing animals for reasons other than the thrill of the kill. The only thing you'd learn, like we have with dozens of other criminals throughout history, is how they perfected the art of breaking the law, and in this case is probably exclusive of also being a 'good' hunter.
I've come to realize I feel very differently about hunting than most people. As a little kid I wanted to live in a teepee in the Canadian wilderness. Off the grid and left alone, and 100% self reliant. I guess I've come close to achieving that, living outside city limits on the edge of a quarter million acres of swamp. I've accepted that self-reliance is a myth, but I still try not to outsource any more of my needs than I have to. I hunt and fish, and the wife has a little garden. We're getting chickens, and looking into digging a well and converting to solar.
It takes a surprising amount of deer, ducks, squirrels, and fish to feed just me and my wife. People who say 3-4 deer feed their family for a year aren't trying to eliminate all commercial meat. We will eat the 10 deer I killed last year, plus all the small game and fish I can scrounge. Even in my very lenient state, it is hard to kill that many critters legally while maintaining a full time job and taking care of the rest of my life.
Most of the efficient methods of hunting and fishing are illegal. I could easily fill my freezers if night hunting deer and shocking fish were legal, and if the population would support it and i didn't have to worry about The Man, I would do so and enjoy it. The type of hunting a lot of people seem to enjoy just doesn't sound fun to me. Spending thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to kill 1 deer or catch a few fish sounds pointless.
Now, I understand too well that the environment won't sustain the types of harvest methods it would when there was more wilderness and fewer people. It cant sustain every family commiting to "living off the land." So I support some conservation laws. Maybe even most of them. But I don't think anybody on this site agrees entirely with all the laws, or obeys them all.
So we're all either criminals or wannabe criminals, whether we admit it or not. I have no problem admitting I'd like to try spotlighting deer, shocking fish, or maybe even seeing if a dang bald eagle was tasty when wrapped in bacon and cooked over pecan for a few hours. Like I said, I can't do that. But I would if I could. I enjoy killing and eating wild game, which is the purpose of hunting and fishing. All the other stuff people talk about can be accomplished on a mild overnight backpacking trip for much less of an investment.
Money spent, rituals performed, rules followed, virtues signalled, and tropes repeated add nothing to the hunt for me. It's all yuppie stuff in my mind.
As far as there being nothing to learn from criminals except how to break the law, I think that's awfully narrow minded. Next to armed conflict, nothing spurs innovative thinking like criminal activity. Just ask a cop or prison guard. I learned everything you could ever need to know about cheaply growing plants indoors from a guy who grew and sold marijuana in his basement. Apparently, you can get busted if your energy and water bill show unusual activity, so criminals know more about doing that sort of thing on a budget than the recreational plant growing community. And I've learned plenty from older "reformed" poachers who did all kinds of questionable things as young men.
Again, not condoning Mr. Wolf-and-Eagle-Killer. Not condoning all the medical students who robbed graves back in the day either. Just wondering how you kill 18 wolves in a year, when most folks can't even manage to see one.
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