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[SedrynTyros]

I have a bunch of wooden bolts sitting in an accessible ammo stockpile.  They aren't in bins because I read that can cause problems.  Sometimes when I remove the ammunition from the military menu and re-add it then my Hunters will grab some bolts and go hunt but sometimes not and it seems I always have to eventually remove the ammunition from the military and re-add it to get them to grab more wooden bolts at all.  Am I doing it wrong?

[anewaname]

You probably just need to produce some more (if you are using a job manager order for "produce when less than n bolts, just increase n).

Your stocks may show that you have 250 bolts available, but if your hunters are assigned 100 bolts and your military squad is assigned 250 bolts, then you are actually 100 short.

[Ulfarr]

- ninja'd by anewaname -

My explanation might be total bullshit but I think you might not have enough bolts for both the hunters and the military.

Once an item (armor/weapon/clothing) has been assigned to a dwarf the game seems to prevent any other dwarf from using it. For example you need a different pick for each dwarf that has an active mining labor. If the game handles ammo in the same way then I assume that your bolts have been assigned for military use only and that prevents your hunters from taking them. By removing the ammunition from the military the game can then reassign the ammo for your hunters.

 You can try lowering the amount of ammo that is assigned  to either of them or assign different ammo materials for each group say wooden for hunters and metal bolts for military.

[SedrynTyros]

So, in the Military menu you can hit "f" for ammunition and choose to add bolts for your Hunters.  To be clear, I have no squads at all at present; only two Hunters.  Is there a trick to how many items of bolts you should add?  Like I said, there appears to be no consistency in terms of how it works.  I can add 100 bolts of "any material" and then they'll grab a stack of 25 wooden bolts but when they run out they won't grab another stack of 25 even though three other stacks of 25 are shown as allocated.  It makes no sense at all to me.

[SedrynTyros]

Yeah, I don't get it.  It seems like no matter what I do my Hunters will not hunt now, lol.  The bolts look to be claimed in the military menu but they never set out to hunt anymore.  And both of them have crossbows and quivers. 

EDIT: And I just confirmed by both have at least 25 bolts in their quivers .... but they sit there idle not doing anything.  I have every other labor aside from Hunting disabled (via Dwarf Therapist). 

I'm at loss on this one ... I'm guessing I'm doing something wrong but I have no idea what.

[Bumber]

Do they have a path to the animals? No civilian alert active or burrows?

[Ulfarr]

Ammo supply behavior is a bit quirky, especially when it comes to resupplying.

Setting a "x" amount of bolts for hunting in the supplies screen defines only the sum total of bolts that your hunters will have access to at any given time. Each hunter will then try to fill their quiver as best as they can. The quivers themselves have a limit on how many bolts they can hold so that's why the dwarves only carry 25* at a time.

And then we come to the actual hunting, which has it's own set of quirks. You could have set everything correctly but your hunter might just want to do something else. I have had forts where the hunters were mercilessly hunting every wild animal in the map and others where they were doing nothing but standing in the tavern. Giving the hunting labor to a different dwarf fixes this sometimes.

I've also noticed that hunters tend to not hunt flying creatures. Probably due to pathfinding. That means that for whatever length of time your map has only fliers the hunter will be doing nothing. Coupled with the fact that in most embarks there is nothing but the player to hunt down those fliers that results in them staying in the map far longer than ground animal, preventing any new animal to spawn and further extending your hunters idle time.

If your dwarves are desperate for food, the easiest workaround is to use a military squad (either melee or ranged works, but ranged can also attack fliers) to manually hunt. Your civilians will butcher any animal you kill that way just like if it was killed by a hunter.

*There are some tricks to get more than 25 bolts. The highest I have seen is 49 if I remember correctly. This can be achieved by assigning enough ammo for each dwarf in the squad to have 50 bolts. They will then equip themselves with a stack of 25 bolts and when they use some of them they will eventually equip another stack of 25.

[SedrynTyros]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.  My Hunters are still not wanting to hunt but if I figure out exactly why I'll post an update here.

[anewaname]

Hunting starts when this list of requirements is met...
- there is a target on the map that can be pathed to
   - where a target is at least big enough to leave a skull
   - where a target is not a "predator"
- and your hunter
   - is fully equipped
   - and has no other job

Hunters are as aggressive about hunting as fishers are about fishing, but they cannot start hunting unless they have a target.

[SedrynTyros]

Hunting starts when this list of requirements is met...
- there is a target on the map that can be pathed to
   - where a target is at least big enough to leave a skull
   - where a target is not a "predator"
- and your hunter
   - is fully equipped
   - and has no other job

Hunters are as aggressive about hunting as fishers are about fishing, but they cannot start hunting unless they have a target.

Thanks for the break down.  I guess the problem is partially my expectations.  I think the only animals to hit my fortress zone recently are Giant Wrens.

[Urist9876]

Maybe you need a butcher shop?