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[Mushroo]

Make sure you have (o)rders, (r)efuse, (o)utside enabled. Then the hunters will return their kill to your butcher shop, no micromanagement needed.

I agree that farming is the safest and most reliable food source, however hunters serve a dual-purpose food/defense function that I find appealing.

[AllThingsLive]

I think hunters are definitely worth it. I usually have 5 or so by the time my fortress has a population of about 80-90, and they provide a steady supply of meat, fat, and leather. I rarely use bones in my fortress, mainly because separating them from other refuse is too much hassle for me. ( Plus I'm sort of new ) Then I usually have 2 designated butchers/tanners who crank out leather/meat. I usually just use wood for bolts though, and if bone is somewhat accessible, I'll go through the trouble of enabling it to be used and mark them for being made into bolts. Also, as an important final note, hunting trains you Legendary Marksdwarves really quickly and gives you vision on early ambushes.
I can't recall how many forgotten beasts my crossbowdwarves have killed alone because I stationed them near some fortifications out-looking the beast that's camping the bridge to my fort.

[Iapetus]

My main food source is farms, suplemented by herbalism.

The main benefit to hunters IMO is having an armed dwarf wandering around the map dispatching any buzzards, badgers, and theives he encounters.  Any food he brings in is just a bonus.

I normally draft them in to my militias as well, so I can send them where I want them in an emergency.

[nil]

Last time I tried, hunting still required too much micromanagement (they kill secondary targets but don't haul them back, they don't return to their nice comfy bad, they tend to haul things to workshops instead of stockpiles causing a lot of clutter).

Using the military is hardly more work and gives a lot more control. For volume, I prefer to eat the dogs that don't have the traits I want to breed for.

Agreed, back when you could have melee hunters I used those all the time, but now that you can't I just send my military out to moonlight whenever I need some meet or skins.

[OniRyo]

Big problem with hunters I have is the probability of extinction which will occasionally happen. I've literally wiped my entire map of wildlife in under 3 years with a single hunter and short of editing my save file (which I have no idea how to do) there is no way to restore the wildlife making non-breeding animals a finite resource. Depending on savagery (maybe that's the setting or does that just control how many hostile animals are in the area?) it may not be as big of a problem however since it will be like rock, a finite but incredibly huge amount.

After finding out about extinction I've stopped using hunters all together until it can be disabled and only hunt with my military so I can ensure at least one animal from each wave can escape. Besides, I've got so many yak/cow/horse/dog/cat/etc that spread between 3 full size pens they are STILL fighting... my butcher literally cannot keep up (time to build more butcher shops before all my cats decide to start adopting my Dwarfs in mass)

[nil]

...Depending on savagery (maybe that's the setting or does that just control how many hostile animals are in the area?) it may not be as big of a problem however since it will be like rock, a finite but incredibly huge amount...

Pretty sure the main factor here is the size of the region (or maybe biome) your fortress is placed in.  That was certainly my experience in the last fort where I was killing lots of wildlife, which was placed in the middle of a gigantic haunted desert and subsequently had an unending supply of zombie camels throughout the nearly thirty year period I played it (Temple of Death, in sig).

[RAKninja]

i use hunters to help train up my marksdwarves.

[loose nut]

My marksdwarf corps are almost exclusively ex-hunters. Hunting makes for solid archers quick – and then there are the highly trained hunters that show up as immigrants every now and then.

I don't ever have a lot of crossbow-dwarves, but the ones I do have, I don't have to worry about posting them right behind fortifications

[frodo0800]

yes they're worth,specially in areas with big animals,once on one of my forts wich only had giraffes,rinos and elephants i've fillend 1 quarter of an z level with meat

[GreatWyrmGold]

Hunters are useful, but not as good as farmers fr the most part. Got it.

Can a drafted cheese maker or whatnot make up enough bones to justify his use of ammo before he kicks the <<-wood bucket->>?

[RAKninja]

Hunters are useful, but not as good as farmers fr the most part. Got it.

Can a drafted cheese maker or whatnot make up enough bones to justify his use of ammo before he kicks the <<-wood bucket->>?

ive never really had a shortage of bolts.

if you ever do, you can slaughter a couple of domestic animals for more bones.

[Hitty40]

Yes, Hunters are worth it if you keep them alive and away from Frost Mage- Oh, wrong game.

[kardwill]

Novice hunters will waste a lot of ammo, but they gain experience very quickly, so they'll soon be sniping death machines.

Use of hunters :
- Food/leather source : Nice for a beginning fortress. With very little micromanagement if you enabled the outside refuse hauling and some finely designed refuse piles. For a mature fortress, the food they bring in will just be a bonus, though.
- Crossbow training : Most of my crossbowdwarves began as hunters for a few seasons, and they're the deadliest soldiers in my military
- Patrol : 2 well armed, well trained dwarves patroling my territory, killing off dangerous fauna, with enough kick to have a chance against a moderate ambush or a megabeast? Without any form of micromanagement for me? Sign me up, please!

Sure, they will sometime get slaugtered by goblins or a sasquach, but at least they will pull a fight. I'd rather have my hunters meet a werewolf than an herbalist or some legendary crafter hauling a tree...

[Jelle]

Personally I prefer using the military to kill wild animals for meat over a hunter. Hunters are just so unpredictable, getting in potentially dangerous situation.
Make a (squad of) marksdwarf/ves and have them hunt the wildlife you chose to hunt, the only downside is you won't have them ambushing and you'll need more micromanagement. Beats having a hunter run into a pack of giant badgers imo.

[Lexx]

Do hunters provide enough bone to resupply their own bolts and enough other productsnto make up for their other headaches?

They are great. Just have a workshop or two churning out bone bolts to supply them and restrict them to bone bolt ammunition. They provide an easy source of leather to equip your marksdwarf squads with and the meat supply is nice. Then conscript the most skilled hunters into an elite marksdwarf squad.