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[Squirrelloid]

I confess, reluctance to hunt is better than the overexuberance of previous versions of DF, but I've got a hunter walking around with a crossbow and full quiver of arrows who's refusing to hunt.  So, how do i prod this dwarf into actually doing something?

[Sphalerite]

For one thing, he needs bolts, not arrows.

You also need huntable creatures that he can reach.  Is there anything on the surface that he could be hunting?

[Loud Whispers]

I confess, reluctance to hunt is better than the overexuberance of previous versions of DF, but I've got a hunter walking around with a crossbow and full quiver of arrows who's refusing to hunt.  So, how do i prod this dwarf into actually doing something?

He needs a quiver full of bolts, a crossbow, and will automatically look for above ground animals to hunt, kill and bring back to a stockpile for butchering.

[dwarfhoplite]

You might want to check if your hunter is assigned in burrow or his moving is blocked

[JackoftheBox]

Also check from the military[m] screen if your bolts/arrows in ammunitions [f] are allowed for hunters.

[Newbunkle]

Did you turn your hunter into a marksdwarf? They might get uniform issues in the same way as woodcutter-axedwarves do.

[Kepplerr]

This may sound like an obvious as hell question but... Does he have hunting enabled?...

[Broseph Stalin]

I never let my dwarves hunt. When I need meat I assign one or two to a crossbow squad and send them out to kill a specific animal.

[UristMcHuman]

I never let my dwarves hunt. When I need meat I assign one or two to a crossbow squad and send them out to kill a specific animal.

AKA the good ol' Hunt With Your Military.

[Loud Whispers]

I never let my dwarves hunt. When I need meat I assign one or two to a crossbow squad and send them out to kill a specific animal.

AKA the good ol' Hunt With Your Military.

It has pros and cons.

[nttea]

i can't keep my damn immigrant dwarfs from hunting even though i wish them to... always forget to run off one or two hunters or fisherdwarfs who then walk away and cause me to panic when the alert messages show up.. or cause miasma in my butcheries.

[Shmo]

Passive hunting is great in savage biomes. With a well-oiled meat and bone industry you can have Lavish Meal/R on all the time and be rolling in mad money every time a caravan rolls around. Once the hunter gains master or legendary I draft him into my marks squad and assign another one (or two). Doing this hunting manually would take way too much time, I think.

[Poindexterity]

honestly, migrants bring SO MANY animals with them these days, i haven't had to hunt in ages.
literally every 3rd migrant has a horse or a reindeer or SOMETHING yummy in tow.

[Duuvian]

If you want to train a ninja-dwarf, he needs ambushing skill. Dwarves gain ambushing skill by hunting.

What ambushing skill does is allow the dwarf to run closer to enemies before they notice them. This is very useful for dispatching goblins with ranged weapons, especially if you don't have better equipment than they do. This is because you can sneak that little badass in and target the ranged units because the goblins won't know that he is there while they are killing your animals or drafted fishery workers. Usually the melee goblins will run ahead of the shooters and you can ambush the shooters if the hunter dwarf doesn't get ideas of his own first and charge too soon.

Note that the goblins need to be distracted or they will still spot and shoot the hunter (although maybe legendary ambusher cancels this, I dunno)

Another bonus is that if you have a forest that needs chopping, you can give the ambusher dwarf the woodcutter job after you are satisfied with the level of skill he is at. The goblins will ignore him and spring their ambush (hopefully on a pastured animal; I spread pastures all over for this reason). This means that if the woodcutter was out chopping, then the goblins may be between the woodcutter and the fort entrance. This sets the woodcutter/ambusher up for an ambush of his own on the goblin ranged troops as I mentioned above.

Note that once he attacks the dwarf becomes visible to the goblins again. That means if he has a crossbow and snipes one of two ranged goblins down, the second is likely to turn and shoot him if he is closer than the goblins previous target, while the dwarf likely will continue shooting at the first goblin.

That's why I use axes. They will either incapacitate or kill the first goblin and run to the next with an axe. Just make sure if you do this that you assign the exact axe he is already holding as a woodcutter. (and turn woodcutter job off without unpausing I suppose, just to be sure)

[Eric Blank]

The problem with that is that dwarves' ambusher skill does nothing unless they're sneaking, and they're only sneaking when they're hunting. They immediately stop sneaking when they see a target to shoot at. Hunters will engage sieging forces, but as you said, it's incredibly dangerous for them unless the enemies have a target closer to them as a distraction. The hunter will indefinitely be cut down, since the hunter will not retreat until they run out of ammo and the invaders will close far too fast for them to unload a significant portion of their quiver, and the sieging force will not retreat unless the hunter was skilled enough to kill a good portion of the sqaud or the leader. En masse, they can be a very effective defense, since while they're sneaking invaders will not path to them. It just goes downhill once they decide to start shooting, because they stop sneaking.