Billings Gazette article questioning ethics of long range hunting

[elkoholic72]

I have no idea what direction he was wanting to go in writing this article.? It was in today's paper.

A hunter's dilemma: What shot is too far? A hunter's dilemma: What shot is too far?

 

[Ridgerunner665]

The ending says it all...last 2 segments.

 

[jmden]

Van Zwoll, B&C and now even RMEF is getting into it, both organizations that Van Zwoll is very involved with. I think it's very easy for someone of Zwoll's apparently tremendous worldwide hunting opportunities to perhaps lose site of the guy that's just trying to fill his family freezer and can't afford to go out of state to do it, in effect having a bit of a, and I hate to say it, snobbish tone. I've read a lot of Zwoll the last few years and I'm pretty sure that is coming through, unfortunately, as he consistently makes sideways remarks about long range hunting.

Discussions like this denigrating one kind of hunting over another just feeds the antis. Where does it stop? Should the use of camo and scent killers (ect., etc. with another 100 things--start thinking about it) be curtailed? Maybe we should just hunt in loin clothes with a spear? And who has the infinite wisdom to decide all this? B&C? RMEF? Zwoll?

No, instead we should all encourage legal, RESPONSIBLE hunting of any kind. Period. Don't denigrate another hunter's legal, responsible freedom of choice. Stand together for the concept of legal, responsible hunting. Period.

 

[KYpatriot]

Van Zwoll, B&C and now even RMEF is getting into it, both organizations that Van Zwoll is very involved with. I think it's very easy for someone of Zwoll's apparently tremendous worldwide hunting opportunities to perhaps lose site of the guy that's just trying to fill his family freezer and can't afford to go out of state to do it, in effect having a bit of a, and I hate to say it, snobbish tone. I've read a lot of Zwoll the last few years and I'm pretty sure that is coming through, unfortunately, as he consistently makes sideways remarks about long range hunting.

Discussions like this denigrating one kind of hunting over another just feeds the antis. Where does it stop? Should the use of camo and scent killers (ect., etc. with another 100 things--start thinking about it) be curtailed? Maybe we should just hunt in loin clothes with a spear? And who has the infinite wisdom to decide all this? B&C? RMEF? Zwoll?

No, instead we should all encourage legal, RESPONSIBLE hunting of any kind. Period. Don't denigrate another hunter's legal, responsible freedom of choice. Stand together for the concept of legal, responsible hunting. Period.

Yep. Nailed it.

 

[FEENIX]

The ending says it all...last 2 segments.

I agree! I know Bruce, he's a very nice guy -- I think he just left as something to ponder; our "own" hunting ethics.

 

[jmden]

I agree! I know Bruce, he's a very nice guy -- I think he just left as something to ponder; our "own" hunting ethics.

He did much more than simply leaving us something to ponder. He is taking plays out of and quoting from the Zwoll and B&C playbook. They are on a crusade to shut down long range hunting.

I have no problem shooting an elk at close range and have done so. I also have no problem shooting an elk at long range if I deem the conditions to be OK for that. Are we going to let someone else decide that for us?

Big brother government and big brother B&C? What's the difference?

 

[KYpatriot]

He did much more than simply leaving us something to ponder. He is taking plays out of and quoting from the Zwoll and B&C playbook. They are on a crusade to shut down long range hunting.

I have no problem shooting an elk at close range and have done so. I also have no problem shooting an elk at long range if I deem the conditions to be OK for that. Are we going to let someone else decide that for us?

Big brother government and big brother B&C? What's the difference?

It's human nature. Some know it all will always and forever be on a crusade to take decisions away from you. It happens in every area of your life, hunting isn't any different. Lots of people talk big about freedom at the Fourth of July party but give them a little power or a bully pulpit and you find out real quick that what they really mean is "freedom as long as you believe what I do." It seems there is a little tyrant trying to work it's way out of most men.

 

[jmden]

It's human nature. Some know it all will always and forever be on a crusade to take decisions away from you. It happens in every area of your life, hunting isn't any different. Lots of people talk big about freedom at the Fourth of July party but give them a little power or a bully pulpit and you find out real quick that what they really mean is "freedom as long as you believe what I do." It seems there is a little tyrant trying to work it's way out of most men.

Agreed.

 

[FEENIX]

He did much more than simply leaving us something to ponder. He is taking plays out of and quoting from the Zwoll and B&C playbook. They are on a crusade to shut down long range hunting.

I have no problem shooting an elk at close range and have done so. I also have no problem shooting an elk at long range if I deem the conditions to be OK for that. Are we going to let someone else decide that for us?

Big brother government and big brother B&C? What's the difference?

Geez, that's what ponder means (to weigh in/reflect on) ... and that's why I noted ...

our "own" hunting ethics.

I too was part of the debate you referenced ... and yes I pondered in support of the LR hunting -- individual capabilities and hunting ethics. "WE" have the ultimate decision to make and must face the consequence(s) associated with those decisions.

No, instead we should all encourage legal, RESPONSIBLE hunting of any kind. Period. Don't denigrate another hunter's legal, responsible freedom of choice. Stand together for the concept of legal, responsible hunting. Period.

I totally agree!

 

[chas3stix]

I don't understand Van Zwoll coming out against LR hunting when he practices it himself. I remember seeing him in a video taking a bull elk at +600 yards wit a 6.5 Creedmoor. I guess it was ethical THEN.

 

[Browninglover1]

I don't understand Van Zwoll coming out against LR hunting when he practices it himself. I remember seeing him in a video taking a bull elk at +600 yards wit a 6.5 Creedmoor. I guess it was ethical THEN.

When he changed his opinion on long range he made sure that video was taken down because I haven't been able to find it in a while.

 

[Jaxdialation]

Billings has a population of 109,000. What their local bankrupt rag thinks about anything to do with hunting means nothing.

 

[wackinandstackin243]

I must say "long range" is not a one size fits all measurement. I dare say most people here are better prepared than those who are not. I see people every year in the field that a 200 yard shot would be unethical. Seriously who wounds more game, the guy who chronographed, ran numbers, and verified at distance, or they guy who pulled is old 06 out of the closet that was dead on 10 years ago? Not to mention running shots. Who ever wrote that article is picking on all the wrong people. Public land big game hunting is cluttered with people who are completely unprepared for a shot of any kind.
The problem people are
1. People who think a bore sighter will zero their rifle
2. Anyone who says "I can't hit targets, but I can sure hit game".
3. Kids barely old enough to hunt packing way too large of a caliber
4. The guy who sights in on a rock of unkown size and distance
5. The wives who can't shoot but bought a tag so her husband can kill a 2nd elk.

 

[degreen]

I have wondered why people talk about ethics when it comes to long range hunting, but I don't hear about bow hunting. I don't know what the percentages are for DRT's with bow hunting, but I am sure that they are not very high. I see most serious bow hunters practicing all the time. If some one interested in long range hunting put the same time into their art as most bow hunters, I'd bet that the DRT percentage would be in the 90 plus area.