Interesting new atricle...

The only issue I would have liked to see him place greater emphasis on is what I believe is an ethical standard in long range hunting. IMO, too many hunters develop inflated egos and convince themselves they can make a clean kill over distances that they are not capable of making consistent accurate strikes on target. I have a son who consistently makes good clean kills at a thousand yards in calm weather. He would not take a shot if wind or other factors raised doubt about the shot. My own "exrtreme" limit is about 700 yards. I won't take a shot beyond that distance. It's true that I am capable of connecting with targets out to 1K, but I can't yet consistently hold the shots within an eight inch circle (my standard) at that distance. So my 1K shooting is limited to paper.
 
I like it and couldn't agree more. I may shoot long range rifles but I also shoot traditional muzzleloaders........you know the ones, patch and ball, sidelock and sights you adjust with a hammer and a file. That doesn't make me more ethical than the guy with an inline and modern optics capable of shooting 400 yards or better (it fact it might mean I'm a slow learner :rolleyes:).

No matter the range you will always have your spray and pray guys. You know the ones, we've all seen them, guys who empty their semi-auto at running game that's waayyy over there. There will always be the guy who takes that 1100 yard shot when he knows the conditions and his capability call for something closer. However I think that forums like this and sharing knowledge in general, whether at the range or just visiting with friends go a long way to keep us all on the same page.
 
Hunters who shoot over feeders are not hunters. They are "shooters". IMO
Go ahead and flame away.

I guess you could say the same about those that plant food plots or put out mineral blocks or put out bales of alfalfa. I guess you have never hunted in a state that has about 5% public land and the rest is privately owned. You probably have never had to lease the property you hunt, usually somewhere from $10.00 to $17.00 per acre, surrounded by other small acerages that are also leased. You obviously have never been restricted to 250 acres to hunt. In places like that you have to make an attempt to draw game to you rather than having the ability to drive or hike for miles glassing and looking for animals. So I guess that I am supposed to restrict all of my hunting to my anual trip out west where I have more public land than I can cover in the short 10 days that I am there rather than enjoying the outdoors with my family and friends in my home state simply because of your narrow mindedness. You need to be lumped into the same category with Boon and Crocket and others that only see a need to segregate the shooting and hunting community.
 
Seems to me this was an article about gun owners and hunters banding together. :rolleyes:

Folks with access to unlimited square miles don't understand feeders, food plots, salt licks, etc. I am from western Canada originally, spent the first 42 years of my life there and was hunting over 30 of those. The areas I hunted were measured in square miles, frequently hundreds of square miles. I thought feeders were unfair and for lazy hunters. Now I live in West Texas where every acre is privately owned. The places most people get to hunt and usually pay dearly to do so, are so choked with mesquite and juniper you can only see 50 yards. If you don't have a feeder or at least a long sendero carved out of the brush and an elevated shooting platform you are not going to have any venison in the freezer unless you run over one on the highway.

I am luckier than most as I have places in the hills where I can stretch the legs on some of my rifles as well a local area with hundreds of acres of alfalfa fields in which I can hunt deer and pigs, most others do not have these options.

Hunters are the same the world over. Some work hard to get the trophy they want. Others not so hard but want to get some meat in the freezer. We all know the amount of work you put into it usually dictates how successful you are. What we tend to forget is that the job description varies greatly from one part of the country to another.

JM2C
 
Capt. D,
You are correct on all accounts. But I still don't see it as hunting. If I had to hunt like that I would give it up. If I hurt your feelings I apologize.

Oh, and by the way I live in Utah now. Have been here 3 years. Had to leave one of the best states in the union so I could make a living. That is a choice. And I do restrict myself to the 10 days of hunting a year when I go back home to hunt. And I can't afford to spend the money on a 10 day out-of-state hunt every year.
 
The article suggests that we all come together in support of our hunting sport.
"Sport" is generally defined as the practice of a skill where some form of competition pits one individual or group against another. "Hunting" is generally defined as pursuing, stalking, searching for something, often a wild animal. So lying in wait in a baited or otherwise prepared environment that lures game is technically not hunting. However, there are environments where "hunting" is not possible due to local restrictions of one variety of another that are beyond the control of the "hunter". Under those circumstances I see no reason to be critical of the person who engages in that kind of "hunting" activity. If wild game is available and can be legally taken in compliance with local or state regulations that don't allow for "hunting" in it's generally accepted form, then the "hunter" has no choice but to use the methods legally available to him or her. So before we criticize one another, let's stop to consider what the other guy has to deal with.
 
Capt. D,
You are correct on all accounts. But I still don't see it as hunting. If I had to hunt like that I would give it up. If I hurt your feelings I apologize.

Oh, and by the way I live in Utah now. Have been here 3 years. Had to leave one of the best states in the union so I could make a living. That is a choice. And I do restrict myself to the 10 days of hunting a year when I go back home to hunt. And I can't afford to spend the money on a 10 day out-of-state hunt every year.
Utah has great hunting. Well, so I'm told by the brother of some guides. Utah has some of the remaining "wild run" American bison. With a draw and season for it.:cool:

I digress...

Why can't we all just get along.... LOL

We should be able to agree on "harvesting" and leave it at that.

Some may choose to harvest over food sets. Some may choose to harvest from a cross a canyon with a long range firearm. Some may choose to harvest by stalking with a close range firearm. Some may choose to harvest by sitting in a tree. Some may choose to harvest with a bow. Some may choose to harvest with a muzzle loader/legacy firearm. Some will combine bow and tree sets. Some may combine muzzle loader/legacy firearm and tree sets. The variety is as endless as human ingenuity.

hunting






noun hunt·ing \ˈhən-tiŋ\
: the activity or sport of chasing and killing wild animals
: the activity of searching for something


The definition is clear and vague. One dictionary was self referential, hunting was the act of hunting. Ummm..

Hunting is still hunting regardless of the equipment or distance. Somewhere in the process the "Hunter" has to look for (hunt for) the quarry. Then the process of how to execute the harvest can begin. We all know that in reality with all the methods of harvest or take the actual process starts long before the small portion of the harvest referred to as the hunt.
 
jfseaman;1080884... Why can't we all just get along.... LOL We should be able to agree on "harvesting" and leave it at that. ... [/QUOTE said:
If you wait long enough, someone will usually offer a solution that does a pretty darn good job of smoothing out the termoil. IMO, jfseaman has found the compromise that makes sense. We all "harvest" using various ethical methods within the scope of the specific circumstances which are beyond our control.
Whether "hunter" or "shooter", welcome brother harvester. :)
 
mountainman56 you must be originally from the province of Saskatchewan. This is the only western province that I know of which allows the seting out of feeders and food plots (i.e baiting) baiting for big game all year. Yes, I'm aware of spring bear hunting but that is only for several weeks in the spring mid May - mid June.
 
mountainman56 you must be originally from the province of Saskatchewan. This is the only western province that I know of which allows the seting out of feeders and food plots (i.e baiting) baiting for big game all year. Yes, I'm aware of spring bear hunting but that is only for several weeks in the spring mid May - mid June.

Actually I was raised in Saskatchewan and first hunted there but later I lived in Alberta and did most of my hunting in the foothills of the Rockies. We never baited anyplace I hunted in Canada. Basically the hunting areas and game available in Canada spoiled me rotten compared to what I have now and I miss it dearly.

Even here I don't bait for deer, mostly because I have decent access to other hunting areas. That isn't the case for a lot of huntin folks here. I do however bait for pigs from time to time with excellent results.
 
Capt. D,
You are correct on all accounts. But I still don't see it as hunting. If I had to hunt like that I would give it up. If I hurt your feelings I apologize.

Oh, and by the way I live in Utah now. Have been here 3 years. Had to leave one of the best states in the union so I could make a living. That is a choice. And I do restrict myself to the 10 days of hunting a year when I go back home to hunt. And I can't afford to spend the money on a 10 day out-of-state hunt every year.

Straight Shooter
I have but one feeling left, and that one I leave in the truck. No my feelings were not hurt. I was merely making a point.
We have segregated groups within the hunting and shooting sports these days that feel their ethics trump all others. Hell; some folks think that if you don't have a spear or run em' down and stab em' with a knife that its not really hunting. What I'm getting at is that demeaning one group or another only further segregates a community as a whole when we as outdoor sportsmen and women should be banding together to further protect our rights as sportsmen and women as long as were not breaking the law to do so. The antis have a ton of support, and some of that support comes from simple ignorance due to their surroundings or lack of access until someone introduces one of those folks to hunting or shooting. There are some out there that are so brain dead that they don't even want you to have a pet.
My own personal opinion is that as long as you are not breaking federal law or the laws of your state you are well within your right to harvest an animal the way you see fit. Call it what you will but the same comment can be made from any number of avenues.
No harm donegun)gun)gun)
 
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