Rich Coyle
Well-Known Member
Today I read someone claim infrared and ranging scopes are unethical. Why are they? Consider….
How did hunting and trapping begin? Look at the beginning of gathering animals for food. Did men dig holes and cover them with sticks and then cover those with leaves so unsuspecting animals would fall in and could be killed with rocks or pointed sticks? Did they set snares to catch the animals by the foot or around their necks? Did they hide in a tree so the hunter could ambush his prey and use a pointed stick to kill an unsuspecting animal? Maybe all of the above.
Was it unethical when a guy attached a sharp rock to his spear? How 'bout when someone invented the throwing stick? He substantially increased range over an arm thrown spear. Was that even ethical? This makes a guy wonder if switching from arm thrown rocks to using a sling to greatly increase range was unethical to those who didn't like slings or throwing sticks. Then along comes a guy with a bow and arrows! When did he attach fletching? Everybody knew that was totally unethical. Not to be outdone, someone "improved" the bow by attaching it to a stock and shot even smaller arrows to even greater distances. That must have been unethical.
As time moved forward someone decided to harness fireworks in a tube and use it to propel a projectile. How unethical could someone get? Some bright guy came up with rifling. Not only was it unethical, it was cheating! What was even worse someone attached sights to his firestick. Unethical to the max!
One last question: Is it more humane to actually hit where you aim with the aid of a ranging scope?
How did hunting and trapping begin? Look at the beginning of gathering animals for food. Did men dig holes and cover them with sticks and then cover those with leaves so unsuspecting animals would fall in and could be killed with rocks or pointed sticks? Did they set snares to catch the animals by the foot or around their necks? Did they hide in a tree so the hunter could ambush his prey and use a pointed stick to kill an unsuspecting animal? Maybe all of the above.
Was it unethical when a guy attached a sharp rock to his spear? How 'bout when someone invented the throwing stick? He substantially increased range over an arm thrown spear. Was that even ethical? This makes a guy wonder if switching from arm thrown rocks to using a sling to greatly increase range was unethical to those who didn't like slings or throwing sticks. Then along comes a guy with a bow and arrows! When did he attach fletching? Everybody knew that was totally unethical. Not to be outdone, someone "improved" the bow by attaching it to a stock and shot even smaller arrows to even greater distances. That must have been unethical.
As time moved forward someone decided to harness fireworks in a tube and use it to propel a projectile. How unethical could someone get? Some bright guy came up with rifling. Not only was it unethical, it was cheating! What was even worse someone attached sights to his firestick. Unethical to the max!
One last question: Is it more humane to actually hit where you aim with the aid of a ranging scope?