Hunting: What Is It?

[Jfet]

Geography, game, age, experience, socioeconomic status, tools, physical acumen or handicap, education, exposure, and personal ethics all contribute to our definition and should all be used as context when judging other’s decisions.

I like your idea of knowing about the hunt and hunter when making evaluations. Thanks.

 

[Royal27]

Hunting is what we make it imo.

At its essence, the goal is to secure as many calories as you can, while expending the least possible. From a lizard, to a lion, to a human, meat is sustenance.

In 2018, for those of us discussing hunting on an internet board, it’s also a sport, a hobby, and/or a passion.

Geography, game, age, experience, socioeconomic status, tools, physical acumen or handicap, education, exposure, and personal ethics all contribute to our definition and should all be used as context when judging other’s decisions.

Awesome awesome points!

That shows how much hunting has changed. I'm with Bill in that I like to walk and work at it. But... By historical definition that's stupid. Why do that when you can sit at a waterhole and shoot an animal more quickly and with less effort? That's smart.

Reason being, times have changed and will continue to change, as will the reasons we hunt.

And in regards to your last paragraph, we forget that or don't care. The last few years are the first time that so many cultures, and even age groups, have combined to make one giant international group. And we wonder why we don't agree.

 

[Mekaniks]

This is my response to the whole baiting issue.... It's really about population control which is a direct function of CONSERVATION.
If there is a large population in a given area of any particular species, (be it deer, black bear, hogs etc) and "opening up" or "liberalizing" the hunting regulations in that particular area to include hunting over bait, or spot lights or maybe even trapping is really just another tool by which the populations are controlled, for CONSERVATION OF THE SPECIES.

There is no way that anyone can compare methods used by the State of Washington to regulate hunting of Columbia Blacktail to how Texas regulates their Whitetail populations. And it's almost absurd to me that anyone with any wildlife experience would try to do so.
As an example, In Alaska we can hunt black bears over bait during a predetermined time of the year (about 2 1/2 mo in the spring) We can also take 3 bears annually in the region that I live in with no closed season. The black bear population is such that it supports that activity in effort to try and maintain a stabile population. And of course I do my best to help in that effort.
In places like California where they have areas with legal black bear hunts the rules are much more stringent than they are here in Alaska simply because there isn't the overall population of bears and there are more hunters.
But for a hunter in California who is not alllowed to bait, to then criticize me for baiting in Alaska is ludacris, and likely is really more about emotion and politics than about actual CONSERVATION of the species.

I get that people like to hunt the way they learned, or the way they have in past, or in way that they are comfortable with, etc.... But we as hunters have got to understand that CONSERVATION is way bigger than just each individual.
If you do not want to hunt critters over bait then don't. That's your right. But don't criticize another hunter who is just doing what he enjoys.

 

[K-man]

I have only a couple of memories of hunting before I was an adult, my grandfather took me when he was 84 and I was 8 yrs old. His only weapon was a 10 Ga. side by side that looked like it was 6 ft long and weighed 25 lbs to a skinny 45lb kid. We hunted antelope on his brother's property after digging up yucca plants that morning as payment. He refused to hunt by waterholes as he considered it unsportsmanlike, because the animal had to come for water in the heat. We tied a shiny pie plate to a fencepost as a lure, then hid in a tumbleweed blind and waited. and waited. and waited. If I moved and the animal spooked, we would go back to digging yucca plants until the next day. He was hunting for meat to feed himself, and I never heard a cross word from him if something went wrong. I was able to shoot it once at a jackrabbit that thought it was hidden. You guessed it, I doubled the shot. I only remember my grandpa standing over my prone form softly laughing. I asked him if I got it, and all that was left was a bit of fur and a foot. I would gladly give up most of my trophies for a chance to hunt with him again like that. The point of my long story is that hunting is about an experience, a memory, as well as a trophy and a freezer full of meat. The ethics of hunting used to be discussed with a mentor, at the local coffee shop or at a hunter ed course, not globally on the internet. I could not have imagined that people could have pursued deer with dogs, or hunted over a feeder as in our area those things would never have happened. Things have changed, as well as the techniques and tools. 30 years ago I would have never thought about a shot at 300 yds, now it is relatively easy for me. Just remember to make good memories with our hunting time, and if the story (memory) would cause you to be embarrassed then you need to rethink your technique.

 

[Jfet]

I have only a couple of memories of hunting before I was an adult, my grandfather took me when he was 84 and I was 8 yrs old. His only weapon was a 10 Ga. side by side that looked like it was 6 ft long and weighed 25 lbs to a skinny 45lb kid. We hunted antelope on his brother's property after digging up yucca plants that morning as payment. He refused to hunt by waterholes as he considered it unsportsmanlike, because the animal had to come for water in the heat. We tied a shiny pie plate to a fencepost as a lure, then hid in a tumbleweed blind and waited. and waited. and waited. If I moved and the animal spooked, we would go back to digging yucca plants until the next day. He was hunting for meat to feed himself, and I never heard a cross word from him if something went wrong. I was able to shoot it once at a jackrabbit that thought it was hidden. You guessed it, I doubled the shot. I only remember my grandpa standing over my prone form softly laughing. I asked him if I got it, and all that was left was a bit of fur and a foot. I would gladly give up most of my trophies for a chance to hunt with him again like that. The point of my long story is that hunting is about an experience, a memory, as well as a trophy and a freezer full of meat. The ethics of hunting used to be discussed with a mentor, at the local coffee shop or at a hunter ed course, not globally on the internet. I could not have imagined that people could have pursued deer with dogs, or hunted over a feeder as in our area those things would never have happened. Things have changed, as well as the techniques and tools. 30 years ago I would have never thought about a shot at 300 yds, now it is relatively easy for me. Just remember to make good memories with our hunting time, and if the story (memory) would cause you to be embarrassed then you need to rethink your technique.

This is Marvelous

 

[dory]

Oh my! I did not add that picture to my original post. To the moderator that did add it "Thank You" We put Gus down in November of 2017. She was the best blood pressure dog I ever owned. After a really bad day she would come and set her chin on your knee and you could feel your body return to what is right.

That picture is one of the best pictures I have of her. That hunt is one of my favorites. Yes, the deer was taken near a feeder but listen to the rest of the story. We would be hunting in Africa for the first time after this deer season. I had chosen to try to emulate some of the hunting techniques I had seen on the African hunting shows. The permanent blind for this feeder is to the north. Our winds primarily are out of the south. We don't hunt this blind often but it is in a great spot. I can never get my brother-in-law and father-in-law together at the right time to move this blind. That year I set up my double bull blind to the east of the feeder. I really couldn't see the feeder clearly from its location but I was able to view the major trail that the deer travel whether they were going to the feeder or not. I brushed in the blind just like they do for a leopard hunt over bait. It would be the first hunt that I used my new Winchester Model 70 .375 H&H.

That morning was foggy and as the fog cleared deer appeared all around me. It was to my right that this buck appeared. He was 40 yards away. I had to place my shot through the brush just like shots I would take in Africa the next June. He was a typical mature 8pt. In other circumstances I may have passed on him. In those circumstances he became a trophy and it was a hunt. I went back to camp to get help to load the deer into my truck and I brought Gus with me. When we got back to the deer I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures like they do in Africa and Gus posed for a great picture.

Stage 9 in the hunters career .
Your knees hurt , your new artificial hip squeaks a bit .
And the onset of arthritis in your hands and fingers makes it hard to hold a firearm .
Its the night before opening day of the duck shooting season and you think you might give it a miss this year ?
As you walk out to the truck to shut the boot theres a sudden thumping of paws down the driveway and your best mate leaps into the truck with the spring of a young pup .
her eyes are bit misty these days but you can see the passion for tommorow in them and her tail is wagging like it does when she knows she is going hunting with you .
You walk back inside and look in the mirror , theres a light in your eyes that has been there since you fisrt started hunting .
The dogs snuck inside and is sitting by the fire , she is only alowd inside after a hunt to get her old bones warm but tonight is special , tomorrow is opening day .
I take enough bacon out for breakfast and a couple extra strips for the dog .
Its going to be an early start in the morning .
Cant wait , hope we can both get some sleep .