Define sport in hunting

[Fly]

I guess I,m just bored & thought I would throw this out just to get the board going.
First I no longer hunt deer.But when I was younger I bow hunted, muzzle loader & gun
hunt.Times were some what different then today.


We went out looked for rubs, scrapes deer run ect, as to where to set up.Now other than
bow season I always used a ML.Nothing against regular guns, just me.Today things are
a little different.Feeders, cameras, inlines & so on.I,m lucky to live in the woods.I have
a feeder I set up before the grand kids come, for they love watching the deer.I also have
a camera just to see what pasted threw in the night.If I feed the deer everyday, I could sit
on my back porch & pick what ever deer I wanted.

Don't get me wrong, I,m not putting any down to the way you hunt.Remember I.m just
passing time on this computer, but it would be neat to hear your thoughts as for the sport
of hunting today, compared to the past.

Fly :popcorn:

[smokeywolf]

I think some tend to blur the line between culling or thinning a particular animal population and hunting. We recently had a thread that related to shooting feral hogs from a helicopter. That is not hunting. It was however, a necessary exorcise to prevent damage to property and ecosystem done by a runaway population of a particularly destructive (and tasty) species.
Also, if you're hunting out of a need to supplement your food supply, I don't think the process used to harvest the animal matters as long as it is done safely and humanely.

Contrary to popular misinformation thrown out by tree-huggers and so-called animal lovers, the majority of hunters are the most conscientious when it comes to wildlife health, nutrition, habitat and numbers.

Although walking and tracking great distances is getting difficult for me, I still prefer tracking, stalking and a clean shot, quick kill. Not opposed however, to performing needed pest control around the farm.

smokeywolf

[Good Cheer]

When I was a kid we were in the woods all the time. We hunted. We ate what wasn't cautious.
Now we're fat and happy and the deer have names.
http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy192/SNARGLEFLERK/8-15-056_zps5ef61cc7.jpg (http://s791.photobucket.com/user/SNARGLEFLERK/media/8-15-056_zps5ef61cc7.jpg.html)

The squirrels think we're their sanctuary.
http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy192/SNARGLEFLERK/MayBellAndSquirrel_zps3182eb09.jpg (http://s791.photobucket.com/user/SNARGLEFLERK/media/MayBellAndSquirrel_zps3182eb09.jpg.html)

Coons, well, if injured they get fed until their ready to make it on their own.
http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy192/SNARGLEFLERK/9%20August%202013_zpsgevcgqwd.mp4 (http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy192/SNARGLEFLERK/9%20August%202013_zpsgevcgqwd.mp4)

The range rabbit doesn't seem to care one way or the other but enjoys getting May Bell to play chase and watching me pop caps.
http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy192/SNARGLEFLERK/chaseme_zpsffd5a572.jpg (http://s791.photobucket.com/user/SNARGLEFLERK/media/chaseme_zpsffd5a572.jpg.html)

But what do I think about hunting there days? I think that with all the labor saving devices we have these days that people don't have time to live. And in reaction to that the outdoor experience has been turned into an exercise in efficiency.
Sorry if I'm stepping on any toes. But, please understand, I in no way want anyone to change from what they want to do. Your experience is yours. Mine is mine.

[Good Cheer]

I miss my coon.
http://vid791.photobucket.com/albums/yy192/SNARGLEFLERK/9%20August%202013_zpsgevcgqwd.mp4

[WallyM3]

The ethic of the hunt is entirely subjective...except that "(sport) is built on a tripod of geography, history and law, and it is made up largely of limitations."

The italics are mine, and the subject was "civilization"; it applies equally to "sport".

[bubba.50]

don't do much huntin' these days but, when I was younger & knew less than 1/2 of what I thought I did, i'd roam the mountains & probably put in 15 to 20 miles in a day and have little to show for it except tired achy everything. later on when I actually did know a little bit, I became more of a sniper. i'd sit in a grove of hardwoods & head-shoot squirrels with a .22 or set-up on a confluence of trails to catch deer in their comin's & goin's to & from beddin' & feedin' areas. and occasionally my brother & I would walk the creeks & jump-shoot puddle-ducks.

[starmac]

What little hunting I've had time to do the last few years, I guess I would call it table fare hunting instead of sport hunting. In other words what ever method best gets the coon. lol

[Good Cheer]

Yeah, look at it that way I don't much care for sport.

[nagantguy]

I don't kill for sport, I do use bait at some sights food plots at others. We are meet hunters and less than a deer a person per hear doesn't fill our needs. Up north with the big woods in Michigan's upper pennensila its spot and stalk and drives. All methods require a human kill and the animal being used. Then exception is varmits. I guess that Could be a sport but we do it to protect the harden and chickens. Don't see how killing game animals could be a sport. But that is only my opinion. And not a judgment.

[WallyM3]

Would you mount an 8mm Spandau on a "headache rack" on a pick-up and use dogs to drive the deer into the head lights?

I've seen that done. Didn't like it much, but then I wasn't in Auschwitz.

Which then takes us back to my post #5.

[Good Cheer]

What's the difference except where you see yourself?

[GhostHawk]

The big buck that hangs on my wall had a distinct "area" which he preferred.

I watched him grow from a very smart kick up heels fork horn, to a 6 pointer, then an 8, and eventually an old grey nosed 10 point.

I always at some point in the bowhunting/squirrel hunting/Shotgun single day deer season ran into him, no way of telling when. But the where was the same 1/4 section of ground up on a ridge near a retention dam. Some years I'd see him every week, some only once in the year.

You might say we had a relationship that lasted years.

Eventually when he was getting old, turning gray, he did not see me hunkered down behind that bush. He jumped over the windfall the bush was growing in, and over me, and got himself shot.

We taught each other a lot.

This was all long before the days of trail camera's. It was (and still is) a shotgun and slug only zone. Normally with a single day hunt.
The deer know a week before which day it is going to be. (Yes patterns change)

Back then in Minnesota you could buy 2 licences, for bow and gun hunting, but only got to tag one deer.
I never loosed an arrow on a deer with a bow. I had lots of chances, but never had the good shot at the deer I wanted when it wasn't already too late in the day to have a chance to track it.

If you shot a deer in bow season you were not even supposed to be out there.

So I mostly used that as a time for learning, contemplation, and I brought home some awesome story's. Like the time the blue jay landed and tried to sit on my nocked fiberglass arrow, and kept tipping off. Or the time the moose came through scaring all the deer and threating to knock down the tree I was in. Or the time a grouse climbed into the same bush I was using as a ground blind and crapped on my shoulder.

For me, that truly was sport, it cost me only money, time, and some gas. And I was living large on the interest.

That whole mindset seems to have been lost somehow down the years.

I see the hunting shows on the outdoor channel and if he makes the shot it is all about "Look at what I just did, wahoooooo"

I don't see a single instance of a buck sneaking up behind a hunter, out of range, snorting, and then bouncing over the nearest ridge or into the nearest trees where the hunter says "Wow, seeing that deer do that just made my day"

Maybe I'm missing it, maybe.

Or maybe the times indeed are a changing.

[WallyM3]

It's not about me (in response to post # 11) or thee or anyone else. This observation was presented to me by an author I know (hence the quotation marks) whose point, I think, has broad applicability.

It's an invitation to give the idea that he expresses some contemplative consideration. I took a week to think about it. I don't agree or disagree in a practical sense (since his context is philosophical), but it got me to thinking more critically about how I understand my ....whatever.

I do silly stuff like crushing down the barbs on my hooks because I know that I'm going to release that fish (usually Atlantic Salmon) that I've hooked. But real game is a different matter. I don't shoot to eat (meaning that, otherwise, I have no alternative, which doesn't really exist in this country any more), but for the experience and the wholesomeness of the process...shoot, hit, kill, dress, prepare, cook and eat.

Otherwise, I shoot paper.

[Janoosh]

There is a quote that states "there are only two sports in the world, mountain climbing and hunting, everything else is just a game".
I have always hunted for the kill. I'm a meat hunter, to share the kill with my friends that can no longer hunt. Kind of like making meat for the tribe.
To be in the woods, to become in tune with, and attuned to, the workings of the forest. I use a single shot muzzle loader. I don't use bait, or trail cams. I enjoy the art of the stalk, to meet my prey on their ground. Is it hard.? Is it time consuming.? Yes. And that is how I do it. I'm not critiquing any body else, or the way they hunt. I'm just explaining how I enjoy my sport.

[idahoron]

If I were to define sport hunting I would say that it would be a hunt where the only thing important is the kill. A varmint hunt, Predator hunt. Guys that kill ducks and give them all away are sport hunting imop. Guys that kill deer and give them away would to me be sport hunting. Trophy hunting to me is not really "sport" hunting because the emphasis is on the antlers and respecting the animal, but not everyone that hunts trophies respects the animal. The guys that kill a trophy animal and give away the meat are in my opinion worse than sport hunting. I think using the word "Sport" with hunting is a mistake that hunters should not make. I think that the word sport puts a negative connotation on hunting. I have outsmarted several animals that are trophy animals. None of them were hunted for "sport". I have hunted and killed several for the table.

[Fly]

This thread is really going well.No one putting the other down, & just respecting each other
opinion & I thank you guys for that.Let's hear from others, for it is good to hear what each
of you love about hunting & such.

Fly

[Fishman]

Hunting shows are to hunting what reality shows are to reality.

[Duster340]

For me, Hunting is not about the kill. I have passed on many, MANY, more shots than I have taken over the past 42 years I have hunted. And the reality is, some of my most enjoyable, and memorable hunts occurred without a shot being fired. For me it's about being with friends and family. Away from the rat race, phones, computers, traffic etc. It is about the time spent around a campfire solving the world's issues, re-telling stories of hunts, and hunters, past. Good jokes. Meals cooked on an open fire. Sitting in the woods before sun-up listening to the forest wake up. The rush of adrenaline when that deer materializes from the mist, or that pheasant the rockets into the air few feet from your feet....These are just a few of the things that I consider to make up the "sport" of hunting. If a clean shot presents itself, and I choose to take that shot, great. If I pass on that kill shot in favor of spending more time into woods with my family and friends that is great too. Hunting is not for everyone, but for me and my family, it is just a part of who we are.

Be well all.

[DougGuy]

Sport = Hunting in sneakers because they are quieter in the leaves than boots, sneaking up to within arm's length of a gray squirrel feeding in a low hanging branch and seeing him totally LOSE IT when he notices you there!

And yep, he alarmed two nice whitetail bucks I was stalking, they came out of the thicket same place they went in (I was trying to work myself into position to cover this in/out route) fully alerted and hi-tailed it fast as they could outta dodge.

[Black Powder Bill]

Sport hunting, is that like going to Wheeling to get the feeling?

[aspangler]

Aldo Leopold ( the father of conservation) said " Ethics is doing the right thing when no one else is around, even when the wrong thing is legal." To me that defines "Sport Hunting". Let that doe walk that has a halfgrown fawn with her. Let the big buck walk and take out the smaller deformed buck. Doing the RIGHT thing sometimes takes a little thought but it is worth it in the peace in your heart.

[Nicholas]

Shooting clays is sport. Shooting game is something altogether different. Just because a person enjoys doing something does not make it sport. In fact it could be "work". The hunter might intentionally limit his gear to give the quarry a "sporting chance", but the hunter is not engaged in sport. The intent is still to kill. With success, the real measure of the hunter is what happens after the kill.

[Janoosh]

Aspangler....exactly.....that's it exactly....that's how I feel.....
Thank You.

In the 1800's to early 1900's they used the terms, "Target Rifle" and "Sporting Rifle" to define their long guns. There is a camaraderie between Hunters as there is a camaraderie between Soldiers ( obviously on a different level).

[starmac]

With success, the real measure of the hunter is what happens after the kill.

This says a lot as far as I am concerned, much more than the method used to make the kill.

[leeggen]

Have spent alot of time in the woods here on the farm, spring, summer,fall, and winter. Watch animals moving around with no idea you were around,same as that deer over there new I was there before I never new it was there til it blows and stomps. the coon that walked up and smelled the barrel of the rifle while I set on a stump squirrel hunting. The hummingbird the sat on the bill of my cap and then hung upside down to look at itself in my sunglasses. Yes I hunted and enjoyed the experience and still do. I respect the animals I hunted enough using camo and cover scents til oneday I just said nomore and I started hunting in levis and flannel shirts,like granpa used to do. I challenge the deer on his ground on his terms, sometimes they win sometimes I do. It is all about being out and enjoying nature at its utmost. If shot you eat it, if extra it goes to hunter and farmers feeding the down and out. My neighbor has every gadget on the market, gets 8 to 10 deer yearly (legal with wife and kids helping at check in). Don't agree with it but that is him not me. No better joy than getting food animals on their ground and their terms. Thank God for our food!
CD

[DIRT Farmer]

I think you would find the defination of sport hunting as opposed to market hunting if you looked past history.

[newton]

Guess it's all in definition of terms.
Sport- "An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment"
Hunting- "to chase or search for (game or other wild animals) for the purpose of catching or killing".

It seems the more mature one gets the less it's about the kill and the more it's about practical things, food, Staying in shape, etc.

Friends and I pushed some brush earlier. A yearling was standing in range the whole while. I sighted on her multiple times, but she was fun to just watch. The other deer ran past her as she stood in the brush just watching me, the pusher and the other deer run by.


My opinion is the two cannot be combined. Like the above post, sport is something you compete against. Both parties involved in it know they are involved in it. About the only sport in hunting I can see is when dogs are used to run animals. At that point, the animal knows that something is going on. Albeit, they are not willing participants in this and they are not in it for the entertainment value.

I see hunting in a whole different light. I could go on and on, but I would rather post a link to an article that I found that blew me away. I don't know this guy, and I forget how I ran across the article, but he put into words the exact thing I was thinking at the time I read it. I have never come across someone else that had the exact same thoughts as I.

http://tovarcerulli.com/2011/08/the-sport-of-hunting-why-i-dont-call-it-that/

Whats even more hair raising is he wrote another article that deals with the outcome of this thing we often call a sport, and how it effects the next generation. Again, he puts into words my thoughts to a T. I have to wonder if we are somehow related. lol

http://tovarcerulli.com/2011/09/a-hunting-culture-in-decline-causes-and-consequences/

Good reads right there, make you really start thinking about it all.

I boil it down to this. I don't call it a sport in any sense of the word. Primarily for my children's sake. If my kids look at it in anyway associated with what every one knows sports to be - football, basketball, soccer, baseball, hockey, tennis, yada yada yada - then they will view hunting with jaded eyes. Every sport, I don't care if its shuffle board, is based on winners and loosers. You cannot view hunting that way. If you do, then eventually you will quit. Unless, of course, you are the type that always gets something when you go out. But, its not always like that for most. For most you spend most of your time not "winning". How many kids do you know that like to play a game when most of the time they loose? Not many, they get bored and move on. So really, I do not think that guy who wrote those articles above contemplated the relationship of the two, but the articles go hand in hand.

[Geppetto]

My opinion is that you have to define the alternatives:

A) Hunting - An activity in which you pursue and harvest an animal (for our purposes)

1) Subsistence Hunting - Pursuing and harvesting animals because they are a necessary source of your food

2) Sport Hunting - Pursuing and harvesting animals because you enjoy the activity and the results (Meat, Antlers, "the hunt", friendship, etc). You are not doing it solely to live as in example A1. You also may pass opportunities to wait for a different deer for your purposes (culling, passing on smaller bucks, and whathaveyou)

a) Trophy Hunting - A subset of sport hunting in which you are looking for a "trophy", whether its the largest rack, heaviest deer, largest and oldest doe possible, who knows.

3) Market Hunting - Bulk collection of animals for market.


I think you can respect and be ethical in all of the above hunting. I also think that your choice of what technology to use, is also up to your own "moral" compass. I'm happy to use an 80% let-off compound bow shooting 300 fps, but at the same time part of me thinks that cross bows are cheating...So maybe I should go back to a hand hewn bow with stone points? I guess i'm more interested in filling the freezer during my "sport" hunts than reducing my chances by not using the advantages that are allows (by law). I think i'll go get a crossbow.

[johnson1942]

i know this, my 15 year old son got a monster mule deer buck 5x6 yesterday after scouting for 2 weeks. dragging it out of the canyon and getting it into our suv. seeing the joy on his face and feeling like a man. he even gutted it in the field so we could drag it better. he said, i think i feel more like a man. a lot of good memories. i dont know what you call it,but im glad for it. johnson 1942

[Love Life]

Sport hunting...hmmm. I'm not sure I can define it. When I actively "Hunted" it was in the woods of Georgia which has quite the abundant population of deer.

My 1st hunt was a tree stand hunt. I smoked on the way to the hunting property, picked my nose in the tree stand, scratched my self, and lo and behold a deer still came. I shot it in the head because it wasn't far. I remember standing over that deer, eyes blown out by the pressure of the bullet to the head, and thinking "What is this? What was the thrill and where was the effort?" This is how many of those I knew hunted. from a stand with minimal effort in my mind. I was supposed to be ecstatic with my "accomplishment" but I was really just ho hum and felt really bad for the deer.

So, young lad that I was, I began the stalk hunt. I'd walk a spell, pause and observe, and then walk some more. I'd actually hunt...meaning I was quiet, I looked for sign, I looked for deer. I hunted them. It was me against them in a battle of their heightened senses and knowledge of the area against my iron sighted rifle, snap shooting, and what I hoped was adequate hunting skills.

I killed many deer this way. It was more...well...acceptable to me and made me feel as if I'd actually accomplished something.

I did also continue to participate in "hunting" where the tree stand was involved, was successful, but always walked away from those "Hunts" questioning myself and the whole act of "hunting" since there really wasn't much skill or hunting involved.

After I came home in 2007 I stopped hunting deer. I didn't need the meat. It's not that I don't like venison, but I could go to the store and buy the meat I wanted without sniping a deer from a tree stand. Hell, I can now shoot a deer as far as I please because I have progressed in ability with the rifle.

So when I read a story of a man who stalked his animal, outwitted his quarry, and ultimately triumphed over odds then I consider that "Sport" hunting. Actually I just consider it hunting.

When one of my buddies or relatives tells me about shooting their deer from one of the many deerstands on my property (a couple of them are heated...) I usually persoanlly decide to shut down hunting on the land...but I don't because some of them do use the meat to supplement their diets and it saves them some money.

Nowadays I do my hunting with the camera. I get more joy out of it.

Sorry for the long winded and semi-rantish post. Those are just my thoughts on hunting.

[newton]

i know this, my 15 year old son got a monster mule deer buck 5x6 yesterday after scouting for 2 weeks. dragging it out of the canyon and getting it into our suv. seeing the joy on his face and feeling like a man. he even gutted it in the field so we could drag it better. he said, i think i feel more like a man. a lot of good memories. i dont know what you call it,but im glad for it. johnson 1942

I call that hunting! Congrats to him. I can just imagine the look on my boys face. It would be priceless.

[roadie]

I've never considered the various methods used these days as hunting. There is no "sport" in climbing a tree and waiting until a deer comes along and then shooting said deer. Given that deer tend not to look up into tree, it's kinda a big advantage. What gets me more, is the shooter in the tree who manages to over/undershoot the game at the ridiculously short ranges involved. Said over/undershot animal quite often escapes, to die a lingering death from being gut shot.

I have no respect for "road hunters" either, driving up and down a road all day in the hope that some deer is gonna blunder out in front of them strikes me as rather inefficient and hardly "sporting".

I know there are many who still hunt the hard way, actually studying the game involved and putting in the work to harvest it so they know that when they do pull the trigger, the shot is a good one and it's DRT or very soon after. Those people earn the right to be called a "sport" hunter.

Truth be told, the "sport" in hunting died off a long time ago, it's doubtful that current and future generations will hasten it's return. The modern methods are all they understand, it's all about getting the game as quickly as possible....ethics can be conveniently forgotten.

Don't get me started on "sport" shooting over bait.

[Love Life]

Shooting over bait is not hunting. It is just killing.

[Janoosh]

The type of hunting (trail cams, baiting, stands, ) are a reflection of today's society. Where time is of the essence, Where work, family agenda, life, is booked to the Nth degree. Where time is so limited that two hours on stand ....must..... produce.
I am self employed. And since I'm in the service industry, my time is valuable. But I....make... time for hunting. A lot of time. I love muzzle loader season as I'm usually the only person on the state land I hunt.
There is confusion being made in the terms being used. I am not a "Sport Hunter", I enjoy the sport of Hunting in 1900 terminology.

[johnson1942]

the wood land indians made fences to guide deer in to a holding area so they could shoot them in mass. they made fish traps. the hills indians killed buffalo by driveing them over a cliff. they always killed in mass if they could. they used the best equipment they could make or trade for. if deer come back every year and dont deminish, use what you can that is legal. sitting on a tree stand in the cold shooting with a arrow is giveing the deer a big advantage. we thought the deer population was down around here but we were wrong. saw more huge bucks this year than the last 17 years. what ever one is at peace with and it gets deer and the deer are not deminishing, do it. that why it is called hunting. no deer has ever stood up and said shoot me shoot me. their is two thing i can do still in my advanced age, one is personal with my wife and you know what that is and the other is i can still work hard at hunting deer. im going to keep doing botth as long as i can. im 72 years old.

[starmac]

When someone mentions sport hunting, for some goofy reason I get this image in my head of a bunch of guys wearing funny clothes riding horses wearing funny looking saddles and hounds chasing a fox, or old guys walking around in funny pants and hat carrying fine double barrels after quail. lol
I never really had the patience to sit in a stand, but where many hunt on small plots of land, I can see the neccissity of it.
When I am after meat, I don't care what method is used, if it was legal to snare moose, I might be tempted to try it.

[mattw]

I am 49 this month and have hunted since I was 11, started with pheasants and rabbits and I started deer hunting about 20 years ago. I shoot bench rifles, so my challenge has been to extend my slug as far as possible and still take a reliable kill shot. I live in Illinois, so the choices are bow, slug gun and black powder and a few years ago they added pistols. I cannot shoot a bow, due to a condition called Kienbock's disease in both wrists, so that is out. I shoot a 1951 Wingmaster 870, with an 18" smootbore slug barrel that I ported many years ago, I practice at 125 yards with a 1x 1 MOA red dot. It only shoots Remmington Sluggers in 2 3/4", but it will clover leaf at 100 yards if I will let it. I back it up with a S&W .41 Magnum with the same red dot sight.

I consider deer hunting a sport, not a guaranteed kill. I have killed from 20 yards to 175 yards with that old gun, all but 2 were 1 shot. There is the sport, required ability is a sport, understanding your prey is a sport and study that requires a lot of time in the woods without hunting. The accuracy is a sport, required practice year round, about 100-120 slugs per year. No dogs, no feeders a little salt along the trail in the spring to try and keep the same trail active.

My deer kills are venison for the freezer, I do not trophy hunt. That being said, I got lucky one year with a nice 16 point buck for burger. BTW, I passed on a 27 point non-typical.. walked under my tree stand, but could not shoot it. It was taken the next morning by a neighbor, now at the Bass Pro in Spfd. MO., wish I had taken it... good payout. I do fish, return 90%... keep the cats if they are big!

I am not sure about high powered rifles with long scopes from a blind with a rifle rest... not really sport shooting at that time. Don't like the idea of feeders and bait and dog driving either.

Just my 2 cents.

Matt

[idahoron]

i know this, my 15 year old son got a monster mule deer buck 5x6 yesterday after scouting for 2 weeks. dragging it out of the canyon and getting it into our suv. seeing the joy on his face and feeling like a man. he even gutted it in the field so we could drag it better. he said, i think i feel more like a man. a lot of good memories. i dont know what you call it,but im glad for it. johnson 1942

That is awesome!!! did he get it with with a paper patched bullet? If so what was the load?

[newton]

the wood land indians made fences to guide deer in to a holding area so they could shoot them in mass. they made fish traps. the hills indians killed buffalo by driveing them over a cliff. they always killed in mass if they could. they used the best equipment they could make or trade for. if deer come back every year and dont deminish, use what you can that is legal. sitting on a tree stand in the cold shooting with a arrow is giveing the deer a big advantage. we thought the deer population was down around here but we were wrong. saw more huge bucks this year than the last 17 years. what ever one is at peace with and it gets deer and the deer are not deminishing, do it. that why it is called hunting. no deer has ever stood up and said shoot me shoot me. their is two thing i can do still in my advanced age, one is personal with my wife and you know what that is and the other is i can still work hard at hunting deer. im going to keep doing botth as long as i can. im 72 years old.

I was thinking the exact thing. Seriously. Well, the part of them driving them off cliffs at least. Lots of wisdom in this post, but that's a given. We underestimate the fact that age gives wisdom. You sir are wise. I hope like heck your boys are able to understand this. It took me years to realize my elders were wise beyond my years.

[starmac]

Somebody mentioned driving deer with dogs, where is that still legal??
It was legal in some counties in Texas when I was a kid, but outlawed when I was in my teens.

[paul s]

I'm sure Alabama is still hunting deer with dogs, when I was a kid nobody still hunted.

[newton]

Still legal in Arkansas. They have certain seasons set up for it. I do not personally do it, but know of others who do. BIG, BIG divide between those who do it and those who don't. But that gets into a whole other thread topic. lol

Regardless though, I still would not consider it completely sport hunting. I still cannot see how hunting at all can be considered a sport. I guess its interpretation, and so its one of those things that you will never find a 100% consensus on.

[Hamish]

We recently had a thread that related to shooting feral hogs from a helicopter. That is not hunting.

smokeywolf

Unless the animals are sitting in a pen or cage awaiting to be shot, it most certainly is hunting. If pursuit is involved, its hunting. It is still Fair Chase even if the hunter has upped his side of the equation with a vehicle, wether it be ground or air, but the animal has to be pursued and it has stopped by the act of attempting to take it, not in a cage waiting to be slaughtered.

may not be your cup of coffee, but this is the same old divisionism that goes on over primitive/in line, optics/primitive, compound/recurve/longbow/crossbow, dog hunting, slugs/rifles/pistols, MSR's,,,,,,,,,.

[Hamish]

Regardless though, I still would not consider it completely sport hunting. I still cannot see how hunting at all can be considered a sport. I guess its interpretation, and so its one of those things that you will never find a 100% consensus on.


It it literally is an academic interpretation, defining the difference between the pursuit of game as an act of leisure, and harvesting game for subsistence. ie, it's not the colloquial definition of wether something is "Sporting" or not.

[Boz330]

I've never considered the various methods used these days as hunting. There is no "sport" in climbing a tree and waiting until a deer comes along and then shooting said deer. Given that deer tend not to look up into tree, it's kinda a big advantage. What gets me more, is the shooter in the tree who manages to over/undershoot the game at the ridiculously short ranges involved. Said over/undershot animal quite often escapes, to die a lingering death from being gut shot.

I have no respect for "road hunters" either, driving up and down a road all day in the hope that some deer is gonna blunder out in front of them strikes me as rather inefficient and hardly "sporting".

I know there are many who still hunt the hard way, actually studying the game involved and putting in the work to harvest it so they know that when they do pull the trigger, the shot is a good one and it's DRT or very soon after. Those people earn the right to be called a "sport" hunter.

Truth be told, the "sport" in hunting died off a long time ago, it's doubtful that current and future generations will hasten it's return. The modern methods are all they understand, it's all about getting the game as quickly as possible....ethics can be conveniently forgotten.

Don't get me started on "sport" shooting over bait.

Not sure what you mean by bait but here in KY during deer season there is so much food, farm crop residue, acorns, and browse that bait is not that effective. I have food plots, mineral licks and a feeder on my farm. I don't normally hunt there though and if I did it would be for meat. Many animals besides the one that might be killed benefit from the above "bait". I use to raise cattle and put one in the freezer every year and that didn't give the critter any chance at all.
For me hunting is about spending time away from the rat race with friends. Next comes the meat which I use and enjoy. We stand hunt because the country is so open that you would run the game off hunting their bedding areas which is about the only wooded areas. You have to figure the travel areas and set up on those routes. I literally could shoot out to 900yds from my stand. For the last couple years I have hunted with a ML or BPCR with my homemade BP. I do that because I like the challenge. I have taken many deer with a scoped rifle out to 300yd. Using BP and iron sights was my way of adding a challenge to it. Having said that I have had to leave a lot of deer walk this year because they were outside of my comfort zone. This weekend is the last of gun season and I'm going to break out the 6.5 Swede so that I can add one more to the freezer for sure, assuming I get a shot.
I enjoy the hunting and the eating as part of the sport. I don't particularly like the killing part anymore.

Bob

[Omnivore]

It's mostly about marketing, I believe. If we used all the same equipment our great grandfathers used, which was perfectly suited to the tesk, we wouldn't be buying new stuff.

I have used scents. Doe estrus urine works to attract both does and bucks. I once watched a doe come in under my stand, take a big whif of the scent swab, and lie down right there to rest while her two little ones played with a covey of quail.

[Boz330]

It's mostly about marketing, I believe. If we used all the same equipment our great grandfathers used, which was perfectly suited to the tesk, we wouldn't be buying new stuff.

I have used scents. Doe estrus urine works to attract both does and bucks. I once watched a doe come in under my stand, take a big whif of the scent swab, and lie down right there to rest while her two little ones played with a covey of quail.

That is another reason to be in the woods. I get a big kick out of just watching the wildlife go about their daily business. Some of the reactions that you get from deer when they think something is wrong but they aren't quite sure what it is, is hilarious. Like you I once had a fawn track me right to my stand and then stand at the base and just stare at me. There wasn't any scent there but mine. Of course we are in farm country and deer smell people every day, especially during harvest.
When I guided hunters out west the first sniff of a human would put everything to flight.

Bob

[Omnivore]

I get a big kick out of just watching the wildlife go about their daily business. Some of the reactions that you get from deer when they think something is wrong but they aren't quite sure what it is, is hilarious.

Oh, big time. That might could be a great thread in itself, somewhere. I once startled a few white tails as I was climbing the steep, wooded bank up to my tree stand, and as I was peering through the brush and maneuvering, trying to see if I could get a shot, all I could see was a cloud of powdered snow with some legs and hooves sticking up, flailing in the air. They'd blunbered into a deep snow drift at the top of the ridge and gotten stuck in it. They all survived that encounter, as I never came close to getting off a shot, but I did have a big grin on my face for some time after.

[OverMax]

When I was younger I was a gung-ho hunter. I worked the woods hard to see I and my quarry did cross paths. Told by my elders: Take anything that comes your way. "I did as I was told." These days I remember {some of those} earlier times. And I believe my behavior & actions are a whole lot different. I wouldn't go as far to say: I'm now a Sport hunter. But I do give a' lot of go-free pass's these days and find it more entertaining to observe than too field dress. Funny thing. Since my Son now hunts with me. I tell him "Take anything that comes your way Sonny." Being he's a bit more on the Ball than I was at his age. He does the right thing. "Doesn't take his Daddy's hunting advice." Thank Goodness.
As far as technology afield. When the smokeless powder firearm made its introduction. Big Game Hunting has been on a downward slide ever since. Ya'll differ with my bold statement. Just ask Fly what He thinks?:redneck: