Your ethics?
12-01-2004, 09:30 PM
#11
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Central Illinois
Posts: 1,672
RE: Your ethics?
i think the main thing i have concentrated on most of all both gun and bow this year is if the shot is questionable dont shoot. i had to let 2 deer go by with my bow this year[the only two i had a shot at] and one go by with a gun. bottom line is, if i shoot, i better be coming out with something.
12-01-2004, 10:12 PM
#12
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Indiana, Cloverdale
Posts: 17
RE: Your ethics?
Mine,
1) Respect the land...Clean up after yourself. Leave no traces of being there. I don't dirty up their house as I wouldn't want someone doing it to mine.
2) Respect the animals you hunt...By practicing your shooting skills, being selective in your shots and spending every effort to find any and all animals you have shot.
1) Respect the land...Clean up after yourself. Leave no traces of being there. I don't dirty up their house as I wouldn't want someone doing it to mine.
2) Respect the animals you hunt...By practicing your shooting skills, being selective in your shots and spending every effort to find any and all animals you have shot.
12-02-2004, 09:58 AM
#13
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Maine
Posts: 3,555
RE: Your ethics?
Above all else I hold the rules of FAIR CHAES on the top of my pedestal. I respect the animals I hunt to the highest depree, without them I can hunt nothing.
A close second is respect for the woods and the property of others. Hunting lands are diminishing in my area and IMO alot of that has to do with "sportsman" showing a complete lack of respect for the land owner and his land. I am constantly picking up trash that I come across and making efforts to reach out to land owners who are kind enough to allow hunting on their lands.
There are also many other rules I follow but these are my two biggest.
A close second is respect for the woods and the property of others. Hunting lands are diminishing in my area and IMO alot of that has to do with "sportsman" showing a complete lack of respect for the land owner and his land. I am constantly picking up trash that I come across and making efforts to reach out to land owners who are kind enough to allow hunting on their lands.
There are also many other rules I follow but these are my two biggest.
12-02-2004, 10:48 AM
#14
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 262
RE: Your ethics?
This is hard to pick one but I would say that maybe my ethics on taking a high percentage shot. I am a fanatic about many things that many of my bows hunting friends do not worry about. But if I had to pick one it might be taking only the best shot.
Last year my son and I were sitting on the ground in a little clump of pine trees. We had a decent 120 or so class buck appear walking right at us. He stopped 15 yards in front of us and proceeded to work on a scrape. He stood in front of us for a minute or two working the overhead branch, pawing the ground, working the branch, and then the next time he bent over to paw the ground he was looking right at us and new something was wrong. He jumped over a log and looked back for a second before he took off and was gone for good. My then 10 yr old son asked why I didn't shoot him and I told him the straight on shot with a bow is not a high percentage shot. I was hoping he would turn broadside while working on the scrape but he never did. My son then asked if I would have took that shot if he would have been a real huge buck. I told him that the size of the deer does not matter when it comes to taking the right shot and no I still would not have shot. We did not get the deer but it was a great learning experience for my son and it was also awesome for him to get to see a deer making a scrape so close to us! I also will not shoot a deer straight down below me from a tree stand. I know the shot works OK for some people but I also know that a deer hit in only 1 lung can live for a long time and it's not for me.
Following all legal laws is not enough ethics for me. There is no law against shooting too far, or not practicing, or shooting a dull broadhead, etc…. We need to police ourselves and decide our own limits because we owe it to the animals we hunt to make every effort to make a quick humane kill.
Last year my son and I were sitting on the ground in a little clump of pine trees. We had a decent 120 or so class buck appear walking right at us. He stopped 15 yards in front of us and proceeded to work on a scrape. He stood in front of us for a minute or two working the overhead branch, pawing the ground, working the branch, and then the next time he bent over to paw the ground he was looking right at us and new something was wrong. He jumped over a log and looked back for a second before he took off and was gone for good. My then 10 yr old son asked why I didn't shoot him and I told him the straight on shot with a bow is not a high percentage shot. I was hoping he would turn broadside while working on the scrape but he never did. My son then asked if I would have took that shot if he would have been a real huge buck. I told him that the size of the deer does not matter when it comes to taking the right shot and no I still would not have shot. We did not get the deer but it was a great learning experience for my son and it was also awesome for him to get to see a deer making a scrape so close to us! I also will not shoot a deer straight down below me from a tree stand. I know the shot works OK for some people but I also know that a deer hit in only 1 lung can live for a long time and it's not for me.
Following all legal laws is not enough ethics for me. There is no law against shooting too far, or not practicing, or shooting a dull broadhead, etc…. We need to police ourselves and decide our own limits because we owe it to the animals we hunt to make every effort to make a quick humane kill.
12-02-2004, 11:01 AM
#15
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 368
RE: Your ethics?
All good posts and I have to say, I like how you guys think. I never thought about giving back to the deer by planting food for them that I will never hunt over. I like that. I am going to think about that as maybe adding a new dimention to my hunting fabric. Humm....
Greg
Greg
12-02-2004, 12:13 PM
#16
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Bremen, GA.
Posts: 2,091
RE: Your ethics?
Very good post here so far! I guess there are many thing i concider very important ethics a few are Things like following all game laws that implie in your state, also "hunt bye the rule of fair chase" To love and respect the land you hunt no matter who`s land it is? To give respect to all hunters that follow all game laws and "reqiure the same from others? Try to set a good example to younger hunters that are to be following our foot steps. Its these thing we teach them now that will have the biggest affect on the future of hunting tomorrow!
12-02-2004, 05:17 PM
#18
Typical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 866
RE: Your ethics?
I don't take a shot because I think I can hit a deer.
I only take shots that when I'm pulling the trigger I KNOW THAT DEER IS DEAD AND IT'S SO EASY I FEEL LIKE I'M CHEATING.
But I hate chasing wounded deer, blood trailing, and eating nasty gamey adrenaline filled meat too.
Only thing worse is doing it for someone else because they "thought" they could hit it.
I only take shots that when I'm pulling the trigger I KNOW THAT DEER IS DEAD AND IT'S SO EASY I FEEL LIKE I'M CHEATING.
But I hate chasing wounded deer, blood trailing, and eating nasty gamey adrenaline filled meat too.
Only thing worse is doing it for someone else because they "thought" they could hit it.
