Define Hunting

L

lizziedog1

New member
I know that there have been similar threads to this one here. There have been arguements and debates over this subject. However, this time I am looking for answers that are personal to the responder. Please, don't turn this thread into a personal attack, name calling one.

Here is my question, plain and simple; how do you define hunting.?

A young man is seated at a rest on the edge of an alfalfa field. He is helping the rancher rid his crop of pesky ground hogs. For hours he pick those rodents off one-by-one. Do you consider this activity hunting?

A middle aged gentleman goes pheasant hunting several times a month. He hunts at a "bird club." The pheasants he bags are pen-raised, planted birds. They have as much survival instinct as a barnyard chicken. Would you say this fellow is hunting by your definition?

Another guy decides to go boar hunting. He hooks up with an outfitter that uses dogs. He does get a wild pig. He was close enough to the animal that a long spear would have worked. In your mind, was this a hunt?

I guess I am trying to see where most people draw the line between shooting and hunting. Like I said above, I realize this is a personal opinion. So I am not asking this to pass any judgement on anyone. I a just curious.
 
A young man is seated at a rest on the edge of an alfalfa field. He is helping the rancher rid his crop of pesky ground hogs. For hours he pick those rodents off one-by-one. Do you consider this activity hunting?
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Yes. Wild critters. Doing Damage. Farmer trusts him. Good shooter as he has picked off several.
A middle aged gentleman goes pheasant hunting several times a month. He hunts at a "bird club." The pheasants he bags are pen-raised, planted birds. They have as much survival instinct as a barnyard chicken. Would you say this fellow is hunting by your definition?
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Not so much a hunt. Not wild game.
Another guy decides to go boar hunting. He hooks up with an outfitter that uses dogs. He does get a wild pig. He was close enough to the animal that a long spear would have worked. In your mind, was this a hunt?
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Moreso than the bird scenario above as the hog is wild/feral and is dangerous game. Got close enuff for a spear puts you in dangerous proximity to a hog that can shuck the dogs or one could finish bleeding out as you go for the shot. The labor to get to the bayed hog is tremendous as well.
Brent
 
okay ar15chase aka: Chuck Norris try being a lil creative...

I consider all of those as hunting, just in a different method.
Its like shooting. For fun at paper targets-that's shooting
Competion-that's shooting
At clay pigeons-that's shooting
 
The example of the groundhog shooting is not hunting as such, to me. It's pest control with a rifle. No different in fundamental concept than using a mousetrap in one's house. The same sort of thing holds true for prairie dog shooting in open pasture.

I'd say that the hog example is hunting, in that the dogs might not run across a hog's track. After that, it's maybe "hazardous exercise" and certainly having a sporting element.

Sitting in a stand near a feeder and waiting for Bambi is lazy-man hunting, in the same pattern as the big cats lurking near water holes. In some types of terrain and vegetation, of course, there's little alternative.

For over thirty years I was a walking/stalking hunter. Go to where I thought Bambi would be, kick him out of bed, and if he suited me I'd shoot him. Now that my legs got old and my back hurts, I'm much more of a sitter than a walker. (Grump.)

To me, "Hunting" is seeking as well as shooting. However, that's just part of the total package. I've always liked to have a social group for the campfire sessions. Sometimes, I've worked with others in cross-country walking-hunting. I dunno. I can sit and look at the coals of my campfire and sorta feel connected to hundreds of past generations of forebears. I've felt myself to be part of the natural scene for well over sixty years, now.

I guess I'm set in my ways, fixed in my attitude. I can describe what it all means to me--but I'm totally uninterested in anybody's contrary opinion. :)
 
I can sit and look at the coals of my campfire and sorta feel connected to hundreds of past generations of forebears.
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Funny. I do the same thing and have never really hunted. When I'm staring at the campfire, I feel like I have, but maybe that's merely the ghosts of my forefathers, coming to tickle my brain.

If I were to hunt, I don't think I'd want to sit in a blind and ambush my prey. I think I'd rather do the stalking-on-foot part. To me, that seems essential to capturing the entire experience and making the meat taste just that much better.
 
Wild animal, targeting a specific animal, having a chance that you will not see or have a shot at that animal. Food, fur, or pest control.
 
I can appreciate the still hunters, and do it from time to time myself, but mainly I am a stand hunter. Trying to bump one out of bed is great in the palmetto flats and flag ponds but in the swamp it's just not practical your eyes had better be on what you're about to step on (unless you're in some place that's real piggy, one of the greatest contributions of the wild hog is their ability and desire to eat poisonous snakes). Stand hunting, despite what some believe, does require skill. We put in our time stalking in the off season in hopes of finding that perfect spot. Also, sitting still and quiet for 4,5,6 hours at a time is not easy. It has taken me years to gain this skill, especially when it's cold. I sit so still that I often have tweety birds land on me and have had squirrels walk right over me on their way down the tree. Try sitting in a climbing stand (designed for function in lieu of comfort) for a whole day and don't move but maybe once an hour. Then tell me that it's easier than walking slow and quiet. Hunting is what you do, not how you do it. That being said, you have to put in your time. You have to earn the right to be called a hunter, even if that just means you spent hours at the range mastering a 600yd shot, you have to put the time in and do it yourself.
 
Animal Comparisons

I look at the way animals hunt and see if their is a human comparison. Most predators have claws or teeth. I figure that our weapons are our equivalent of that. Animals usually haver some senses that are keener then ours, scopes and binoculars help with that for humans. Some animals hunt in groups, using dogs is a form of a pack hunt. Some predators wait in ambush for their next meal. Sitting in a stand could be looked at as a human hunter's version of this.

Now, I see no natural equivalent to hunting animals that are planted. I can't think of a predator that picks off its prey in multiple numbers at great distances. I have nothing against these activities, but it ain't hunting as far as I am concerned.
 
Define: Hunting

hunt: the pursuit and killing or capture of wild animals regarded as a sport

search: the activity of looking thoroughly in order to find something or someone

hunt: the work of finding and killing or capturing animals for food or pelts


I think we over-complicate the idea.

I go "hunting woodchucks" very regularly. It has never occurred to me that I was doing anything besides hunting. Of course, I've never sat at the edge of a single field for hours waiting for them to come out either. I walk for miles.

Trying to over define the idea gets into all kinds of problems. If I'm still hunting deer then I'm hunting but if I then climb into a stand I'm not hunting anymore? That would seem to be the case if sitting on the edge of a field waiting for woodchucks is not hunting.

I go with the common sense definition. Hunting is going out looking for animals, with or without the intent of killing them. IMO
 
If one goes out seeking a critter to kill it's hunting. Period. No matter the methods or equipment used. Arguments could be made against "ANY and ALL" equipment and styles so quit trying to define it as anything else.
 
By my measure, hunting is a total package. From the range-time to the range-top, culminating in a good dinner. The acutal kill represents a fraction of the total package. If a hunter gets skunked, is it still hunting? Oh course!!

For hours he pick those rodents off one-by-one. Do you consider this activity hunting?
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Good for him but this is what I call a conservation effort rather than hunting. There are many of these depending on the magnitude of a particular problem. We have what is called park or city hunts when the number of deer has gotten so big that the bunny huggers now start to complain and rather than paying someone to reduce the numbers, they open it up for hunting and "charge" the hunters. :eek:

They have as much survival instinct as a barnyard chicken. Would you say this fellow is hunting by your definition?
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I don't think you know what you are talking about as the only difference I have seen, is that they hold better as opposed to the wild ones. By the second or third day, they are impossible to find or hold. Again, its' getting nearly impossible to find land or game to hunt that some folks go to these preserves. Is it hunting? Sure, but you make the call. On a few occasions, I have guided on these preseves and the shooting is the same but the prep and follow-up, is not. Might add that some birds actually get away and survive, unlike your barnyard chicken.


He was close enough to the animal that a long spear would have worked. In your mind, was this a hunt?
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With a spear or knife? Absolutely and then some. It's all part of this Great Adventure we call hunting. :)

Be Safe !!!
 
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Canned hunting is the killing of an animal in an enclosure, with no chance of escape, in order to obtain a trophy. It is big business in Texas, where some ranchers find the provision of guaranteed kills to hunters willing to pay a premium price to shoot "exotic" animals to be more lucrative than cattle. Whether the "hunt" takes place on a fenced ranch or involves simply shooting into a cage, the target animals have no place to run and no place to hide. Often, the animals are tame and do not know to run from humans. On a typical hunting ranch operation, the animals are fed at a specific time and location. They learn to recognize the sound of the landowner's vehicle as it approaches with food. On the day of a hunt, the owner's vehicle will arrive with hunters instead of food; a kill is thus guaranteed. The price a hunter pays is pre-set for a given trophy animal; if that specific species is not presented as promised, the hunter's money is to be refunded. We have heard of no refunds.




Ranchers usually specialize in the provision of either native species (deer, peccary or javelina, small mammals and birds) or "exotic" species (non-native antelope, deer, boar, sheep, etc.). The animals found on game farms and hunting ranches come from several sources. Some are zoo surplus. Zoo directors must find ways to attract a public and it is well known that baby animals on display sell tickets. In order to make room for new arrivals, older animals are sold as surplus. While AZA-accredited zoos are prohibited from selling directly to hunting ranches, they are permitted to sell to animal dealers, who may then sell to individual collectors, roadside zoos and hunting ranches. The Animal Finder's Guide, a catalog for the underground trade in exotic animals, lists animals from macaques to camels for sale to anyone with cash to buy. It also advertises exotic animal auctions, another prime source of animals for canned hunting operations.

TX Parks and Wildlife, a state agency, sponsors canned hunts on private lands. For a $10 entry fee, a hunter can enter a lottery to participate in a "Big Time Texas Hunt" on a hunting ranch. Offered are opportunities to kill deer, antelope, hogs, alligators and "varmints." TX Parks and Wildlife also receives funding through the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, created to provide additional monies for the purchase of private ranches for use by TPW for public hunts.

There is no federal law governing canned hunting operations. The Animal Welfare Act does not regulate game preserves, hunting preserves or canned hunts. The Endangered Species Act does not prohibit private ownership of endangered animals and even allows for the hunting of endangered species with the appropriate permit.

Is this sport? Canned hunting is cruel and unfair; the animals haven't got a chance when facing high-tech firearms and archery equipment in a confined space. Write to your Congressional Representative and Senators today and ask them to reintroduce the bill to ban canned hunts. orchidhunter
 
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Hunting is....

1. traditional coon hunting with hounds and a single shot 22
2. quail/grouse hunting with or without dogs
3. squirrel hunting...with a 22
some examples I have enjoyed...........

I agree that varmint removal is borderline. I also agree that if the animal has lost any natural instincts or in penned in it's ot really hunting... just herding
 
dragon, You fergot runnin' hogs with dogs:rolleyes: Unless you consider that to be the original american livestock farming method as I do which is still hunting big time to me...:eek::D
Brent
 
Hogdogs....

Brother any time you're on the ground where one of those hogs can bite your @$$ I definitely consider it hunting. I went a couple times with a friend and sat in a tree with my .44. I never saw one but I saw one of his dogs that got to close. Was not a pretty site.
 
Define

Define...
- love
- honor
- style
- fighthing
- a victory
- ethic behavoir

Same problem, same answer: I know it, when I see it.
;)
 
Hunting is whatever you think it is. People can't agree on anything else, don't expect any agreement on this.


If the state requires you to have a hunting license to do it you are most likely hunting.
 
i'm not sure what the hunter sucess rates are around the country but i know they are pretty darn small overall. i like buying what i need for hunting, clothes, ammo guns etc. every year you need to add something new. i like the scouting, the camping, the friendships and the hunting even tho i am probably not as succesful as the average numbers. anyway hunting means alot more to me than pulling a trigger and hanging a head on the wall. if that was all it was i would just stay home.
 
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