I haven't been hunting in about 15 years or so, and even then it was only for small game. I have no ethical problem with hunting whatsoever, but after watching a show on the Men's Channel this weekend, I do have a question to put forth.
My question involves shooting from a tree stand directly overlooking an automatic feed station. What are the generally accepted views of this from a sporting point of view? I mean the guy who shot the buck acted like he had stalked this deer on an arduous hunt, through swamps and over mountains. How proud could he be? A machine chucked some food out, deer naturally came in to eat and he picked one off. It looked like shooting fish in a barrel to me. Might as well cage them up in a 6-foot pen and shoot them from there.
Again, I'm not bashing the sport, and maybe I'm so far out of the loop that I'm getting it all wrong, but what's the deal here? Isn't taking an animal that you had to stalk and match wits with on its own playing field the most gratifying way to hunt? The next show I watched showed a guy out on the open plains with big carribou horns on his head, slowly getting closer to his quarry two cautious steps at a time while the animal watched him and didn't spook at all. When he got within distance, he planted a perfect shot with an arrow. Now THAT was exciting! I can 100% understand why that guy felt AWESOME standing over his animal. I just didn't see how this feeder method could possibly be thrilling at all.
Educate me.
My question involves shooting from a tree stand directly overlooking an automatic feed station. What are the generally accepted views of this from a sporting point of view? I mean the guy who shot the buck acted like he had stalked this deer on an arduous hunt, through swamps and over mountains. How proud could he be? A machine chucked some food out, deer naturally came in to eat and he picked one off. It looked like shooting fish in a barrel to me. Might as well cage them up in a 6-foot pen and shoot them from there.
Again, I'm not bashing the sport, and maybe I'm so far out of the loop that I'm getting it all wrong, but what's the deal here? Isn't taking an animal that you had to stalk and match wits with on its own playing field the most gratifying way to hunt? The next show I watched showed a guy out on the open plains with big carribou horns on his head, slowly getting closer to his quarry two cautious steps at a time while the animal watched him and didn't spook at all. When he got within distance, he planted a perfect shot with an arrow. Now THAT was exciting! I can 100% understand why that guy felt AWESOME standing over his animal. I just didn't see how this feeder method could possibly be thrilling at all.
Educate me.
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