This just ticks me off video

I just went to the store and bought a case of granola bars for all of you guys who think this is just plain wrong. I don't hunt bears (don't see the need here in FL) and don't see why anyone would, but doing it however you want to as long as it is legal doesn't bother me. I didn't see the video but it is probably about like watching them shoot elephants on Versus, it just doesn't feel right.

I used to know an old man who went into the Canadian bush every year for two weeks to hunt bears. He did it off of the ground with a long bow but he did it over bait that he put out. He was a hunter, of this there is no doubt in my mind, but was he more of a hunter because he did it where the bear could eat him? No, it is because he cared about what he was doing and the animal he was going to harvest.

I don't like the little rich boys who think hunting like this is real hunting any more than the rest of you do, but it is their right and if they can afford it leave them alone. They will never enjoy hunting the way that we do but that is there loss. They will also never put in the work to get the trophies (experiences and memories) that we do. Let them kill but know that we are the true hunters.
 
Elkman, glad to see (at least from the looks of it) you saw I wasn't actually trying to be confrontational, but was actually supplementing your own post. Interesting to see how much attention this thread has gained, morals and ethics will probably always be a hot topic among hunters.

Daryl's last post pretty much sums it up IMO. I've learned that for the most part, I'm best suited to just keep my personal opinions about ethics to myself and some close friends. Hunting, in the broad sense, is one of those things that I couldn't live without; fighting amongst ourselves can only bring problems.
 
You know what is funny about this thread...the insults and innuendos thrown to the people who disagree with the tactics used. Just as it is the peoples right to disagree with the tactics, you have all stood the ground we are wrong in voicing opinions about it and we should "mind our own opinions". What gives the defenders the voice that is right on the subject and the only one allowed? Why do those who disagree with it need to eat granola and lower our heads to shuffle past the great white "hunters".

like I said before in my posts,I do not agree with it, and even admitted to doing it on occasion via a rattle, scent. Even trapped, which is almost all about baiting.

I found what was in that vid to be low skill set, period.

And to address the shooting issue, sorry guys, have not botched a shot before on the hunt with a firearm! Yep how craptaculure of me to be a good shot and know when I can take it ~insert come roll eyes here~

Now, a bow ..yup I have botched a shot or two, some branch I did not see and a grazing a sapling which resulted in an a$$ shot.
 
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I've always been a walking hunter. I just don't like sitting in a blind. That's why I don't hunt the thick brush country of south Texas. Since you can't really walk it or sneaky-snake through all that cactus and mesquite, either sitting in a blind or riding in a high seat in the back of a pickup is darned near all there is.

Walking? Go to where Bambi is likely to be laid up, snoozing. Kick him out of bed, look him over, and shoot him. That's if you're any good on a running buck.

Sneaky-snaking is fun. Try to find Bambi before he finds you. Not easy, but soul-satisfying.

But some of it is a know-how thing. I grew up hunting. I learned how to walk very quietly darned near seventy years ago. Some guy who spends his life at a desk? Lives in town? Or, his kids? They gotta start somewhere, and I guess a blind is about as good a start as any. Let them get used to seeing critters. Learn how to sit still and not fidget. Some folks are good at that.

So all of that is why I don't get all exercised and harumphy when it's different strokes for different folks. I just might not know as much about the situation as I ought to, maybe.

As far as the number of shots, I know adrenalin makes folks do weird. I watched an experienced hunter crank through a mag's worth of cartridges in his bolt action, one time. Just one problem: He never pulled trigger. Sure worked that bolt quick, though.

Kids? Hey, life is a learning curve, and I haven't quit, yet. :D
 
Alfalfa

You set up at the edge of an alfalfa field. There are dozens of deer everyday grazing on that succulent plant. It is opening morning and a deer is coming into range. He nibbles as he approaches. A few seconds later, bang, you got your animal.

Were you hunting over bait?
 
Ok, this is how we do things where I hunt. I own 135 acres in northern Michigan. 95% of the county is private land, in holdings from 5 to a few hundred acres. We respect property rights, most of us do anyway, rather then be called trespassers.
So I rely on the habitat to draw deer, there are places on the land that I do not go and forbid others from doing so. 135 acres isn't a lot of land, I can cover it several times in one day if I wanted to, but all that trampling around is gonna spook the deer off the property, on to the neighbor's land. Since we are all boxed in pretty much, during rifle season we all sit in our blinds on opening morning and hope that a nice buck presents himself. We call it "hunting", but in reality its an uncontrolled harvest. I don't want that buck spooked by chasing him through my cedar swamp, I want his head down on breakfast or concentrating on a hot doe. This make my shot more sure, and that makes for a cleaner kill.
I manage the entire piece of land for whitetail, that includes cover, water and food. I manage the land to attract does. Bucks take up residence as well but the does maintain a predictable range from year to year, and opening day is during the rut. There is a lot of natural browse and I also plant food plots, clover, alfalfa, rye, wheat, trefoil, buckwheat, etc, in 1/2 - 3 acre plots. The season runs from Oct 1 (start of bow) through Jan 1. Since opening day in Michigan is always on November 15, the weather can be from single digits to well above freezing, often moving that much between 6 am and noon. Our blinds are typically nothing more fancy than four walls and a roof, with windows for shooting out of. This make spending the day out in sub-freezing temps more tolerable. It also allows the deer a chance to move naturally through the habitat, they come to us. This is how we do it here, its the best option available given the habitat and population.
I work hard on the land, and I cherish the time I can spend out on it not working it. I have bird dogs and I put a ton of time navigating my way around the wildest public lands Michigan has to offer when I bird hunt, but I'm not gonna fight the crowds and hunt public land in Michigan during rifle season, not when I can fill my freezer every opening day from my own land.
I'm healthy enough to spot and stalk but with the limited range there's just no point in it. And don't tell me that I have to spend my bow season crawling around like Sitting Bull instead of perched in a tree in my Beechwoods or in a pine overlooking one of my apple trees. None of the great white hunters out there know best what I should do with my land, my time and my money. As Art said, sometime we just don't know enough about the situation to make moral condemnations of perfectly legal activities. We hunt, we should all support hunting as long as the methods are legal and appropriate. Some of us just do it differently.
 
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