Eastman's takes a stance on long range hunting as well

[Tony Trietch]

If we keep breaking out in all of these subcategories of hunting, it makes us weaker as a hunting community. Who cares how someone hunts as long as they are hunting and doing it ethically.

Indeed.
I hate seeing threads that look as thou they were started by the antis. I realize it wasn't and it is because of the Eastmans article. We all have our passion about how we hunt and each of us might be a bit different.
What we do have in common is the fact WE ALL HUNT. We keep fighting and pointing fingers at each other and peta and hsus will get what they want.

 

[Jager]

When I first started hunting, I simply took my rifle or bow for long walks in the woods. With time and experience, I learned more effective ways of hunting that increased my odds of getting a clean shot on an animal (while a hunt can be defined as successful without a kill, we would be kidding ourselves if we say killing is not the intended outcome.) I gradually adopted a blend of still hunting into an area where I could take a stand on the ground and watch an area, thereby letting the animal come into the kill zone. I've killed a lot of deer and bears under 50 yards using this method. When I started taking my daughter (who was 4 at the time) with me deer hunting, I found stands where I could walk with her undetected and watch an area 200-300 yards away, so she could fidget and ask questions, while still getting to see animals. I killed a few more animals like that. Now I've extended that distance to stands where I can shoot at the distances people are bitching about and calling it "not hunting".

The funny thing is, I'm hunting exactly the same way, but I've placed a bigger burden on myself to kill the animal once I spot it. Killing at those shorter distances is easier...much easier!

I would admit that I have seen more animals since I've taken up the long range rifle, simply because I set up in areas where I can see more, but it certainly hasn't increased my kill ratio! The difference between shooting an animal at 50-100 yards and taking the shot at 600-1200 is so profound, it would take an article to explain why and how. Killing up close is easy, killing at distance is the challenge...not the other way around.

All the gadgets and technology in the world won't replace experience, persistence, and skill. I don't watch any of these TV shows that keep getting mentioned, but I'm starting to get the impression they are selling long range hunting as simply buy this rifle, drive up, put down your sammich, and kill that elk a mile away. There are members on this forum who have hunted with us who can set that straight.

As far as jumping up, yelling, and doing jumping jacks, who the hell would do that? I've stopped animals with my voice at 800 yards and watched elk watch me at 1200 yards.

Sam's first paragraph says it all, 'with experience and time'.

If you are out in the field, and pursuing game by a legal means, it is hunting, pure and simple, regardless of method, why do people have to whinge and moan.

Sitting behind a computer screen and criticising others legal methods, most definitely isn't hunting.

 

[jmez]

Not talking about trophy hunting, the premise of the thread has been hunting, vs shooting or killing. Simply killing a deer, even on public land, in the midwest is easy. It is simple. Whitetail fawns and yearlings are rock salt dumb. You don't need luck to kill one. You can drive up to public land and in many instances you could shoot one walking around trying to find a place to hunt.

Statistics don't even come close to being an accurate reflection of the difficulty involved. How many bowhunters do you know that buy a tag and then never go out hunting? I know several. Same every year, they get all excited, shoot their bow six times, buy their tag and never make it out. How many bowhunters are targeting mature deer or bucks only? You think the success rates would rise dramatically if you were required to shoot the first deer that you had come into bow range? I've been out deer hunting twice so far, if that were the case my season would have lasted about 15 minutes. How many in the Game and Fish numbers didn't shoot a deer because they chose not to shoot one?

Not all hunting is hard. Not all hunting requires skill. Bowhunters like to claim some sort of superiority because we get close or have to get close. Sometimes getting close isn't all that hard.

 

[dotman]

IMO we all buy a tag to harvest an animal, that tag is either for rifle, archery or muzzleloader seasons. As long as you are taking the most ethical means within your ability then why worry about others. I think the term Longrange is what gets most which I feel is short sighted. If you have the ability to cleanly kill then I have zero problem if it is with a rifle at 1000 yards, bow at 100 yards or muzzleloader at 300 yards.

If you do not have this ability but still try then you are a jackoff in my book. Practice with whatever the tool is and be effective. Just because another is more effective or puts more time/practice into a weapon then some doesn't mean they should have to abide by what the others capabilities are. To me a guy that doesn't peactice shooting his rifle to 500 yards and wounds an animal is no different then a guy with a bow that doesn't practice to 40 yards and wounds animals.

The ethical issue is that you stay within your own limits and don't worry about what others capabilities are, we are all hunters and there is no gimme to this passion. But if we don't stick together we may someday only have our memories and a camera.

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

If getting close were not harder then bow hunters would have no disadvantage and have the same seasons as general firearms but archery hunting is given longer first seasons because of that disadvantage.

 

[Slim Jim]

Just get out and hunt

 

[mallacootasmoothie]

Everyone should watch this video before posting any further in this thread. And if you've aleady seen it, watch it again.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=d3k-rMm5mnA

 

[bigeasygator]

Simply killing a deer, even on public land, in the midwest is easy.

For some...but not as easy as I've found it to kill deer and elk out West.

 

[Sam Millard]

For some...but not as easy as I've found it to kill deer and elk out West.

Colorado isn't out west...it's barely out of the middle!

Seriously though, our perception of things is formed through our experiences. I think if you came to north Idaho and looked at the canyon I'm hunting in now, you would better understand my position. For every blade of grass in CO, north Idaho has a tree

 

[bigeasygator]

I know what you mean Sam. I've hunted elk in the Lochsa river drainage. Never been in thicker cover in my life. I can see how you either have a 50 yard shot or an 800 yard shot. The elk weren't talking and I only saw three during a week worth of hunting. It reminded me a lot of hunting whitetails where I grew up haha

 

[dotman]

Colorado isn't out west...it's barely out of the middle!

Seriously though, our perception of things is formed through our experiences. I think if you came to north Idaho and looked at the canyon I'm hunting in now, you would better understand my position. For every blade of grass in CO, north Idaho has a tree

Yeah I have hunted that hell hole jungle called the panhandle, sucks getting within 40 yards of a pissed off bull and all you can see are tines with nothing but a 5 yard shooting lane but man is it fun when they come running into your lap.

 

[mtnclimber]

Seriously though, our perception of things is formed through our experiences. I think if you came to north Idaho and looked at the canyon I'm hunting in now, you would better understand my position. For every blade of grass in CO, north Idaho has a tree

Very similar to where i hunt black bears in south-central AK. Either 600-800 yards or 50 yards. But its nearly impossible to get to that 50 yards before they're gone.

 

[CasNed]

Everyone should watch this video before posting any further in this thread. And if you've aleady seen it, watch it again.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=d3k-rMm5mnA

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Come on guys.....

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

Everyone should watch this video before posting any further in this thread. And if you've aleady seen it, watch it again.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=d3k-rMm5mnA

Great video! I've seen it before and it was good to watch again. I'll go to bat for the long range guys if it comes down to it but I stand by that limits need to be drawn. An example is poison tipped arrows, most of us would consider them wrong and so they have in turn been made illegal almost everywhere. There are various arguments for both sides but a line was drawn. Another example is mechanical broad heads, Alaska went back and forth on them and still may be I'm not sure. Technology advances and methods change but we can join together as a community and choose the future of hunting for ourselves by being realistic about where lines should be drawn by having healthy discussions about new things or we can get defensive over whatever new thing is up in the forefront and divide ranks and then have no real voice and the antis can decide for us. Make no mistake about it, if influential groups like B&C and Eastman's are posturing like this, conservation agencies will start following with regulations. I am not for regulating LRH but it surely will be if they are feeling public pressure. We can start attempting to form a unified definition of where to draw the line and make preemptive cases to our conservation agencies or at very least have a response WHEN it does come up, if not we're just letting the cards fall where they may and hoping for the best.

 

[Justin Crossley]

I have some questions for all the hunters here who feel "long range hunting" is not fair chase, due to the hunter not being in the "animal's bubble" and thus, disarming it's senses.

Do you hunt with your bow during the rut? Does this not severely dull a buck or bull's sense of fear?

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

For whitetail here the rut is always peaking during firearms season but in answer to your question I still take my bow most of the time during the rut and while their instincts may change it is still hunting deer using knowledge of how they behave at different times of year.

 

[jmez]

So for LRH, how would limits be set? Are you going to limit the equipment and if so, how? It really isn't something you could enforce either.

 

[realunlucky]

So for LRH, how would limits be set? Are you going to limit the equipment and if so, how? It really isn't something you could enforce either.

Archery has equipment limits, muzzle loaders have equipment limits in most states. So yes it could be implemented and enforced like everything else. What those limited equipment would be it guess. Bullet weight, rifle weight, optics restriction. I'm not saying I'm for it but it could be done

 

[Sam Millard]

So for LRH, how would limits be set? Are you going to limit the equipment and if so, how? It really isn't something you could enforce either.

Idaho has a 16 pound gun limit that stemmed directly from guys shooting elk at distances further than we shoot now, with 50BMGs. I believe that all happened in the 80s. Enforceable? Never see game wardens, let alone ones with certified scales.

This whole thing reminds me of gun control.

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

It is very possible to set equipment limits but game wardens are few and far between so as in most hunting scenarios we would be bound by honor by laws set.