What is hunting to you ?

[Short Track]

I've been thinking about the various types of hunts.

TX is all over feeders & high fenced.
CO & NM, water tanks are OK. No Bait
Ohio baiting is ok on private land. You can hunt over corn.
NY is no bait. Not sure about water tanks. But food plots are ok.
Long Range is its own debate. I have personally done 500 yards.
On my own property, I have patterned deer extensively and know exactly when they will be crossing.
My buddy hunts over his apple tree. Then he saves some apples and drops them later in the season.
I have seen salt licks dropped in TX for aoudad.
and mostly. alot of spot and stalk.

I haven't figured it out yet. But I'm still thinking about what I'm personally OK with.

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

Fair Chase. No baiting, no high fences. For me nothing over 500 yards, no electronic scopes and no game cameras used for hunting.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

I would say, if you’re solely focused on the kill and not enjoying the overall process of hunting, it’s time to rethink why you’re doing it.

After 30+ days of hunting away from family it’s much harder to keep that in perspective. Like me last week when it was a cold and windy morning and I’m sitting on a canyon rim, and I’ve passed on over 100 bucks in 7 days and finally decide to just shoot a dink to be done haha.

I love being in the mountains and hunting is an extra excuse to backpack and be in the mountains with the added bonus of good clean meat at the end hopefully. In saying that, some of my most memorable and fun hunts didn’t necessarily come with a kill at the end. Just good lessons learned and a damn good time.

 

[taskswap]

Not to offend the folks that do bait, but to me, baiting somehow always feels more like "farming" than "hunting". I mean, there's plenty of room for farming and meat is meat. But personally, when I hunt it's the "to search determinedly" definition. It's not an ethical thing, it's just what I'm out there for.

 

[Short Track]

About 5 times this season, I passed on some doe. I had them in my scope for minutes. Just never pulled the trigger. That was as satisfying as taking a deer. Much easier actually. Maybe my views have changed since my freezer is already full. If my freezer was empty, I'd probably think differently.

 

[Roofer1]

I've got some property in an area of WI with pretty nice deer. Could fairly easily shoot a pretty nice buck or a pickup truck full of does every year. Have come to the conclusion that I prefer planting food plots in spring/fall and cutting wood in the winter more than shooting the deer. At this point, prefer ANYTHING in Alaska or hunting non-guided in the mountains out west. Not even close

 

[MuleyFever]

I would say, if you’re solely focused on the kill and not enjoying the overall process of hunting, it’s time to rethink why you’re doing it.

After 30+ days of hunting away from family it’s much harder to keep that in perspective. Like me last week when it was a cold and windy morning and I’m sitting on a canyon rim, and I’ve passed on over 100 bucks in 7 days and finally decide to just shoot a dink to be done haha.

I love being in the mountains and hunting is an extra excuse to backpack and be in the mountains with the added bonus of good clean meat at the end hopefully. In saying that, some of my most memorable and fun hunts didn’t necessarily come with a kill at the end. Just good lessons learned and a damn good time.

I enjoy experiencing nature, exploring and figuring out how to get close to animals. I often have to talk myself into shooting an animal once I have gotten into range. Its the least enjoyable aspect of hunting for me. Sure, making a great shot is fun and rewarding but once I pull the trigger I know Im going to experience mixed feelings on what I just did. Its a balance between my love for wildlife and my desire to source the meat. To answer the question I would say for me hunting is overcoming the challenge and that includes getting out there hunting free range animals, killing an animal, suffering through the pack out and processing that animal into food.