txhunter58

There always seem to be some who think that private land hunts, even those that involve no high fences and are fair chase ranches, are not really "hunts" and anyone who lowers themselves to hunt private land should not be thought of as a real hunter.

I guess they think that the private land hunt is too "easy" so it is not really hunting. This kind of hunting "snobbery" has been going on forever, and I suspect that it will continue to occur, but I hope that the vast majority of hunters see through the hypocracy. As stated too many times to count on threads like this in the past, if you use this logic to say that only the kind of hunting YOU do is REALLY hunting, think again unless:

You hunt only in animal skins using homemade clothing/footwear (no synthetic longjohns, no goretex jackets, and certainly no hunting boots!

Hunt with spears, knives, and bow and arrows (longbows only) CERTAINLY NO GUNS ALLOWED: TOO EASY!!!

No binoculars. Gives the hunter an unfair advantage.

Certainly no hunts should EVER be allowed during the rut of any animal. To easy!

Don't every hunt over a water hole or wallow. Then it is not hunting, just waiting.

Be sure and stop all "quality" public land hunts too. Less hunters in the woods and the "stockpiling" of trophy animals in those units makes the hunting too easy too.

And while we are at it, better not leave the house in a truck. Better just have a horse available. Don't want to have the advantage driving 50+ miles to a better hunting area.

Oh, and by the way, if you are driving to your hunting area and a big buck or bull runs across the road in front of you and stops and gives you time to get out, go off the road right of way, and legally take a shot, no, no no. Can't do that. You have to pass on that one and hike at least a mile or more from the truck before it is really "hunting"

There are some forms of hunting that are illegal (night hunting with a spotlight, etc) and there are some forms that we should work to make illlegal (shooting animals in a pen, canned hunts). There are a lot of grey areas that we can disscuss, but to I believe to condem others in that dissussion is wrong. Those that choose to condem others lose my respect and any chance they have of convincing me that they have a valid point.

I don't think they will ever get very far trying to outlaw hunts on private land or making it a law that anyone can hunt all private ranches. Not usless those people would agree to let me come in their home property at any time I choose. Maybe I should be at least able to pitch a tent or park my camper on their property when I go hunting near their home?

I get tired of people claiming that only THEIR form of hunting is really hunting, because of some macho self-determined "standard" that they set for themselves and others. If I want to set a particular standard for myself, and hold to that, so be it, but I do not presume to tell other people that they are not really hunters if they choose to hunt differently. They are not beneath me if I choose to hunt only with a bow, but they hunt with a telescoped rifle. As long as it is illegal, power to them.

When I was a boy, I felt I knew it all, and it was mostly black and white. When I became a man, I realize that there are lots of shades of grey and I don't condem anyone who hunts in a manner that is legal and respects the game he pursues and the land on which it pursures it.