RE: The subjective nature of what is considered "hunting" vs "shooting"
Some interesting answers in here.I didnt read the last few pages though.
About two years ago I did some work for a guy on his house and had an interesting hunting area fall into my lap.His brother owned it, they dont deer hunt, just pheasant hunt it.Its a couple hundred acres probably and designed to hold pheasants, theyve got food plots, its all CPR ground for the most part, but its bordered on three sides by obstacles, theres a lake on the south side, a deep creek to the west and a highway to the north.Along the creek theres heavy willow thickets and cattails that the deer use as a bedding area.They only really have one direction to come out without swimming or dodging traffic.Its recieved no deer hunting pressure in years.Hanging a stand is a no brainer, theres one main trail running from the bedding area to the food plots and from the food plot over to the nieghboring property.At one point it forms a funnel about 30 yards across where the lake and creek parallel each other, they almost have to pass through it to get out.
It took me all of about 15 minutes to figure all this out, another 15 minutes to hang a stand and I have one of the best hunting set ups Ive ever run across.Since there was very little effort in finding the place, scouting it, hanging the stand, and its got features that limit the deers movement much like a fence, along with a foodplot I had nothing to do with should I feel guilty shooting a deer in there?Am I really hunting?Are the beavers in the creek likely to eat the tree my stands in?These are all questions that keep me up nights.