ORIGINAL: Talondale
Shed33 has some interesting perspectives and seems to understand that a lot of his opinions are based on the type of hunting that is most effective for his area. For example: His comment about deer drives.
That was cool..........being out west he hasn't experienced drives.......I didn't even think of that. Judging strictly by what I know of shed from reading his posts online for a few years I am inclined to believe he would not be a fan (just a guess). His comments about predators not being inside of fences was something I hadn't considered either.........simply because predators are not an issue where I hunt. Different perspective I guess.
I wonder how many people who profess disdain for fenced hunts have ever hunted in one? This is not an attack.
I would say few.......if any.
I think what gives them that feeling is their perception of what a fenced area is, and what that hunt is like. I think we all have knee-jerk reactions when we think of fenced hunts of an image of a Jimmy Houston type hunt.
Very true..........I am guilty of this as well. When I hear fence I immediately think of deer just standing there with no where to hide and someone just picking out which one they want to shoot. I don't know how large a place has to be for deer to begin to act normal but I am realistic enough to know that being inside 100 acres is no where near the same as being inside 10,000 acres.
I admit if you shrunk the the area fenced, at some point I'd feel it wasn't "fair". I'm not sure what point that is
In reality, very few deer hunts are fair............this is one of those areas where you have to find the sweet spot that YOU are comfortable in.
If elk out west were as thick as fleas on a hound, and as easy to shoot as park deer
There would be no elk left if they were as easy to shoot as park deer
IfI constantly hunted them I'm sure I would tire of the ease with which I am able to bag them. I personally enjoy an easy hunt occassionally, as long as it's the exception rather than the norm. It's like fly-fishing bluegill with poppers, they're fun because they are easy, especially after trying to get a brook trout to rise on a fly. I caught artic greyling inAK just as easily and they were fun because they were new to me and the whole experience of fishing in AK with a bald eagle flying over head and a moose across the creek from me was just awesome.
It's easy to see how an experience that is new to you can overwhelm you and make you not care how easy or difficult it really is. If you are just starting out you don't have anything to compare it to.
A long 200+ yard shot with a scoped rifle has a kind of romantic appeal to me. I may tire of it quickly if I had many opportunities but I can't think of many times I'd have that around here unless it's late season and I'm shooting across a mountain ravine to the other side.
Long shots are as foreign to me as drives are to shed. Most of my gun kills have been in bow range and with a short smooth bore slug gun (grew up on open sights, now have it scoped 4x)..........most of my spots I am lucky if I can SEE 100 yards. My longest gun kill was about 65-70 yards and when I think back on that day the only thing that really comes to mind was how good of a "shot" I made.
I guess it all boils down, for me, to what I enjoy.
No doubt.