I live in a state where it is illegal to bait (food baiting) any wildlife. I elk hunt only for the most part. I will use scent killer and urine scents. I have yet to figure out if it make any difference or not but I can tell you that in the mountains the wind is forever changing and swirls a lot. I also will take advantage of technology such as studying an area using Google Earth and use a GPS to get into areas that I want to get to. My feelings are after I plan my hunt all year, spend hours and hours preparing, and spend a lot of money, I want to increase my chances of filling my tag while staying completely legal. If I'm not successful, I will still have had a great time trying.
All of that said, it's still hunting and not killing. I haven't been hunting elk for very long but the majority of my trips were unsuccessful; I only killed one elk. I'm still putting in 6 -12 round trip miles a day on foot. If I get an animal, it coming out on my back, not a 4 wheeler. I hunt and do the things I do while hunting for myself, not anyone else. I can still have a great time hunting without killing anything too and at the end of the season I can say I gave it my best.
People need to do what they are comfortable with. I stay within the laws of CO. and can care less what others think about me using scents and such.
I don't put much focus on the TV hunting shows. There are a lot of different levels of ethics across the board from show to show. Success on some shows is a kill and success on others is a great hunt. It's obvious when someone gets off a plane and goes shoot an animal on private property that someone has been tracking for the last week to get the kill and make the show and make the host outfitter look good. Those aren't the ones I enjoy watching. I'd much rather watch the shows where they have been out for 5, 6, or 7 days hunting all day and close the deal at dark on the last day or don't even close the deal at all because that is how it goes for most of us in the real world and I appreciate what they went through because I have experienced the same.
MJR10, I'm not criticizing you for your opinion, you are certainly entilted to it. I just wanted to share my view point on how I hunt and the tactics I use.