Originally Posted by
oaktree30
Ive been lurking around this site now off and on for almost 3 years. Nice to see some of you keyboard warriors still think that your better than everybody else because of how long you've been a member here, All that shows me is that you spend more time online than you do in the woods Mr Big Bad Hunter...
Anyhow my topic of discussion to day is on Ethics. Every week or so I see people post about baiting, of course this then sparks debate from those who "stalk there prey" Lick the dirt to see if a buck has peed on it this week, those who spend thousands of hours each year hunting there prey. "Hunting over bait isn't fair" they say, "its unethical"
Ok, If I hunt solely for the meat to put in my freezer how is that unethical when all you do is hunt for sport and for the rack? Call it what you want... Its allot more ethical to take game for food, and Im sorry, if me using corn offends you, I work 2 jobs and go back to school as a full time student to put food on my table I do not have the time money or resources to go to some big outfitter or WMA and hunt the way Mr Internet Troll says I should. So go ahead hop up on a stump and tell me how wrong I am for baiting.
I fully understand why you hunt over bait right now. You need the meat and you don't have the time. And as mentioned, baiting helps keep harvest numbers where they need to be. But at some point, perhaps in retirement, you might have the time/money and not need more than 1 deer, at most for your freezer. And then you may do much or all of your hunting without bait.
With respect to hunting only for antlers, every state and province I know of requires that you not waste the meat. So by law, trophy hunters must either use the meat themselves or donate it. Only poachers shoot deer and cut off heads for mounts leaving the rest to rot, and I doubt there are any folks like that on this forum.