Originally Posted by
Jim Burns
Like I said, you obviously never done it. Bears and lions dont always tree, the odds of getting a tree is about like getting a deer on a still hunt. A bear can run 15+ miles over rough terrain, threw creeks and they will stand there ground and fight the hounds. It is amuseing to me how people that have never done it speculate how easy it is and that bears always tree. That is kinda like saying fly fishing is easy, it looks easy but untill you try it you really dont know what you are talking about. In the last 5 years I would say I have treed way over 100 bear and have only shot one, not everyone that runs hounds do it to kill the animal. I do it to enjoy running the dogs and get some really cool photos in the prosess. Like I stated above, it takes less of a hunter to shoot a animal over a food plott, bait or behind a high fence than it does to run hounds.
You're confusing
hard work with
predatory hunting. It would take lot of
hard work for me to dig a 4'x6'x8'-deep hole, cover it with sticks and leaves, and bait it with corn to catch a deer, but it wouldn't make me
a better hunter. So your dogs can chase a bear 15+ miles? What does that have to do with hunting? You may enjoy it, it may be part of your heritage, but I know you aren't walking the 15 miles, and even if you were, you wouldn't be a better
hunter for it.
As the OP and a Virginia resident, you should know that it is illegal to bait here. And whether or not it is legal, illegal, or just plain too easy to hunt over a food plot, that really isn't relevant here, is it? Why not? The point of the discussion isn't the ease of a hunt or lack thereof, the point is the
intrusivenes of your hunting method. I don't hunt over food plots. As stated, I pretty much only hunt public land. But even if I did hunt food plots, at least my actions wouldn't be invasive. At least my actions wouldn't force others to give up their hunting tactics and adapt to mine. That is what dog hunting does, and i've not heard a single shred of evidence that it doesn't. The only thing I hear is "justification." B.S.
If you want to do it on private property, fine. Keep the dogs on
your property. If ya can't,
then you shouldn't do it. And while it is legal to deer hunt with dogs on most public land in VA, only an ignorant fool buys the, "It's public land, I have as much right to it as you,' B.S. Yes, it's public land. Yes, you have a right to it, just as much as everyone else. But do you see everyone else taking up the whole frickin' woods with their tactics (same goes to the hooting and holler man drivers)? No, you don't. When a still hunter encounters a stand hunter, he is respectful and tries as best he can to turn back or salvage the stand hunter's hunt. You dog hunters don't. You force your way of hunting on everyone else, leave your dogs behind, let them trespass, and you don't give a crap.
With regard to Sunday hunting, it's just more proof that dog hunters
at large are self-absorbed. No offense to Ohboy -- because he genuinely seems like a nice guy with his head on strait. But the dog hunting lobby is the absolute only thing standing in the way of Sunday hunting, under the
guise of giving the animals a day of rest. B.S. And everyone knows it.
As for your statement that you would shoot a man who shot one of his dogs trespassing on his property, it's a simple deduction that you are a old, ragged piece of crap. So screw off. No-one is talking about hunting bear anyways, so why don't you post your crap where it's actually relevant.