In reading some of the other threads here lately, it has occurred to me that a lots of us, me included, sometimes fail to see the difference between a hunter and a poacher! This is a sad fact because most non-hunters and anti' s in particular do not see a difference in a poacher and a hunter either. The anti' s don' t care! To them we are all seen as one anyway, and they do not care that there is a difference. The non-hunters need to know the difference between hunting and poaching, because they can be swayed to our side or to the anti' s side!
As I said originally, we " hunters" do not seem to see the difference either!
That is really sad, for one reason or another, we don' t realize that what we don' t like about someone else may not be the style of hunting that they choose, but the underlying fact that they are actually breaking the law! We as hunters need to be supportive of legal methods of hunting, and we need to distance ourselves from law breakers! POACHERS!
They may be friends, they may even be family, but what they are doing is not only illegal, it gives hunting and hunters a bad name!
You know the type, the drivers that cross onto others property, the dog hunter that drops his dogs off on one side of your property and goes around to the otherside, even the still hunter that " still hunts" over your four foot fence. The guy that takes an extra deer because there are so many unfilled tags and it won' t hurt the deer population!
I have even heard of a guy that is planning to hunt a shotgun only area with a bull-barreled rifle! He thinks the large barrel will be seen as a shotgun! I hope he thinks the wardens are that stupid!
Well, I could go on and on, but you get the point! These people are breaking the law and are POACHERS! What they are doing is just as bad as the spotlighters, they are thieves! What they are doing is stealing our freedoms and our right to legally hunt!
It is time we see them for what they are and what they are doing to the sport of hunting. We need to quit making excuses for them, and we need to especially quit overlooking them! As I said, we have overlooked them to the point that we make excuses for them, or even just look at them as bad hunters!
Some rookie hunters may be " bad hunters," these people are law breakers, they are poachers and not " hunters! Anyway, I didn' t mean to vent so much! It' s just that, putting any personal ethics aside, there is a distinct difference between legal hunting and poaching!