atlasman

This time of year usually gets me thinking about this topic because the forum gets riddled with threads of the "dead deer walking" pictures and all the technology and gadgets that go along with them.

My question is where do you draw the line on what you consider "fair chase" hunting?

I don't see the logic in people crying about "fair chase" and preaching the ills of the WHA........or crossbows......or some other flavor of the week topic. To cry about those things.........and then come on here and post 100 pics from your game cam with a time stamp and a pile of corn in the picture and say how pumped you are to go out and use your $5,000 worth of electronics and equipment to sneak into the woods and smoke an arrow through him at 30-40 yards doing 320 fps at 80% letoff is so beyond rediculous it is amazing.

"Fair chase" is a myth.

What about the situation that I described above is "fair"?? The fact that there is no fence?? If there is a 10lb pile of cracked corn in the same spot of the same field corner for weeks on end then you don't need a fence.........the deer will not wander far........and even if they do they will surely come back to nibble day after day. This is evidenced by all the guys posting pics of deer that they have caught on their cameras multiple times.

Why do we continually harp on hunting having to be "fair chase".........and then go out and hypocritically hunt in an absolutely unfair manner??

I just don't understand why so many people get horrified by stories of game farms that turn on the feeders and wait for the deer to come out so they can shoot one. Isn't laying a full bag of corn in the same spot for weeks and then going hunting over it one day just another way of "turning on the feeders"??

We get what we deserve..............we are all in the uncomfortable position of being caught in the middle of the slippery slope. We jumped on voluntarily becasue we want SOME of the perks...........but get upset because we didn't read the fine print.


Game farms, the WHA, canned hunts, charging for antlers by the inch, 400 fps crossbows, 80% letoff, food plots, game cams, WSSM, Laser rangefinders and so on............are all in the same boat. Sure, they have different degrees of severity and significance but how can so many people be so adamant in favor of some of those things.........yet so adamantly against other parts??


The future is already here for those who haven't seen them yet. Video camera surveillance placed in the woods to observe the deer 24/7.


So, let me get this straight..........you can sit at home or at your job and have pics or video sent directly to your computer or cell phone from your spy cameras you set up at your surveillance compound (hunting land) showing you where, when, how many, and which deer are coming to your pre farmed food plot and grab your laser rangefinder, GPS, and high powered binoculars........throw on your 2000 gram Thinsulate water proof boots and state of the art camo.......take your 320 fps 80% letoff compound or your 400 fps crossbow or your high powered WSM rifle with equally high powered scope..........jump on your ATV and ride over to your pre set stand of choice (based on the time stamped deer pics) and wait. When the deer you have been spying on for 2 months 24 hrs a day makes his scheduled appearence anywhere from 40 to 300 yards away (which you used your laser to judge)..........you kill him.


That is "fair chase"???





"Fair chase" went Bye-Bye a LONG time ago fellas. I think we are only kidding ourselves and also doing the whole sport a disservice if this is continually used as a rallying cry. We need to focus on doing things simply because it is the right thing to do. Saying we want it a certain way because it is "fair" is laughable. Think about it........if hunting was really "fair" would anyone even think of bear hunting? That is about as silly as calling shark fishing "fair".


I always cringe when I hear another hunter preaching about "fair chase". Think how silly that must sound to the people who don't know anything about hunting other then seeing an army of guys in orange with big guns going out after what amounts to a giant rabbit with antlers.


I think it's time to realize that ship has sailed and focus our efforts on things still within our control.

Buck_Slayer

I just bought a video that is pretty much trying to sell the Wildlife Eye.
Although I do have a fancy new bow and stuff. I have never once used a trail cam, although I have thought about it many times. I never really looked at it like that, just as a way for me to be able to scout the area without having to drive that far so often. I just have a work schedule that doesn't allow me to get out and scout like I want to.
I don't see this like putting out a pile of food for them to come in and eat at. You cannot control where the deer are going to be, or what they are going to do. Just because you have a trail cam set up to aid you in scouting.
You make some good points, but I don't see how a trail cam is that big of a deal. Sure it is in the woods all day everyday. But I don't know. I just think that is a helpful scouting tool.

Fieldmouse

Life aint fair. Why would you think hunting is any different?

People just use crutches to define why they do what they do. I don't care what they use but I reserve the right to jab people once in awhile about taking the easier way out and hunting with a gun. [8D]

gutshot

Although I do have a compound bow and lazer rangefinder I can promise you that I hunt completely fair chase. I don't know what it is that has gotten you so cranked up but I hunt public land with a portable tree stand for deer that can come and go as they please. Now do I go out with a wolf hide wrapped around my head and a bow made from a tree limb that made myself, no. But I can promise you that the deer that I do kill just happen to walk by the wrong tree at the right time.

Washington Hunter

Wake up this morning and decide you felt like stirring the pot, Atlas?

To say that the days of fair chase are gone is laughable.

Granted, the methods we use to kill the animals we hunt have evolved over the centuries, it isn't as if the deer we take each fall are tied to a tree 20 yards from our stands.

While I don't agree with the baiting method, it isn't one that garauntees you an animal. Again, the animals aren't tied up and waiting to be shot. When it comes to fair chase and bating, you better rule out hunting over food plots, farm crops, acorn trees, apple trees, andanything else that deer might go to to feed onevery day.

Archery is still the most fair chase method of hunting available, and to say that fair chase is no longer a concept that should be preached and practiced is more of a disservice to the hunting community than you think.

Davoh

Hunting with a gun, for me pretty much guarantees food on the table.

Feeders are the same way.

I only get to hunt a sad few days out of the year(this year a full week, more than I've hunted in one year since 1997), but my family depends on the meat I provide... therefore I make every "fair" attempt to provide that meat for my family.(I hunt for my wife and I, but also for my brother, his wife and 3 kids, and my sister and her husband and going on 4 kids). Yes we can afford beef fromKrogers, but that money comes from somewhere and effects something else formus down the line.

Does that mean that on the 4th day if I havn't killed a deer yet I wont pick up my .308? absolutely...

Does that mean I walk into a cage and kill an animal with ZERO chance to escape? Absolutely not.

Personally, I think that ethics are not a "slippery slope" but rather like you said a firm difference between right and wrong.

I dont understand you point, are you b!@#ing about the all the b!@#ing ? Or arguing in favor of High-fence? Or are you saying that all those things, that may or may not give an unskilled hunter a teensy little more of an edge on their quarry, are ruining hunting as you see it? Atlas, I really don't get it... I think you're just here to gripe and see how PO'd you can get people. I don't know you from Adam, but you really know how to use alot of words to say basically nothing.

BowHntrRick

Hunting deer over bait piles is illegal in PA. I just planted a small food plot, but there is nothing to force the deer to visit during daylight: they are free to feed at my food plot after dark and there is nothing I can do about it.

I don't have a game camera or laser range-finder or much of the other stuff you mentioned. I don't use carbon clothing because it is too expensive to buy for three years use.

My bow and aluminum arrows are rather slow, but I have no problem with a faster bow or a crossbow: I place a high priority on a quick, clean kill.

There is a world of difference between the rig I described above and a plot of ground with a fence to keep the deer in. My brother-in-law brought back pictures of a boar hunt at some hunting preserve: you could see the fence in the background. This is not hunting, it is just killing.

There are ethical questions about hunting and we should be asking them.

turtleshell

Rob/PA Bowyer

When you lumb every ingredient in your thread Atlas, "fair chase" certainly is a coined phrase at that point. I don't use all the above but I do certainly use several tactics. The deer I hunt can be miles and miles away regardless of the equipment (bow) I choose to take to the woods. They free wonder and could be miles away regardless that I have caught them on game camera from time to time. They could wonder and be miles away regardless that I have a food plot beside the other 1000 acres of corn and soybean and acorns. They could wonder and be miles away regardless the fact that I have a rangefinder around my neck more to make a clean harvest and not wound an animal, to reassure my yardage estimations.....

What is "fair chase"...hell, I don't even know, I'd imagine that is a coined phrase by someone in the industry and it caught on to disconnect fences from your hunting style....

If it's outside a fence it's "fair chase"...or is it...I guess that depends on the eye of the beholder....I'd imagine there is a traditionalist out there that makes thier own bow, string, arrows, feathers, broadheads, camo, scouts, etc...and only takes an animal from 10 yards and in...that person I'd bet Atlas would call your hunting unfair chase....the line in the sand is a blurry one...I can't even see it, sometimes I think I've found the line and I lose it...it's blurry.

GregH

Fair chase is pretty much spelled out in our game laws. I may not use all of the methods of fair chase because of my personal preferences, but I don't say anything or gripe about those that do. If it's legal, its fair. Nobody should be chastized for doing something that is legal.