Hunting Over Feeders
 

How many people saw this thread coming?:D

First I would like to publicly apologize to Kelly/KY for the negative comments on his thread, I should have just started a new one instead. I PM'd him but I felt you all should hear it too.


Now to the question at hand, I'd like to open this up for discussion. What do you all think about hunting over a feeder?

My take is this, I see no challenge in it at all and (to me) takes all "fair chase" right out of he hunt. I understand it's legal in some states but in some it's not and getting caught doing it can bring severe penalties.

This alone is proof enough thathunting over feeders is a touchy subject. I for one just can't see any valid reason to hunt over one. There was athread that quicksilver started where a boy shot a buck feeding under a feeder and everyone thought it was disgusting, unethical, immoral,etc...

Yet a lot of hunters on this very site hunt the same exact way! I see no difference, that's how deer react when they are used to being fed. Granted the video in quick's thread shows a feeder that I'm sure was located very close to people because that deer didn't even seem bothered at all that there were people standing close by.Most feeders (Iassume)are put out deep into the woods and the presence of humans would probably scare the deer away.

But itdoesn't change the fact that deer will go out of their way to travel to the feeder because it's a reliable food source and until they are shot at, it's presumed to be a safe and reliable food source.

I just don't see the challenge in it, why even bow hunt in the first place?

What's your take?

RE: Hunting Over Feeders
 

I don't hunt over a feeder, however I do hunt over a small sometimes non existent bait pile(which is legal in my state). I do see both ends of the argument, but on property like where I hunt, I would be hard pressed to even see a deer let a lone harvest one, without some kind of bait. Like I said I don't hunt over a full fledged feeder(which I don't disagree with), but sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do, sort of speak. BigJ(no disrespect) but you might have a great deer population where you hunt along with good bedding areas and funnels, not all of us are privy to these kind of honey holes, especially on public land, that around here is over hunted. So to sum up this long useless post, I don'tdisagree withit, but I can see how sometimes it's easy for people too.;)

RE: Hunting Over Feeders
 

Fair enough Michigan hunter14.....I agree it will definitely make it easier to kill a deer. How do you think an outsider (non hunter) will view it?

RE: Hunting Over Feeders
 

The same way as they view that fenced in cows are born and bread(and sometimes hand fed) to make burgers. Some antis are just un believable[:'(]

RE: Hunting Over Feeders
 

I wasn't talking about anti-hunters I was talking about NON-hunters......

I know what an anti-hunter will think, do you think a non hunter will look at it as "fair chase"?

RE: Hunting Over Feeders
 

And further more, I really don't care about antis, we do what we do to feed our families and because we enjoy the sport. We(hunters) do this ethically(well most of us[>:]) and do it with the up most respect to the animals. Thats like us(hunters) saying we don't agree with bug zappers, which I'm sure most antis have, because it kills innocent creatures, even though if we didn't have bug zappers the bugs would over run us. All the antis do is look for a reason to be different and stand for something. And most of the time they don't research what they stand behind, and they stand behind the wrong things:eek:

RE: Hunting Over Feeders
 

Sorry, I think the NON hunters should not have a say in anything until they give up 6 months of there year to this sport, only to be unsuccessfully. I don't judge golfers that pay thousands for lessons and then write down the "wrong score" with their buddy's because they're not happy with the outcome of all their labors.

RE: Hunting Over Feeders
 

Your analogy is a stretch Michigan but I think I understand what you are saying....I think.

I only asked the question because as a hunter sometimes we get caught up in "bagging our deer" that we will sometimes do things that if we weren't so "caught up in it" we wouldn't normally do or look upon as fair.

I suspect this is one of those situations, I suppose for some it's so important to get a kill that they are willing to skew the odds in their favor, I have been pretty consistent with this way of thinking, I'm not willing to do that, legal or not.

RE: Hunting Over Feeders
 

Well thats just agree to dis agree:D;). Sorry about the far fetched analogy, its late and my mind isn't working so good at this time. But for what its worth, its not about the "kill" for me, I have been hunting since I was 15 and I'm now 22 and I have only harvested one deer. For me its about just being in the moment, whether I harvest a deer or not, there has been plenty of times I have passed on kills, and rather just watched and observed mother nature at work. But then again I am young, and have a lot of learning to do I suppose.

RE: Hunting Over Feeders
 

I would have to agree with you BigJ kind of takes the sport out of it. But to each his own right?