Your ethics?
 

Of your personal hunting ethics, which do you consider to be your most important...an ethic that you never ever even think about compromising on.

It is hard to explain but as an example, I would say that my biggest "ethic" that guides me in all of my hunting adventures is not losing downed or wounded game. If I shoot a deer I really go over the top to find it. My friends will always call for help and advice with their deer and I never say no. Even if I have to cancel something to help out, I do it. I just can't stand the thought of a deer wasted, lost to the coyotes or worse, dead someplace that non-hunters can find it.

I just wanted to hear what "internal standards" guide other hunters.

Greg

RE: Your ethics?
 

1. You shoot it you eat it, no exceptions.
2. If it is not sure shot, don't take it.
3. You shoot it, find it, tag it.

There is no grey area for this items. . . .

RE: Your ethics?
 

i would have to say for me it is respect the animal you are hunting be it doe or trophy buck they are living animals. if you respect them you will take the time to practice with your weapon of choice (hoyt viper for me)you will also take the time to scout for the best ambush position you will pick your shot well and then you will do what ever it takes to claim your trophy. personaly thats my most important hunting ethic "RESPECT".



SIZE MATTERS LET'EM GO ANOTHER YEAR
HOYT USA
QDM

RE: Your ethics?
 

I don't eat every deer that I shoot. But I have a friend that doesn't get to hunt much that loves venison. He gets a couple of deer from me every year. I call this payment for letting me hunt on his ground occasionally. He returns the favor with fresh fish in the spring and summer for my family. Ethics, I play by the book and do what I feel is right...taking injured deer out of the herd, planting food plots, not shooting plots. I do what I can to help out the herd. They feed me, I feed them.

RE: Your ethics?
 

I would have to say Respect of the whole hunt! From the great respect I have for the whitetail by giving it a fair chance to the respect I give the woods I hunt. Putting my time in practicing, scouting and thinking of the end result of a shot I take before I take it! Knowing my limitations. I truly belive the you get what you put into it! I have personaly expierenced it this past five years! I put more and more time in and it pays off. I enjoy doing it!:)

RE: Your ethics?
 

Making a high percentage shot only,never waste anything you kill. If you kill it you eat it.

RE: Your ethics?
 

Not taking stupid shots.[:@][:@]

Clean, quick kill.

RE: Your ethics?
 

I would say the biggest for me is not taking a shot your sure you can make. There is really no excuse for it these days with rangefinders and newer sights. You can even pace distances off when you set your stand if you don't have a range finder. I hate hearing people say, "I think I hit him?" or "I think it was a good shot?". That drives me crazy. Sure everyone will miss at one time or another, but some just fling arrows at anything and hope they hit it. And if you had proper form you would see exactly where the arrow hit the deer any way.

Another pet peeve would be those that are not qualified to even be in woods with a weapon. You hear how they missed or wounded one or something. Then you get the opertunity to see them shoot and they are horrible. No where near good enough to be shooting at live game from a tree stand. They shoot a week before season and expect to hit everything they shoot at. I sort of understand with a bow, but with a gun, c'mon, it's a freakin rifle. If you miss it was your fault pure and simple. You either pulled the shot, shot at something that was too far away, or need to practice more.

Gun season is the same way. I sit in my blind during the first week of gun season and I hear a shot, then five more a few seconds later one right after onother. There is nothing in my area that requires six shots in 10 seconds from a shotgun to kill it. I think you should be limited to two shots at the most. One to shoot at the animal and another in the off chance you need a quick follow up shot to finnish it off. I use a inline ML for gun season though. If I can't get it done with one shot I'm done pretty much.

Another one would be people that hunt much later than they should. They come walking out of the woods saying they could still see well enough to count points if they had to. And it's dark out, not twilight, but freakin dark out. Bull crap. Your just asking to miss or shoot the wrong thing when your doing this. The hunting time are outlined very well for you, you should know enough to follow them.

Paul

RE: Your ethics?
 

Mine would be the importance of taking ONLY a shot that I KNOW I can make. I will never compromise a shot angle or try to extend my range while hunting. These are games you play on the 3D range NOT in the field on flesh and blood! It amazes me how many people have good ethics but then they seem to fly out the door when the "rack" becomes big enough??? [&:]

RE: Your ethics?
 

I've just started going after whitetail with a bow this year - beginning of November to be exact. In my few ventures I have actually already had a run in with a decent 8 pointer with about an 18inch inside spread. Anyway, ethics? I drew bow waiting for it to get close enough. At 35 yards it spots the movement of my bow following its. He stops and we look dead at eachother for a whole 10 seconds as he confirms that I'm not just a part of the tree. I could've let the arrow fly but the shot wasn't perfectly clear of small branches. Even if I could squeeze the arrow through the branches, 35 yards is out of my bow's range in that predicament. I watch, heart pounding and all as it turns and heads back from where it came.

Had I hit him, it would've probably been in a less than ideal spot and more than likely been a loss and waste of a bigish buck.

RE: Your ethics?
 

i think the main thing i have concentrated on most of all both gun and bow this year is if the shot is questionable dont shoot. i had to let 2 deer go by with my bow this year[the only two i had a shot at] and one go by with a gun. bottom line is, if i shoot, i better be coming out with something.

RE: Your ethics?
 

Mine,


1) Respect the land...Clean up after yourself. Leave no traces of being there. I don't dirty up their house as I wouldn't want someone doing it to mine.

2) Respect the animals you hunt...By practicing your shooting skills, being selective in your shots and spending every effort to find any and all animals you have shot.

RE: Your ethics?
 

Above all else I hold the rules of FAIR CHAES on the top of my pedestal. I respect the animals I hunt to the highest depree, without them I can hunt nothing.

A close second is respect for the woods and the property of others. Hunting lands are diminishing in my area and IMO alot of that has to do with "sportsman" showing a complete lack of respect for the land owner and his land. I am constantly picking up trash that I come across and making efforts to reach out to land owners who are kind enough to allow hunting on their lands.

There are also many other rules I follow but these are my two biggest.

RE: Your ethics?
 

This is hard to pick one but I would say that maybe my ethics on taking a high percentage shot. I am a fanatic about many things that many of my bows hunting friends do not worry about. But if I had to pick one it might be taking only the best shot.

Last year my son and I were sitting on the ground in a little clump of pine trees. We had a decent 120 or so class buck appear walking right at us. He stopped 15 yards in front of us and proceeded to work on a scrape. He stood in front of us for a minute or two working the overhead branch, pawing the ground, working the branch, and then the next time he bent over to paw the ground he was looking right at us and new something was wrong. He jumped over a log and looked back for a second before he took off and was gone for good. My then 10 yr old son asked why I didn't shoot him and I told him the straight on shot with a bow is not a high percentage shot. I was hoping he would turn broadside while working on the scrape but he never did. My son then asked if I would have took that shot if he would have been a real huge buck. I told him that the size of the deer does not matter when it comes to taking the right shot and no I still would not have shot. We did not get the deer but it was a great learning experience for my son and it was also awesome for him to get to see a deer making a scrape so close to us! I also will not shoot a deer straight down below me from a tree stand. I know the shot works OK for some people but I also know that a deer hit in only 1 lung can live for a long time and it's not for me.

Following all legal laws is not enough ethics for me. There is no law against shooting too far, or not practicing, or shooting a dull broadhead, etc…. We need to police ourselves and decide our own limits because we owe it to the animals we hunt to make every effort to make a quick humane kill.

RE: Your ethics?
 

All good posts and I have to say, I like how you guys think. I never thought about giving back to the deer by planting food for them that I will never hunt over. I like that. I am going to think about that as maybe adding a new dimention to my hunting fabric. Humm....

Greg

RE: Your ethics?
 

Very good post here so far! I guess there are many thing i concider very important ethics a few are Things like following all game laws that implie in your state, also "hunt bye the rule of fair chase" To love and respect the land you hunt no matter who`s land it is? To give respect to all hunters that follow all game laws and "reqiure the same from others? Try to set a good example to younger hunters that are to be following our foot steps. Its these thing we teach them now that will have the biggest affect on the future of hunting tomorrow!

RE: Your ethics?
 

When in doubt, don't shoot. There is no excuse for taking bad shots and wounding game.

RE: Your ethics?
 

I don't take a shot because I think I can hit a deer.

I only take shots that when I'm pulling the trigger I KNOW THAT DEER IS DEAD AND IT'S SO EASY I FEEL LIKE I'M CHEATING.

But I hate chasing wounded deer, blood trailing, and eating nasty gamey adrenaline filled meat too.

Only thing worse is doing it for someone else because they "thought" they could hit it.

RE: Your ethics?
 

My thing is if I hit it, I better find it or have completely exhausted every effort to do so.

RE: Your ethics?
 

Mine is the choice of potatos or noodles with my Venision meal.

RE: Your ethics?
 

to conduct myself in a way that does not give hunting a negatvie connotation or denotation. i think that that ethic in itself ensures things like clean kills, respect for animals and other hunters, and to eat what i kill............it goes beyond hunting, good grades, friendly to people, being open minded, becuase that way it can allow people who do not hunt to see it is more than a weapon, a slab of meat, and a rack on the wall and it does not associate hunting with bad traits.

RE: Your ethics?
 

As I sat here reading these replies , which alot of them are rules I live by , it dawned on me that the easiest way to describe my hunting ethics is to say that I lead by example. I try to portray myself in a way that would make a non-hunter feel good about what I do and I try to pass those ethics on to as many as I possibly can.

RE: Your ethics?
 

I live by this


Tim

RE: Your ethics?
 

What everyone else said rolled in to 1.