tatonka

I respectfully disagree with anyone who uses walkie talkies, cell phones, etc. to enable themselves or people they are hunting with to kill a deer. Using these for safety reasons is a totally different issue.....that just makes sense.

Using these devices to radio ahead to a fellow "hunter" to let him/her know that a buck is headed there way, that maybe they need to run over to "Hickory Holler" to cut the buck off, etc. isn't hunting.....it's just killing.

In regards to killing bucks at 300 yards in Montana......try coming out to these wide open spaces and killing one with a bow sometime (or a muzzleloader......not the modern in-line ones, but the old traditional ones with open sights). There aren't many trees to climb up in around here......

Branson

If an animal has been wounded and another hunter is informed to get into the right spot to intercept it, I see nothing wrong. That is owed to the animal. Using it to tell people that something is coming on a drive or something like that is crap. That said, I use text messaging all the time while on stand to chat with my buddy. We ask about the other persons hunt, if anything has been seen or heard. We dont use it to give an unfair advantage.
-- B

Red Lion

WHoa! I agree that harvesting an animal at 300 yards or longer is not easy, and getting close enough to kill with a prmitive weapon is very tough in more open spaces, but tight quarters have there own difficulties that equal long shots and open areas in more western hunting.

tatonka

I agree 100 % (about the difficulties in tight quarters). Getting your bow drawn back without being detected when a deer is in bow range can be very tricky.Movement of any kind is much more critical at close range than when a buck is at a distance.

The tricky part in many places where the georgraphy is very open is even getting within rifle range at all at times. These open country deer act a lot like antelope. I've seen bucks laying out in the wide open where there was just no possible way to even get within 400 or 500 yardsof them. They use their eyes as their primary means of defense. When the hunting pressure gets heavy along the riverbottoms and creek bottoms, the older bucks leave. They'll go out in the middle of the stubblefields or out in the sagebrush on the wide open prairie and hole up......sometimes several miles from the nearest cover. Tracks indicate that they'll go back into the riverbottoms at night to find a doe in estrous, but they're usually gone by daylight (and take the doe with them). I picked up a track one time at first light along a creek bottom of what appeared to be a buck with a doe. I tracked thetwo deer approximately 5 miles away from the creek bottom where I found them bedded down in some sagebrush. Fortunately there was enough clumps of sagebrush to allow me to crawl within range and I was able to shoot the buck in his bed at about 200 yards. That doesn't happen very often......

tj_cubin

we use them, always have.


you say its not hunting, just killing? do you think radios are that much of a help? we must be using them wrong.

For the most part all the radios do is let us know who is seeing deer, let us keep track of where people are for safety. Someone telling you a deer is headed your way is not a gaurenteed kill. At least in the terrain i hunt in, knowing a deer coming towards you does not increase your likely hood of seeing it, much less killing it.


as far as using radios to finish off a wounded deer, are you kididng? give me a break. maybe you do jsut fine without radios hunting deer with a spear. afterall, you know that using a gun isnt hunting, its jsut killing

Chantecler111

I may not use radios tohunt with, but I have been on several hunts where my hunting partners used them, trust me, it is still hunting, there is no "cheating" to it.

TSR6

"Hunters may not use cellular phones, radio communications or other mechanical or electronic amplifying devices to get someone to tag a deer. It is legal to use electronic devices for reasons other than getting someone to tag a deer.

It's under "Group Hunting" on p11- You can't use a device to have someone come over and tag a deer you shot under the Group Hunting rules, as they must be within voice range to be considered a Group Hunting Tag.

Alsatian

Legality is one question. Another question is the view of the keepers of the record books. If one is interested in trophy hunting, this may include getting their buck registered "in the book." It seems I have heard that one or another of the Boone and Crocket or the Pope and Young biggame records recordinginstitutions take a dim view of using such telecommunications devices to improve one's hunting. I may be entirely wrong, but if I were a trophy hunter looking for "a record book" buck, I would sure check into it before using the electronics gizmos.

asttbe

My friend and I use walkie talkies, but we only use them to talk to each other when a deer is shot and one needs help or to call one another when we are leaving the stand. We ride in the same truck and he calls when he is ready to leave.

White-tail-deer

We also use radios. They came in handy when we had some road hunters, one call on the radio and we had the guys license plate number and a call to the PGC. They definately have their place.