More ethical/fair chase still hunting or stand?

Oh, well, here we go again. Ain't like THIS topic hasn't been whipped. I used to wanna move around in the thickets. I was young, and impatient and rarely got a shot. When I was offered any presentation, it was usually a butt bounding off before disappearing in the undergrowth. I get more action hunting a feeder from a nice, comfy box blind with a heater and being as I'm not real athletic anymore at 66 years of age, I'd rather sit my butt down in a blind with a feeder to watch. It also allows me to peacefully view all the critters that come around, partly what I like about deer/hog hunting. YMMV Do what you're called to do so long as it's legal.

If you want to somehow feel more manly or macho because you’re more “ethical”, I have a longbow that I’ll sell you. After all, using a firearm is a lot more advanced way of hunting than Cave men and Indians did, so if you use a gun you’re cheating. That goes with modern clothing rather than buckskin.

Me? I use the absolute maximum advantage that I can use that is legal. I have limited time I’m willing to invest, and I’m making the most of it.

You do whatever makes you happy

I've never used a stand or blind, but I have no ethical problem with them.

OTOH, to me any kind of feeder is way beyond what I would consider ethical. But that's my values. You have to decide for yourself what you can live with.

It is obviously more productive to bait than to still hunt. Baiting is outlawed in some states so I think that answers your 'ethical' question.

If you re-ask your question with stand hunting vs still hunting then I think it is a toss-up.

cheygriz said:

OTOH, to me any kind of feeder is way beyond what I would consider ethical. But that's my values. You have to decide for yourself what you can live with

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If you ever bear hunt, it will most likely be over a bait stand. Probably 95% or more are taken that way.

If you have a deer stand overlooking a water hole, is that any worse than shooting over food?

If I use deer scent, is that better/worse than food?

Still, I understand what you mean. All about perception.

I can tell you that I’ve hunted for almost 60 years. I missed what would have been either the largest or second largest deer taken in my state because I had limited equipment. I’ve watched several really nice gobblers walk off because I had a shotgun with limited range.

A longbow hunter thinks a guy using a compound is cheating. A guy using a compound thinks a guy using a crossbow is cheating. A guy using a crossbow thinks someone using a traditional muzzle loader is cheating. A guy using a traditional muzzle loader thinks someone with an in-line is cheating.

Now I use a 7 Mag with a top end Leupold for deer and I’ve killed turkeys to a lasered 67 yards with my 10 gauge. If it’s legal, I’m gonna use it.

Only you can answer what floats your personal boat.

You know, since ethical hunting got brought up, I once shot a deer with a longbow so after that I decided I had paid my “ethical” price tag. So hunting over a feeder is neither ethical nor fair chase.

I find it comical that a question about hunting ethics is asked in the same vein as hunting by over a feeder. Maybe that is what some folks grow up with.

What was the question again?

FACT: Meeshack Browning hunted from a tree stand over bait with his flintlock rifle about 180 years ago, and the white hunters used this idea after it was taught to them by the Indians.

"The way to make a deer-lick with common salt, is to select a place where the deer have found a crossing, and near which is a tree, on which a convenient seat can be arranged at considerable elevation. Then take a small stake, drive it into the ground to the depth of eighteen inches or two feet, and fill the hole made by it with clean alum-salt. Make three or four such holes, fill them all, and sprinkle a little salt over the ground around them. The deer will soon find the place, and come often to lick the salt, while the hunter, stting high up in the tree, has every chance for obtaining a fair shot at them."
Published 1859
And Browning wasn't hunting on the frontier, but in Western Maryland, so this wasn't a survival situation by any means.

Now you're welcome to use a flintlock to hunt your deer as I do, if you want more of a challenge. I don't do scent-block, and I don't get up into tree stands as a general rule..., but I'm built like Santa Claus.....

LD

cheygriz said:

I've never used a stand or blind, but I have no ethical problem with them.

OTOH, to me any kind of feeder is way beyond what I would consider ethical. But that's my values. You have to decide for yourself what you can live with.

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When I've hunted out west (New Mexico mountains and west Texas), I like to spot and stalk. That is NOT the same thing as still hunting. In that instance you SEE the animal to begin with and then try to close the distance. THAT is great fun where one can do it. Rugged country, though, for an old timer out in the Guadalupe mountains. I'm a little too old and infirm for that now days. I did love it in my younger years, though. Still hunting is just walking very slowly through thick undergrowth hoping to see something. It doesn't often work out for me, frankly. I do love to spot and stalk where I can, but the woods around here ain't the where and, frankly, I think still hunting is best employed where some folks can help out....called a "drive".

I was out in the thorny south Texas brush this week, still butchering today and have another 120 quart ice chest full of venison to go. It wasn't much of a "hunt" as it was high fenced. We were there on an MLD permit, cull hunt, taking out excess for meat. I "hunted" from elevated blinds over a feeder and we scattered corn down the senderos. I don't really call that "sport" mostly because of the high fence. But, it was effective. I wanna see anyone try to walk though all that prickly pear, huisache, and cat claw after a wounded deer. I bangflopped my 3 deer, no worries, plenty of time to place the shot. In fact, I passed on iffy shots and waited for a broadside.

Location matters too. The land I hunt is corn/soy bean fields. The best bet to bag a deer in this land is to sit in a stand overlooking the fields. Stalking or still hunting in fields is a great way to make sure no deer comes to graze.

Side note, I don't believe in "evening the playing field" when hunting. But I also don't like the idea of feeders. No judgement passed on others.

redneck2 said:

If you ever bear hunt, it will most likely be over a bait stand. Probably 95% or more are taken that way.

If you have a deer stand overlooking a water hole, is that any worse than shooting over food?

If I use deer scent, is that better/worse than food?

Still, I understand what you mean. All about perception.

Click to expand...

What cracks me up is those that have no problem with food plots, but hate the idea of a corn feeder. I say get over it. Texas allows feeders and I use 'em here on my little place as does every one of my neighbors. I haven't taken a deer here this year and there is a large population, they just don't always come to corn in daylight and you can't shoot 'em at night. Fortunately, you CAN shoot pigs at night. That's a lot of fun.

While AFAIK food plots have always been legal here, this year is the first time Georgia northern zone has allowed baiting. Before, we couldn't hunt within sight or 200yds of bait. There was also a regulation that you couldn't bait deer... feeding, watching, etc... where it'd make hunting illegal on the next property.

So, the does are always coming around. The bucks... all ages/sizes... they generally follow the does. Just because a buck follows the does out of cover don't mean you'll select him, regardless of which legally allowed situation.

Bean field, food plot, apple trees or shelled corn, back yard, front yard... other than what's safe and legally acceptable in your area, what's the difference?

Different parts of the country use different methods. I'm told that in some states you can hunt deer with dogs. Not my cup of tea, but if that's legal and acceptable somewhere else, I don't judge. The same with feeders.

The point I was making is what I can live with. At 74, I can't walk the ridgelines anymore, so my hunting days are about over. Out here, we aren't allowed to use feeders, and a blind would be useless without a bait. This is walk all day country.

If I lived back east, I suppose I'd hunt from a blind, vbgut even there I personally would have a problem with any kind of bait or feed.

Bear baiting is legal here, but not for me.

I was born in 1944, and I guess I still have a lot of the values of those days.

The Good Lord set it up for a cougar to hide above a deer trail and then jump down from ambush. Since I'm in low supply for fangs and claws, I have been known to sit in a stand with a rifle in order to create Bambi-supper. Ethical for kitty-kat, ethical for me.

Granted, walking hunting or sneaky-snaking is a lot more fun--and I've found it to often be equally successful.

Over many a decade I've meddled around hunting in all kinds of terrain and cover. Jungle-y swamps along the Appalachicola River in Florida. Central Texas hill country, brushy/wooded/open. South Brewster County desert mountains. I've seen multi-thousand-acre high-fence pastures with mesquite and cactus such that shooting lanes are maybe twenty or thirty yards.

Bottom line? Do what you have to do in order to eat deer meat. Simple as that.

If it is legal I don't have a problem with most anything. And different parts of the country have different customs and laws. I enjoy still hunting more than hunting from a stand. And I won't put out bait, even though it is legal here now. I will hunt near naturally placed food and water sources. And while hunting from an elevated stand isn't my favorite way to hunt, it is the most productive in many areas.

Iron sights vs optics has nothing to do with ethics.

Alot depends on what set of morals/ethics you have formed.

Its good to see a guy ponder just what they are/intend to do.

I havent figured out the politically correct methods of Fairchase, Ethics, 'Sport', Subsistence, or Meat making as people and their morals are all different.

Still, weather its you, me , or another guy, pulling the trigger is what we boil it down to. In heavy brush, the 30-30 with open sights would be just fine and your open sights much more handy than the scope.

I'm glad I got nothing against feeder watching, even though it doesn't work that well after the first few days of season, trust me. As messed up as I'm getting, I'd just have to quit if I had to crawl around the mountains. I haven't liked still hunting for a long time. It just doesn't produce. I'm an ambush hunter. My biggest problem, sometimes, is staying awake in the stand. I kinda think it's why I've always preferred bird hunting, especially ducks and geese, to deer. There's more action. But, there's more to like about deer hunting, as I said, the nature watching and such, best done from a stand.

Bow hunters hunt from stands or blinds if they want to get anything. They might not be on a feeder. They might be hunting between bedding and feeding areas or such, but they'll be in a stand. I'm starting to prefer my crossbow for around here, but my ladder stand ain't as comfy as the office chair in my box blind.