Define "Hunting"

[lizziedog1]

Please, pretty please, do not turn this thread into a bashing one. I want to know personal opinions. I do not want to know what anyone thinks of anyone else.

Here is the question.

What is your personal definition of hunting?

Does the weapon used matter? Does the hunter have to be stalking his prey? Does the use of dogs make a difference? What about baited areas?

In other words, in your own opinion when does hunting become mearly shooting?

I realize that this will probably be a short-lived thread. But can we please just concentrate on our own feelings about this?

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Looking down the sights with the intent to kill is hunting to me.

 

[dodgensince74]

Hunting for me means that I am going to go and look for or try to find something (what ever it may be) with no idea whatsoever of knowing if I will be succesful in locating/finding what I am searching for. Thats what "Hunting" means to me

 

[adobewalls]

Definition: Action with intent to find or attract prey for the purpose of taking prey.

Weapon: Doesn't matter
Means or Method: Doesn't matter

In the world of Venn Diagrams, the "Shooting" and "Hunting" circles intersect.

 

[wgp]

Seeking an animal with the means and intent of killing it if I find it, but where there is no guarantee that I will find it.

There is the famous line from the book "Meditations on Hunting" that sums it up: We do not hunt in order to kill, we kill in order to have hunted. Without the intent to kill, I don't consider it to be "hunting".

For me, hunting requires that there be no certainty that I will find the animal and be able to kill. Thus I do not include the kind of fenced-area activity that virtually (or actually) guarantees a kill.

 

[KodiakBeer]

Hiking, glassing, stalking, shooting.

PERSONALLY, I have zero interest in baiting or even sitting in a blind. I grew up hunting in Michigan, where you found a good deer trail and just sat there on it from dawn to dusk. I wouldn't do that today.

 

[ZeroJunk]

I know what I like to do. I don't much care what other people think about it, and you shouldn't either if you enjoy doing it that way and it is legal.

 

[mallard044]

All of my most speacial "hunts" in my memory,I did'nt even pull a trigger.Each person,the word "hunting" is a personal defination. There is no one answer.I posted a thread awhile ago,saying(there are 5 stages in a true hunters life) 1-kill anything,2-kill the most,3-kill the biggest,4-it dos'nt matter about the kill,and 5-pass it on to someone. But thats just me.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Hunting to me is going to the woods with the intention of harvesting game that you then intend to either consume or give to someone else to consume.

I really don't care about your method, or the range, or anything else as long as you respect the animal enough to give it as quick and clean a kill as you possibly can.

 

[oneounceload]

HUNTING involves getting out there and finding the animal, stalking it, then - if you're good and deserving - making a quick kill

 

[Roadkill]

I really don't care much about hunting. But as of now it seems to be the only way I can get those deer in my freezer. And I truly do care about eating.

 

[Bob N. Weave]

What "hunting" ISN'T

Hunting isn't: sitting in a tree stand or blind all day by bait or a feed plot waiting for your quarry; paying a "guide" to find your quarry for you; paying a "game" rancher to let you shoot a "trophy"; a "sport"; EASY. All these may be legal, but in my opinion they're not "hunting"

 

[bison]

At first hunting to me was all about killing something. Now I just adore the opportunity to spend time in the field pursuing the opportunity to do so. Hunting to me is creating memories. Well, that and tasty things to put on the grill!

With that said, I have no interest in canned hunts, rarely shoot some ducks (I've always liked buffleheads for some reason), and have passed on nice CA blacktail on my ranch for no apparent reason. On the flip side, hogs and coyotes are only good when dead.

 

[Armored farmer]

IMHO....

In other words, in your own opinion when does hunting become mearly shooting?

When a rifle maker hauls in a semi-famous country music star, or pro athlete, hands him a long-range rifle, instructs him on how to dope the scope,then hee-haws when Mr Bigshot hits the old unsuspecting bull and drops him down on his hindquarters before toppling over 700+yds across the valley....Then Mr Superstar is back in town by nightfall for the soundcheck.

Please forgive my 'old school' mentality, but I'm not sure if this was an advertisement, or merely target shooting.....but where I come from, It isn't hunting.

 

[Frozen North]

Hunting is harvesting wild game from it's natural habitat. How you do it is between you, God, and the game warden.

IMO, the key words are wild and natural habitat. Everything else is just killing animals for fun.

 

[Loosedhorse]

Legal fair chase. (Although chase implies movement, fair chase can be done from a blind).

If the quarry can elude you, but doesn't, that's a successful hunt; if it can and does, well, that can still be a good hunt. If it can't avoid you, that's no hunt.

 

[Rembrandt]

.....Define "Hunting"....

If you have to ask.....you're probably not doing it correctly.

 

[Cob]

There have been a few times i went hunting, that knew i was not going to get anything... It was an excuse to get away from everything (work, school, family, etc...), gain some solitude, get out into the natural environment, and enjoy whatever geographic location I had chosen.

of course putting meat in the freezer is generally a top priority, but i've been hunting when i had a full freezer, and succesful season behind me, where harvesting was not my main intention.

there have been a few times we went hunting without any intention of killing the animal - we were attempting live capture, for hogs, and for a covey of quail, one of the birds was tagged with a micro radio transmitter.

It involves a chase of some sort.

 

[Liberty1776]

When I was young, I used to stalk and walk. Now that I'm old, I just sits and waits... either way, I'm still hunting.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

This has sort of been discussed on TFL with Texas helicopter hunting of hogs. Of course, guys are blasting hogs left and right and one opinion is that it isn't hunting because it doesn't use hunting skills.

Strangely, hunting from a helicopter is much like being a bird of prey hunter. It is an opportunistic air search/stalk where when you see your prey, you go after it. It involves something of a chase in most cases as well.

Somebody above mentioned "fair chase." Personally, I have no concept of what fair chase is because I know of no hunter that intends for the hunt to be fair in any manner to the intended prey. I know that are are "rules" and guidelines to fair chase, but that doesn't make the chase fair to the prey, LOL. Then again, hunting was never meant to be fair to the prey. The purpose being to kill the prey, for whatever reason.

I like Adobewalls definition.
The only problem I have with personalized definitions of hunting is when folks feel the need to tell me that what I am doing isn't hunting because I don't do it the way they think hunting should be conducted. If we used that criterion and everyone had to conform to my definition of what hunting really should be, we would all be running around in loin clothes with pointy little sticks, relying much more heavily on the natural aspect of what could be taken than on such things as firearms.

Of course, I would be much skinnier if that was the case.

Beyond this, if I have to have a hunting permit or my actions fall under the laws that pertain to hunting, then for all practical purposes, I am hunting.

 

[bswiv]

Hunting:

A very good excuse to be cold, hot, wet, tired, bug bit, covered in poison ivy and late for dinner.......but if you take the wife the last one does not matter.

 

[buck460XVR]

Hunting is harvesting wild game from it's natural habitat. How you do it is between you, God, and the game warden.

IMO, the key words are wild and natural habitat. Everything else is just killing animals for fun.

...........exactly.

In the world of Venn Diagrams, the "Shooting" and "Hunting" circles intersect.

Maybe, and most of us will have been both before we meet our maker, but the difference between being a hunter or being a shooter is miles apart.

 

[Art Eatman]

As near as I can tell, "fair chase" merely means that the prey animal has some sort of opportunity to escape being killed. Not constrained by artificial means to unavoidable death.

Drifting a bit, I figure a walking hunter is somewhat emulating a wolf's style. A sitting hunter is more like a cougar. No big deal, either way.

 

[One-Time]

I dont often stand hunt, never use baits and will not run dogs. I prefer to stalk, or stand hunt. No 'canned' hunts...good ol fashioned woodsmanship

 

[Pistol Ranch]

The pursuit with the object of killing an animal that has better eyesight, hearing,sense of smell and knowledge of its territory than you. Equipment is optional..

P.R.