nygunguy,
Imagine one of your ravines you talked about, with brush so thick you can literally stick your hand out and not see it in front of your face. Now make that brush be roughly 15% protein, imagine a few washes that hold water throughout that thicket, just enough for a deer to drink. Now imagine 500-15,000 acres of that. Then tell me why deer feeders are popular in parts of the country. I can walk you threw, actually break your way through 400acres of stuff on the place I hunt and you won't see a deer, they just move away from the sound. So what happens in a dry year when the neighbor has all the water, or a wet year when water is everywhere?
You've never been here, never hunted it, how do you know it is unsporting? I killed my 5 whitetails this year, I killed 4 of the five at a food or water source, none at the 4 corn and protein feeders I have. 2 at oak trees eating acorns(how is this any different from a corn feeder) 1 coming to water at a small tank{pond}(how is it any different from a corn feeder), and one old buck who was chasing a doe(how is that much different than a corn feeder?) You take advantage of the quarry in any way you can. Do you refuse to hunt trails into soy bean fields or corn patches? Do you never hunt around water?
I killed two deer eating acorns or in the process of eating acorns, a doe with my bow, and a spike with my rifle at what many would consider unsporting distance. I still hunted along a creek and sat next to a small tank to collect my next doe. My trophy buck I spotted from 600yds away and belly crawled 400yds across a hay field to collect him(it took a couple trips to the chiropracter to fix those aches). My last doe I had the outdoor writer I talked about above down. He happened to witness and photograph that stalk. I fed corn down some ranch roads before daylight and we spent the morning stillhunting those roads and taking pictures of various critters(no deer for three hours along that track). Finally we spotted a doe a few hundred yards out. He stayed to film while I took my AR-15 and some 62gr sp's and stalked her. I covered the first 100yds bent over using pear bushes to shield my approach, the next hundred yards was worm style, when I got to my 100yds I was comfortable with the .223 making a clean kill I couldn't shoot, so I closed 30 more yards to gain some height for a clean shot off the bipod. I fired, she fell in that spot and I put my last deer in the freezer.
Now was I sporting? Should it really matter? Every deer above was drawn to something. Should we only hunt deer in places with no type of food, water, or sexual temptations? My friend hunted hard with me for 3 full days along corn fed ruts and roads. He never bagged a javelina or hog. We walked a few miles every day quietly and slowly. We did everything right and still came up empty. Is that sporting? Does it really matter?
PETA would say anything that involves us killing an animal is cruel and unsporting, why should any of us, support any facet of what they do? I didn't harvest a thing this year, I killed it, I killed it in any way, shape or form I could, not because I wanted to eat fresh unpolluted meat, not because I wanted to look cute at the hunters ball with my pictures, I killed it because I have a desire to hunt and kill. I'm not much different than a coyote, bobcat, or a mountain lion, I was put her with a prey drive. The only obligation I feel to the critters I kill is to kill them cleanly and if at all possible instantly.
Of these five, the bow killed doe ran farthest, 75yds to pile-up, the spike and 13pt traveled less than 20yds, the does dropped instantly to rifle shots. Is it sporting? Does it matter? PETA probably wouldn't like the fact I just was eating deer roast as I typed this, because they think it unethical to kill things. You may not like it if I killed the deer over a corn pile... Why should you ever for an instant even begin to support one tenant or portion of a tenant that those crazies do?
We are a part of the food chain, we have no moral ethical dilema to contend with in killing our game, except that we do so as quickly as possible, and that is more a respect issue for me. I hope when my turn comes it is fast and as painless as possible; sorta the Golden rule.
Where or how do we draw the line? Who sets the moral standard? What is right from wrong? We can all agree that poaching is wrong, we can all agree that folks shooting up roadsigns aren't hunters. But how often do we sell out our fellow sportsman over our own personal opinions and choices. Do you think they banned dog hunting in many states without sportsmans help? Do you reckon they banned bear baiting without support from the spot and stalk hunters?
We must quit selling one another out, hunting is no different than guns, it is probably in most areas just as threatened. If we don't all hang together, we will in time hang seperately.
You've never seen coon hunting until you've seen some guys following their dogs, riding on mules in the dark! Not just any mules but half quarter horse or cutting horse mulse which have been trained for three or four years. These mules are trained to just jump up in the back of the pickup truck to ride to wherever the hunt is taking place!
