MontanaRifleman
Well-Known Member
The definition of hunting for sportsmen will always be subjective. Is driving down the road and making a 100 yd shot off the hood of your truck hunting? I have no problem with that if I'm meat hunting and culling does for the freezer off of hay fields and it is in fact hunting. I also enjoy getting out and walking many miles over prairies and mountains. I also bow hunt on occasion. There are a lot of ways to skin a cat and for different reasons.
Last year, after I shot my cow elk, the herd (of about 70-80) it was in trotted off only a few hundred yards. While I was dressing it out, I heard some shots to my left and behind me from the edge of the trees. A couple of "hunters" were shooting at the herd which was about 500 yds away from them. They shot about a half dozen times in two volleys. No elk dropped and they did not go out to follow up their shots and look for blood. If they had, they would have been tresspassing because the elk had jumped the fence onto private land. These guys were just slinging lead and hoping something would drop. The whole scene was disgusting from my view.
Unfortunately, incidents like this will get lumped into the category of LRH by many hunters who are ignorant of what really goes into LRH. Many more animals are wounded at much closer ranges by guys who don't know their rifles or practice their shooting skills but that doesn't matter. We are in a fish bowl and what we do is controversial. We are embassadors to our sport and IMO we need to take extra care of being good embassadors. I think for this reason, shows like BOTW all the more must emphasize need for pratice and skill development. Trying to make it look easy will only draw criticism. We also as individuals need to take care in how we present our sport. I will sometimes mention LRH to friends or associates, but I avoid debates. If someone starts to bristle, I leave it alone. The best thing to do is to take them out and show them what can be done and be sure you know what you're doing.
If you look in the dictionary for the definiton of hunting, you will find a very broad definiton. We tend to make it a lot more subjective. I agree with the sentiment that we are all hunters so let's avoid excluding others who dont do it just like us. We need to all stick together because there are those who would shut us down completely if they could.
Mark
Last year, after I shot my cow elk, the herd (of about 70-80) it was in trotted off only a few hundred yards. While I was dressing it out, I heard some shots to my left and behind me from the edge of the trees. A couple of "hunters" were shooting at the herd which was about 500 yds away from them. They shot about a half dozen times in two volleys. No elk dropped and they did not go out to follow up their shots and look for blood. If they had, they would have been tresspassing because the elk had jumped the fence onto private land. These guys were just slinging lead and hoping something would drop. The whole scene was disgusting from my view.
Unfortunately, incidents like this will get lumped into the category of LRH by many hunters who are ignorant of what really goes into LRH. Many more animals are wounded at much closer ranges by guys who don't know their rifles or practice their shooting skills but that doesn't matter. We are in a fish bowl and what we do is controversial. We are embassadors to our sport and IMO we need to take extra care of being good embassadors. I think for this reason, shows like BOTW all the more must emphasize need for pratice and skill development. Trying to make it look easy will only draw criticism. We also as individuals need to take care in how we present our sport. I will sometimes mention LRH to friends or associates, but I avoid debates. If someone starts to bristle, I leave it alone. The best thing to do is to take them out and show them what can be done and be sure you know what you're doing.
If you look in the dictionary for the definiton of hunting, you will find a very broad definiton. We tend to make it a lot more subjective. I agree with the sentiment that we are all hunters so let's avoid excluding others who dont do it just like us. We need to all stick together because there are those who would shut us down completely if they could.
Mark
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