I let him walk

H

hannibal

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
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Location
kelowna BC
Well, I've been out trying to find a blacky and finally run across my first honest shooter,... and I let him walk. I was driving the wife's Sportage with the dogs in the back, really just going for some recon (yes I had my rifle and tag with me) when, what the? there's a nice black bear about 6 1/2 feet tall (5 3/8 wide foot print in fresh mud), (I'm 6-2 so I can guess how big compared to me) standing on the side of the logging road eating grass. I stopped parallel and broad side to him, thought about it then drove off, I then thought, huh! turned around and drove back, he's still there. I get out (with the rifle) walk to about 50yrds from him and we kinda stare at each other for a minute or two, then he calmly turned and walked into the heavy bush. end of story. Now, why I let him walk was simple to me, it wasn't hunting, it was road-hunting, or worse yet, harvesting. I like to hunt, to spot and stalk, to chase and ambush. I've got 2 1/2 weeks before spring season ends and I've already been out twice to track him down and tag him out, if not I got all fall season. I'm in BC so no bait. I probably wouldn't bait anyway, though really it's no different than me setting up an ambush over one of his grazing areas and using a predator call. So maybe I would bait? Anyway, 2 of my hunting buddies said they would drop him then and there, my other 2 hunting buddies would do what I did, let it go, but then hunt him hard. What would you gentlemen do?
 
i dont hunt but i do think your way of hunting is better than shootin it in the ditch. true hunting is tracking and stalking your prey. i see why people do it though they are probly too lazy to carry the meat a mile.
 
I'd shoot it. Road hunting is hunting too. It takes a lot experience for some people to know where and when to drive to.
 
Hunting is a very personal thing. What didn't feel right to you may be fine for others. Some feel pursuing game with dogs is the way to go. Some like to cruise the roads and glass. Others like to sit over a bait, mineral lick or feeding area. Some use rifles, some use muzzle loaders, others use bows. As long as it's legal in your area, do what works for you while having respect for other folk's methods.
 
Great tale hannibal, and you followed your ethics to a T!! Exactly as you stated in the follow up shot poll. You respected your prey, didn't "harvest" it as you prefer the hunt, kudos to you for respecting yourself.

Cheers.
 
I don't understand the factors in play . You had a rifle but the bear was on the side of a logging road so you didn't harvest it . Had the bear been on a hillside 100 yards from the logging road , would you have shot it ? Is the factor distance or will you never shoot from a logging road or anything on the side of a logging road ? You were driving a logging road with a truck and a rifle , got out with the rifle , approached the bear and then decided not to shoot it . If your morals preclude you from shooting from a logging road or at an animal on a logging road why did you get out with the rifle ? Why did you drive by and then drive back and get out with the rifle and stalk the bear ? Spot and stalk is certainly fair chase so was the truck the factor ? Anyone who spots from a truck , atv , snowmachine or boat isn't following the rules of fair chase , or just you ? If it wasn't the vehicle but the location with you on a logging road and the bear 200 yards up a hillside , would you have shot ? You were thinking about shooting right on the side of the road . What i gather from your post is that you won't harvest an animal spotted at close range from a vehicle , won't shoot from or on a logging road and will only carry your rifle for hunting purposes far from logging roads to spot and stalk , but that doesn't count if you were just scouting with your rifle in the truck . I stand by your decision , i just don't understand it . I know a lot of guys who use boats and motors to spot and stalk bear and moose in the river systems and i drive logging roads to spot and stalk moose and bear glassing into the cuts . I consider myself to be a sportsman and a hunter but when the word , 'harvester' is offered up in refrence to anyone who doesn't do it your way , i get curious because i still don't understand what your way is . If you can answer the questions i posted above , i'd sure appreciate it as it would give us 'harvesters' a better understanding of what pure hunters actually do , keeping in mind , what you actually did .
 
Wading through all the recent bear threads, I think some of you guys are getting at each other for no good purpose. People have different reasons to hunt, and different "needs". It would be clear that Hannibal hunts as much for his self-satisfaction as for his need for game. In the situation he describes, the kill may be "too easy"; he may not feel that he has honoured the tradition of the stalk and chase, as it relates to his own perspectives on what is a successful hunt. A lot of modern hunters hunt with this view - they don't need the meat, in that they are not hunting to fill the freezer. Doesn't mean they won't use the kill, it just means they seek a different "return" from the hunt, than someone who hunts as much for food as for the sport.
This isn't to demean the hunter who hunts for more pragmatic reasons - hunting for the larder as well as the joy of the outdoors. Both perspectives are equally valid. What is different is how each type of hunter will deal with an opportunity when it appears. I am certain even those of you who are predominantly "meat" hunters have passed up a shot, when your feeling about a opportunity "felt" better to let the animal walk, even though it might have been an easy kill.
Both sides need to chill some. As an all too infrequent, usually solitary hunter, I let far more animals walk than kill, sometimes just raising the rifle and saying "bang" on what would have been a clean kill. If I were hunting for the table, there would be less of those moments. But within my narrow world, the cow is already dead, so I don't shoot the bear/deer/whatever, so that I, or you, can have it for another day. There is nothing more ethical in this, just different needs. Now when I'm out for grouse, or pheasant , however... ;)
 
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if u are looking for easy shooting go 4 gophers. spotting the bear & watching it means it was meat if u want. U made the call, it was right for u. Hunting is not about the kill,but the experence. another + u did not have to gut skin & process the animal
 
As long as you felt good about passing up the bear,you did the right thing.What others might have done should not effect your feelings about your decision.
 
I got no problems with road hunting, although I find it very boring and expen$ive these days. As has been said, do whatever floats your own boat. To each their own, as long as its legal Im fine with whatever you do
 
I take whatever comes. I'm quite prepared to spend the time to track caribou or moose but if I want meat and it's next to the road then so be it. At minus 30-40 it's hard to pass up such a gift! Like many have said before me,"...whatever floats your boat..."
 
I agree with your decision! For me its about being in the woods, having time to myself or with the company I am with. Finding a spot and calling in a animal or tracking is more fun to me than just driving and Oh sh-t bear/deer/moose pull over, bang, clean,take pictures, go home. I like the time being "free" and taking my time to do what I love why hurry it and end it.
 
This is one of the better threads I have read for awhile, some great prospectives on personal hunting ethics.
 
I would probably have shot it. I don't really relish the idea of dragging a large bear a great distance in a clearcut or the woods... Good bear usually let you shoot them uphill from the truck! ;)

Troutseeker
 
If the shot is legal then I have no problem with any hunter shooting whatever/wherever he wants. Ethics are a personal thing, the law is the only thing we have in common. I have kicked myself for passing on animals but now I get a lot more enjoyment out of hunting rather then shooting.It's like catch and release fishing, if you let him live he will be there for future enjoyment.
 
I would like to say a few words I consider hunting what you make it if you want to drive and come up on a animal and get out of your vechicle and harvest it or spot and stalk and harvest it , it is up to the individual . I have friends that use dogs , radios , coffee shop communication to find out where game is and use all friends and knowledge to harvest a animal . Only you can live with fact of how you hunt your game I don t think there is a right or wrong way with in the laws to harvest any game animal it is only the way you feel about yourself and the respect that you give the animal that makes the quality of any hunt you do . In Hannibal place he made the choice and only he can answer his own question about his hunting ethics and respect that he has for that bear . I myself say good on ya and happy hunting
 
I've passed up a number of bears the last few years.."let them walk" as Hannibal says. For me, spring bear hunting has become an excuse to get out for a drive and a walk in the woods. Last year my situation was much like Hannibal's...just too easy. Both the bear and I were having a good day up to that point, and I saw no purpose in ruining it for either of us. This year, after talking during the winter about getting a sausage bear come spring, I was talked into a stalk and will be picking up my sausage in a week or so. I guess I'm softening up in my senior years, as I'm no where near as motivated to make the kill as I used to be. I think increasing age brings many of us to a clearer recognition of our own mortality, and a greater reverance for the life of all creatures (excepting of course things like mosquitoes, rats, and wasps).
For me at least, killing an animal has taken on a different kind of significance than when I was younger, and I notice that some of my similarly aged hunting friends and family have expressed the same thoughts. In some ways this makes little sense at all, as I'm still a meat eater, and I know very well where the burgers, steaks and sausages come from. I'm not claiming there's any logic to it really, just explaining that my feelings about making the kill are much different than they were when I was younger...and that's why some of the game gets to walk.
 
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