Legalities vs. Ethics

Foxer said:
A note about road hunting btw.


There's 'road hunting', and then there's 'road hunting'.

Some idiots just load some guns and beer into the car and drive up and down the roads at warp 8 blasting music. They hope that pure luck will give 'em a shot, whereupon the car will screech to a halt and everyone jumps out and shoots. That kind of hunting is the kind most of us frown on when we think 'road hunter'.

But in bc anyway, road hunting can be a bit of an art as well, and a valuable part of your hunt or pre-hunt scouting.

It goes something like this - lets say you're out for 5 days. And maybe it's a new area, or one you haven't been to in a few years.

Day one, road hunting can tell you a heck of a lot about what's going on in the area if you know what you're doing. You go very slow, you hunt thru lunch, and you're basically looking at the lay of the land, you're looking at the tracks in the road (the roads here ##### cross so much the animals will undoubtedly cross at some point, often more than once) and you're looking for other signs or indications of what's going on in the area.

Day two you do something similar - except maybe you set up somewhere for first light and see what's moving. Now you're looking for tracks that were made last night and this morning when you're on the move, and you're expanding your knowledge of the lay of the land (going down lots of little side roads, seeing where they go, etc. Marking gps points of interest.).

Done properly, this can tell you a hell of a lot. You should know what animals are in the area (including domestics like cow, something that you may want to keep in mind when shooting), if there are any bucks, if they're moving thru or hanging in the area, where they go in the mornings, if there are bucks in with the does, etc etc. For bears it can give clues like if there's a sow and a cub in the area, etc.

It also lets you observe things like wind direction different times of the day, any other hunting camps in the area, etc.

Add that together with your knowledge of weather and time of year etc and you've probably got a pretty good idea of where the animals are, and what they're doing.

Now - days 3, 4 and 5 you can better target your walking, or sit and spot places, and radically improve your chance at an animal.

This kind of road hunting does involve a little getting out of your vehicle to check tracks and such, and maybe poking around a little in the bush, but not all that much.

Now - that's a whole different kind of road hunting. It requires good hunting knowledge and skills to pay off - and it's mostly geared towards giving you a better chance later in the hunt. You may very well get 'lucky' a bit and get a shot off you didn't expect. So it's still hunting. But it does take a lot of skill and knowledge of the game to pay off consistantly.

The advantage is you wind up covering a LOT more ground than just walking, and you begin to 'dial in' the game faster and more effectively.

You can't compare the two - the first one relies on luck entirely, the second one relies on strong knowledge of the animals, good skills at reading sign and terrain, and is intended to suppliment other techniques, not replace 'em.
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Well said, Foxer!
 
rollingrock said:
Well said, Foxer!
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yes +1.

I am that type of road hunter, not the "blast down the road goin' 80km/h trying to avoid certain death in the form of a logging truck around the next corner" road hunter.
 
If I see that Big Snarley Booner Buck from the Truck....He's going down;)

Sure I love to hunt the Back Country etc. as much as anyone but when a legal opportunity presents itself I'll take it just the same.

Sometimes the Easy ones are Fun too:D
(I also shoot Grouse on the road:runaway: )
:rolleyes:
 
Calum said:
And all this time I have been chasing the Grouse 200 yards into the brush. :redface:
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ha ha.... favorite grouse road hunting technique = a quick turn of the steering wheel :runaway: :runaway: :runaway: (J/K)....

Yeah, grouse are good to eat but you gotta feel sorry for those little bastards, no built in fear from humans, at least not in the 99% or so i've encountered.

I'll give the blue grouse the highest IQ count for now, elusive little birds.
 
I started to read through this but, its just too lengthy. If somebody already said this, my appologies. Slugo, anti- hunters feel that hunting of any kind is ethically wrong and would like to impose their ethics on all of us in the hunting community. How in your oppinion is this different than you saying road hunting is unethical vs spot and stalk or stand hunting? You are in effect a semi-anti-hunter (its OK as long as you play by my rules). If you choose not to hunt this way, then that is your RIGHT. If someone else chooses to road hunt in a legal manner, that is also their RIGHT. If you choose not to use certain tactics for locating game because you feel they are unsporting, that is your choice, but you have no RIGHT to try to force your oppinion on others. Last time I checked this was still a free country, this means having the RIGHT to make your own choices. I put RIGHT in capitals because freedom is about excercising your RIGHTS. Something you should maybe sit down and think about.

Edited for spelling and rant over.
 
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quite frankly, if it:
A) is legal
B) wont hurt any person
C) is a sustainable form of hunting
D) wont shaft another hunter
E) ensures clean kill

its ok to do. its pretty easy to evaluate against this or another list. if you have to question it, odds are its probably uneithical or borderline.

And to all those people who think hunting should be "Fair" if you want to be fair, go after it with a machette. hunting was never meant to be fair, it was meant to put food on your table. i dont mean to insult the people who want to make it more challanging, thats totally different. but really, its not that hard to be an ethical hunter, IF you think and dont let buck fever rule you

i just think people are making it more complicated than it has to be.
 
It's only unethical if it breaks the law. Otherwise it is something you might not agree with or do but has nothing to do with ethics. I only shoot grouse in the head with a .22 when they sit on the ground. Some think this is unethical or bad and not sporting. I shoot grouse for the meat and I want that meat to be the best quality, not shot all up with 71/2"s and slimy from a dogs mouth. There are those those who think wing shooting birds with a shotgun is a good way to ruin a grouse breast and that hunting grouse with dogs is unfair and unethical. Neither are unethical as long as they are legal.

Lots of folks look down on road hunting, but think about it, the animal is already there and sees and hears a vehicle coming, deer already has the jump on a hunter who first has to spot the animal, get the vehicle stopped, get out of the truck, load his gun and hope the animal is still there to take a shot at after all that commotion. Advantage deer. Is that less ethical than someone in a treestand wearing camo or in a blind hiding on the edge of a nice green alfalfa field with his gun already loaded shooting unsuspecting hungry deer who have no clue? Advantage hunter. Which is more ethical? Neither, has nothing to do with ethics, it's just someons opinion. Opinions vary. Most time it pays to keep your opinions to yourself unless someone is breaking a law.
 
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Slugo,
let's say yeu've been at it for a week (hunting) moose and .. nothing.
On your way out from camp, you spot the bull about 300 yds down the road, crossing.
Please enlighten me : do you not stop the car and try to get the rifle out and move along getting the trail of that moose, hoping that it will go away fom the road, but not too far in that swamp?

Do you not walk 30 steps away, load and shoot the "unethical" bullet?

Please.......

Next will be hunters who set up blinds, because isn't so, it's harder to walk in the bush rather than wait in a comfy blind .... Next.... the hunters that have food plots on therir hunting grounds, and after that the ones that have "sweet spots" that they hunt year after year... succesfully.

What's left? I tell you what's left: you and the 16 treehuggers, 17 of which will never get any kind of hunting pass to the next generation.
I don't want to sound rude, but try to take it from this perspective, or all of us will be lucky to shoot single shot rifles with government provided ammo (compulsory and ethic-legal innaccurate past 45m) in the years to come.
 
It's only unethical if it breaks the law. Otherwise it is something you might not agree with or do but has nothing to do with ethics.
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Well - i see where you were going with that and in essence i agree. However, i do believe there are PERSONAL ethics outside the meare legality of a situation. We as citizens shoulnd't need the constraint of the law to tell us what's right and wrong.

However, that's a PERSONAL issue. You can't really tell someone else 'i have this set of values, so you should too' in most cases. And i think that's partly what your message was if i read it right.

I think it's valuable for us to DISCUSS it tho - to share our personal viewpoints, what WE consider to be eithical and not. I think that makes us stronger. People shed misconceptions, and some may see things in a new light and pick up new 'ethics' that they deem to be sound.

I think where we run into problems is when we JUDGE other peoples ethics based on our own beliefs. I think that's VERY dangerous ground - and when we're having these discussions i think we should discourage that. Disagree - that's fine. Decide it doesn't apply in YOUR kneck of the woods or your circumstances, that's fine. But - don't pass judgement on others. Just share your beliefs, and WHY you believe that way, and leave it up to others to see the merit in your ideas or not.
 
Legally, adultery is against the law. The ethical man knows this, but commits adultery anyway. The moral man cares neither for the legal aspect or the ethical one, and simply won't do what he perceives as wrong.

Well, at least until he gets 6 beers into him anyway. - dan
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ROFL - now THERE'S a t-shirt ...
 
well thats obviously not all, theres the heart break the betrayel the hate. the horrible hell you go through. and the fact you have broken a sacred trust. even if you are amoral, its still bad.
 
I think a lot of the ethical stuff thats really important is already incorporated into existing laws. Cant shoot a swimming moose for instance. The bag limits in themself stop gross overharvesting. Seasons are established so hunting does not takes place when game is most vaunrable or rearing young. Rare species are protected. Cant shoot from moving vehicles. You get my drift.
 
cdngunner said:
I think a lot of the ethical stuff thats really important is already incorporated into existing laws. Cant shoot a swimming moose for instance. The bag limits in themself stop gross overharvesting. Seasons are established so hunting does not takes place when game is most vaunrable or rearing young. Rare species are protected. Cant shoot from moving vehicles. You get my drift.
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you are very right in this statement. there is a lot of ethics built into our laws.
 
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