Would you shoot a swimming bear/deer/moose?

xeon said:
I've heard a story from a lodge owner in Manitoba about natives guides that were fishing together at the end of the day and saw a moose swimming along. Since they didn't bring a gun, they boated out to the moose and tied it up by the antlers and tried pulling it to deeper water with the boat to try and drown it (pretty disgusting IMO). Problem was they tied the rope to the boat and the moose got its footing before they could drag it out deeper. They did manage to cut the rope, but not before the moose started running on solid ground and up through the forest. Another problem was that they were pinning the boat in reverse and had the tilt lock on the engine. The lodge owner said that when the moose pulled their boat up onto the rocks and up through the bush, it ripped off the lower unit, bent the crap out of bow and put a couple nice dents in the boat. The good news is the moose got away fine, and the guides got the boot right after they paid off the new boat and lower unit.
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Final score: Moose 1 - Yahoos 0!!!
 
Notwithstanding the legality (in Saskatchewan it isn't), and the chances of a ricochet off the water ("I wonder where that bullet went"), is there any guarantee the animal's going to float after it's shot, and not sink straight to the bottom? I'm not familiar with the buoyancy characteristics of wild game.
 
It's illegal to shoot swimming game in Ontario, however, i'll relate this little story from a decade ago.
We had a young fellow hunting with us, and, at the time, we hunted from a cabin overlooking the end of a lake. One day, we were in for lunch, and spotted a deer swimming across the lake. Our young fellow, has never shot anything before, and is determined, that he will legally take this deer.
He goes down to the beach, and in full view of the camp, and apparently the deer, sets up the shot, for the instant the deer comes ashore. "He'll come out of the water, stop and shake", or so he'd been told by one of our veterans.
Well, if a deer is swimming, and it sees you, it doesn't stop, it came out of the lake like a Polaris missile, water flying in all directions. Our newbie, to his credit, didn't even fire a shot.
I don't know if he could hear the laughter from where he was. Had to be there I guess.
Turned out to be a decent guy but he's moved to the maritimes now, lost track of him..
 
This is only from what i've seen on tv (credible huh?) but when a hippo is shot they usually sink. The hunters will wait until the stomach starts to bloat, usually a half hour or so, and the hippo will come bobbing up to and they tow it to shore. I've also seen guys towing moose behind the boat so i guess they float but maybe you have to wait a little bit? i honestly don't know first hand though.
 
Legal or not I wouldn't...

I'd follow it and the second it steps out onto dry land I'd shoot it don't need to try and pull an animal out of the water when it can do the work for me... :D
 
Unethical and illegal in most provinces. And shooting an large animal in water is just plain stupid.:mad:


TheCoachZed said:
So say you are out fishing and you see something swimming across a river or lake. You have a tag and a gun. Would you shoot it? Or would you consider it unethical/unfair chase?:stirthepot2:

Or is it illegal where you live?
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Dorian Gray said:
This is only from what i've seen on tv (credible huh?) but when a hippo is shot they usually sink. The hunters will wait until the stomach starts to bloat, usually a half hour or so, and the hippo will come bobbing up to and they tow it to shore. I've also seen guys towing moose behind the boat so i guess they float but maybe you have to wait a little bit? i honestly don't know first hand though.
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Moose/deer/etc float due to their hollow hair. I've tied a moose to a boat and towed it to a better spot on shore, rather than dressing/butchering in waist deep water in October.
You just have to make sure to keep the head above water or tie the mouth closed, or they'll "swallow" gallons of water and start sinking.

The part about the hippo is bang on, though my understanding is that it usually takes several hours before they resurface.
 
H4831 said:
In BC it is strictly illegal, unless the animal is wounded and tries to swim away.
To go up to a swimming animal with a boat and shoot the animal is the most cowrdly, unfair method of shooting an animal that I could think of. I am amazed at the number of "hunters" reporting on here who think it is an OK way to collect an animal. Did you ever hear of fair chase?
Many on here condemn trophy hunting. A major feature of entering a trophy animal for consideration in the record books, is the hunter has to declare it was taken in fair chase.
I like to be proud of any game animal I shoot. I like to go into the bush on foot and meet an animal on its own terms. if I can outwit and shoot it, I am proud of it. To me, that is what hunting is all about.
I can remember when virtually all hunters felt as I do. Alas, things have changed.
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:jerkit:
 
If you seen foiur or five nice pansize walleye floppin around on shore and you held a current fishing licence would you A.Throw them back in the water then try to catch them with a rod&reel B.Have a hell of a shore lunch C................................. personally I would'nt shoot an animal in the water because it is illegal and not very sporting.BUT the second I see his ankle joints BOOM!!!!
 
H4831 said:
In BC it is strictly illegal, unless the animal is wounded and tries to swim away.
To go up to a swimming animal with a boat and shoot the animal is the most cowrdly, unfair method of shooting an animal that I could think of. I am amazed at the number of "hunters" reporting on here who think it is an OK way to collect an animal. Did you ever hear of fair chase?
Many on here condemn trophy hunting. A major feature of entering a trophy animal for consideration in the record books, is the hunter has to declare it was taken in fair chase.
I like to be proud of any game animal I shoot. I like to go into the bush on foot and meet an animal on its own terms. if I can outwit and shoot it, I am proud of it. To me, that is what hunting is all about.
I can remember when virtually all hunters felt as I do. Alas, things have changed.
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That's weird I just re-read the thread, and it seems like a vast majority of the respondents are saying no. And those few that have said yes weren't talking about driving right up to one in a boat and executing it - it's illegal to shoot from a vehicle whether the animal is swimming or not. So tell me, how exactly does the swimming part of the equation make it unfair? Is it more unfair than shooting an animal in other circumstances when it hasn't even realized you're there?

Btw, I'm not saying that I have done, or would do it where illegal. Or where a ricochet would pose a clear danger. I'm just having a hard time seeing how it's less ethical many other methods of hunting which are legal.

The bottom line is, if you're using a rifle you've already got a pretty massive advantage conferred upon you by technology. I don't really see how you're "meeting the animal on it's own terms" unless you wander into the bush naked and bash it's brains out with a found rock.
 
flick said:
That's weird I just re-read the thread, and it seems like a vast majority of the respondents are saying no. And those few that have said yes weren't talking about driving right up to one in a boat and executing it - it's illegal to shoot from a vehicle whether the animal is swimming or not. So tell me, how exactly does the swimming part of the equation make it unfair? Is it more unfair than shooting an animal in other circumstances when it hasn't even realized you're there?

Btw, I'm not saying that I have done, or would do it where illegal. Or where a ricochet would pose a clear danger. I'm just having a hard time seeing how it's less ethical many other methods of hunting which are legal.

The bottom line is, if you're using a rifle you've already got a pretty massive advantage conferred upon you by technology. I don't really see how you're "meeting the animal on it's own terms" unless you wander into the bush naked and bash it's brains out with a found rock.
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I re read the posts and half to agree that most of the posters wouldn't do it.
At least one poster was for driving the power poat up beside the swimming moose, shutting off the engine, which he claims makes it legal to shoot from, then shooting the helpless animal.
As far as meeting the animal one on one in the bush, you go into the bush on foot, fully dressed for it, little snow on the ground to help you, then try and track down and shoot, either a whitetail buck or a bull moose. After that you tell me if you had an advantage over the animal.
 
Here in BC the legalities of shooting from a boat are very simple... all forward motion of the boat from a power source (motor not a paddle/oar) has stopped you do not even have to take the leg of the motor out of the water, it helps if a CO is watching to lift the leg up because it is showing that you are doing everything as ethically as possible but it is not legally required.

Like I stated earlier if it was legal or not I wouldn't shoot an animal in the water but that is due more to having to retrieve the animal than ethics. :popCorn:
 
How about roping and drowning moose? It used to happen quite a bit in the north, and probably still does. Lord help you if the moose ever managed to get his feet on the bottom, a boat makes a poor sleigh.;)
 
2010 BC Game regulations.


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My grandfather told me once that he shot a buck that ran off into a small lake before it died. Wouldn't you know it, he didn't have a boat with him. So he had to wade out, retrieve the buck, wade back, and gut it. Not something he'd want to do again, and not something I'd want to do. And this was in water he didn't have to swim in. About shoulder height where he picked up the deer. I'm not going to look at this from an ethical or even legal standpoint. I don't want to drag a deer, and especially not a moose, out of the water and on to dry land, with or without a boat. So, no, I would not shoot an animal as they were swimming under normal circumstances. Now, if I were starving, yes. But that's starving and have to eat and/or feed my family, not last day of season and the tag is burning a hole in my ****ing pocket.
 
Here's a little different perspective... In much of the north, including Saskatchewan, it is traditional to hunt moose from a canoe during the calling season. I have done a fair bit of that in the Cumberland delta in Saskatchewan, and it is a wonderful way to hunt. We paddle a freighter canoe out from camp at dawn, stopping to call and hope to attract a bull to the shore of the river or lake. We use a small outboard motor to speed the return to camp against the current or when packing out a carcass.
During those hunts it is not unusual to shoot moose from the canoe, mostly ones we paddle quietly up to or have called to the shore where they could be seen. We never use a motor to approach them. Shooting from a canoe is completely legal in Saskatchewan as long as the boat is not under power from artificial means. We do not bother to dismount my 2hp outboard, just tilt it up.
I have shot one moose that was in the water. Quietly paddled up to the feeding animal. Same as a stalk on land in my opinion. It's shoulders and neck were all that were out of the water. At the shot, I learned that the moose was actually floating, and not standing on the bottom as I thought at the time. It swam a few strokes and then floated on its side. Towing to shore and cutting it up was a chore, but not much worse than any other moose. The area we hunt is completely unpopulated wilderness, and I do not feel the shot at the animal was "unsafe" at all. I did not feel guilty about the ethics of shooting that moose. Of course, it would have been illegal in other provinces, but not here.
 
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