Got to thinking, what hunting activities are legal but not ethical or are ethical but not legal. I'll go first, ethical-bringing a weapon with when tracking at night to finish off a wounded animal. Legal-shooting a bow 60+yards at a deer. What's your answer?
Big Game Hunting
Ethics vs legal
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Kona, nobody I know has ever dragged a non gutted deer out on the public. I have however seen several times guys pull up that shot deer on private land and didn't want to leave gutpiles on their small acreage and do the deed in the first public spot they can. My crew still reference certain parking lots as "the gutpiles spot" and "that lot that guy was gutting that big ten point" I believe in almost all cases of piles in the parking lot this is what is going on, which sucks as it gives all hunters a bad name. Gun season is the worst, I've seen both gutpiles and boned out carcasses in lots this week. During a drive yesterday my brother found a dead one from last weekend with the head cut off the nuts cut off and the tarsal glands cut off with a gun shot in the lower neck area .... whoever did that is a rotten sob.
Wally Pike,
I disagree about having two separate categories/books for bucks shot on public vs private land...and for one reason...I own a little over 28 acres...I'm not "growing / holding" ANYTHING on my property. So in the 'record book' I would be stacked against the Drury's who own 1,000 acre farms in Iowa that have deer that potentially are born, live and die without leaving that farm? I own 28 acres...the neighbor to the North owns 20, the neighbor to the NE owns 20, and the neighbor to the NW owns 20...these properties have 2-3 hunters each during gun season. How is that really any different than hunting public land??? Guys kill big deer on public every year. It may not be the same guy EVERY year, but good public land will give up good bucks every year if the habitat is right. The problem is that a lot of public land hunters (not all) have the "brown it's down" mentality or say "if I don't shoot it the next guy will"...You will not shoot a P&Y or B&C buck if you whack the first 1.5 year old you see "cuz if you don't the next guy will". The record books are not to separate public from private land deer, but rather to have some sort of "standard" what constitutes a "trophy" to that organization. A trophy is a trophy, regardless of the land type it was harvested on, and each "trophy" is defined by the hunter that pulls the trigger IMHO.
So one of my biggest "beefs" are guys who shoot deer on public and then drag them to the parking area to gut them. First of all I don't get the concept at all of dragging a deer with the extra weight. Why not just gut it where it fell and have less weight to drag?? Then you have the whole issue of gut piles laying around to be seen by folks who don't really care for our sport to begin with. Several weeks ago a person took a picture of a gut pile and shared on a separate social site. This is a heavily used hiking/biking area in SE Wisc. Of course it was followed by dozens of negative comments about slob hunters and other similar comments. A local hunter saw the report and went to remove the guts (kudos to him). I also don't like seeing them for just the fact dogs will go up to them and maybe start eating some of the "goodies". Keep gut piles away from public parking areas. My rant is over!!
Legal but unethical. Driving your pickup to within 50yards of a hunter in his stand and parking and heading off into the woods for the afternoon which is exactly what happened to my buddy and I Sunday afternoon. We were hunting a ridge with me watching one side and my buddy watching the other side we were about 60 yards apart and when the guy parked his truck he was about 50 yards from me and less than 20 feet from my buddies blind. Keep in mind that the parking spot for that particular area is about 250 yards from where he parked his truck on the old woods road. If you look at the back of the picture you can see a spot of orange by which is my buddies blind right behind the black blob that is the truck. I understand it's public land but geez have some respect.
IFB, I've had bow hunters get pissed when I've encountered them on public land and I'm out with my bird dog, to the point that things were about to come to blows. I've had bow hunters act like its not a big deal. Actually, had a few that said its probably just as likely that I'll push something towards them as push it away. I guess its all in how you look at things.
Minnesota can't bow and gun hunt at same time.
As for small game-pheasant hunting starts not at sun up. I don't mind sharing public land and hunt almost only public. I am just saying would be nice to have small game shooting hours the same as pheasant and not sun up tromping through the woods.
icefish BABY
So according to your mandate all small game hunters need to stay out of the woods just in case there is a bowhunter who might want to hunt the area. That's BS.
If you don't want to potentially contend with someone else walking in the area work harder. Get to really isolated hard to reach spots. Or get access to private land.
Public land is exactly that. It is for everyone not just for people using it in a way you prefer.
Suck it up BABY.
There should be two separate record categories for deer based on the land where it was killed, public or private. It's one thing to hunt and kill a nice buck on public land, it's completely another to "grow" your own deer, wait until it's the size you want it, then kill it.
Displaying 1 to 15 of 46 posts
