Whilst hunting might involve the killing & taking of an animal, it 100% relies on there being a healthy population to begin with.
Not to mention, hunting is actually very difficult (contrary to a lot of belief). You end up spending a phenomenal amount of time learning about animals, their habitat, and behavior. There ends up being deep admiration.
Not all hunters of course, some are dipshits. But such is true for any group of people.
| Not to mention, hunting is actually very difficult (contrary to a lot of belief).
This always bothered me. The attitude that you just walk up to some defenseless deer and shoot it and that's some unskilled cruel thing.
In reality it's hours or days in a row in a short amount of time a season is open sitting in miserable weather where hopefully the research you've done or the attempts to attract them might outweigh the fact that they can smell you from a mile away and are skittish at every sound in the world. Oh, and the practice and training you've had to do with whatever method you're using to hunt with.
Then there's the expense. Licenses, weapons, gear, time off work, you name it. I quit doing it simply because I don't have the time to invest in it as an adult.
I think the charter-type hunters are probably a statistic irrelevance in hunting in general, but unfortunately, money speaks, even when you don't want it to speak.
I'm mostly on board with you but what kind of "scouting" are you thinking of here? When I talk about scouting before a hunt, I'm talking about wandering around the countryside, looking for animals, looking for scat, etc.
There are some people that believe hunting should just be go to the woods, with your rifle or bow, and start walking around looking for deer. They are opposed to things like setting up feed piles of corn or apples, having cameras set up to find common paths for deer, etc. I suspect the latter where someone spend pre-season effort to find where they are is what's meant by scouting.
A personal note on that - I've done those things for years, seen big bucks on trail cams, bought bags of feed corn, watched them eating them on the trail cam, then gone to that spot and never seen deer in hunting season. :)
I’m curious too. Perhaps they mean getting others to do all the scouting to near guarantee a successful hunt?
I spend a ton of time in the woods reading sign and just generally being aware & learning. Ton of hours and boot leather burned, I don’t think that works for the “pay to win” crowd
One of my family members used to have a home out in a forested area, with access to a lake that had lots of fish in it. Not long after the fall of the soviet union, someone bought one of the nearby properties, and started fishing the lake with explosives. Within several years the lake had basically no fish left because of how indiscriminant the fishing method was. The family member and some of the other people who had access to the lake finally managed to drive out the dynamite-laden arsehole, but by then the damage was done. Even 20+ years later the fish population in the lake hasn't recovered.
Comments
Whilst hunting might involve the killing & taking of an animal, it 100% relies on there being a healthy population to begin with.
Not to mention, hunting is actually very difficult (contrary to a lot of belief). You end up spending a phenomenal amount of time learning about animals, their habitat, and behavior. There ends up being deep admiration.
Not all hunters of course, some are dipshits. But such is true for any group of people.
| Not to mention, hunting is actually very difficult (contrary to a lot of belief).
This always bothered me. The attitude that you just walk up to some defenseless deer and shoot it and that's some unskilled cruel thing.
In reality it's hours or days in a row in a short amount of time a season is open sitting in miserable weather where hopefully the research you've done or the attempts to attract them might outweigh the fact that they can smell you from a mile away and are skittish at every sound in the world. Oh, and the practice and training you've had to do with whatever method you're using to hunt with.
Then there's the expense. Licenses, weapons, gear, time off work, you name it. I quit doing it simply because I don't have the time to invest in it as an adult.
Only in some parts of country... further west you're frequently hiking miles and miles (in miserable weather) instead.
There's the big split in types of hunters, as well.
You've got hunters whose goal is the challenge and experience.
And then you've got the assholes only interested in "How much do I have to spend to guarantee I kill a ____?"
The latter leads to baiting, driving, scouting, and all the other activities that turn "hunting" into a single trigger pull.
Unsurprisingly, those people tend to have a lot less respect for land, environment, and animal populations. No effort, no respect.
I think the charter-type hunters are probably a statistic irrelevance in hunting in general, but unfortunately, money speaks, even when you don't want it to speak.
I'm mostly on board with you but what kind of "scouting" are you thinking of here? When I talk about scouting before a hunt, I'm talking about wandering around the countryside, looking for animals, looking for scat, etc.
There are some people that believe hunting should just be go to the woods, with your rifle or bow, and start walking around looking for deer. They are opposed to things like setting up feed piles of corn or apples, having cameras set up to find common paths for deer, etc. I suspect the latter where someone spend pre-season effort to find where they are is what's meant by scouting.
A personal note on that - I've done those things for years, seen big bucks on trail cams, bought bags of feed corn, watched them eating them on the trail cam, then gone to that spot and never seen deer in hunting season. :)
I’m curious too. Perhaps they mean getting others to do all the scouting to near guarantee a successful hunt?
I spend a ton of time in the woods reading sign and just generally being aware & learning. Ton of hours and boot leather burned, I don’t think that works for the “pay to win” crowd
One of my family members used to have a home out in a forested area, with access to a lake that had lots of fish in it. Not long after the fall of the soviet union, someone bought one of the nearby properties, and started fishing the lake with explosives. Within several years the lake had basically no fish left because of how indiscriminant the fishing method was. The family member and some of the other people who had access to the lake finally managed to drive out the dynamite-laden arsehole, but by then the damage was done. Even 20+ years later the fish population in the lake hasn't recovered.