What is deer hunting???

I've been reading alot of posts lately about "east texas being real deer hunting" i guess cause theres less deer and therfore "harder" in theory, somehow more sporting than us in south texas,"where we see 20-30 deer a day"


Same thing goes for high fence hunting, wether or not the place is 100 acres or 10,000 acres, that because of the height of the fence the hunting is automatically "easier" and therefore, not real hunting.

I'm willing to be alot of the same folks who snub there nose at hunting in a high fence (for majority of people it has nothing to do with ethics if you get what I mean) sit and watch a feeder spit corn day after day waiting for a deer.

What is real hunting then??? Is shooting one over a feeder on a low fence ranch "real hunting", but rattling one up on a high fence place isn't?

I've been on more ranches than most folks on here due to my profession and Im going to tell you, I've seen low fence places that looked like the plains in africa, exotic game everywhere, and killing something is no problem...i've been to high fence places in south texas and not seen a deer one driving around.


Where do these people come up with the definitions of "Real Hunting"?

It is geting in the woods, whether high, low fence, wooded, mesquite, cedar, flats, senderos. It is an out of body expierence here on earth. Another words it doesn't matter how you do it, just do it, so long as it is legal and it is what you like and appreciate.

Real hunting is whatever each of us thinks it is. Yeh, I hunt in East Texas. It's a lot harder to see a deer there than in South Texas but I hunt with a rifle, in a box blind, watching a feeder....a lot of folks wouldn't call that "hunting". I still do and I love it.

Everyone has their own opinions.?

Getting away with good friends and knocking back some hooch!!! Who cares if its high fence or low fence Etx or Stx!!

Here's how Webster defines the word "hunt"

Hunt: Pursue for food or sport. Try to find.

Based on these definitons, I would say "real hunting" is putting forth the effort to "pursue" or "try to find" wild game animals. IMO, opinions often differ when it comes to using food sources to attract the animal that supposedly is being hunted. When all you do is climb into a stand and wait for the animal to show up and eat what you have created for them, have you really done very much to try and find the animal? Or, have you just created a situation where the animal must come and find you.

IMO, many of the scenes that you see in those television shows have absolutely nothing to do with "trying to find" deer. When you climb stairs into a heated box stand with many comforts and just wait for a deer to show up and eat, you've done nothing more than to "shoot" a deer. But in our fast-paced world of ease and convenience, should we expect it to be anything more?

I also feel that hunting can occur on high-fence ranches or anywhere where someone puts forth the effort to "try to find" deer. But again, that depends on what "try to find" means to you.

If someone uses the words "real hunting", I simply take that as saying they prefer a much greater challenge in creating a harvest. As a well-known sportsman once said, "I don't hunt to kill, but kill to have hunted."

JMHO, but I also feel that making use of one's knowledge of deer behavior and other factors (knowledge of terrain, cover, wind and weather) to create a strategy or plan is also a characteristic of "real hunting".

I know my comments will offend some, but just keep in mind that I enjoy hunting food plots and corning roads as much as anyone. Still, it doesn't cause me to overlook the fact that it makes it much easier for me to shoot a deer.

It was a matter of time this went south, oh well

I really consider hunting to be just getting out there whether it is in a box blind, spot and stalking, or tree stand on travel path, high fence or low fence... Hunting is hunting. None right, none wrong.

I agree with the posts. Seems that most of the "types" of hunting these days revolve around the animals coming to us. Calling turkey and elk during the mating season, hunting ducks over a tank or lake with decoys, hunting doves over a water source or sunflower field, hunting deer over a feeder,food plot or trail. Maybe we are becoming lazy? For me, I still enjoy the "hunt" even though I'm waiting on them. Watching the sun rise and set, watching the chi-chi birds fly around the trees, watching squirrels bury acorns and steal your corn is what I enjoy the most. The harvest is just icing on the cake.

If you're not running barefoot through the prickly pears with a rock in your hand, you ain't hunting!

There, that ought to get all you zoo shooters stirred up!

Yes, no question that many will take offense at someone even bringing up the question. But then, many of these are too ignorant to realize that hunting isn't a right but a privilege that can be taken away. For that reason, I feel strongly that it's one we should always ask ourselves.

Less than 10% of the population consider themselves as "hunters". And while surveys have shown that most adults view hunting as a favorable practice, studies have also shown that most kids do not. And that last point is the one that frightens me the most. Once these kids become adults and recognize what we have done with our sport, will they decide it's time that we "leave the animals alone and buy your meat at the store."

OK, my serious answer to "What is deer hunting?" is to pursue the quarry using 100% legal means while adamantly sticking to whatever your personal set of ethics may be. This should also be accompanied by a certain amount of enjoyment in the pursuit and in the kill. If you really aren't enjoying it, you probably shouldn't be hunting.

In a loin cloth, of course!

Sad to see, but more and more hunting is "the way I do it", and not the way others do. Elitism, snobbery and jealousy all come into play. Any HF post, and a lot of bow hunting posts usually digress into the "I am really hunting, you are not" debate. Yeah, and my dad can beat up your dad...

If its legal, ethical, and you are having fun in the outdoors, who cares if the other guy does it just like you. We do a real good job of dividing up the sport into different camps which does not help our cause.

When My northern relatives ask me this...shooting under feeders... I ask them "How do you fish?"...do you use bait?
Why dont you use a spear?

Get kids involved EARLY...before their priorities change as a teenagers. I started young and gave up a lot what other kids my age couldnt live with out.

Family...Hunting ...Work

as long as its legal, i support anyone who gets out into the woods. especially if they take their kiddo's, or even better kids who dont have a parent to take them.

I HAVE BEEN HUNTING A LONG TIME.YOU READ ON HERE THE POST BASHING HUNTING OUT OF BLINDS AN OVER FEEDERS.HAS ANY ONE STOPPED TO THINK OF THE DISABLED PEOPLE WHO HUNT.THE ONES WITH LIMITED MOBILITY WHO CAN,T SPOT AN STALK OR THE OLDER HUNTERS WHO DON,T GET AROUND AS GOOD AS THEY USE TO.NO MATTER HOW WE HUNT IT,S OUR CHOICE.LIKE COWDOG SAID DO YOU FISH WITHOUT BAIT.JUST MY 2CENTS

For most of us a lot goes into it before we ever step foot on the lease.

Selecting the correct firearm and becoming proficient with it at the gun range so that you can take that animal as quickly and ethically as possible. Whether it's factory loads or hand loads, you have to put in time behind the trigger.

Repairing/replacing equipment you use to hunt with, whether it's your chainsaw or your tricked out 4x4 Mule.

Locating feed and getting it out there.

Then comes the outdoor stuff.

Repairing/replacing blinds, tripods, feeders, fences, cameras.
Pruning and trimming access roads, shooting lanes, around blinds.
Chipping in at the lease and maintaining the facilites and hauling trash out.
Scouting out trails, bedding areas, scrapes and rubs.

That's all the stuff that gets me into the mood for sitting in a frozen blind, waiting for that one buck I've beeing watching since the year before. I hunt low fence over a feeder and when that doesn't pan out I'll spot and stalk for a while before wrapping it up. I don't see one as better than the other.

I absolutely acknowledge that different styles require different skills. I just don't think that people who hunt out of blinds over feeders should be characterized as hunters who don't spend the same amount of time & effort preparing for taking the field.

Ditto!

and 2 ft of snow... wait better make that 6 inches got to make it more sporting

Heck, let's just hunt nekkid!!!

No offense, but I've seen some of y'all. I'll leave my binos and scope at home....

Woo, not naked...

ANyway... I thinking hunting is what you do that you love.... I like to try every way known, legal that is...this year I have bow hunted from a stand, from a brush blind, and from a pop-up... I have rifle hunted from various stands, with and without feeders, spot and stalk, rattled, hunted natural blinds and pinch points, and glassed from hills, canyon points, trees and vehicles....all while using a long range rifle, a short range rifle, a handgun and even one evening with a cross bow...

Someday I want to try dogs and deer drives where legal... it's all good.

Well said, Vernon. If it's outdoors, legal and you get to commune with God and family/friends, well then, it doesn't get much better!

CB

Everybody has their definition. As long as we're all having fun within the law, hunting is whatever you want it to be.

I agree, but only to a point.

The problem isn't so much in how we draw lines between ourselves, but how the non-hunting majority views our group as a whole. If we ignore their position and loose their favor, we have only ourselves to blame when they bring new laws against us.

Don't think the majority of voters are capable of such short-sightedness? Well, just consider the outcome of our last presidential election.

I don't think anyone here is ignoring non-hunters or being short sighted. They are just stating how they define hunting.

I don't think non hunters really care how we define it, ie. feeder, spot&stalk, bow, rifle etc. Most of the non hunters get worked up about the same things hunters do; poaching, canned hunts, some idiot buying a bear so he can shoot it,etc. The problem is the non hunters associate these things with hunting which I would bet most of us agree they are not.

My definition?
Stalking a free range animal is Hunting.

Shooting a Deer over a food plot or under a feeder is fishing for deer.

Shooting an animal behind a high fence is not hunting but killing.

I don't have a problem with any of them because I eat what I kill.

I'm tired of this argument. Who gives a damn what someone else think what "real hunting" is. As long as it's legal and it floats your boat, who am I to pass judgement.

I'll see you out there.

Ya, opinions are like butts. Everyone has one.

Amen brother! I will add, everyone that hunts is raised differently so I feel this is where the differance in "what is hunting" varies. If your daddy raised you in a HF operation then you prob feel that is the way hunting goes and vice versa. I think we should take the time to learn from each other and that will only make us stronger.

I've hunted and harvested deer still hunting, crouched down in some rocks for cover, from a stand over a feeder. My most proudest moments are from still hunts, and natural blinds I made or found, with no feeder or enticement. I've taken deer from stands over feeders. I've taken deer from high fence and low fenced properties. I will teach my grandson to still hunt and hunt from a natural blind. When he's good at that he can hunt from a stand over a feeder or however he wants.
BUT....He will learn fair chase First. I think our up and coming hunters deserve to know all three ways. JMHO.

I agree with Longhunter.

Sadly, it doesn't happen that way for a lot kids these days because there's no one who wants to take the time, or doesn't have the knowledge, to teach them "fair chase" tactics.

I've always thought "fair chase" referred to any legal/moral method of hunting that isn't some canned hunt type of scenario.

I feel hunting is a privledge and a right as long as you do it on your own land and not tresspassing on somebody elses land. God put the game on the planet not the goverment. What i mean is if the goverment says i gotta stop for no GOOD reason other than because they say so, well you know what im saying.