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Old February 7, 2006, 07:52 PM   #1
iudoug
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Canned hunts and pigeon shoots....

A couple of things have bothered me on these subjects in the past. Some guys call for an end to these type of hunts. Why? Who gives a rats a$$?? Just like the thread below on bird hunting the poster said they all had birds to take home to eat. Hog or deer hunts....same thing...they take the meat home and eat it. So why care and get hunters fighting among themselves over something so petty. Are the pheasants any more dead than stopping at the store for a dead chicken. Just think, we all need to stick together on this. No matter how you eat the blood is on your hands soon enough. BTW and for the record I have never done a bird shoot like that and wouldn't want to but if any of you all want too I have no problem with it.
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Old February 7, 2006, 08:34 PM   #2
Rembrandt
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Meat is meat......no difference whether you take it in the wild or a fenced in area, or buy it with a barcoded package from a professional "assassin" called the grocery store butcher.

I've hunted Texas game ranches....only difference between that and a commercial livestock operation is the consumer takes the shot. These serve a useful purpose for those that have little time to hunt and want an animal to take home.

I believe the Game Ranch Industry shoots themselves in the foot by calling this "hunting".....so what's the difference if a hog and cattle farmer does the same thing and calls that "hunting"? I think there's a better description that would fit both senarios, but hunting isn't one of them. Ranches get a lot of bad PR from within the hunter ranks by those who look at it as an unfair advantage and therein lies the rub....
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Old February 7, 2006, 08:52 PM   #3
fisherman66
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I've got more important things to worry about than "fair chase". Their money, their "hunt".
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Old February 8, 2006, 11:01 PM   #4
Art Eatman
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The main thing about discussing "canned hunts" and suchlike is to point out the difference between that style and the way one hunts game that is free-ranging and whose trails are not memorized by a guide.

It's not that hunting with a guide is wrong. One "borrows" or "rents" somebody else's expertise to assist in the hunt. IMO, it's a bit higher in the "ethics chain" to hunt solo.

But nobody was born an expert anything. Not I, not you; nobody. At some point, everybody was a beginner, a novice.

Further, not everybody has the free time to do it all: Move in, set up camp, spend time learning the country and the game patterns, and then find the prey and make the kill. You don't do all that in the two or three days the boss lets you have off from work.

Sure, a successful fair chase is the most rewarding. But any sort of reasonably ethical hunt which results in a kill and the meat is better than sitting at a desk, just wishing.

Pigeon shoots and such? That has nothing to do with hunting, as hunting. It is a test of skill, with traditions going back to the beginnings of shotgunning on birds. Definitely akin to Skeet or Sporting Clays...

Art
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Old February 13, 2006, 10:38 PM   #5
Csspecs
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I would never do one of these "hunts" myself as from what I can tell they are somewhat pointless. If I just have that odd urge to go kill something I get a blow gun and go on a mouse safari.

I would just leave the "canned hunt" thing rest, but I have had people bragging about how they went out and shot them selfs a deer their first time out "hunting", they then ask why I can't get anything. I am out in a state forest LOOKING for my deer, not waiting for it to get drag in front of me. It is not hunting. It target practice at best.

I can understand the guided hunts a little more, you have money but have no idea where to hunt and you lack the time to really get out there and do it. A good game ranch can still be called a hunt if it is somewhat involved and does take some time and patients.
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Old February 13, 2006, 11:58 PM   #6
Limeyfellow
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I hate it when they have the animals thrown at them. You have some rich git who gets thrown the birds by the dozen and shoots over 80 birds. Thats not hunting. Its just slaughter for the pleasure of it all. There seems to be way too many home raised animal ranches like that which will just let you cry where you just wasting animal life for the hell of it.
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Old February 14, 2006, 11:40 AM   #7
Twycross
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Quote:
You have some rich git who gets thrown the birds by the dozen and shoots over 80 birds. Thats not hunting.
No, that harvesting, little different from a commercial slaughterhouse, and there's nothing unethical about it. It just isn't hunting, and it holds no interest for me.
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Last edited by Twycross; February 14, 2006 at 02:03 PM.
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Old February 14, 2006, 01:52 PM   #8
Jack O'Conner
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There are many exotic ranch hunting outfits to avoid. Typical complaints focus upon small woodlot(s) for hunting and tame animals. In contrast, there actually are some exotic ranch hunting outfits that offer outstanding hunting. Some of these high fence ranches are overseas in S.Africa, Nambia, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, and New Calodonia. Even some good operations right here in USA! Back in the 1980's excellent hunting for elk, mule deer, and boar was available right off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. The Channel Islands.

A hunter who is focused upon attractive trophies and a great time should at least consider a high fence exotic ranch. But ask questions about size of the ranch and other factors before booking a date. Disappointment awaits those charge into this type of hunting without doing a little checking first.

Good hunting to you.
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