Ethics of hunting at feed stations - Page 3

rangefodder · October 20, 2005, 01:31 PM

Impact:

If you are sitting around a station with the sole intent of shooting what ever comes near it it is not hunting.

As far as killing a deer 150yds away...all you did was kill a deer 150 yds away.

You really didn't hunt anything.

20cows · October 20, 2005, 02:00 PM

Quote:

As far as killing a deer 150yds away...all you did was kill a deer 150 yds away.

You really didn't hunt anything.

Is this a problem?

Lonestar.45 · October 20, 2005, 02:38 PM

I guess duck hunters aren't really hunters, since they sit on their butts all day over a spread of decoys in a flooded grain field.

In my book, hunting a feeder isn't any different than setting up a mock scrape and hunting over it, or using rattling horns, or a grunt call, or hunting over a corn, alfalfa, or peanut field. If you use doe in heat scent during the rut, please tell me how that is different than hunting a feeder.

Bravo25 · October 20, 2005, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Is this a problem?

Nope. It just doesn't fit the definition of "Hunting"

impact · October 20, 2005, 07:39 PM

rangefodder we have a guy that broke his back two years ago to this month. He is stuck in a wheelchair. There is no way he can spot and stalk a deer. Before he broke his back I would say he was one of the best hunters I knew. The guy was good! His 14 year old daughter can out hunt most men I know. We have a stand setup just for him. I want you to tell him he is not a hunter because he can't walk. I want you to tell him he is not a hunter because he has to sit in a stand. But before you say that to him. Ask him why he still hunts? I know what he will say. But I don't think you will!

2rugers · October 20, 2005, 08:39 PM

Always a good hunting topic.

Different parts of the country hunt deer different ways. Great posts 20C, Impact, and Art. As always, it is easy for people to judge others when they are on the clean end of the @#$% stick.
Rangefodder, you sound like someone who has never hunted deer in his life, but maybe read a book or two.
Bravo, give us the definition in YOUR dictionary. Definition #3 in mine ( Random house college), states: to search for; seek; ENDEAVOR TO OBTAIN OR FIND. I like that last little bit.

Is it easy to kill " A " deer at a feeder? Yes. Is it easy to kill the deer you are specifically hunting? No. I have a 50 ac. farm here in TX. and I can watch the 2 feeders we have set up 250 yds from my back porch. Last year I literally hunted almost every morning and afternoon for a specific buck I had been watching eat my feed all summer. Climbed into the stand opening morning of bow season and??????????? No buck! I finally got him on the last morning of the last day, nowhere near the feeder.
All of you "ANTIS" must realize that hunting feeders plays one very important role to all of us and our sport.
It provides a method for the young, the new, or the disinterested to feel the adrenaline pump of at least seeing deer their first few times out, thereby keeping the interest and motivation to "go again". The more fun the new and young have, the more likely they are to become sportsman such as ourselves.
Pro-hunting, pro-guns, pro-outdoorsman period.
We need that desperately.
So, take a first timer out and let them do it the "feeder way" instead of forcing them to trudge over hill and dell in disinterested frustration. Trust me, I have made some wonderful converts who now enjoy our sport almost as much as I.
One final note: stop judging others for their method of take as long as it is legal, nothing pro-sport, will come of it.

Jack O'Conner · October 21, 2005, 03:30 PM

I have a little different perspective on the word hunting. You are allowed to disagree with me, but please let's be polite and friendly with each other.

Dad (deceased 2004) used to call non-resident city guys hunting in the Bighorns as "hiking with a rifle". They did not know the terrain and were hoping to see game. Didn't really know where to look.

In contrast, our family knows where to find mulies and elk and we carry our rifles to pre-scouted ambush sites. In other words, a planned hunt based upon passed down information and our knowledge of animal habits: their preferred food(s) and predictable bedding areas.

Question: Who are the hunters? In my opinion, both the hikers and those waiting quietly in ambush are hunters. We share valid licenses and are clearly hoping to bring home game.

I think its a mistake to assume an ambush hunter is using some sort of unfair advantage to shoot an undisturbed animal at fairly close range. Ambush hunting is effective and ethical to my view. The hunt does not always go as planned and even the best ambush site is rarely 100% effective, 100% of the time.

I'm hoping we can find more to unite us than to divide us as hunters and ethical Americans.
Jack

butch50 · October 23, 2005, 06:01 PM

Quote:

We have 10 feeders on my lease in east Texas. I can tell you that the deer are not trained to come to the sound of the feeder. I have never! Ever! seen a big buck at a feeder! . When One of my feeders goes off the treerats and coons come running . To tell you the truth I don't even know why we set up feeders. They don't work! As long as there are acorns on the ground the feeders don't do anything.

Butch I want you to come to my lease this year. You don't live to far. I want you to show me how to stalk a deer in brush that you can't see more than 20 yards. We have lots of deer because of the brush. They just don't show themselves.

Send me a PM and I will certainly entertain the idea!

I went scouting today in the area that I will be hunting later this year and foudn very little sign. Could be this dry weather has caused them to move elsewhere. Hopefully we will get some rain and they will come back in. If you hunt my way, you are certainly not guaranteed to get a deer every year. That's why I call it hunting

. The deer you do get every few years though, you will be extremely proud of. Even if it is a lowly doe.

I don't understand though, if the feeders don't work, why do you use them? 10 of them would be quite a chore to load and maintain.

impact · October 23, 2005, 09:03 PM

Quote:

I don't understand though, if the feeders don't work, why do you use them? 10 of them would be quite a chore to load and maintain.

It makes me feel better to give back to the environment. Deer do eat at the feeders but only at night. and no I don't shoot deer at night! I watched a little four point last year walk within about 50 yards of a feeder and never even stopped to look. One thing I like about feeders they will bring the hogs! But I really like to spot and stalk hogs. Most of the time I have a good idea where the hogs will be. and I just go in and get them. Now thats fun

.

A few years ago we had a guy that liked to walk around the woods looking for deer. He never shot a deer but the other hunters could tell where he was because he would run out all the deer in the area.

I took a forum member out to my lease back in july? I think it was. We only walked about 1/4 th the lease in the daytime and saw about 10 deer. Some real close. Come around this time of the year the deer turn into ghost. I know they are there from the signs. But you just don't see them?

Art Eatman · October 24, 2005, 07:05 AM

Deer are worse than people about thinking that Anythig Diffeerent Is Bad.

Changes in behavior patterns: Where are all those funny-smelling upright animals coming from? is a "for instance". Hunters don't act like ranchers. Just the additional truck or jeep traffic around a ranch is unsettling. Or, a group will go out to build stands or check out the area, and they talk and smoke and carry on--and this is all new to Bambi.

A deer has two normal reactions to all this: Run, or hide.

Art

impact · October 24, 2005, 09:54 PM

You know Art I tell everyone leave the ATVs at home. on opening morning when all the ATVs come out the deer go the other way. Art you sound like you been there and done that

impact · October 24, 2005, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Send me a PM and I will certainly entertain the idea!

I like to meet forum members. If you want to go I don't have a problem with that. We pretty much have a house in the woods. All you will need to bring is what you like to hunt with. I have everything else. If you are lucky to be there when Mike is there. (the guy in the wheelchair) he is a great guy to talk to. He was born deaf but he knows how to read lips. He has some great storys. I was always amazed how well this guy could hunt for a guy that could not hear.

butch50 · October 25, 2005, 08:04 AM

Thanks Impact!

Mike sure sounds like an interesting guy, I would like to meet him. I will be more than happy to share my hunting grounds with you as well. Public land, where you can not set up stands or feeders or anything that even stays overnight. Lots of walking, lots of fun, kind of hard on the old legs but still a great way to spend a day.

It is shotgun or muzzleloader only. Typically I carry in my lunch and stay from dark to dark. But unless we get some rain, I am not sure how productive it will be this year. Usually there are lots of sign, but this fall I found very little sign.

Butch

XavierBreath · October 25, 2005, 08:40 AM

I always figgered there was a problem when I saw a deer call that imitated an automatic feeder.

It's kind of like rattling the dogfood bag and then shooting Rover.

2rugers · October 25, 2005, 09:33 PM

XB.

But rover tastes sooooo good!

Impact of Reason · November 5, 2005, 04:42 PM

on where youre hunting.... in some parts of the country, stand/ feeder hunting is rediculously easy. in others, its not. from where i'm from in texas, a stand and feeder by no means guaruntee a successful hunt. in fact, i have been hunting for ten years now and have only taken four deer(granted, i am somewhat selective and have let a few pass). the terrain just makes stalking prohibitive, as does the method of land distribution in texas. large open range just doesnt exist here. there are no mountains to stalk over and such. in some ways, stand hunting can be like a chess game with the deer. last season i saw the buck of my life from a stand, but he wouldnt give me a shot. over the next five nights, we danced a delicate ballet around each other, him trying to live, me....well you know. i saw him five times in five nights, each time i shifted the location of my popup stand, the location of the corn i spread, the gun i used and the range at which i tried to take him. on the hill, at the bottom, in the tree, under the tree, etc. the point is , i tried a dozen different tactics. and every night i saw him. but due to the terrain, i never got the shot. so dont tell me stand hunting is cheating. it is an art of its own. just a different art.

Art Eatman · November 5, 2005, 07:25 PM

impact, I gotta admit I do have a few years of messin' with Bambi, and learning a bit about his general behavior.

Art

October 20, 2005, 08:39 PM	#56
2rugers Senior Member Join Date: August 21, 2005 Location: texas Posts: 762	Always a good hunting topic. Different parts of the country hunt deer different ways. Great posts 20C, Impact, and Art. As always, it is easy for people to judge others when they are on the clean end of the @#$% stick. Rangefodder, you sound like someone who has never hunted deer in his life, but maybe read a book or two. Bravo, give us the definition in YOUR dictionary. Definition #3 in mine ( Random house college), states: to search for; seek; ENDEAVOR TO OBTAIN OR FIND. I like that last little bit. Is it easy to kill " A " deer at a feeder? Yes. Is it easy to kill the deer you are specifically hunting? No. I have a 50 ac. farm here in TX. and I can watch the 2 feeders we have set up 250 yds from my back porch. Last year I literally hunted almost every morning and afternoon for a specific buck I had been watching eat my feed all summer. Climbed into the stand opening morning of bow season and??????????? No buck! I finally got him on the last morning of the last day, nowhere near the feeder. All of you "ANTIS" must realize that hunting feeders plays one very important role to all of us and our sport. It provides a method for the young, the new, or the disinterested to feel the adrenaline pump of at least seeing deer their first few times out, thereby keeping the interest and motivation to "go again". The more fun the new and young have, the more likely they are to become sportsman such as ourselves. Pro-hunting, pro-guns, pro-outdoorsman period. We need that desperately. So, take a first timer out and let them do it the "feeder way" instead of forcing them to trudge over hill and dell in disinterested frustration. Trust me, I have made some wonderful converts who now enjoy our sport almost as much as I. One final note: stop judging others for their method of take as long as it is legal, nothing pro-sport, will come of it. __________________ Pain Is The Quickest Teacher 2RUGERS AKA "HALFCOCKED"

October 25, 2005, 08:04 AM	#63
butch50 Senior Member Join Date: April 15, 2005 Location: Republic of Texas Posts: 1,403	Thanks Impact! Mike sure sounds like an interesting guy, I would like to meet him. I will be more than happy to share my hunting grounds with you as well. Public land, where you can not set up stands or feeders or anything that even stays overnight. Lots of walking, lots of fun, kind of hard on the old legs but still a great way to spend a day. It is shotgun or muzzleloader only. Typically I carry in my lunch and stay from dark to dark. But unless we get some rain, I am not sure how productive it will be this year. Usually there are lots of sign, but this fall I found very little sign. Butch __________________ ‘‘Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.’’ ~ Mahatma Ghandi, "Gandhi, An Autobiography", page 446 ‘‘The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun.’’ ~ Patrick Henry

October 25, 2005, 08:40 AM	#64
XavierBreath Senior Member Join Date: December 6, 2002 Location: North Louisiana Posts: 2,800	I always figgered there was a problem when I saw a deer call that imitated an automatic feeder. It's kind of like rattling the dogfood bag and then shooting Rover. __________________ Xavier's Blog

October 25, 2005, 09:33 PM	#65
2rugers Senior Member Join Date: August 21, 2005 Location: texas Posts: 762	XB. But rover tastes sooooo good! __________________ Pain Is The Quickest Teacher 2RUGERS AKA "HALFCOCKED"

November 5, 2005, 04:42 PM	#66
Impact of Reason Senior Member Join Date: May 13, 2005 Location: nacogdoches, texas Posts: 205	it all depends.... on where youre hunting.... in some parts of the country, stand/ feeder hunting is rediculously easy. in others, its not. from where i'm from in texas, a stand and feeder by no means guaruntee a successful hunt. in fact, i have been hunting for ten years now and have only taken four deer(granted, i am somewhat selective and have let a few pass). the terrain just makes stalking prohibitive, as does the method of land distribution in texas. large open range just doesnt exist here. there are no mountains to stalk over and such. in some ways, stand hunting can be like a chess game with the deer. last season i saw the buck of my life from a stand, but he wouldnt give me a shot. over the next five nights, we danced a delicate ballet around each other, him trying to live, me....well you know. i saw him five times in five nights, each time i shifted the location of my popup stand, the location of the corn i spread, the gun i used and the range at which i tried to take him. on the hill, at the bottom, in the tree, under the tree, etc. the point is , i tried a dozen different tactics. and every night i saw him. but due to the terrain, i never got the shot. so dont tell me stand hunting is cheating. it is an art of its own. just a different art. __________________ Those who believe in gun control think that we don't need guns to protect us against an oppressive government, because the Constitution has internal safeguards, and the government should ban and seize all guns, therefore violating the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendments of that Constitution, thereby becoming an oppressive government.

October 20, 2005, 01:31 PM	#51
rangefodder Member Join Date: September 10, 2005 Posts: 22	Impact: If you are sitting around a station with the sole intent of shooting what ever comes near it it is not hunting. As far as killing a deer 150yds away...all you did was kill a deer 150 yds away. You really didn't hunt anything.

October 20, 2005, 02:38 PM	#53
Lonestar.45 Senior Member Join Date: December 17, 2004 Posts: 261	I guess duck hunters aren't really hunters, since they sit on their butts all day over a spread of decoys in a flooded grain field. In my book, hunting a feeder isn't any different than setting up a mock scrape and hunting over it, or using rattling horns, or a grunt call, or hunting over a corn, alfalfa, or peanut field. If you use doe in heat scent during the rut, please tell me how that is different than hunting a feeder.

October 20, 2005, 07:39 PM	#55
impact Senior Member Join Date: January 8, 2005 Location: the great state of Texas Posts: 854	rangefodder we have a guy that broke his back two years ago to this month. He is stuck in a wheelchair. There is no way he can spot and stalk a deer. Before he broke his back I would say he was one of the best hunters I knew. The guy was good! His 14 year old daughter can out hunt most men I know. We have a stand setup just for him. I want you to tell him he is not a hunter because he can't walk. I want you to tell him he is not a hunter because he has to sit in a stand. But before you say that to him. Ask him why he still hunts? I know what he will say. But I don't think you will!

October 21, 2005, 03:30 PM	#57
Jack O'Conner Senior Member Join Date: July 11, 2005 Location: Manatee County, Florida Posts: 1,976	I have a little different perspective on the word hunting. You are allowed to disagree with me, but please let's be polite and friendly with each other. Dad (deceased 2004) used to call non-resident city guys hunting in the Bighorns as "hiking with a rifle". They did not know the terrain and were hoping to see game. Didn't really know where to look. In contrast, our family knows where to find mulies and elk and we carry our rifles to pre-scouted ambush sites. In other words, a planned hunt based upon passed down information and our knowledge of animal habits: their preferred food(s) and predictable bedding areas. Question: Who are the hunters? In my opinion, both the hikers and those waiting quietly in ambush are hunters. We share valid licenses and are clearly hoping to bring home game. I think its a mistake to assume an ambush hunter is using some sort of unfair advantage to shoot an undisturbed animal at fairly close range. Ambush hunting is effective and ethical to my view. The hunt does not always go as planned and even the best ambush site is rarely 100% effective, 100% of the time. I'm hoping we can find more to unite us than to divide us as hunters and ethical Americans. Jack

October 24, 2005, 07:05 AM	#60
Art Eatman Staff in Memoriam Join Date: November 13, 1998 Location: Terlingua, TX; Thomasville, GA Posts: 24,798	Deer are worse than people about thinking that Anythig Diffeerent Is Bad. Changes in behavior patterns: Where are all those funny-smelling upright animals coming from? is a "for instance". Hunters don't act like ranchers. Just the additional truck or jeep traffic around a ranch is unsettling. Or, a group will go out to build stands or check out the area, and they talk and smoke and carry on--and this is all new to Bambi. A deer has two normal reactions to all this: Run, or hide. Art

October 24, 2005, 09:54 PM	#61
impact Senior Member Join Date: January 8, 2005 Location: the great state of Texas Posts: 854	You know Art I tell everyone leave the ATVs at home. on opening morning when all the ATVs come out the deer go the other way. Art you sound like you been there and done that

November 5, 2005, 07:25 PM	#67
Art Eatman Staff in Memoriam Join Date: November 13, 1998 Location: Terlingua, TX; Thomasville, GA Posts: 24,798	impact, I gotta admit I do have a few years of messin' with Bambi, and learning a bit about his general behavior. Art