"Hunting" Definition?

[Bella]

What do you all define as hunting? What do you define as shooting?

Do you consider sitting on the edge of a field popping varmints off at long range as hunting?

What about planted pheasants, do you call that hunting or shooting?

How about sitting in a stand near bait and waiting for a bear to kill, hunting or shooting?

Do you consider any form of taking an animal as hunting, or is your definition more specific?

[phwe9774]

If I'm in the wilderness with the intention of killing an animal, I'm hunting. If I'm at the range killing paper, I'm shooting.

As far as planted animals, I look at it like fishing in a stocked lake. It still requires some amount of knowledge and skill to find and kill a planted animal or fish in a stocked lake

[Snyper]

Laws tend to define hunting moreso than the precise methods used, or the specific type of game.

Generally, it's "hunting" if you're even ATTEMPTING to "reduce to posssesion" any living animal

[jmr40]

I'd classify all of the above as hunting. I just enjoy some methods more than others. We have different laws and traditions in every region of the country. As long as it is legal where you hunt, it is hunting.

[riflemen]

If my gun is aimed at something alive that I want dead {deer, turkey, moose, bear, squirrel, coyote, ect}, that is hunting,

if its aimed at something that is not alive {paper, wood, metal, milk jug, target of any type} that is shooting...

[Tipsy Mcstagger]

If I'm killing an animal to eat it, I'm hunting.

[Jo6pak]

" the practice of killing or trapping any living organism, or pursuing it with the intent of doing so."

[tahunua001]

my definition of hunting is any shooting sport which involves the death of an animal of any size or genus. some activities which I would consider hunting include, but are not limited to
1. a guy sitting in the bed of his truck shooting prairie dogs.
2. walking around with a rifle/muzzle loader/shotgun/pistol looking for animals
3. sitting in a stand/blind waiting for animals to come close enough to shoot
4. sitting in a rocking chair on your back porch with a bb gun waiting for tweety birds to shoot.
5. driving around on back roads looking for tracks or animals to shoot.
6. paying out the nose to walk around in a fenced in enclosure and shoot a corn fed animal.
7. flying around in a helicopter with a minigun wiping out herds of feral hogs.

this is not to be confused with culling or mercy killing which might include but is not limited to
1. putting a bullet in the deer that was just hit by a car and is now stranded in the middle of the road.
2. putting down a sick pet
3. state condoned thinning of herds in regions with overpopulation.

to me hunting has nothing to do with tactics and everything to do with mindset. if you are killing an animal which you did not raise whether for food, or sport it is hunting as far as I'm concerned.

[Doyle]

Of course you could always use the language of the British aristocracy?
1. Hunting = on horseback (wearing funny red jackets) chasing hounds who are chasing foxes.
2. Shooting = standing in the field waiting for the "beaters' and dogs to scare up birds for you to shoot.
3. Stalking = following the ghillie over the moors until he spies the right animal and hands you the rifle to make the kill.

[Pahoo]

Everyone has a personal "Hunting Code" or how I deal with all the elements involved, in a responsible and discipline manner. In my book, it is not a sport but a way of life. ....

For whatever reason, it's harvesting of game, lawfully and ethically. ...

Do you consider sitting on the edge of a field popping varmints off at long range as hunting?

Absolutely !!!

What about planted pheasants, do you call that hunting or shooting?

Hunting and I have guided on such hunts without reservations. Remember that all RingNecks are were imported and "planted" many years ago. Granted, some are smarter than others but none are native to the USA...

How about sitting in a stand near bait and waiting for a bear to kill, hunting or shooting?

That is called baiting and takes many forms. Personally does not interest me as ethical hunting involves the rule "Fair-Chase"

Do you consider any form of taking an animal as hunting, or is your definition more specific?

No and yes. By taking, you mean killing. There have been times when I have killed and animal that I did not hunt. I have killed, putdown animals that were ill, old and suffering. I can live with that !! ....

Be Safe !!!

[tahunua001]

Personally does not interest me as ethical hunting involves the rule "Fair-Chase

generally yes but in the case of bears the two most effective methods are with hounds or over bait. I would never hunt deer or other animals with such tactics but with bear in this region it's kindof a necessity. your area may vary.

[Blindstitch]

I met a guy out hunting and he gave me a lecture on how shooting planted pheasants wasn't hunting yet he was there with two dogs and shotgun loaded.

Then he decided to tell me I couldn't hunt pheasants without a dog.

If you think hunting planted pheasants isn't hunting do it without a dog. It's hard, really hard. I may have shot 8 pheasants and a quail in the last month but the thorn scratches and stinging legs say I was hunting.

If it's legal season, you have a license, and put forth the effort it's hunting.

[Tsalagi84]

Find Animal.

Shoot Animal.

Butcher Animal.

Eat Animal.

That is my definition of hunting.

[Double Naught Spy]

Hunter? Shooter? Harvester? When folks get fixated on terminology to classify what they are doing or to claim that isn't what somebody else is doing (You are a true hunter...), I up the stakes a bit and explain that while maybe 10% of the time I am a spot and stalk hunter, 90% of the time I am a predator and hog sniper. Not only that, because of my limited scope of targets, I am a "strategic" hunter or a "strategic" sniper as characterized by a Texas A&M game management paper from a few years ago that dealt with selective predation for the purposes of population control.

Self-imposed titles are great, but the bottom line is that the State of Texas says I have to have a hunting license for what I do and so I am a hunter, plain and simple, and what I do is hunting.

[Husqvarna]

Find Animal.

Shoot Animal.

Butcher Animal.

Eat Animal.

That is my definition of hunting.

I hunt plenty of animals I just shoot, still hunting.

you can have my fox, badger, crow meat if you like

I am gonna try crow one of these days, my neighbours the norweigans says it is good eating, my grandma says they ate badger during the war, it was even sold in stores as diggingswine

[Husqvarna]

Hunting is fun and enjoyable but I would never hunt just because it is fun.

everything has got a purpose, pest control, predator control so we get more small game and meathunting etc etc

don't think I would trophy hunt, but a luxuary problem because I am not thar rich to be able to anyway

[Pahoo]

generally yes but in the case of bears the two most effective methods are with hounds or over bait.

Agree but the exception and primarily regional. A few years back, I hunted in Alabama. Did a bit of homework prior to going down there and read where they drive deer with dogs. Initially this stuck me as being unethical as my point of departure, was the Iowa landscape. Once I got there, I had a better understanding and "appreciation" of their use. ....

Be Safe !!!

[Pahoo]

Bella,
Not sure why you bring these questions up, as in the end, your ethics will dictate your actions. As I've stated before, we all have our own unique and personalized hunting code. .....

ETHICS;
What you say, think and do when no one is looking !!!

Be Safe !!!

[buck460XVR]

ETHICS;
What you say, think and do when no one is looking !!!

In the hunter safety classes I help with we define ethics as doing the right thing, within the law, when no one else is around. Regardless of how you try and justify it, breaking the law in most cases, is not the ethical thing to do.

Hunting is a very ambiguous term and means different things to different folks. What is considered fair chase and ethical in one region of the country may be totally against the law in another. Same goes for what is socially accepted. As long as it's legal and is done in a humane manner, anytime an animal that has a chance to escape is pursued, it could be considered hunting in my opinion. It does not mean it's the way I myself would hunt, but I still consider it hunting none the less.

[Ske1etor]

If I'm outdoors with the intention of taking a wild game animal, I'm hunting. If baiting is legal, do it. If it's not, don't. I don't care what your personal ethics are, if you're following the laws, have fun and enjoy your hunt.

[Husqvarna]

the problems with ethics in hunting is that they are not set by the ones hunting.

we cannot bait bear here but that is the best way to distinguish a solitary bear from one with cubs.

[ZeroJunk]

When you say you are going hunting and whoever you tell knows you are going hunting then the purpose of the word has been fulfilled.

Now, if you say you are going hunting and they say which course, or what floor, or I hear they have good crab cakes, then some more explanation could be necessary.

[buck460XVR]

Originally posted by Husqvarna:

the problems with ethics in hunting is that they are not set by the ones hunting.

we cannot bait bear here but that is the best way to distinguish a solitary bear from one with cubs.

Ethics are set by the individual hunting. If you do not bait bears because you do not feel it's a proper way to hunt bear, but are allowed to legally, it's ethics. If you cannot bait bears, because of a law or regulation, it's not ethics. Big difference.

[bird_dog]

I've hunted baited bears and planted pheasants as well as just about everything else under "normal" hunting conditions.

To me, ethics involve following the rules in your area. You might think baiting bears is unethical. I don't, when I'm hunting in Maine where most of your competition is also hunting over bait. I've known a few people who have baited bears here in NY. That, to me, is not ethical, because it's illegal and doing so removes the level playing field.

Illegal isn't always unethical, but it very often is.

Legal isn't always ethical, but it generally tends to be.

[jimbob86]

Find Animal.

Shoot Animal.

Butcher Animal.

Eat Animal.

I went hunting!

My brother called it an "extended grocery shopping trip"....... to the "Furnas County Meat Department" ....