Hunting vs. Shooting: Is There A Difference

[Lisa]

Does high-tech gadgetry take "hunting" out of the sport?


By Jon R. Sundra

As dawn grudgingly gives way to daylight, a hunter approaches, of all things, a makeshift table and chair sitting in the middle of nowhere, seemingly awaiting just such a visitor. In this case, "nowhere" is a wooded side-hill in mule deer country. Below the table the ground falls off gently for a few hundred yards, then reverses itself to form a rather exposed opposing slope stretching for a thousand yards or more until it peaks and falls off into another valley.

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Any thoughts on this? Do you believe that it takes the hunting out of the sport?

 

[bydand]

I don't think it takes the "hunting" out of the sport, but does shift it. What I mean is that instead of scouting and hunting out to maybe 150 yards, you have to "hunt" and keep track of your shooting area out to un-thought of ranges not that long ago. It still is going to take being in the right place at the right time to bag an animal. There are millions of square acres out there and you still have to have a knowledge of how the animal you are after behaves. Sure the actual shooting part is different, and not really for me, but there is still a high degree of skill involved. I think that is another area that the shift happens. From the tracking being number one and the shooting less so because of the close distances involved, to less on the tracking and number one to the shooting skill due to the long distances. I would think both are still hunting, just two side of the same coin.

 

[theletch1]

I think Scott has a great point. The first relied on knowledge of your game. The second on knowledge of your chosen weapon. Last time I had time to hunt was '99 and I didn't have any fancy gadgetry with me. None of the folks that I know that hunt really go into the fancy stuff. My friend Gary got a 10 pointer this saturday with a lever action 30-30 with iron sights. Nothing fancy about that. Old fashioned as can be.

 

[tellner]

The gadgets that have taken the hunting out of hunting aren't high tech - the flashlight and the automobile.

 

[Bigshadow]

The gadgets that have taken the hunting out of hunting aren't high tech - the flashlight and the automobile.

Where I am from that is called "poaching" and it is illegal!

 

[Makalakumu]

Gadgets aside, hunting is more then just shooting. I went out bird hunting this fall with a friend. He's an excellent shot on the clay range, but when Tess is flushing birds at random, he just falls apart. Shooting is very clean and unnatural. Hunting is always full of wonderful chaos.

 

[tellner]

Spot on, UNK. Shooting is a skill that is useful in hunting. It's not the whole thing.

 

[Doc_Jude]

I was raised duck & deer hunting. A gun, some warm camo, maybe a call & some decoys & the dog.
When I was living in Texas, I was downright embarrassed seeing guys hunting from a blind in the back of their pickup, shooting at deer EATING FROM A FEEDER. Pitiful.
At one end of the spectrum, I don't think it matters what you have to do to get some food on the table. Hell, I know poor people that pull over for fresh deer roadkill, perfectly good meat, food through the winter.
But these guys with multiple SUVs & RVs & middle upper class incomes that spend thousands at Cabelas above and beyond the cost of their rifle, replacing cunning & skill with technology & negating any chance the animal may have at avoiding its fate...

YES, IT'S JUST SHOOTING WITH SOME DEATH RUBBED ON TOP.