Persistence Hunting

Makes no sense to me but more power to him if that's what he wants to do.

I remember an article about 20-25 years ago in Outdoor Life about a college kid in Vermont who was trying to become an "outdoor writer" and wrote an article about how he would run down whitetails in the Vermont mountains the same way, he got absolutely bbq'd by the readers comments and I never saw another article published by him. I believe he also moved to Bozeman back then, wonder if he's doing it out West now or what happened, I can't remember his name or article....
 
I see the pronghorn running away very fast and then standing around until the Human get close and then repeating the whole thing over again. I really doubt he will be successful.
 
The guy has some nads...just sayin....I think the feat would be awesome, but not the ultimate end result. There is a youtube video from africa of a couple natives doing this to a kudu....in the end one runner persists and he runs it to exhaustion then kills it with a spear.

That being said, if the game isn't fit for consumption of the hunter, knowing that is the likely end result, IMHO it is not ethical to even start the chase- to me. The runner knows it may not be fit to eat, but embarks anyway? How about a person who humanely shoots a deer and guts it then throws it into the truck bed for a day in 80 degree heat.....kinda foreseeable and wasteful and to me an unethical decision too. IMO decision to run it to death is not much different than making a decision to take a hail Mary shot with a gun or bow, hoping to hit it, knowing damn well its very iffy. Thee are my opinions and apply to my ethics and the way I wish t conduct my hunting. I will not push them on the runner or any of you.

We all need to band together as hunters and stand up for each other, even if we have differing opinions- things are about to get real interesting the next four years, even beyond that.
 
I see the pronghorn running away very fast and then standing around until the Human get close and then repeating the whole thing over again. I really doubt he will be successful.
I seen a guy in Nevada beat me to my target buck. He walked toward the Lope and it ran and waited outside rifle range. Eventually, the lopes calmed down after 5-6 repeats and let the guy get close enough to feel comfortable with the shot and he killed that lope.....not my style though....I was surprised it worked. I started laughing at first.....but that stopped suddenly...lol
 
I see the pronghorn running away very fast and then standing around until the Human get close and then repeating the whole thing over again. I really doubt he will be successful.
The ideas is that he would do this for 8-10 hours straight, without stopping.
 
I see the pronghorn running away very fast and then standing around until the Human get close and then repeating the whole thing over again. I really doubt he will be successful.
Every climb a mountain with someone that is a bit slower than you. You get say 50 yards ahead and stop and catch your breath, when the slow guy catches up you start back up the mountain. Real frustrating when you are the slow guy. I am betting the antelope can do this all day long and the "hunter" is going to run out of day light.
 
Every climb a mountain with someone that is a bit slower than you. You get say 50 yards ahead and stop and catch your breath, when the slow guy catches up you start back up the mountain. Real frustrating when you are the slow guy. I am betting the antelope can do this all day long and the "hunter" is going to run out of day light.

Eh, I'm not so sure. Humans are fabulous stamina animals. We're built to dissipate heat: no hair, ability to sweat. Many mammals aren't designed for stamina. There are tribes in Africa that have employed this strategy for a long time. Sort of the slow and steady approach.

As far as ethics, I put some feelers out to my nonhunting friends. I'll report back with their responses.
 
When I'm thinking about something like this, I always like to go down the hypothetical roads. One of them is what if more people did this?

Would you want five guys out trying to run down pronghorn while your out hunting? Yeah, me neither.

Ethics don't just apply to the animal, they also apply to how you affect other hunters with your conduct.
 
Last edited:
TLDR

This discussion also made me think of the Man Against Horse race. Here's a podcast for those who would rather listen than read (or in addition to).
 
I find how we did things in the past to be extremely interesting, I just don't know that it really applies to modern ethics in regards to hunting. Its a bit apples to oranges, but I don't think anyone here would be stoked if we decided to bring back bison jumps, for example.
 
honestly, and i could be totally off, but i see the ultra running, climbing, backpacking, north face, patagonia, etc, non hunting community looking at this and cheering

"wow look at that! a human using his own power to down an animal, finally someone doing it the fair way! all those fat rednecks shooting deer need to take a lesson from this guy"

i'm still wrestling in my brain on the ethics of it, i'm not disappearing from that conversation

but i'm still just not worked up about this being very unethical
you assume somehow the ultra running, climbing, backpacking crowd are non-hunters....
 
Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

Forum statistics

Threads
113,671
Messages
2,029,114
Members
36,277
Latest member
rt3bulldogs
Back
Top