What is "fair" chase?

[thatsjet]

For background, I'm a new hunter. I want to be successful. I want to bring home meat. I'm also grappling with what it looks like to chase game in a way that's fair and honest.

I imagine when man first started hunting, his tools were rocks and sticks. Then he figured out how to throw rocks with slings. Big upgrade. Less "fair" for the animal but survival is a good thing.

Next he developed arrows and bows. More success. Less fair for the animals. Even less starvation for man. Good? Yes, I think so.

Next we built rifles and were able to stalk and shoot from hundreds of yards. Quicker kill. Even more success. Whole family gets to eat. Survival is good.

Fast forward to today we have scopes, camo, attractant, calls, thermal imaging, OnX maps, trucks, campers, etc. Who decides which of these new advancements is not "fair?"

My point is this: every new advancement is a tool we didn't have before that helped us be more successful. The end game is still meat and survival. Why are newer tools considered bad and unfair? Wasn't each step more"unfair" than the last?

 

[fishing4sanity]

Fast forward to today we have scopes, camo, attractant, calls, thermal imaging, OnX maps, trucks, campers, etc. Who decides which of these new advancements is not "fair?"

My point is this: every new advancement is a tool we didn't have before that helped us be more successful. The end game is still meat and survival. Why are newer tools considered bad and unfair? Wasn't ready step more"unfair" than three last?

IMO, ethics and morals are part of who you are and make up your character. There will be new technology or developments that are deemed legal in one state, but not in another. So, there's a legal minimum, the rest is largely up to you.

 

[Dsnow9]

As ^ said, the bare minimum is the laws for the given state you are in. Next it comes down to you. If it feels wrong then it’s wrong. If you have to ask yourself is this wrong or is it ok, it’s probably wrong. I always like to think about would I do this is my grandfather, dad, wife, and daughters were watching me?

I also think it is something that grows and develops the more experience you have, my first year hunting I did things I would never do today, but I didn’t know any better. That being said be careful who you surround yourself with, just because it’s legal and ol Jim does it, doesn’t mean it’s right.

 

[Aussie_hunter_JD]

For me it's pretty clear cut, fair chase is hunting an animal that is free ranging and is hunted in a manner which enables it to utilise its natural defenses against the hunter.

You learn by experience, I used to shoot game out to 600 yards but decided when I was able to move fairly freely and talk to my hunting partner while dialing in that I wasn't really giving the animal the respect I felt it deserved. Partly for that reason I mostly hunt open sights with rifles now. In Aus night vision scopes are becoming a thing, to me that's little different to spotlighting. But I guess as long as it's within the confines of the law I spose it's to each his own.

 

[nontyp]

You’ve found the million dollar question. The easiest answer is, if it doesn’t seem right to you, don’t do it. Technically Boone and Crockett has some boundaries identified for fair chase. I personally think their standards are BS. For instance they consider party hunting wild free range animals to not be fair chase, but they do consider hunting bison in Custer Park(which is fenced 30,000 acres) as fair chase. I don’t have a problem with the cull at Custer Park, but its more of a harvest/cull than a hunt. Some easy guidelines are if the animal is behind a fence, or has been raised in captivity and released, it’s not fair chase.

 

[Pucky Freak]

I like the Boone and Crockett guidelines as a starting point. Here’s what I go by:
-animals born, raised, and living in the wild
-No placed food bait or minerals
-No high fences
-No drives to incapacitate animals such as deep water or snow drifts

Beyond that, there are some things I don’t practice because, even if it might be legal and fair chase in some places, it still feels like an unfair advantage, and takes the fun out of hunting for me:
-night vision
-Arial spotting, shooting, and (when frowned on locally) landing
-hearing amplifiers
-trail cameras
-no animals with weak flee instinct (such as bison in most places)

 

[nontyp]

I like the Boone and Crockett guidelines as a starting point. Here’s what I go by:
-animals born, raised, and living in the wild
-No placed food bait or minerals
-No high fences
-No drives to incapacitate animals such as deep water or snow drifts

Beyond that, there are some things I don’t practice because, even if it might be legal and fair chase in some places, it still feels like an unfair advantage, and takes the fun out of hunting for me:
-night vision
-Arial spotting, shooting, and (when frowned on locally) landing
-hearing amplifiers
-trail cameras
-no animals with weak flee instinct (such as bison in most places)

B&C does have some good guidelines. I just think as a whole they don’t make sense. I’m a big proponent of fair chase, but some of their guidelines are a head scratcher.

 

[Pucky Freak]

A couple more I wouldn’t use and are likely illegal everywhere in the US, but are used in other countries: poisons, and tracking devices attached to arrows. Lighted nocks are legal in most states, but I haven’t jumped on that trend, and I’m not sure I ever will.

 

[Justabirdwatcher]

"Fair" is whatever fair means to you. Nobody else can define it for you, nor should you allow them to.

Legal is something else all together. But fair is up to each of us.

 

[AggieHunter]

In Aus night vision scopes are becoming a thing, to me that's little different to spotlighting.

I’m only in support of this for animals like hogs which they are very helpful for

 

[Aussie_hunter_JD]

I’m only in support of this for animals like hogs which they are very helpful for

I've got no qualms with that, blokes here are using them now for trophy class deer and then portraying the deer as a trophy. That I take issue with. It is illegal in my state but there are loop holes that allow it.

 

[Panda Bear]

when brown or white bear hunting and I eliminate them before they eliminate me !

but to go a bit further I always think of "fair chase" when you are hunting an animal within the laws of the land AND that animal can get away from you without any man made restrictions, like a fence. However;, April has explained to me that in Africa a property may be fenced but the property size might also be as large as 50000 acres, and all animals in that 50000 acres are birthed in the wild, so just saying, no fenced property doesn't always work either perhaps. However, I have never hunted Africa or an animal in a 50000 acre enclosure so I have no first hand experience.

Elkfever2, I just wanted to mention that we do hunt Wood Bison and Muskox and neither are easy hunts. I have not hunted Bison in the states so your point might be true there. Also, we hunt animals all the time in the snow and the snow drifts can get fairly high here, and if the "elements" work in our favor, so be it. However sometimes it works against us and in the animals favor. NOT, arguing with you, just explaining what we do up here.

thatsjet, my favorite hunting rifle is a lever action rifle without a scope. Many hunt with a bow. Some with a muzzleloader. If you want to enjoy a "fair chase" hunt. Hike a mountain range on foot ( no float lane or horses ) and hunt Sheep or Goat with a bow.

 

[seeth07]

For myself it's simple: is it legal? Will I be able to fully use that animals fur/flesh? Will my action result in a more effective and/or faster kill?

 

[Wildabeest]

Obviously, the line must be drawn at e-bikes!

 

[gouch]

I can't buy the "If it's legal it's fair chase" idea. It is legal for a game farmer to tie a trophy animal to a post so that a customer can shoot it. That aint fair chase, I don't care who you are. The term "fair chase" came out of the rules of organizations like Boon and Crockett and didn't really have anything to do with everyday hunters just interested in recreational hunting and putting meat in the freezer. It only governed people wanting their name in the record books. State laws and personal ethics governs everyone else. For our ancient ancestors fair chase meant putting meat in their bellies by any and all means available. So fair chase for most is what ever you feel it is yourself remembering you need to stay within the law. Personally I am a died in the wool minimalist bow hunter who has fallen in love with my Hawkins style muzzleloader. Until this year I hunted with a recurve, no sights, no range finder no ambush stand other than the last step of a stalk and maximum of 25 yard shots. Just my hunting skill against the preys survival skill. ( I usually come out sucking hind titty.)This year my daughter gave me a great new long bow so now I am a died in the wool long bow hunter. Too me that is what fair chase is. I have killed several animals with a modern rifle mounted with a 4 power scope and I did consider it ethical and even enjoyable and it put meat in the freezer but with a couple of exceptions My first reaction after the kill was "That didn't really feel fair." So since your new to hunting I would imagine your personal definition of fair chase will evolve over time.

 

[WyoDoug]

My thoughts is pursuing game with ATVs or 4WD is a concern with "fair chase". One thing I dislike is road hunters. I don't know how many times I seen ATVs run down antelope and shoot on the run. I do not favor anything that assists the hunter outside the hunter's normal skills, tactics and techniques. I do not favor allowing night vision or laser sights. Outside that, I support it's use in hunting.

I also do not favor safaris where exotic animals are imported and released in front of hunters so they can shoot them. That is not fair play. Where we farmed, a hunting club released hundreds of pheasants with clipped wings and charged hundreds (this be in the 60s) for rich people to hunt. They bought water and property rights to an irrigation storage lake and reserved it for rich hunters and farmers were forced to bring in water from other sources. So I do not consider this kind of "staged" hunting fair chase at all either.

 

[JTHOMP]

I thought this was an easier question to answer until I started typing my thoughts. Some things are obviously not fair chase (high fence hunting in North America). But some of the above things mentioned that people don’t consider fair I would disagree and say it depends.

In general I think it’s easy to follow. If you obey game laws your probably 99-100%covered.

 

[kwyeewyk]

I think there's a bit of a conflict with some of the concepts of fair chase and ethical hunting, as in most people would consider it ethical to kill an animal in the most effective manner (clean shot), so some would argue that technology has made hunting more ethical because we can kill animals more cleanly (not beating them with clubs, spears, chasing them, etc.). Some would argue that fair chase means getting as close as possible and shooting it with a traditional weapon. Is using a spear more "fair chase" but less "ethical"? Is using a hgh power rifle from 600 yards less fair chase but more ethical? Is getting close more fair chase because it's harder, but less ethical because the animal might detect your presence and experience fear of being killed before it's death, or is it actually more ethical to kill at long range when the animal has not detected you because a clean shot will mean near instant death from a state of oblivion rather than consciousness of it's near death?

 

[rtraverdavis]

For me, there are three things that are equally at play for my personal ethics in hunting—the law, my abilities, and my conscience.

 

[3855WIN]

Boone and Crockett and Pope and Young cover fair chase well.
After that, we get down to ethics.

Some examples:

Long shot, late in the day, and the animal is near heavy cover. Do you have a high percentage kill shot? Will you be able to find the animal once it gets dark? If you can’t recover the animal until the next day, will it spoil? Be eaten by predators?

My rifle was on last year. It should still be on. Let’s go hunting.

Animal is on ground you can hunt, but is near a property line. Will you be able to recover if it goes across?