What is "fair" chase?

[MTelkHuntress]

I think this book is a good start.


It is definitely a more complex topic but I think everyone here has demonstrated the role that the individual plays in the definition of "fair chase". I definitely believe theres a lot of factors that go into fair chase such as practicing with your equipment enough so that you can make the best shot possible. The way technology is going now though, there definitely needs to be some sort of limitations.

 

[3855WIN]

Friend bought a high fence archery exotic hunt at auction. Most of us agree that it wouldn’t be fair chase. Friend said that was the wildest animals he’d ever been around. The enclosure was hunted nearly every day of the year and the animals reacted to the slightest movement. Not easy at all, but also not fair chase.

 

[3855WIN]

Old saying in regards to outdoors ethics-

You don’t really know a man until you’ve been hunting or fishing with them.

 

[MTLabrador]

As far as technology goes I’ll play devil’s advocate. Archery gets held up as a gold standard and longer range rifle shots get a bad rap, but which of these is a more challenging hunt?

1. Guided ranch archery hunt for elk, you sit in a ground blind over a wallow near a pivot and kill a bull with your bow at 20 yards. You spent the night before sipping whiskey in the fancy lodge. The elk is retrieved whole with an F350 with a hydrabed. I know an outfitter who guides this exact hunt exactly as I have described it and his clients have about a 90% success rate.

2. General elk tag in rifle season on public land in a Wilderness area. On foot and you have a $600 backpack stuffed with all the latest and greatest gear and optics, you have a tuned up rifle with super accurate handloads that can reach out with confidence. You spent the night before sipping whiskey by a campfire and freezing in your sleeping bag. You find a bull elk across a canyon, set up, range him, dial your elevation, and kill him at 500 yards. Now you pack him on your back up out of the canyon and 3 miles to your vehicle.

Which one is more of a challenge, the archery hunt or the rifle hunt that ended in a long range kill?

 

[AggieHunter]

Friend bought a high fence archery exotic hunt at auction. Most of us agree that it wouldn’t be fair chase. Friend said that was the wildest animals he’d ever been around. The enclosure was hunted nearly every day of the year and the animals reacted to the slightest movement. Not easy at all, but also not fair chase.

Thats the thing with most hunts in places like Texas. You may be hunting high fence but it could be on 5-20k acres and not always super easy. Still much different than a western hunt.

 

[Shangobango]

As previously stated, the answer may be different depending on who you are talking to.

My personal definition in it's most basic form would be hunting free range animals that have spent their entire lives in the wild with the hunting being done in such a way that the animals have every opportunity to use their natural abilities to avoid predation. Furthermore the hunting should be done in a manner that insures to the highest degree possible that the hunter executes a humane kill.

I personally think that high fence hunting should be illegal and if I was King I would make it so.

I also think that taking shots at distances that give an animal time to make a step between the projectile being fired and it arriving on target are unethical but we see it all the time with both firearms and archery equipment and it seems to be widely accepted.

With trail cameras I think that using them for scouting purposes is fine but getting pics or video in real time over a cellular network and then proceeding immediately to the area is not fine.

I don't expect that everyone would agree with my definitions.

I try to ask myself before doing just about anything, " If my son was observing me would I feel good about him seeing me do this and would I feel good if I saw him do it." That introspection has helped me make good decisions since he came along when I was 21 years old.

 

[RidgeRoamingRichard]

I think what is fair for the animal is a quick death from a well placed shot. As long as you deliver that and don't break the law, use whatever you want. Those that use night vision or whatever else have to live with the fact that they couldn't do it without.

 

[thatsjet]

Great discussion folks, thank you.

All of these "tools" contribute to our success. I think knowledge and experience are also tools, ones that I haven't built up in great supply yet. OnX, trail cams and night vision for scouting seem reasonable at my stage given I don't even know where to start looking. I imagine after years of experience and some success I might feel like they're an unfair advantage but I'm definitely not there yet. I feel like I'm mostly in the "whatever's legal and most humane kill" stage of my hunting career except for hunting captive animals on private land, and I'm totally okay with that. But, using technology to help me be successful on public land seems reasonable.

Really appreciate the great insights. So much to learn.

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

I think you'll have to decide for yourself. It is not black and white.