Technology and hunting

[jpmulk]

So the game camera ban conversation got me thinking about technology and hunting in general. There is no black and white answer and this is a huge black hole of a topic. But interested to know where the masses stand. Where is the line for you when it comes to technology being used to help you hunt?

 

[Fitzwho]

Drones and the cellular trail cams.

Drones pretty much anywhere shouldn’t be used for hunting. And guys that film using drones should be limited to not using them during open big game seasons, or at least not be able to fly and hunt same day (think Alaska). Obviously hard to enforce.

Standard trail cameras I don’t get the issue with, other than the crowding at water holes in places like AZ.

Cell cameras on public land I do think are crossing the line. Especially during big game seasons. For scouting? Maybe a little bit of an edge, but animals move.

For private land, game on for most things. All that said, I’m definitely running cell cams on any property I own in Texas, but you’d be hard pressed to pass something like that here.

 

[jpmulk]

Yes i agree. Drones have no place in the hunting world. Im personally on the ban all cameras train. My reasoning for that is less for the animal and more for myself. Theres just too many people using public lands anymore. So theres just too many cameras. I personally dont like the feel of always being on camera when im trying to relax in the woods.

Maybe a feeble atttempt at a general rule of thumb: ban anything battery or cellular operated that helps hunters find game: game cameras, thermal imaging, drones, etc.

If it assists in an ethical shot, then game on: rangefinders being an example

 

[lif]

Hunting the west used to be so much more pure. Almost all hunters were hunting for the same reason, the meat and the challenge. Sure we always cared somewhat about horns, but they were the bi product of the main purpose, FOOD.

 

[Wetwork]

Ok how about this tech...drive from watershed to wastershed quick scanning in the morning with a thermal strapped to the top of your spotting scope. Real fast you can hit all the draws and valleys. If you get a good heat signature you zoom in with the spotting scope to see if its worth a shot. None of which is attached to a rifle or anything. Just out scouting.. Oh figure this a western states trick. Open forest and wide open sage.-WW

 

[roadrunner]

Spotters sitting and watching every drainage, bench, or saddle so some fatso trigger-man can show up and shoot (insert whatever idiotic name you want to call the animal).

 

[jpmulk]

Ok how about this tech...drive from watershed to wastershed quick scanning in the morning with a thermal strapped to the top of your spotting scope. Real fast you can hit all the draws and valleys. If you get a good heat signature you zoom in with the spotting scope to see if its worth a shot. None of which is attached to a rifle or anything. Just out scouting.. Oh figure this a western states trick. Open forest and wide open sage.-WW

Im personally against it. But like lif was saying, wheres the purity in it. Whats each persons motivation to hunt. Ill be honest. Mine isn't meat. Its also not horns. I do want the meat and I want big horns. But the main reason for me is its about getting away from people into God's creation and making it a challenge and a grind. Nothing good comes easy. If it came easy, it probably wasn't worth it or there's no fulfillment in it.

 

[El_Duderino]

Mt Emily unit in Oregon. 19 points for a resident to draw and when they do it's nothing to see +20 men in camp. Literally every ridge has uncle Bob, hyper-active high-T cousin Brody, and on and on and on spotting and building little survival fires. They text and message the tag holder and direct him in to the feeding bull elk. The tag holder moves in and 'smokes' the 'shooter' with a clean 800 yard shot and shows the world. The bulls don't have a chance in hell.

If cell coverage ever dropped in Mt Emily during bull season the success rate would drop at least 25%, it would be amazing.

Do the western states have laws against communicating game movement, location person to person electronically? It’s illegal here in IA.

Also any participant aiding in a hunt has to be licensed here. Wardens will ticket unlicensed people for walking along for pheasants, carrying gear into a duck blind, being present in a deer drive etc. even when they don’t have a gun and are just tagging along.

I’ve seen plenty of high profile hunting shows where they aren’t hiding the fact they are spotting for their buddies in another location and texting them info.

 

[Wetwork]

Mt Emily unit in Oregon. 19 points for a resident to draw and when they do it's nothing to see +20 men in camp. Literally every ridge has uncle Bob, hyper-active high-T cousin Brody, and on and on and on spotting and building little survival fires. They text and message the tag holder and direct him in to the feeding bull elk. The tag holder moves in and 'smokes' the 'shooter' with a clean 800 yard shot and shows the world. The bulls don't have a chance in hell.

If cell coverage ever dropped in Mt Emily during bull season the success rate would drop at least 25%, it would be amazing.

Be honest like I am 19pts is really 19 years....stupid they call it points. In most cases that's pretty much a life-time draw same as bighorns here in Oregon. That being said til its against the law and it's actually enforced high-tech is gonna be used to take big bulls on a lifetime hunt in Oregon. Its BS.-WW

ps. In my head when a unit reaches a upper end preference point they need to shut it down zero hunting for five years and let it rest and start over.

 

[jbspec]

No device that uses a battery to assist in locating animals or making the shot seems reasonable to me, it is also fairly easy to enforce as regulations go.

 

[Zappaman]

I’m generally not a technology guy when it comes to hunting. But guns ARE technology (they work better than rocks). Scopes are also a big leap in making a gun usable further out than iron sites. I use both and appreciate the fact my shot has a very good chance of making an ethical, clean kill.

Although I can see game cams, cell and satellite stuff as a concern, I know some very good land owners/managers who use them for the work they have to do managing animals on their own land. It’s just the “new” way of scouting for a lot of hunters… for what it’s worth. If they use it without imposing on others or breaking game laws… I don’t have a problem with what they chose to do on their own land.

Public land? That’s another issue and I can tell you that there are good laws (I.e. no stands left out overnight, etc.) that keep some from hiking their leg over others. If you don’t OWN the land, you have to respect the public field and use it as it is intended… with limits so you don’t impose on other public hunters. I don’t see a problem with using a cam on a public spot… but I do have a problem with thinking all your “technology” gives you any more rights than any other hunter.

The one “new“ technology I have come to appreciate the last decade is the range-finder. I can KNOW where my bullet is going to hit (*assuming I KNOW my ballistics… and I do). And that little tool has allowed me to make ethical shots I didn’t before this technology came along. It’s specifically allowed me to use a smaller caliber for more accurate “cold barrel” shots with 100% effectiveness (knock on wood) since adding it to my day pack. I won’t leave home without it (or trigger sticks… yet another cool technology since I shot my first deer in 1974).

As far as radios between hunters… if it’s legal, they’ll use them. Some states forbid it, some don’t. If they were outlawed across the board, it would be fine with me. Never used them, so wouldn’t miss them as hunting (to me) is about doing the work myself. Never got into group hunting, but have “pushed” a canyon for a few older hunters who can’t do it like they used to… but no radios or phones where ever used. Doesn’t seem right to me anyway.

 

[Button]

Fwiw the internet is technology that is used for hunting.

 

[jpmulk]

I’m generally not a technology guy when it comes to hunting. But guns ARE technology (they work better than rocks). Scopes are also a big leap in making a gun usable further out than iron sites. I use both and appreciate the fact my shot has a very good chance of making an ethical, clean kill.

Although I can see game cams, cell and satellite stuff as a concern, I know some very good land owners/managers who use them for the work they have to do managing animals on their own land. It’s just the “new” way of scouting for a lot of hunters… for what it’s worth. If they use it without imposing on others or breaking game laws… I don’t have a problem with what they chose to do on their own land.

Public land? That’s another issue and I can tell you that there are good laws (I.e. no stands left out overnight, etc.) that keep some from hiking their leg over others. If you don’t OWN the land, you have to respect the public field and use it as it is intended… with limits so you don’t impose on other public hunters. I don’t see a problem with using a cam on a public spot… but I do have a problem with thinking all your “technology” gives you any more rights than any other hunter.

The one “new“ technology I have come to appreciate the last decade is the range-finder. I can KNOW where my bullet is going to hit (*assuming I KNOW my ballistics… and I do). And that little tool has allowed me to make ethical shots I didn’t before this technology came along. It’s specifically allowed me to use a smaller caliber for more accurate “cold barrel” shots with 100% effectiveness (knock on wood) since adding it to my day pack. I won’t leave home without it (or trigger sticks… yet another cool technology since I shot my first deer in 1974).

As far as radios between hunters… if it’s legal, they’ll use them. Some states forbid it, some don’t. If they were outlawed across the board, it would be fine with me. Never used them, so wouldn’t miss them as hunting (to me) is about doing the work myself. Never got into group hunting, but have “pushed” a canyon for a few older hunters who can’t do it like they used to… but no radios or phones where ever used. Doesn’t seem right to me anyway.

I think the range finder is in and of itself a good debate. I use one. That said, the range finder alone has changed the game of hunting. Its basically just accepted in todays hunting culture as a must have and a norm. However, Almost every hunters effective range would be cut in half without a range finder. There would not be many long range shooters. It Would change how many hunt. It would probably decrease the number of bow hunters. It does assist with making an ethical shot. But it also makes most of us much more comfortable shooting farther.

 

[KoolBreeze]

I guess I have a different viewpoint from a lot here but my goal is to have a successful hunt. Success for me early in the season is putting fresh venison, that I enjoy eating, in my freezer. Once that's accomplished, success is just being in a position to see wildlife and enjoying the stress free great outdoors. Seeing the woods come alive at dawn, squirrels chasing one another, birds singing, wood peckers pecking, turkeys scratching in the leaves, bucks chasing hot does, and so on. If I shoot a mature buck, then that's a bonus, but honestly it's not why I'm out there and I probably let 80-90% walk on by.

I use technology of all kinds that make achieving my goal easier, including cameras. When I started hunting as a kid 40 years ago, we used a group of a guys, CB radios, 4x4 pickups, and a pack of dogs to chase the deer into openings where we could get a shot. A lot of folks around here still do that but I've changed tactics because hunting that way is very expensive, deer are plentiful now, and does are legal. I also use to hunt with a bow and muzzle loader during those seasons. Why, because it extended the season, giving me a better chance at being sucessful. Nowadays, scoped rifles are legal on private land even in muzzle loading season. Guess what I hunt with? That's right, a scoped rifle exclusively, with the bow and muzzle loader collecting dust. I'm just as satisfied with a deer killed by a rifle as I was with a bow. The animal is the prey, I'm the predator, being fair has nothing to do with it. If it did, I'd be using a bow or some other truly primitive weapon exclusively.

I do not hunt public land though and I can see how a dozen cameras hanging over a water hole would be annoying. But instead of outlawing them, why not make it illegal to leave them overnight on public land, like it is with tree stands? Seems like a simple solution that would eliminate the problem, without outlawing the tool itself.

 

[Mtnboy]

I think the range finder is in and of itself a good debate. I use one. That said, the range finder alone has changed the game of hunting. Its basically just accepted in todays hunting culture as a must have and a norm. However, Almost every hunters effective range would be cut in half without a range finder. There would not be many long range shooters. It Would change how many hunt. It would probably decrease the number of bow hunters. It does assist with making an ethical shot. But it also makes most of us much more comfortable shooting farther.

Agreed.

I also use one but would be more than happy to see them banned simply because it would severely curb the "long range craze". If you are taking a shot from so far away that the animal doesn't even have a chance to know you exist...you aren't hunting, you are shooting. Yes, I understand that it takes an extreme amount of practice and skill to make these shots.

On those lines, I'd like to see adjustable turrets banned and/or bipods that physically attach to the firearm, both of these things would also limit the long range craze.

For bowhunting, no sites that can range for you like the Garmin one.

At some point we are going to have do make moves to curb the overall efficacy of hunters or we are going to lose opportunity. There is only so much game to go around. In my opinion, taking steps to limit being able to take game from longer distances would be a good step in the right direction.

Flame away.

 

[camping1601]

Drones, lights, trail cams, infrared.