Ethics question

[tucker]

Here are some ethics questions that I have heard raised over the years and thought some of the younger hunters might like to hear the opinions on.
1.  Would you shoot a bedded deer?
2.  Would you shoot a duck or goose on the water?
3.  Would you shoot a turkey on its roost?
4.  Would you shoot a pheasant that was on the ground?
5.  If you were in a tree stand in the morning and you hear a shot and a deer came running and fell dead at the base of your tree, would you claim it if no one came tracking it?
6.  How small a deer is too small?
I don't hunt pheasant and rarely hunt geese so I don't know the ethics behind these pursuits so your answers would be interesting to me.

[shrub]

1. yes
2. no
3. no
3. no
5. it depends on how late in the season it is and how long it had been since the shot and the time i left.
6. i would say that anything under 100 pounds is too small, but that is just my opinion.


  i have another ethics question. i resitally took my trapper ed. course and i got one question wrong on the test.   " if you set you trap on  a deer carcase will you get more pelts." i anserd true. and i got it wrong, because it is un-ethical. but science this question doesn't say anything about ethics is it a trick question?

[carphunter]

1- yes
2-no
3-no
4-depend's on the situation, we only have stocked bird's here and most of them dont fly much.
5-I wouldn't claim that I shot it but I would not let it go to waste either.
6-I'm not sure how this can be answered. I have hunted many different places and take Texas for example, if you shoot a mature doe there she might go 80 lbs. Here ip Pa. that same deer might go 120 lbs. and in Canada it might go 150. I'd say just don't shoot any fawn's.
        Jim

[need2hunt]

1- yes
2- yes(not very sporting but a quick death is insured)
3- never hunted turkey(can't answer)
4- yes, I've never hunted pheasant but I shoot grouse on the ground(again, not as sporting but fills the freezer)
5- yes, wouldn't like it much but can't let it go to waste.  I would make an effort to find the shooter.
6- Depends what your looking for.

I've made some of these decisions based on my belief that insuring a quick, clean kill is more important than being sporting.  I compare questions 2 and 4 to passing on a deer because its bedded or standing still in a field, feeding.  I'm not about to stand up and yell at it so that it can be more sporting to shoot at a running deer.

[tucker]

Putting a trap next to a carcass may catch non target animals.  Dogs, crow, eagles, even a turkey coming in after the corn from the stomach contents.  If you use only pieces and cover it with some type of cover so birds can't see if from the sky I don't see a problem, you are just baiting a trap.

[shrub]

Putting a trap next to a carcass may catch non target animals.  Dogs, crow, eagles, even a turkey coming in after the corn from the stomach contents.  If you use only pieces and cover it with some type of cover so birds can't see if from the sky I don't see a problem, you are just baiting a trap.

thats why they said it was wrong, but the question asked if you would catch more animals wich chances are you would. yes i think that putting a trap right next to a carcass would be unethical but the question didnt ask anything about ethics.

[DeerHunterTommer]

Yes
no
no
no
yes
under 100 pounds dressed

[bird dog]

I would shoot a bedded deer ,that is the highest reward for quality still hunting.

I would not shoot an uninjured bird on the water, nor a upland bird( except turkey) on the ground

I would never shoot a turkey off it's roost

If there was no one claiming the deer I would not let it go to waste

I also think that young bucks and doe fawns should be non target animal

This is a nice topic for young hunters to read, or new hunters for that matter. It just goes to show you that everyone hunts for different reasons. Ethics should be a huge part of everyones hunting agenda.

[MASTERGUIDE]

yes to all of them, but I would only shoot the turkey if it was in legal shooting light, and if a deer doesn't have spots its ok, I like bigger ones, but there's no shame in taking a little one, its tasty meat on the table.  Why would anyone pass up a duck just because its not flying or a pheasant.  especially a bedded deer, hunting is hunting, congrats if you can sneak up on a bedded deer successfully, it doesn't happen often. I don't go out for sport and waste money and time, I go out for meat and sport, do you think an indian would have passed up anything.  No way, the goal is get game, even if it comes easy, if an animal is in range on the ground and I am out hunting, why make it harder to hit him.  Its not my fault the bird just stands there if I sneak up to it or walk up, to me its even harder to sneak up on them.  I shot a grouse with my bow while deer hunting the other day, I don't consider that too easy one bit.  Its very hard to do and I was proud of my shot.  I won't drive a truck and shoot, becuase I don't think its ethical or anything like that, but if I am on foot I will.  I would also try to find out who shot the deer before I tag it as mine, I wouldn't claim that I shot it, but I think the meat is due to who shot it.

MASTERGUIDE

[Out4Trout]

1. Yes
2. yes
3. no because it's illegal in my state
4. Yes
5. I'd probably call someone I know that would be happy to have this deer. I'd like to find out who shot it first though.
6. The deer have lost their spots by the time rifle season starts here. I am after a buck, but would take a doe later in the season. I would not shoot a lamb though. There was a time where we used to say if it's brown it's down, but not any more. My family and I are lucky enough to be able to watch deer out my back window every so often - mostly does and lambs. It makes it harder to take one and bring it home.

[tucker]

I took my 12yo daughter to a hunter training course this year and heard and intersting tidbit on small deer.  If by the end of the hunting season, arond middle of dec here in ny, the deer still has spots it probably was born real late and won't survive the winter.  So if you have an extra tag take it before it does a much worse death during the winter.

[adkRoy]

I have 2 ethics question for everyone.

1.) What would you do if someone set up a tree stand 10 yards from the border of your property and it is 50 yards from your stand?

2.) It's opening day of gun season and there are 2 guys just on the other side of your property line siting with a gun over looking your fields, what do you do?

Both of these things have happened to me.

[Bobman]

1.) Yes, but the only time I've seen bedded deer during deer season were wounded ones that we were tracking.
2.) No, the only time I've shot waterfowl on the water was when I brought down a bird but didn't kill it and it was in danger of swimming off.  The problem with shooting at the water is that your pellets will deflect off the water very easily and could hit somebody.  Luckily when I had to shoot on the water it was wide open and I was sure no one was in the way of my shot.
3.) No!
4.) I have shot upland birds on the ground before when I was younger and body count was my main concern.  Now though, I will try to make a bird flush before I shoot.  I've even had to throw rocks and sticks at some particularly stubborn birds to get them to fly!
5.) I've had this happen more times than I can count!  The area I hunt is fairly crowded and there are quite a few bad huntersfrom some of the nearby camps.  Over the years we have tagged several does that were shot by others nearby but never followed up on because we aren't going to let the animal go to waste.  In fact, a couple of years ago I had a doe come by me that was shot (broken front leg flopping around) so I put her down.  About 30 minutes later a guy comes trcking the deer said he shot at a doe and thought he hit her and was following the tracks and blood.  I said you hit her alright, she right over there.  He thanked me and I let him tag the deer.  May not have been completely legal but I felt it was the right thing to do.
6.) This I think is really a judgement call.  I've seen deer taken that you could practically put into a game pouch.  Sometimes for me it is very hard to judge the size of a doe when it is moving through the open woods alone.  What I may think is an average size deer turns out to be kind of small.  I wouldn't shoot a fawn if I can help it, but I won't let a wounded deer go by me without trying to take it no matter what size it is.

adkRoy questions:
1.) I've had the same situation, nothing you can do and he might not even know your stand is there if he hasn't seen you hunting it.  Just try to be in your stand first and hopefully the other person will push deer toward you when they go to their stand.  If your land is posted, they can't shoot deer on your property even if they are hunting from their own land.  I'd hunt my stand more frequently than you would normally and the other guy will probably give up and go away when he sees you there.
2.) Again nothing you can do until they shoot at deer on your property or walk across the property line.  If possible you can put a ground blind or a stand between them and your fields to discourage them from sitting there but not much else you can do until they trespass.

[tucker]

Roy, nothing you can do unless they go on your property.  You can always do stuff on your side of the line to ensure that none of your deer wander by.  We had this happen a few years ago.  Hunting on this land for decades and then someone else got permission to hunt on the land next to us.  Basically he put a stand in the tree within a few feet of propety line.  We just decided near there is where we were going to deposit all the rotten deer hide, gut piles and anytime we had to relieve ourselves.  If the guy had talked to us we would have let him hunt with us, but we knew who it was and we wanted nothing to do with him.

[need2hunt]

For the second two questions I'd have to agree with what has already been said, can't do much except get there before them and hope they push the deer your way.  If they don't know you have a tree stand set up close by it might be worth telling them, but for the guys looking over your property, you could put up a no trespassing sign close to where they were standing.  Also you could try setting up a decoy of sorts dressed in blase orange in a tree stand or by a ground blind at a distance that they won't likely see clearly to keep them from attempting anything on your property.  That won't likely work for long especially if they have powerfull optics.