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broommaster2000 · Moderator

Hunting Tips & Ethics Discussion

You can share your ideas and tips about hunting here. Some people are not very aware of laws and ethics in different countries (diffeferent culture means different mentality, etc) , and since this is an international forum, it's hard to know every specific hunting law.

To get a bit more understanding and insight, I thought it would be good to open a hunting ethcis and discussion thread, in which we can also share tips.

So, if you can at least do a bit of research on hunting (if you consider yourself a hunter using an airgun) in your own State/Province/Country and extract the basic points from it and post it here, I think we have a nice start.

-Example-

Dutch Airgun Hunting Laws:

- All Airgun Hunting in the Netherlands is prohibited.

Hunting with Airguns is considered an attack on Dutch Fauna, which consists many different kinds of small and protected animals. Fines are ridiculously high lately.

-End Of Example-

-Opinion-

To my opinion, hunting should be left to professionals with a liscense. This is the case in my country, and is probably different in many other countries. I strongly encourage reading and finding info about laws in your area.

-End of opinion-

I hope this thread will make open discussion possible, and that we all get to learn something from this (including me).

Thank you all for your cooperation.

Anton

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

Broommaster,

In AMERICA people have the freedom to do what they want on their own property. I think most people here couldn't care less what Dutch laws are on hunting.

Slavia · Moderator

In general, Minnesota requires that you buy a hunting license, hunt in season, and to get the license you need to take a class (if you were born after 1980). Licenses are available all over - convenience stores, Walmart, etc. Also online. The class is sort of a "rite of passage" around here, and is good safety training even if you aren't a hunter. Most other states will require the class for non-residents, so if you're going elk hunting in Montana you will need it even if you're old enough to go without in Minnesota. There are exceptions, such as for military training.

The U.S.A., Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and South Africa all use the same curriculum. Recognizing that some adults may be self-conscious about sitting in a class with 12 year-olds, in Minnesota if you're over 18 you can take the course online and test out in person with an instructor.

Minnesota hunting regulations (includes the list of unprotected species that may be taken at any time without a license):
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/regulations/hunting/index.html

For the last 100 years wildlife conservation has been funded through user fees (licenses and taxes on hunting equipment). That funding model is in danger today, as more kids want to stay indoors and play video games. To get people outdoors there is an apprentice program, where for one year the class is not necessary if you hunt with another licensed hunter. Apprentice validation:
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/safety/apprentice/index.html

You can hunt certain species that are causing damage to your property, without a license, and out of season:
https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=97B.655

International Hunter Education Association curriculum:
http://www.ihea.com/

To my mind ethics are part of the same discipline that helps you be safe, and that help you be accurate. Both the Minnesota regulations book and the IHEA curriculum have good discussions.

billandbeaufort · Senior Member

While I believe in the freedom we have in the USA compared to some other repressive countries, hunting is not free in the USA, not even on your own land! There are laws about hunting like what kind of gun, what season, what animals. ETC. these apply even on your property. Many of us feel that killing just for fun is morally reprehensible! Don't kill unless your going to eat it is a good start! Many of the "hunters" on this forum are children and don't know any better. Now with all that said we love our freedom to own guns responsibly, and will fight for that right if required. We respect the "old countries" but we don't want to be another europe.

Slavia · Moderator

2RCHA · Veteran Member

I'm in Canada, and I don't give a flying phuc what the Dutch hunting Laws are either,(Is there anything to hunt in Holland anyway's, besides Field Mice, and Crow's?). Keep the Preaching to your OWN PULPIT.

broommaster2000 · Moderator

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

broommaster2000 · Moderator

I don't think we mind here if you're hunting or not. We do mind if you're hunting legally or illegally.

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

It was illegal for blacks to drink out of white drinking fountains for decades. It was illegal for Jews to fight off Nazi soldiers who were bent on killing them.

Laws can be unjust. Laws can change. It is up to individuals to determine the course of their own life. If you want to listen to others then go ahead. If you want to do what you feel is right, then hopefully you have the freedom and ability to do so. I know that I do.

broommaster2000 · Moderator

The way you say it, it can also justify those examples you made.

I feel it's wrong to go against the law in such a way that you can justify it by saying it's your right of being free on your own land. In that way you can say that if someone is black or jewish on your land, you are allowed to shoot that person too.

You can just go and get a liscense and not hear anything from me again. I try to be a good consequent moderator over here, and try to set an example as being part of this forum in trying to do what's right.

This forum's crew clearly states being against illegal hunting, on your own or any other's land. There are guidelines and laws, and we point them out. That's why this thread is here.

If you want to hunt, as you say, it's your own land. We won't do much about it, we can only say something about it, and we will say something about it. That's it. It's for yourself to decide if you can break the law or not, and if it can be justified.

Rogerflat · Silver Status Member

The species I hunt is at least a game species, meaning it is legal to hunt it...given that you follow the regulations. So it's not like I'm poaching bald eagles. I'm just not hunting my prey "correctly".

I could get a hunting license and be one step closer to being legal, HOWEVER, the regulations being as absurdly strict as they are, I'd still not be in compliance. So all I'd be doing is throwing my money away on a license which doesn't do anything for me.

I'm not saying that I should be free to do what I want just because "I" say so. What I am saying is that I have the right to decide whether a law or rule is reasonable and whether or not I think it A) applies to me, and B) is something I should obey.

I think the biggest consideration with hunting is conservation- i.e. protecting the species from unhealthy population reductions. Usually this means honoring the off-season so the animals can rear young and proliferate. Also, honoring bag limits plays into it too since you can't just kill scores of animals each day and expect their numbers not to dwindle.

I hunt a very prolific species that breeds year round. The conservation aspect is irrelevant in this case.

AirGunEric · Site Admin

I do believe the point of the topic is: "What are the hunting regulations/laws in your specific area and how do you deal with/feel about them in respect to ethics and actions", give or take.

Responses like "I don't give a crap about laws in 'xxxx' or 'yyy' really are not contributing anything- if you don't care, ignore the discussion- seems pretty simple.

The point of this thread is to allow people to see different hunting regulations in different areas. I'm curious about things like this- and I bet there are some really whacky restrictions/laws in different areas that would be both amusing and interesting...

Alstone · Moderator & Site Supporter

The whole idea is that this is an International forum and the laws are different around the world, and it does help to know what can be shot and what cannot where you live, and just because the USA and Canada have a free and easy attitude to guns and hunting more so the States, it doesn’t help for someone to say “I don’t give a sh!t what you do in your Country” it just shows there juvenile altitude, if you don’t have something to contribute don’t bother to post.

In the UK we can shoot Crows, Magpies, some Seagulls, Ducks, Pheasants, Rabbits, Rats etc but only on your own land or with permission on someone else’s

PS: Plus Canadian Goose, but they hurt if they hit you on the head. Smile

Al

2RCHA · Veteran Member

Sorry, I don't want to step on any toes here, but I have very strong feeling;s that this thread was started by a moderator to basically step all over another forum member ,just because he posted something that the moderator didn't like, maybe it bruised his liberal ego,,and I'm not endorsing any kind of poaching, I'm strictly against any kind of mis-use of one's privelege to hunt. We really start seeing the differences between Hunter's, and Target Shooter's in a situation like this(maybe moreso the differences between European's, and North American's in this perticular case), anyway's, let's keep the Preaching for the Pulpit, and the Pew's,,Not in an Airgun Forum visited by a host of different Nationalities, all with their own beliefs on what ethical hunting is, or should be. and I also beleive that if one is chosen to be a moderator, he should be capable of straddling the fence a little bit better, and not let his personal belief's interfere with his duties as a moderator.,,This should explain the anger that was shown in my previous post regarding this thread.Cheer's, Andy.