Ethics Who Determines
Wisconsin
When I started bowhunting any deer you saw you flung an arrow at it . Running , standing it didn't matter and no one called you unethical . It's the way it was . Over the year's my shot selection has gotten a lot smaller . I see all over different forum's if the deer was shot and wasn't perfectly broadside it wasn't a ethical shot and the guy get's called out on it . Even if he killed it , what gives . Does the shot have to be perfect to count ?
It's what you do when no one is looking. Think about that.
You determine ethics... If you respect the animal you hunt you will have ethics. You know what the right thing is to do,
X2 smokey! That's how I think of it.
I started launching cedar shafts in the 60's. Maturity , knowledge and technology for me now dictates when i release or pull the trigger it is 99.9% doa. I am on a 27/27 deer streak. I doubt i will lose another one with any weapon.
My mistake would probably be in the west. Long shots, decades waiting for tags, easy to bt and find game. Can i ethically take a 90 yard bowshot or a 500 yard rifle shot? Yep. Would i anymore? Probably not but it depends on the tag and terrains ability to recover. Can u look in the mirror and feel good about the animal?
Does it have to be perfect....no. I learned as a teenager what it was like to miss. Ranging was often the Issue. Then I wounded an deer. Felt like snit and the what if's ruined the rest of the season. Never again! I wait for perfect now.
Last year in wi i passed a 158 1/4 away@45. Why? Because i knew where he bedded. The next day at 25 yards he was deadcenter heartshot. That took 48 years of mistakes, over 100 bowkills, 8 book deer to know when to backoff. Wisconsin is stupid easy. Mulie, sheep, goat will make u humble and physical hurt. Out west on a 30 year draw? If i know distance to 90, he will be recovered.
Ethics is a funny thing. My ethics may not fit you nor yours fit me. It's a personal choice you and I both have to make every day that may or may not affect another person.
As far as ethics in hunting, I believe that we all have our own set of ethics. If it's legal and you feel good about the situation and the shot I have no problem with your actions. It is not my, nor anyone else's place to step in and say anything about your actions.
When my son was starting out at age 13 I told him, if your thought is, "I think I can..." DON'T SHOOT! Take the shot only when you KNOW you've got him.
He'll turn 30 this season and still goes by that advice...as do I at 64.
And I agree that integrity is doing the right thing when nobody is around. In my hockey coaching days I asked my players, "Does adversity build character?" The correct answer was, "No...it defines it".
Smokey nailed it but forgot three words.
It's what you do when no one is looking that defines you.
Do I wait for that totally perfect shot? I would like to think I do but to be honest when the shot 'feels' right I take it. After over 50 years hunting them I trust my instincts. Been a long time since I did not recover a deer or bear.
Oh...and we each determine ethics. Some are "better at it" than others.
Ethics are so much more than shot selection. Baiting, cameras, hunting /shooting hours, xbows, game laws ect.
Some people prefer to have the state / politicians decide their ethics. Hence if it's legal then ok.
If it's legal on Tuesday and becomes illegal on Wednesday does that make the action unethical I'm Thursday?
Interesting thread.
My point is laws and ethics may be link but they are definitely not the same idea. And in the same thought the lack of laws doesn't make a particular action ethical. Concerning fair chase so many factors come in to play. What maybe ethical for one situation maybe wrong in another. In simple terms either you have ethics or you don't.
In a hunting situation I am the one who determines my ethics as long as it's within the law. I'm comfortable taking shots others wouldn't. I have to look at myself in the mirror and if I can look in the mirror after a hunt and honestly say "yes I would take that same shot again" then no matter the outcome I'm within my own set of ethics.
Being that he's young still, I set the rules for my son and ethics don't enter the equation. He doesn't have a choice. The more confident he gets, the more he can make his own choice to take or no take the shot.
The ultimate goal is to kill the animal and if you can do that then I won't judge you or the shots you choose to take ever.
Wolves rip live deer apart piece by piece, and are worshipped by many. Shooting at a running deer is hardly unethical by comparison. I make my own rules on what is ethical.
Do you guys remember the archery aired footage of Stan Potts shooting that 200 inch whitetail while it was facing him? There was some controversy and talked about ethics about that shot and if it should have even been aired. Only because of its size it was aired. I often wonder how many wounded deer that one show caused.
There have been a few times that I regretted letting an arrow go in the last 5 decades but I don't recall ever saying (later) I wish I'd have shot. Anyone remember a Minnesota fisherman (should have stuck to fishing) shooting a nice Buffalo County deer on a hard quartering to angle? You could see the arrow go along the back probably destroying the backstraps. The guy got on camera telling about how he's legally entitled to pursue the animal onto a neighbor's property but he chooses to honor the landowner's wishes. This "hunt" apparently was during the last week of the early archery season and the deer was recovered by the neighbor during the gun season. Wonder how many nonresidents took that as gospel? If that's a shot you'd have taken at least don't show it on the outdoor channel (I'd have passed.)
You determine YOUR personal ethics. TV shows strongly influence ethics in general Laws (made by politicians who don't know much and are influenced by paid lobbyists) dictate what many believe are the rules of ethics.
Bowhunting consists of a lot of waiting. During that waiting, you can think about what you are doing and how you should do it, or you can watch Netflix....... The ethics of the shot should be based on past experience and an understanding of worst case. Could the shot be off, could the deer make it off the property, into an area that so thick you likely can't find it, to an area where non-hunters will be involved......
Per48R - You determine YOUR personal ethics. -----Exactly. Myself, Now I always wait for the perfect shot since wounding a few deer when I first started bowhunting. Made me sick losing a deer. What I consider a perfect shot for myself is broadside. I know I've passed up many, many more bucks than I've ever shot because he wasn't perfectly broadside. Passed some darn nice trophy's, but do I regret it, not one bit.
Who determines them? The Ethics Committee.
