Drummondlindsey suggested this early on in the Define Hunting discussion, so here it is.

What is your personal concept of "Fair Chase" hunting. Like the definition of hunting, "Fair Chase" is going to mean different things to different people.

I will start it off, and then I am going to stay out of it.

Personally, in my little world, there is no such thing as "Fair Chase" if a human is involved.

We evolved a larger brain and problem solving faster than any other species on the planet. That means if we set out to kill something, we are going to find a tool to help us.

We don't go out and crawl along with our nose to the ground trying to pick up somethings scent nd if we find one follow it until we can jump out and with our bare hands and feet, throttle something our use our teeth to chew out its throat.

To me "Fair Chase" is nothing more than a "Fuzzy Feel Good" way of justifying our ability to kill things when it is no longer important for our daily survival.

Do I like to hunt, yes. Do I have an open view of what hunting is and is not, yes.

Do I think hunters as a group are guilty of trying to justify why or how they hunt, instead of just saying because they enjoy it, yes.

So what do folks as individuals consider "Fair Chase" or what makes it a challenge.

Not much.Fair chase was coined by The Boone & Crocket Club. The first shot at being Politically
Correct.When man no longer needed to eat to live he made up fair chase as a excuse to kill,but only as a True Sportsman.He used a bunch of PC crap to explain why he still hunted,with out a reason to hunt.So strictly speaking I do not believe Fair chase really exists.I hunt to kill because I eat what I kill.The purpose of my Hunt is to kill.If its legal,I do it.I do not hunt for horns,for the outdoors experience,to be one with nature or any other PC crap.A lot of those things happen while I am hunting,but that is not my main focus.There ya go, flame away!!!

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go out and crawl along with your nose to the ground trying to pick up something's scent and if you find one follow it until you can jump out with your bare hands and feet, throttle something or use your teeth to chew out its throat.

This is good enough for me as a definition of fair chase.

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Originally posted by M16:

quote:

go out and crawl along with your nose to the ground trying to pick up something's scent and if you find one follow it until you can jump out with your bare hands and feet, throttle something or use your teeth to chew out its throat.

This is good enough for me as a definition of fair chase.

Hard to argue with that!

I've come to believe it is an anthropomorphic Disneyesque term coined by humans to somehow uplift themselves from the rest of the predtory species on the planet.

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Originally posted by M16:

quote:

go out and crawl along with your nose to the ground trying to pick up something's scent and if you find one follow it until you can jump out with your bare hands and feet, throttle something or use your teeth to chew out its throat.

This is good enough for me as a definition of fair chase.

Show's ya what I know. I thought I was the only one that thought that way.

GWB

Technically, the term "Fair Chase" only means that you took the game under the game laws of that state/region/country. That's really all it means, unless you have a personal implied meaning; and that's ok and acceptable as well.

To complicate this even further, the term means different things in different places and under different circumstances.

In South Africa, locals are convinced shooting game with a rifle near water is unfair and unsporting, but they'll build permanent blinds on waterholes for their bowhunting clients and happily conduct rifle "safaris" on high-fenced 2,000 to 5,000-acre paddocks where some of the inhabitants were recently sold at a game auction.

In the American West, no one I knew has any problem with shooting elk, pronghorn or deer with rifle or bow near water, but there are a whole lot of hunters here who cringe when friends talk about "hunting" behind high wire, no matter the size of the enclosure.

Bill Quimby

From B&C website:

FAIR CHASE STATEMENT
FAIR CHASE, as defined by the Boone and Crockett Club, is the ethical, sportsmanlike, and lawful pursuit and taking of any free-ranging wild, native North American big game animal in a manner that does not give the hunter an improper advantage over such animals.

HUNTER ETHICS
Fundamental to all hunting is the concept of conservation of natural resources. Hunting in today's world involves the regulated harvest of individual animals in a manner that conserves, protects, and perpetuates the hunted population. The hunter engages in a one-to-one relationship with the quarry and his or her hunting should be guided by a hierarchy of ethics related to hunting, which includes the following tenets:

1. Obey all applicable laws and regulations.

2. Respect the customs of the locale where the hunting occurs.

3. Exercise a personal code of behavior that reflects favorably on your abilities and sensibilities as a hunter.

4. Attain and maintain the skills necessary to make the kill as certain and quick as possible.

5. Behave in a way that will bring no dishonor to either the hunter, the hunted, or the environment.

6. Recognize that these tenets are intended to enhance the hunter's experience of the relationship between predator and prey, which is one of the most fundamental relationships of humans and their environment.

Passed down from parents and grandparents, hunting provided needed meat for poor families. If I had ever came home with a deer purposely shot in the ass and ruining all that meat, I wouldnt have been able to sit on mine!! The meat is no longer a "have to" thing in my family, but the old ways stick. To my own mind, if the only shot I have is an ass end, the animal won that round. I need to do better next time. That would include a world record or a meat animal. It is just the pride in my own ability as a hunter and woodsman, not because of anything written.

As the road hunter hordes will soon be here in MT, my definition is that you get out of the truck with your weapon and walk and stalk before shooting.

I don't use "fair chase" to justify my love for hunting. Whatever legal method I choose to use for the situation is "fair" enough for me to live with.

The biggest factor in my definition of "fair chase" is that the animal being sought MUST be wild and free-ranging.

Hunting skill and luck MUST be an active part of the hunting process.

Persuing animals that cannot escape because of man made enclosure and/or those that are fed by man, farm-raised, by definition removes the elements of skill and luck.

Sorry Randall,

12 years never lost a single one!!! how do you remember it Ty?

It quit being so much fun when they raised the Dam and Horse Pasture went away. I'm sure you know Rambo eh?

That boat rock & rolled buddy. 123 MPH

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Sorry Randall

No problem Steve I think this one has just about bottomed out.

Fair chase serves two purposes in my mind and has really nothing to do with conservation of a species itself.

1) it is there to ensure the hunter has a meaningful experience
2) it is an artificial way to make hunting more difficult thereby lowering the success rate so that more hunters can be in the field for a given take (this also increases the tax revenue that benefits wildlife as more hunters must kit up)

So long as the take (quota) is set appropriately it has no impact on conservation.

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Originally posted by billrquimby:

In the American West, no one I knew has any problem with shooting elk, pronghorn or deer with rifle or bow near water, but there are a whole lot of hunters here who cringe when friends talk about "hunting" behind high wire, no matter the size of the enclosure.

Bill Quimby

I guess I subscribe to that point of view, hypocrisy and all...