Hunting season?

[elkoholic]

Why do we call it hunting season?  This question came to mind as I sat in my ladder stand (a rare occurrence for me) on the only day with semi-breathable air so far this season.  The fires in this area are making our archery season a tough go so far.  Anyway, as I am sitting there waiting on something to come by it occurred to me that sitting in/on a stand is the most common method of trying to harvest an animal.  Technically, by definition, that is not hunting.  Hunting would require someone to seek or pursue something and not just sit there waiting for something to appear.  So, therefore, most of us are waiters, not hunters, and on that thought we should call it, waiting season.  Or maybe, harvest season, as that is the ultimate goal.  Now, I know that most of you just do what you do and not think about it, but just sitting there, waiting, I find it hard to not think.  Actually, I think that I think too much.  See.  But, I digress, on the original thought, just what does hunting mean?  Is any activity that is directed toward the goal of harvesting an animal considered hunting?  Example: if planting a food plot is part of the hunt (or scouting), then is doing so outside of "hunting season" illegal.  Anything you do in your quest to fill your tag can be considered hunting.  One can hunt any animal and "shoot" it with a camera at any time of the year.  If I am hunting elk (hopefully next week with the expected weather change) and a deer of immense proportions gives we a shot and I kill it, was I deer hunting?  Hence, we should change the name to, harvest season.  I would say killing season but that is but a small percentage of the process and I think the word harvest instills more meaning.   During "open" season I hunt 99% of the time and wait 1% and much prefer hunting over waiting (my aching back agrees) but my circumstance is much different than most forum members.  On top of that, I hunt all year long, but only kill during "hunting" season.  I love to hunt moose but have never drawn a tag, and still I have some nice pictures to show for my "hunts".

[wtnhunt]

Much more to it with stand hunting for most of us than simply just sitting and waiting imo.  Figuring out where to hang your stand, by looking at the clues given to use is in every sense hunting. Native American Indians even hunted by ambush means, hardly think of their skills as being "waiters" jm2cw.  

[Ultradog]

As a fellow ponderer of deep and meaningless things...
I have often thought we should call it ambushing season.
We build our blinds or stands in strategic locations, block our scent, wear camo, and try to be very, very quiet, all with the motive of making ourselves undetectable.Then we wait for our prey.

When a likely victim comes along we let loose with our arrow or  bullet and hope it enters the animal in a fatal area  before it can even react.

That is a classic definition of an ambush.

As for the waiting part, I don't mind it.

Sitting in my stand is one of the few times I can be doing absolutely nothing  and still be doing something.

[Ravin R10 man]

Ive never "Harvested" deer..I have always had to KILL it..I Loathe the term Harvest, thats what we do with combines etc  we harvest the crop   we KILL deer

 

If I'm sitting there waiting, I'm "STILL" hunting...j/k...lol

[elkoholic]

But....I thought still hunting was moving slowly through the woods, but still hunting.

And....I thought scouting and figuring out where to hang your stand is hunting, which, is only allowed during hunting season.  Plus, seeking a place to put a stand is not the same as seeking out an animal to harvest....ah....kill.

Don't you kill a plant when you harvest it?

I think.....therefore I hunt.  That's what I think

[Ravin R10 man]

Haa!  funny guy r u?

[Ultradog]

9 hours ago, elkoholic said:

 

"Don't you kill a plant when you harvest it?"

I think not.

Corn and oats, etc are pretty much already dead when you harvest them. Except maybe silage.

If that same rule applied to deer we would all just pick up road kill.

 

[Rhino]

You guys think too much...hunting is by definition however the applicable state your hunting in defines it.  Not how Websters dictionary defines it.  We follow the rules and laws as defined by each state as it relates to hunting.

For those of us that hunt using stands or ground blinds, the advance preparation before the season opens is just that...preparation for hunting.  The indians weren't hunting when they were preparing their buffalo hides for camo to stalk buffalo.  They were preparing for the hunt too.  Are we fishing if we build a lake and stock it with fish to catch and eat later when they grow big enough?  Same train of thought used for hunting preparations.  As for "harvest season", I'm with Martin.  Harvest season are those warning signs I see on the roads warning us to watch out for combines, tractors, & trucks that are going to harvest or transporting crops.

[elkoholic]

Hmm......I still think, when it comes to human consumption, most plants are harvested while still having functioning cells and are therefore "killed" when harvested.  Once something dies it either molds/rots or dries up depending of moisture content internally and/or externally.  Corn and wheat are indeed dead and preserved by drying out naturally on the stalk, unless of course it has been raining for the past month and it has rotted, making it unusable.  After death the nutritional value and palatability start to decline almost immediately.  In other words, take proper care of the animal you kill to maintain quality table fare.  Most fish and game commissions look at "harvest" figures to set tag limits.  Also, picking up roadkill is a good idea, as long as it is a fresh kill, and is legal in many states.

A crop is a crop, be it plant or animal/fish.  We feed (fertilize) our corn fields and our deer herds (Rackology, B&j, BigTine, etc.), practice genetic modification (GMO products (Whitetail Institute products) or culling/selective breeding) and harvest at the proper age to maximize the "crop".  Unfortunately, for deer it is all about the antlers and not the overall health of the herd and improved meat production.  Fortunately, improving nutrition does have an overall positive impact on the herd and not just antler growth, even though if it weren't for antler size these products would not exist.

Okay, sighting in your bow/firearm and setting stands is preparation, but how about trail cams (or actual physical scouting)?  Are we not looking for, that is hunting, something to harvest/kill.

The kill is such a small part of the "hunt".  I say, enjoy the journey, be it prep or anticipation, because once you kill,  it is all over.   Then the work begins, but enjoy that too.  It is part of the journey. 

[Ravin R10 man]

OK so did this buck get Harvested OR Killed???....lol

I'd say the Harvestor/combine killed it.

[elkoholic]

Dang!  Wonder what the dates are for harvester season.  Should have completed the job and "shelled" him too.

[bbarcheryhunter]

Sucks that's a nice buck

[Dawg]

On 9/12/2017 at 6:02 PM, Mathews XT Man said:

Ive never "Harvested" deer..I have always had to KILL it..I Loathe the term Harvest, thats what we do with combines etc  we harvest the crop   we KILL deer

 

If I'm sitting there waiting, I'm "STILL" hunting...j/k...lol

Here here!

 

I agree with Al and William as well.

[wtnhunt]

Really there is such a diverse state of what I consider "hunting".  This is again a great topic Dave, and a good discussion.  I have had a lot of "pondering time" here lately.  

Honestly I really enjoyed it when I had the opportunity to hunt with Steve Beilgard in Wyoming and wish that was something we could do more often, but ranches of that size simply do not exist here, nor does the terrain here support that type of hunting at least in this part of the state we are in.  Spotting and stalking from high ground and using the terrain to our advantage was great, got very close to some real nice elk, but we were there for deer and antelope. While we saw evidence of some nice mulies, I never was able to catch up to that right one.  I had gotten into less than a hundred yards from a trophy elk, too bad the deer were not so easy to find in the unusually warm Wyoming October. That style of hunting is so different than here.  I mean you can see for miles in the wide open country there and you might have 6 or 8 hunters on a 45,000 acre or larger ranch.  Here you simply do not have those types of open country and small mountains to use for vantage points, terrain is such that you may be able to see an open field 3 or 4 hundred yards long and more often you are hunting in much tighter locations than that making spot and stalk style hunting virtually impossible on these swamp whitetails that seem to be extremely wary.  You are lucky to have single landowners that have more than a couple hundred acres in most places, more commonly farms are less than a hundred acres and you might have a number of hunters on each of those parcels.  I don't know the actual number of hunters within a mile of our farm, but would bet it would be 20 or more not counting those on our 60 acre farm.    

The idea that you could go miles and still be on the same parcel in many places out west versus talking in terms of yards here, the opportunities are just not the same.  So here you try to position yourself to be in the right place at the right time based on what information you are able to gather.  I try to hunt for the best class/oldest deer I know are here, that is where trail cams are critical, I just don't have the ability to sit in 3 or 4 different stands at the same time.  Gathering as much pre season intel as I can gives me the knowledge I need in the way of expectations.  I can tell you last year was a perfect example for me of luck playing in as a huge factor, and I did a LOT of "waiting" in the stands with hopes the deer I missed in November was even still around.  I was very fortunate to have seen the same buck on 3 occasions; passed him up on the first with my muzzleloader scope steady on him with hopes my wife would tag the deer, missed him with my .270 on the second encounter, and managed to kill him third time I saw him with my .270.  How he evaded other surrounding hunters was pure luck for me, twice I watched him go off our property to a neighboring farm where there are at least two hunters that hunt near our lines.  My wife had also seen the deer, before the first time I saw him but she was unable to get what she felt was an ethical shot.  My plans and looking at the conditions the morning I killed him worked out that everything lined up just right to put me in position for the deer to be in front of me again in December.  I had planned on hunting anywhere but where I did, but weather conditions/wind when i checked was just not right for those stands.  The field I hunted had seen very poor activity last year, and the primary rut was long over, I had to put time into a stand that had shown little promise and get my rear end out of the bed even though my low back had been killing me.  Where a lot of guys around us kill pretty well every doe they see I let them walk, turns out that once again it was a late doe cycling in that helped bring me a little luck.  Likely a doe I had previously passed on.  

Far as using harvest for killing, does not bother me too much.  I think that is one of those things that the wildlife folks like to use to tame things down to the non hunters to not be such a turnoff, kinda like the suggestion that you should not ride a deer around in the back of your truck on the tailgate down.  I had to kind argue with our warden on that, I get the point, but also the flipside to that is you have some non hunters that may see it and think that is cool and intrigue them. And I share the story of the two old folks(in their late 60's) who gave me a thumbs up and said that is nice at a checking station/gas station back in 2003 when I was checking in an 8 point.  To each their own I guess, our deer go field to freezer since TN began allowing us to check in without going to a checking station.  If I were to take one in to a checking station though, it would be something to be proud of and would get the ride on the tailgate down and I would check my kill tag.  

[elkoholic]

I do think that hunting is much more than the dictionary definition.  The vast majority of hunters do not actively seek or pursue their quarry, mainly due to the area in which they live and hunt.  Here in northwest Montana even spot and stalk is not a practical method as long distance spotting is mostly impractical due to thickly forested terrain.  One can often glass into logging areas across a canyon but getting there would involve some serious trekking in steep, rocky terrain.  The mountain valleys are mostly private property with limited hunting options.

Archery season for me is mostly an elk hunting endeavor (although I've been stymied by forest fire smoke and closed areas this year) which involves a lot of walking and calling to locate and hopefully get an opportunity for a shot.  I am a lone wolf hunter and that makes killing an elk very difficult and if successful in that endeavor, getting the meat out a serious consideration. One can sit in a stand over a water hole or an alfalfa field (common in the eastern half of the state) for elk but I do not consider that "elk hunting".    We are only allowed one deer (one can apply for doe tags) per year, so I seldom shoot a deer (it has been almost 20 years) during archery season.  I have passed on a few rather large bucks over the years that in retrospect makes me doubt my sanity.

My deer hunting passion is still hunting or tracking.  Much in the fashion of the Benoit family (if one does not know about these master hunters, google it) this may well be hunting in its purist form.  With millions of acres of Forest Service land along with additional lands, owned by Weyerhaeuser, open to hunting one can hunt all day and never see another hunter.  In the past 30+ years I can count on one hand the number on times I encountered another hunter while hunting.  The forest roads are crawling with "road hunters" (basically poachers), but I do not want to get started on that subject.  Stopping occasionally to rattle and call, I hope to spot a buck before he spots me.  When on a fresh track (a perfect day is fresh tracking snow) my goal is to not only spot the buck first but to catch him still in his bed and have managed to shoot 4 bucks in their beds and several that had just risen.   Due to low deer density one might not see a lot of deer but come November the chance of that deer being a mature buck is pretty good.  I like big antlers as much as anyone but just a mature buck is more my goal and if meat for the freezer is on my mind than any buck I believe to be at least a couple of years old might be in trouble.

Things that make me wonder include, shooting (or not) a deer for antler size, naming deer (really?), hunting anything (except maybe some predators) with no intentions of consuming the meat (or giving it away for consumption), and any type of hunting that is illegal.  I see an incredible lack of respect for the animals and land.  It is sad.  Success at any cost or means.  Hunters ridiculing other hunters about the size of the buck they shot or how they got it (as long as it was legal) is also a curiosity.

Hunting is not a contest or competition.  The successful hunter did not match wits with his quarry, for his quarry is merely trying to survive and does not care how witty the creature is that is trying to kill it.  In this day and age a hunter never loses.  He/she goes home and eats a hot meal, drinks a cold beer and sleeps in a comfortable bed after watching football from their recliner.  Tough life, that.

I wish every hunter could have the opportunity to still hunt the big woods.  It has given me many stories to tell (some unbelievable) and opportunities (some capitalized, some not), but, I'm still waiting to see that Sasquatch.

Have a safe and enjoyable hunting season, and if you kill/harvest this year, try a new recipe.  It's part of the journey.

[Rhino]

I understand your still hunting on your type of turf.  I've made 2 elk hunts...1 bow...1 muzzleloader.  Same type of still hunting tactics you talked about.  Stalked to within bow range of an elk and missed 2nd guessing the distance.  Killed a bull the 2nd day of my muzzleloader hunt.  Covered ~3.5 miles in rough terrain the 1st day.  Got to where we wanted to start before daylight the 2nd day where I was able to move in for that bull.  I've made 1 mulie hunt...spot & stalk.  Covered lots of ground glassing to make stalks on bedded mulie bucks.  Killed one the 5th day of that hunt.

Like William said...the terrain and amount of acreage a hunter can utilize is different on my home turf.  I can only recall 2 bucks I've been able to stalk and kill bowhunting in Mississippi.  Tried in Iowa once on a very windy day.  Got to about 60 yards of a big, mature 10 point but there was no way I could figure out to get any closer without spooking him.  Not sure how many deer I've killed still hunting with a gun.  Not too many though here in the south.  Obviously it's easier than still/stalk hunting with a bow.

As far as encountering other hunters on public land...Over the years, I can probably count on 1 hand the number of times I haven't in the south.  The norm is having to hunt around other hunters on public land.  The last time I hunted public land was a turkey hunt in southern Missouri.  I was on a gobbling bird all by myself...within 10 minutes I had 5 hunters behind me and to my left & right behind me.  The bird was in front of me so I was in their line of fire.  It wasn't worth it so I got up and walked right through them to get out of there.  That's why I quit hunting public land and only hunt private land now.  

I have to agree with you about naming deer.   In my mind it seems to humanize the animal or put him in the same train of thought as a pet.  I rarely do it and when I do it's only to make it easier to ID him in discussions so I don't have to describe him every time I talk about him.  I prefer to refer to a particular buck by other means.  

BTW...got a new recipe to try this year.