Hunting Ethics

[Bow_Hunter]

Questions:

Are there not ethics envolved in life where you beleive in a God or not?

Do Quality Deer Management (QDM) and Hunting Ethics go hand in hand?

Can you have one with out the other?

Would an unethical Hunter ever practice QDM?

Food for thought!


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Aim True!
Shoot True!
Hit your mark!

[Seldom]

Bow_Hunter,
To answer your question if QDM and hunter's ethics go hand-in-hand in my opinion it's yes. But I believe today we have a lot of what I call "shooters" not hunters in the woods. Hunters aren't there for the sole purpose of quick, self-gratification of a kill. The "shooters" are what you call "unethical hunters". They're the ones who decorate the trees with vinyl ribbons and leave them. They're the ones who cut down 3" popular trees to open shooting lanes on state ground. They're the ones who decorate limbs with beer cans and leave bait bags scattered thoughout the woods. And you ask the last question-"would an unethical hunter ever practice QDM" I think QDM is the LAST thing they would practice!!

[DAVER]

I could not have said it better !! than seldom did!! I think he nailed it. DAVER

[bwiltse]

Ethics and stewardship are the foundation for any wildlife management program. We also probably need to be careful when declaring that one group or another has higher/lower standards than the next. It is agreed that we have a ways to go.

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Boyd

[leon]

Do Quality Deer Management (QDM) and Hunting Ethics go hand in hand?

I have always thought so. The people I know in QDM circles generally practice good hunting ethics. For me, QDM means good land stewardship where you respect the land, manage it for outstanding wildlife habitat, and keep it from being overbrowsed and overused by the wildlife you support. QDM also means caring about the wildlife population so that you develop a deer herd that is balanced age and sex wise closer to how nature would have it without man's interference. That means using some management techniques to restrict your harvest of some younger bucks and encourage the harvest of some does. People who go to all this trouble, work and expense are, in my opinion, ethical hunters and stewards. I am certainly a little biased, but I hope this is how we will manage our Michigan deer herd in this century.