What are your highly educated opinions on tech in hunting?

[brockel]

I agree there needs to be some limitations. The problem is where do you draw the line. Traditional bow hunters think compounds are to effective. Compound hunters think crossbows are to effective. Muzzleloader hunters think center fire rifles are to effective. The comments about banning rangefinders to stop long range shooting is funny to me. You know how much Kentucky windage was used before rangefinders?
There’s stories of Jack Oconnor lobbing shots in there way before rangefinders and good scopes. Hell my favorite rifle before I ever owned a rangefinder was a 257 weatherby loaded with 85 grain ballistic tips. Sight it in 3” high at 100 Hold on hair very long distance away. That cartridge came out in the 1940s. Is that too modern?

 

[Hammsolo]

Don't know. Link didn't work.

Just Google Gunwerks Muzzleloader.

 

[belshawelk]

If you can’t hike or pedal there you don’t deserve to be there unless your handicapped or very senior.

 

[Akcabin]

Different strokes for different folks. I grew up using a compass. And that's all I still use. I do look at Google earth. For me it's the experience. I'm blessed to be able to get out into bush ak all by myself. A lot of the time there isn't phone reception either.
Identifying habit. Sign. Finding game. Using skills I've been using for near 60 years. I don't want to know what critters are where, when n why. And when I call in a moose or other game. Or still hunt. And getting lost n spending the night at times. All part of the gig.
I'll just say this. When I get dropped off on a remote lake, nobody around but me n the wild. And my ability to get back out still feeling great. With or without a harvest. At the base of Mt McKinley and the AK range. Talkeetna range. There's nothing else like it

 

[Gellar]

No rangefinders means more wounded animals. No GPS means wasted time for SARs and probably a few deaths for lost souls.

There’s plenty of other items of tech to ban.

It would be interesting to see if there was statistics on this.

Not hunting but every year you hear of auto accidents because someone followed their GPS into a lake or back alley.

Last year we had a guy crash his boat on the Mississippi River. He was following his gps on the same route he took the day before in thick fog but that morning a river barge had stopped to wait until the fog lifted and he ran smack into the side. Luckily he wasn’t ejected but he was knocked unconscious and the barge crew was able to stop his boat since he didn’t have the kill switch attached.

 

[Mallardsx2]

I am most concerned with people either in complete and utter denial, or just simply turning a blind eye, to the whole nighttime thermal/suppressor out the back door corn pile poaching ring that is going on nationwide. Lot of people with their heads buried in the sand these days.

Tags are getting harder and harder to get and criminals are becoming more and more desperate for horns on the wall. A top of the line night hunting setup can be made for less than $6,000. Whitetail hunts are going for $8,000.

Absolutely crazy times we live in regarding all of it.

 

[Hammsolo]

Generally speaking, I would prefer less technology in hunting, but when has mankind willingly moved backwards with knowledge?

Most every tool is a double edged sword. While I can see the danger to hunting from thermal inmaging, I can also see the wounding loss rate on big game, going way down, if it was used to recover game.

Yes, but this is the classic slippery slope. Will people take riskier shots? How does a game warden regulate hunting vs. recovery?

 

[Hammsolo]

I think it all stems back to "fair chase". We were talking about this a few weeks go on a mule deer hunt. We came to the conclusion that to be "fair chase" the animal has to be able to detect you as a threat. Any technology that aids in reducing that "threat" is not right. Anybody that claims that regularly shooting at animals 1-1200 yards away is hunting is wrong in my mind. May have the skills to pull it off, but it is not hunting, it is sniping. My thoughts in a nutshell.

Would this eliminate camo? Scent shields? Blinds? Tree stands? Digital maps, like mentioned above? They allow you to take routes you may not have taken to set up visual and scent cover.

 

[Hammsolo]

If you can’t hike or pedal there you don’t deserve to be there unless your handicapped or very senior.

I would argue no one deserves to be there. Deserves technically means earned. Some conflate it to equal that it’s a right. I have been handicapped legally before. I didn’t deserve to hunt wilderness areas. I will age and continue to decay. I will not deserve to hunt roadless areas. Life is brutal and honest with us.

 

[bigsky2]

Using thermals to locate game animals is where it crosses the line for me. I don't care whether it's locating waterfowl or turkeys on their roost, deer in an ag field, or elk in a drainage, it's all a huge advantage over the animals. I understand thermals are a valuable tool for controlling predators, but I don't think they should be allowed in the field at all during big game season.

 

[406dn]

Yes, but this is the classic slippery slope. Will people take riskier shots? How does a game warden regulate hunting vs. recovery?

It's yet another catch 22. We humans always figure out a way to use a tool to our perceived benefit. There is always a way to misuse a tool.

It reminds me of what I have long thought. Hunting does not build character, nearly as much as it reveals it.

 

[Gellar]

First post on the Facebook machine this morning. I can foresee this tech battle being bigger than any battle hunters have ever had. And sadly it will be a battle that divides us even further, giving anti hunters more fuel for their fire while we slowly destroy ourselves from within.

Tech companies have a lot of money to fight and to lose if they don’t get their way. This new tech already has the door open and once they get their foot in it will be impossible to keep them out.

 

[brockel]

Using thermals to locate game animals is where it crosses the line for me. I don't care whether it's locating waterfowl or turkeys on their roost, deer in an ag field, or elk in a drainage, it's all a huge advantage over the animals. I understand thermals are a valuable tool for controlling predators, but I don't think they should be allowed in the field at all during big game season.

Serious question because I’ve never seen it but do game wardens patrol at night? I’ve only seen them late evening fueling up to head home and start again in the morning. I agree they shouldn’t be used for big game hunting but who’s patrolling that?

 

[Nick87]

Serious question because I’ve never seen it but do game wardens patrol at night? I’ve only seen them late evening fueling up to head home and start again in the morning. I agree they shouldn’t be used for big game hunting but who’s patrolling that?

I have seen them at night. But i think they may have been out on a call.

 

[Caseknife]

Would this eliminate camo? Scent shields? Blinds? Tree stands? Digital maps, like mentioned above? They allow you to take routes you may not have taken to set up visual and scent cover.

Not really in my mind, but the world is in a constant state of flux. Tennessee is just now contemplating the use of drones to locate injured and lost animals, better not go there at all in my opinion.

 

[Irrelevant]

Things that should be banned:
Thermals
Night vision
Imagine stabilizing
Anything electric/electronic on weapon
Sat messengers
Gps
Game cameras on public land
>11 lbs guns
>75% let off bows
Crossbows
209 primers
...

To be honest, I have a gps (because it's also my camera) and my wife demands I take the sat messenger after an incident a few years ago

 

[brockel]

YouTube has done more harm to hunting than anything mentioned in these posts.

 

[Blue Rope]

YouTube has done more harm to hunting than anything mentioned in these posts.

Possibly. You can't regulate what people carry in their mind though. You can regulate equipment.

 

[Forkyfinder]

Possibly. You can't regulate what people carry in their mind though. You can regulate equipment.

Na - you could. Ban filiming for profit on public lands in MT.

 

[bigsky2]

Serious question because I’ve never seen it but do game wardens patrol at night? I’ve only seen them late evening fueling up to head home and start again in the morning. I agree they shouldn’t be used for big game hunting but who’s patrolling that?

I have not. The annoying thing is that it seems a lot of our wardens aren't on the same page with what is defined as the act of hunting. A couple of years ago I was hunting the archery opener with a friend. We met the warden on the road, chatted with him for a bit, and I asked him if he would like to see our licenses. His reply was, "No, you're not hunting, you're just going down the road right now." The law reads you can't use thermals "while hunting", so by his definition you could be driving down the road stopping to use a thermal, even inside of legal hunting hours, as long as you don't leave your vehicle. Montana is way behind on some of this stuff. In Utah, you can't even have thermals in your possession during big game season.