Thread: Long-range hunting: is it sporting?

Originally Posted by Frodo

The older guys are then hinging the newer discipline on the unfavourable (in their eyes) mentality of individuals who start out as shooters, and gravitate towards hunting with the goal of practicing on live targets... and not getting into the sport with 'knowledge from the farm' (so to speak).

I may have 'the wrong end of the stick' but here goes.

Well I would class those 'hunters' that have not learned to 'shoot' first as being unethical, as they would actually be the ones practising on live animals.

I have spent a fair amount of time in my younger years learning and practising bush skills. Fairly late in the piece I have decided to learn to use a firearm and learn how to shoot, having no-one in the family that was into shooting until recently. As such I don't have the hunting skills, but hopefully they will come. To me it was important to learn to shoot before bumbling around in order to maximise my chances of a clean kill once I got to that point (still waiting to get to that point). As such, with the skills I have amassed over the last few years I would be confident to take a short or a longer range shot within my limits. I think location and terrain plays a major roll in the type of hunting.