Thread: Long-range hunting: is it sporting?

Here is my take on it....

I think people are getting mixed up between "is it ethical" and "is it sporting."
The two are separate issues and neither are absolutes.

Ethics: In my mind ethics has mainly revolved around doing everything in your power to minimise suffering, now this depends on your abilities as a hunter, fitness, tracking and stalking skills and marksmanship. Basically it is can I be reasonably certain that my shot will be a clean kill, obviously mistakes do happen no matter how good we are, ethics then to me says that we make a quick follow up and end the suffering.
The long range aspect only comes in to me in the second part here, if a well practiced shooter can consistently produce clean kills at whatever range then it seems there is no issue with placement. With following up a wounded animal, the standard practice has been to give it 15 to 20 mins to let it settle, adrenalin ease, and let the wound stiffen anyway, rather than charging after it and making it run, so perhaps this is not an issue with long range anyway, taking into account the terrain obviously.

Sporting: Now, here is where it gets interesting, I think it only needs to be sporting if you want it to be sporting, let's be honest, killing deer on a deer farm is not sporting, but no one really worries about it do they? If the main goal is to put meat in the freezer then why are we even arguing? I don't care that my homekill is not free to fair chase, I do care however that it is killed humanely, which is more to do with ethics.
Now I hunt for sport, I will not go hungry if I don't hunt and I know the antis will crucify me for saying this but I enjoy it, not only the kill but the whole aspect of fair chase in the bush and pitting my skills against the animals senses to get close enough for a shot.
In my opinion long range hunting is not sporting (in the traditional sense) only due to the fact that the animals do not see you as a threat at extended ranges so you are not engaging and defeating their senses, but, I do acknowledge the skill it takes to make a clean shot at those ranges so in that sense I see it as a different kind of "sport" due to putting in the hard yards to get in position and get set up, judge the wind and range and atmosphere and make the shot.

So all in all, while long range hunting is not my thing, I do see it as a sport in a way and provided the work has been put in to ensure a clean shot and all aspects taken into account it can be ethical too.
I believe the issue that most have is neither of these but rather the fact (nobody can refute this) that it is not traditional.