squirrel ethics question?
- Thread starter bigmike22
- Start date
Lonnie
New member
Most of the shooting into nests that I have seen has been done from directly under the tree, so no danger unless a plane was flying low. I think we play this ethics stuff too much. We are all killers. The PETA people are not. That is the difference. I do respect game animals and love to watch deer, squirrels, etc. but I also love to kill them and eat them.
potomacduck
New member
This is a good discussion. Personally I would never do it, somehow it seems not quite right. However, I have a squirrel hunting friend who grew up in Kentucky and he tells me that decades ago shooting a nest was common practice.
But I think this is about a lot more than shooting squirrel nests. Lots of the things we do as hunters can be made to sound "shaky" or unethical. Personally I don't like the idea of dogs being set out to chase and then rip apart a fox or coyote. But I'll never criticize another hunting brother for hunting that way. Ever, period.
I hear lot's of conversations about shoot/don't shoot scenarios on deer, and of course those who choose not to shoot are much more moral than the guys who would shoot, right? Hmmmmm........
Yet those of us who bowhunt send arrows slicing through deer which run off to bleed to death, that's why we wait a while before tracking themm, right?
Good conversations make us think, and that's a good thing.
But I think this is about a lot more than shooting squirrel nests. Lots of the things we do as hunters can be made to sound "shaky" or unethical. Personally I don't like the idea of dogs being set out to chase and then rip apart a fox or coyote. But I'll never criticize another hunting brother for hunting that way. Ever, period.
I hear lot's of conversations about shoot/don't shoot scenarios on deer, and of course those who choose not to shoot are much more moral than the guys who would shoot, right? Hmmmmm........
Yet those of us who bowhunt send arrows slicing through deer which run off to bleed to death, that's why we wait a while before tracking themm, right?
Good conversations make us think, and that's a good thing.
Hidalgo
Well-known member
Quote:
spin it any way you like....shooting what you cannot see will be wrong until the end of time
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Good 'ole SKB...never a doubt where he stands on a topic. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
spin it any way you like....shooting what you cannot see will be wrong until the end of time
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Good 'ole SKB...never a doubt where he stands on a topic. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
potomacduck
New member
Quote:
Quote:
spin it any way you like....shooting what you cannot see will be wrong until the end of time
Agreed, except those knuckleheads CAN see what they are shooting at. They are shooting at a squirrel's nest.
-Good discussion.
Quote:
spin it any way you like....shooting what you cannot see will be wrong until the end of time
Agreed, except those knuckleheads CAN see what they are shooting at. They are shooting at a squirrel's nest.
-Good discussion.
GC
Well-known member
Quote:
he tells me that decades ago shooting a nest was common practice.
Of course, decades ago there was no thought given to conservation, no bag limits, no habitat preservation, and little thought given to ethics in the field by many. Of course the game suffered. In the late twenties and early thirties the whitetail population in Missouri was estimated at around 400 total statewide. With forethought in conservation, ethics, and regulated bag limits, Missouri now has about 1 million whitetails. A similar story could be told of the wild turkey and many other game species. Small game deserves no less consideration IMHO.
I don't hunt to kill, I kill in order to have hunted. There is a difference to a thinking mind. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
he tells me that decades ago shooting a nest was common practice.
Of course, decades ago there was no thought given to conservation, no bag limits, no habitat preservation, and little thought given to ethics in the field by many. Of course the game suffered. In the late twenties and early thirties the whitetail population in Missouri was estimated at around 400 total statewide. With forethought in conservation, ethics, and regulated bag limits, Missouri now has about 1 million whitetails. A similar story could be told of the wild turkey and many other game species. Small game deserves no less consideration IMHO.
I don't hunt to kill, I kill in order to have hunted. There is a difference to a thinking mind. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
FordTruckGuySTX
New member
I gotta say thats bad judgement big time. I have a neighbor who's family loads up the opening weekend of squirrel and this year between the family shot over 100 squirrels the first week and just made a big pile of them, didnt eat them, nothing. took a few tails for trophies and that was it and he tried to criticize me for going and only bringing home 3. I saw about 18 but only those 3 where within a good range and went down where i could retrieve them. if a squirrel is 10 feet away but will end up where i cannot retrieve it he can live to collect acorns another day. If I went hunting with someone lighting up nests like that i'd probably had a friendly dissaggreement with him.
yoterbob
New member
Quote:
Quote:
he tells me that decades ago shooting a nest was common practice.
I don't hunt to kill, I kill in order to have hunted. There is a difference to a thinking mind. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
I grew up in Ky as well and have also heard of this practice. I hunted squirrels when I was young with my father and grandfather. They would always hunt with a 20 guage shotgun. I asked my grandad once why he didnt use a rifle. He said son have you ever been hungry,I mean really hungry and didnt know where your next meal would come from,I said no. He said well I have and that is why I hunt with a shotgun. He lived to be 91 years old and served in WWI so Im sure he had seen rough times in his very poor childhood. There is a difference,he hunted to live,he didnt live to hunt as many of us do.
Quote:
he tells me that decades ago shooting a nest was common practice.
I don't hunt to kill, I kill in order to have hunted. There is a difference to a thinking mind. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
I grew up in Ky as well and have also heard of this practice. I hunted squirrels when I was young with my father and grandfather. They would always hunt with a 20 guage shotgun. I asked my grandad once why he didnt use a rifle. He said son have you ever been hungry,I mean really hungry and didnt know where your next meal would come from,I said no. He said well I have and that is why I hunt with a shotgun. He lived to be 91 years old and served in WWI so Im sure he had seen rough times in his very poor childhood. There is a difference,he hunted to live,he didnt live to hunt as many of us do.
Mahamari
New member
Illegal here in Iowa and I'd probably walk out of the woods if someone I was hunting with did it. Just no way too know if you are wounding them and they are laying up in the nest suffering. Just because it's legal doesn't make it right. Here it's legal too chase coyotes with trucks, guys kill dozens of them in a few hours by driving up and down terraces until they kick one up, then they chase it and surround it with other trucks, IMO it's not right, not hunting, and I'd like too see it banned. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Varmonter
New member
Not sure if it is legal in vt or not.
I think if you don't know whether it is legal or not it
is a non issue.For me, I wouldn't ever do anything
like this..so i don't need to look it up.
But i bet your friend of a friend actually does knows whether
or not it is legal because he does it.
So if it is illegal in your state I would not hunt with him again..
I used to live in pa and it was written
in the game law book.They have to pass laws like this because people actually do things like shoot squirrl nests or deer with a spotlight or turkey with a 223.It is just plain wrong.
Vermont used to be one of the only states where you could
Shoot fish(pike and pickerel in the spring.)
People would have treestands over the back bays of lake champlain ..Shoot fish with a 30-06..I thought that was
the strangest thing when I moved up here.But to the locals
It was just something fun to do in the springtime.
So culturally people can have different values.
I think if you don't know whether it is legal or not it
is a non issue.For me, I wouldn't ever do anything
like this..so i don't need to look it up.
But i bet your friend of a friend actually does knows whether
or not it is legal because he does it.
So if it is illegal in your state I would not hunt with him again..
I used to live in pa and it was written
in the game law book.They have to pass laws like this because people actually do things like shoot squirrl nests or deer with a spotlight or turkey with a 223.It is just plain wrong.
Vermont used to be one of the only states where you could
Shoot fish(pike and pickerel in the spring.)
People would have treestands over the back bays of lake champlain ..Shoot fish with a 30-06..I thought that was
the strangest thing when I moved up here.But to the locals
It was just something fun to do in the springtime.
So culturally people can have different values.
TheDogHunter2
New member
I know shoot a shot gun with a full load of #4 into the nest. Then take a chain saw and cut down all the tree to see if you killed anything.After doing this a few hundred times set the place on fire and shoot all the rest tring to get away. How stupid.
OldTurtle
Moderator - Deceased
My grandfather raised 7 kids through the depression and taught me how to shoot quail with a .22 in case I ever needed to eat. That is totally illegal and I would have no thought of doing it outside of threat of starving. The same goes for shooting into any nest.
My enjoyment of hunting anything is based on fair play and equal advantage. If I can understand my quarry and outsmart them, fine. But it will be a clean shot and kill. For years I preferred to hunt with a camera. It didn't make me any less the hunter, and probably a better sportsman.
My enjoyment of hunting anything is based on fair play and equal advantage. If I can understand my quarry and outsmart them, fine. But it will be a clean shot and kill. For years I preferred to hunt with a camera. It didn't make me any less the hunter, and probably a better sportsman.