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So what exactly is fair chase?

Good insights here. I've read them all. I don't possess any special knowledge or rules about fair chase in spite of my handle. Aldo Leupold said a man's ethics are no more challenged than hunting alone and seeing a covey of quail walking single file down a corn row. As many have noted we start with what's legal and then go further until our conscious is no longer bothered. That too can change over time as we age. I remember an elk hunt in Idaho where we walked in a couple miles and came into a meadow to look for a suitable place to set up camp. I looked up and alerted my buddy that a 6 point bull was standing looking at us less than 100 yards away. We must have bumped him out of the meadow. It would have been so easy but the season didn't open until the next day. We never even saw another elk! No regrets. It was illegal and certainly unethical. I don't judge others sense of fair chase as long as it's legal. Everyone is at a different place in their hunting life. Live and let live. Fair chase is still the best way to hunt and take wild game. That's the by line for one of the western hunting shows. I like it.
 
Is it really ever fair to kill an animal that isn't in the process of trying to kill you? No. But that's how nature works and we're the top of the food chain. And as hunters do we ever really chase our prey anymore? No. We shoot them. So IMO the whole notion of the term "fair chase" is silly. Probably an unpopular opinion but to me it seems like some fancy labeling hunters use to make themselves feel more ethical or righteous than less sporty hunters.

I killed my first buck this year with a bow, on the ground, in big timber, after he his nose was close enough to mine that I could nearly smell his breath. No exaggeration I had to wait for him to move far enough away that I could shoot him. I don't know what constitutes fair chase but being face to face with a 160 class buck felt pretty sporty. Two weeks later I shot another good buck from a shooting house at around 100yds in an open field, with my 30-06. Same hunter. Same ethics. And I ow nobody an explanation nor will I be preached at by any "sportsman" who wants to virtue signal at my expense. If I see a perched dove I'll take the easy win and save myself 3 shells. It's nobody's business. I don't give any other hunter grief about how they legally take an animal. And I won't take any grief from them.
 
RobDooley said:
no high fences
Click to expand...
Depends. There are fences, I have only killed does inside of a high fenced area, but I can promise you it is fair chase, well the unfair part is the deer can be beyond belief hard to hunt. Of course this fence is large enough in area that the deer probably pay any attention to it. 3000 acres or so inside of one fence and the land is up and down and "jungle" would be a good term to describe the type of cover on the property. The fence is more to keep trespassers out than it is to keep animals in. Unbelievable what people will do, theft, vandalism, etc. The fence I killed does in, the guy used to run a crazy photo census, he had a few hundred cameras out, thousands of pictures. There were way more than you count great bucks on camera that not only were never killed but never seen by anyone, whether hunting or just riding around. Only unfair part to the deer is when he kills enough does, the rut can be beyond intense, unbelievable rut, I have never hunted for a buck inside the fence, his customers and close personal family get to hunt the bucks. But before and after the rut, even just seeing a deer can be difficult. I remember one year, they videoed a giant, clean 9 pointer, deer was over 170", they watched him for chase does for over an hour. Back then he sold hunts. The hunter hunted all over the US and has for sure killed some large deer, and it was the first day. The guy passed the buck up. They thought for sure they would see the deer again. With all the cameras out, there were no pics of that buck. That was the only time that deer was ever seen and never got a pic of it.
 
I learned quick that all fences are not the same. The high fence around Milan ammunition plant has plenty of low spots and dug holes. Coyotes, deer, whatever go in and out as a please. Deer will even crawl through culverts.
 
To me "fair chase" is the bar I choose to set for myself before a hunt or season and refusing to compromise those parameters in order to achieve my goal. Over the course of my years of hunting my goals have changed in many ways and I'm sure they will continue to do so as long as I'm fortunate enough to walk into the woods. As of now my personal rules for fair chase are bow only on natural occurring food sources but I am 💯 ok with anyone hunting however they see fit.
 
For me, hunting from a shooting house (I am not against it and all for anyone hunting from one) but to me, especially with a bow, not sure if makes it unfair, but it for sure masks human scent and movement (drawing a bow) and for me personally take away from the "hunting experience". I have shot a fairly large amount of does from a shooting house, but to me in some way it is not hunting. And I have walked, hunted, sat through some miserable, horrible weather and I for sure thought it would be great to have a nice shooting house to sit in, but it is still not for me. Maybe when I get few more years on me, I will hunt from them or if health forces that issue, but being in the outdoors, the heat, the cold, rain, snow, wind, nice days, bad days, etc. is what I love most about hunting, being in the elements. Bow hunting to me, as much as I try to get as close to a deer as I can before shooting, but drawing the bow back and not being busted is a huge part of the hunt. And I have been busted way more than I care to remember.
 

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