Small Disagreement

[Rhys Williams 3]

i mentioned to a friends boyfriend a few weeks ago that i go lamping rabbits with the dog which then got us talking about hunting as i learned that he shoots too.his opinion was that hunting with dogs was not "proper" hunting, so i went on to ask is shooting a rabbit at 100 yds with a gun more natural than a dog? And shooting at this distance cancels out a lot of the skill of stalking and releasing the dog at the right time. his response to this was that it requires more skill to shoot a rabbit.

 

He then went on to say that he was brought up thinking that a shotgun should not be used to hunt because it requires less skill to shoot a fox than it would with a rifle. my opinion was that you need to call a fox in closer with a shotgun so surely this requires more skill and field craft. i have little to no experience of shooting foxes with a rifle so am i wrong? i realise that a whole other set of skills are needed to handle a rifle well and kill cleanly so i'm not knocking it at all. In the end, a dead fox is good either way.

 

all i wanted was a response to see what other peoples opinions were on this. Is this bloke just stuck in a mindset that there is no other way apart from a rifle?

 

if this makes no sense i apologize i'm not so good at putting things into words

[fitchet 788]

Get him out with the dogs mate. I shoot and work dogs but i enjoy the latter far more but probably catch less. Most shooters opinion on lurcher is founded on what they have heard rather than seen. Atb

[Stabs 2]

Shooting with rifles is one way of hunting, and hunting with dogs is another.

 

It's nice to have the choice, and this is something we shouldn't take for granted.

 

I shoot but I prefer hunting with dogs but I would never dream of telling another man my way is better or more 'natural'.

 

Too many folks wear blinkers in this game and try to foist their opinions on others. I don't want to be all marxist social worker, but we should celebrate the diversity of our hunting rather than being narrow minded about what we do and how it compares to others.

[the_stig 6,614]

offer a night out and hope he does the same each to there own --but for me you cant beat the feeling of seeing a dog you`ve bred and trained doing its job ...

[Ratreeper 441]

Different hunting requires different skills, each to their own I can't see the need for competition and comparison and a lot depends on the land you hunt on. Having said that, at school I would get in to similar debates with a mate of mine who used to shoot his dad's FAC and we had friendly banter, ie he mocked my air rifles, so we would argue if it took more skill to shoot further or stalk closer. I still stand by saying stalking is harder and shooting deer is the easiest thing in the hunting world

[Rhys Williams 3]

we didn't have a heated argument everyone went home happy, as was said some good banter is always good. i shoot too so as was mentioned a choice is good so i'm not knocking his way at all. maybe in the future when i have an FAC i will shoot with a rifle too. great to hear different opinions.

[romany52 313]

Tell him shooting isn't hunting at all ! it's shooting ! You hunt with hounds, course with running dogs, hawk with Hawks, ferret with ferrets and net with nets !