Originally Posted By: L. Brown
....the fence-sitting nonhunters--who are, by far, the majority in this country--can be pushed off the fence when they hear about hunters doing a lot of crippling rather than killing cleanly. For example, the landowner I referred to earlier might just as easily have decided that if hunters were going to cripple as many roosters as they killed on her property, then she'd keep ALL hunters out....


To me there's nothing wrong with working to become a better shot, but I believe nonhunters will be fed what someone thinks they should hear. Another way to look at your example, those hunters were exemplary by their honesty, no account of questionable hunting technique, but maybe just unlucky on that day. It's possible that land owner was concerned about unauthorized trespassing. I really don't know, but the landowner seemed willing to allow the birds to be removed from her spread before the hunters showed up that day.