doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Most amazing Pheasant Pictures

It was a tower shoot.

Wonderful photos - a good illustration of the fact that most birds need more lead than they are given. But....

Throwing captive birds from a tower and shooting them?

I try very hard to be open minded and support those sports that others take pleasure in but which are not to my own tastes. Usually I manage but somehow I struggle with this. I think it hard to defend.

Cool pics, too bad they are stocked birds. Pretty easy to tell if you look at the tails as well as hens being shot.

I don't seen any difference between shooting pen raised pheasants launched from a tower and any other kind of pen raised bird shoot/hunt. I think pen raised bird hunts are ethical by-the-way.

Best,

Mike

Hi All,
Best pictures I have ever seen for realism. I hunt pen raised birds out of neccesity (few wild ones here anymore) but I prefer to hunt wild Ruffs when possible. I have been to a tower shoot and did not like it & would not go back again, it does not seem like hunting to me just shooting, not easy just not hunting to me. I did read Small Bores comment above (I do respect him very much) and I don't see a big difference between tower shooting and driven shooting as is often done in England and other countries. I am again not saying it is easy just does not seem like hunting to me when you have others presenting the birds to you by beating or throwing from a tower with a person and maybe his loader preparing for the shots & someone else retrieving the birds and someone else cleaning the birds as you walk from peg to peg.
I do want to restate that I think it is fine for others just not what a hunt is about for me. I like a few friends, good dogs open spaces beautiful vistas and a couple of shots would be nice.
Jeff G.

What he said...Geo

Well, whatever kind of shooting it is, those are great shoots. Thanks for sharing.

Dig, I have similar feelings. But then, I have been rather scorched on this forum for suggesting that killing Elephants for fun is distasteful. Go figure. Jake

Jakearoo if you changed "killing Elephants for fun" to "hunting Elephants for sport" it would be less provocative and you could still make your point. I spend too much money and sixty or so days a year hunting Quail for sport. I would be offended if someone suggested I killed them for fun.

Best,

Mike

An additional thought here on pheasants, elephants or what have you:

Our object, as Mike points out, is to hunt and, yes, hunting is fun, but it is so much more than that. More broadly, the term "fair chase" describes the accepted concept of ethical hunting.

To some, releasing pheasant from a tower grates -- it violates the notion of hunting. It's not fair chase, it's just shooting. In this context you might also put live bird pigeon shooting, although, given the limited distance one has to drop a pigeon for score, are we still within the definition of fair chase? I haven't done it nor seen it done and cannot say. I have, however hunted pen raised birds in a preserve over dogs. That fits my own view of fair chase.

As for big game, the ethical arguments, and they are frequent, generally center on size of the hunting territory and shooting from vehicles or at water holes. The latter two are outside my definition of fair chase. I don't know how big a ranch/game farm must be to ensure fair chase, but that may partly be a function of how much time a hunter spends on the property. Clearly a place just a few acres in size cannot fit the definition of fair chase as the prey cannot escape, even for a moment.

Now, R. Craig is still smarting at getting jumped on another thread because he posted his distaste for hunting elephant. He used language that had the effect of both stating his view and of diminishing and offending those who do, as he has done on this thread. He received a combination of replies in kind as well as more reasoned argument. The latter so far do not seem to have had any effect. Maybe Dig can address the subject after he returns from photographing his friends elephant hunt.

Regards