Ike wrote:You'd for sure need a tag if you shouldered a rifle and took a shot at a bear I'd put a hole through cause I sure as the hell wouldn't tag it.........In my state, the last guy to shoot has to tag the bear according to law on any game animal. And I'll bet it's hard to get any references from a client if you shoot and take their bear after taking their money
And if anybody told me they could shoot on the ground and I couldn't--with a legal tag in my pocket and all--I'd just
roflmao........ike
If you are talented enough with a gun to make a clean, one shot kill on a treed bear, you would not have anything to worry about. On the other hand, if you are so inept with a gun, or so ignorant of bear anatomy, that you "put a hole through" a stationary, treed bear, and it still came out of the tree with enough life that I still had to finish it, then you are right, I would have to tag it, because you sure wouldn't get to.
As far as references go, I figure that the hunting buddies of somebody that inept are probably also inept, so I wouldn't want to take them hunting anyway, so I really couldn't care less about the references I get from the one hunter in the past 20 years who didn't get to take his bear home.
As far as roflmao, you would be welcome to do that to your little hearts content, but on my property, behind my dogs, I make the rules, and if a prospective client doesn't like them, or thinks that they are funny, he is welcome to laugh all the way home if he wants to, but he will not get the opportunity to hunt with me.
I realize that there are areas of the country where the topography and vegetation do not always allow an ideal shot angle, and, when hunting in those locations, I make allowances for that. But, where I do 99% of my hunting, there is absolutely no excuse for not making a clean kill on treed game, therefore, when hunting in those areas, I accept no excuses. I do suspend this rule as a professional courtesy to hunters who own there own dogs if in my judgement they are competent enough to shoot the bear and not hit my dogs. I also suspend this rule for anyone else who has dogs on the ground, but if I don't feel comfortable with them shooting around my dogs, they don't get to hunt with me anyway, so that one is kind of moot.
Actually, since I started requiring prospective clients to provide references, and I do check those references, I have not had a problem in this area. However, I keep the rule in place in case I ever make a mistake and take some one hunting when I shouldn't have.
I understand that with my rules and idiosyncracies, some people will say that I run off a lot of prospective clients, and that is probably true, but I still have more people wanting to hunt with me than I have time to take, so the number I run off doesn't really concern me.
Bill
