Lets poke the bear...

[flowerjohn]

Depends what Said "IT" is....I can have a 12 gauge shot GUN and .72 CALIBRE RIFLE just by changing the tube on top. Same or different?

Be careful what you wish for golden lake Pete ! Heh heh

[welsh]

If enough people feel that way the definition of legal will evolve. Same goes for killing a lion etc. Should that be legal? I don't think so. Of course then we have to run down a slippery slope...who is the arbiter of what is right and wrong? Is a lion more valuable than a coyote?

True, and although public support for hunting for meat is up around 80%, it declines to around 25% when you start talking about trophy hunting. Of course, you get some difficulty in defining "trophy hunting"; someone who shoots a nice buck and gets the head mounted but still eats the meat might or might not be a trophy hunter, depending on your point of view. Most people wouldn't see a coyote hunter as a trophy hunter, but a lot of people still balk at shooting them.

[JBen]

So when you look at such things as.

Coyotes
Deer Culls
Cormorants
Spring Bear hunts
Cancellation of the Sportman Show
COs who can't adequately cover an area the size of a small country, let alone Ontario
The MoE's and the MNRs budget ( lowest priority)
That politicians do what they think the voters want and not whats right or necessary.

One has to wonder if the people of Ontario actually supporting hunting or not

[flowerjohn]

So when you look at such things as.

Coyotes
Deer Culls
Cormorants
Spring Bear hunts
Cancellation of the Sportman Show
COs who can't adequately cover an area the size of a small country, let alone Ontario
The MoE's and the MNRs budget ( lowest priority)
That politicians do what they think the voters want and not whats right or necessary.

One has to wonder if the people of Ontario actually supporting hunting or not

According to the rcmp about 4300 per 100000 people in Ontario have a pal. So that's about 4 percent of ontarians. Of that four percent lets speculate and say that one of that four percent are target shooters etc and don't hunt and that maybe another one of that four percent has a pal but doesn't hunt. So we will speculate that roughly two percent of ontarians actually hunt. When you look at the numbers jben it just doesn't look like much of a priority at the provincial level. It affects us and we talk about this activity that interests us but I just don't think that many people outside of our hunting community could really care. I think that's what the number is saying. Cheers.

[Snowwalker]

Yeah baby!! Lol!!!

Easy there Austin.....

[Snowwalker]

Be careful what you wish for golden lake Pete ! Heh heh

I believe you are mistaken sir, Maybe at your age you should try glasses...

[JBen]

You have to wonder flower john.

"Forest for the trees"

[flowerjohn]

You have to wonder flower john.

"Forest for the trees"

Heh heh. You got it jben.

[Grasu200]

In my opinion this is a stupid question - I tell you later why - but since you asked - I am a hunter.
And the reason I say that is because when I say "I hunt", everybody understands the meaning of the word. If you say you are a harvester, not only you mingle with the wrong crowd, but you have too much time for silly things....

In a recent thread found here we saw a really nice discussion of terminology and euphemisms develop.
Personally I use the term hunt. However, I am not a hunter, in that it isn't my profession. Just like I won't call myself a golfer because my handicap matches my waist size...+38. But I love hunting! Even if the season is way to short in my opinion. (Theres a subject for another day)
After the aforementioned thread I did some research and found that the term "harvest" is being used more and more in place of hunt. Even the NRA is jumping on that bandwagon. Do I hunt deer or "harvest" deer. Am I hunting or "harvesting?" Where did this term come from and why?
My thinking is that we have that term for two reasons. There may be more.
One is to reflect responsible hunting. Your "bag limit" depending on where you live can be 1, 2 or more. It reflects a responsible use of the game that was just killed by you the hunter. (Yes, hunter. You hunt game, you harvest corn...) Its not like hunting so you can mount some head down in your "man-cave"(another term that makes my skin crawl) and brag about it over single malt with your "buddies" to show how better your are they them.
Another reason for using the term "harvest" is to soften the implications of hunting to the populous. Gives them that warm fuzzy feeling. "Harvest," they ask? Then we have an opportunity to explain what we do and why. (Personally, I find this annoying because what we do is far more ethical that what the food industry does to feed the masses. "Veal" Enough said.)
So, hunt or harvest?

[Grasu200]

If you would try to put this in a global/historical perspective, you would laugh your a...s off. Replacing hunting with harvesting in several other languages around the globe to describe the most ancient human occupation (I might ignite a serious argument here with those in support of prostitution being the oldest - and I don't necessarily oppose the concept), you would realize how silly that would sound. I come from a line of hunters and the way I remember them they would laugh their a...s off right now and would probably make stupid jokes over all this.

If you look up the definition of hunter you will find
Full Definition of HUNTER

1
a : a person who hunts game
b : a dog used or trained for hunting
c : a horse used or adapted for use in hunting with hounds; especially : a fast strong horse trained for cross-country work and jumping

2
: one that searches for something

No where in the definition is killing something. You'll find words like pursue, search, capture. So while you are looking for game your a hunter once its dead well what than. Got no problem saying I'm a hunter and as such am able to harvest from the wild.