NO, Ethics and Fair chase (sporting chance) go hand in hand.

released pheasants or game farm deer may not be considered given a sporting chance. However, this doesn't make you an unethical hunter. We hunt released birds often to keep the pointers sharp but my ethics are uncompromised. If you abide by the laws and are a safe hunter, those are the ethics of hunting. If you hunt with a recurve you are obviously giving the animal a more sporting chance than if you hunt with a high powered rifle!

Trapper Vic and Steve182 are absolutely correct. There are circumstances where something may not be entirely sporting, but which are never-the-less ethical. Another example would be fishing in overstocked "put and take" city park ponds that are stocked simply so people can watch their kids catch a few fish.

for BB25 I do not approve of your shot for I would get closer, but then again I do not know how good you are at the range and do not know how much you have practiced. And I want to thank you for making clean kills. I was with some of my friends on a pheasant hunt and some were not clean shots. luckily all of mine were clean easy kills. THANK YOU.

Taking a risky or poor shot on a fair-chase hunt is unethical to me because of the high possibility of unneccesary suffering on the part of the animal. Some may consider it very sporting to shoot a running deer otr take a headshot, but it may be less ethical. lotta grey areas and subjectivity. good question though.

I think they are different but at the same time go together like peas in a pod. Is it sporting to drive around in your jeep with a mount on the roll bar for your 50 caliber, and then spot an elk at a 1000 yds and put your gun in its mount and take the shot? IMO that is not *sportsman like* However it may very cleanly be ethical. As one poster said earlier if you are confident in yourself and equipments abilities then it could be perfectly ethical to make the shot. (and if your state laws allow for it)

Part of the reason you don't shoot ducks on water has to do with the fact the projectiles have the tendency to "skip". That is keep traveling in the same direction with little effect on the velocity of it. Better to send them skyward and then let them fall with gravitational force.

I feel that the ethical hunter and the sporting hunter go hand in hand but are not one in the same. I cannot afford to travel to the midwest to hunt ringnecks but every year some of my Hunter Ed instructors and I travel to Pa. and enjoy a day behind some very fine dogs hunting ringnecks on a ringneck hunting preserve. Some might not think it sporting but misses are proof that it is. It is highly ethical but alot of people don't think it sporting. I hunt entirely with firearms and I have a friend that hunts only with a bow. He thinks that I am not sporting but we both are ethical. The two terms are farther apart that we realize that they are. My health dosen't let me roam the mountains anymore deer hunting and I hunt from a elevated box blind. It is more than ethical, but there are alot of people on here that don't think this is sporting and even go as far as to say that this isn't hunting. Another example is in WV it is legal to hunt turkeys with a rifle. I hunt turkeys with my .22 Hornet. It is perfectly ethical but alot of people don't consider it sporting even though most of my shots are under 60 yards, I use my rifle because of calling up coyotes. There are alot of factors that determine what is sporting but only one as far as I am concerned as to what is ethical and that is the difference between right and wrong.

Sarge01, I disagree with your bowhunting friend considering your style of hunting arm unsporting.I think he's unethical for yammering on about it too. For that matter, I disagree with most people who enjoy telling fellow hunters what is hunting , or sporting or not. I would love to hunt deer down south with hounds someday. I would like to be part of a pheasant drive in the mid-west too. One of these days, I might get a chance to kill a turkey (in season of course) while squirrel hunting with my 20 gauge shotgun, though I've been whined at alot about that. Your reason for using a rifle for turkeys is a great one. On another note, one of my favorite hunting/shooting stories is about my aunts mother in 1930's PA, shooting any pheasant, rabbit, squirrel or woodchuck raiding her vegetable garden with her .22 rifle. This dearly-departed lady would've smoked a whitetail if it was dumb enough (none were) to mess with her beans and assorted veggies. The nearest Supermarket was still 30+ years away. When the Dad got a job, she cut the critters some (not much) slack.

I have read everything and the thing that kinda got me thinking is people talking about distance shots, the possibility of not making the clean shot. We all started somewhere and with practice we have gotten better in time. That being said is it Ethical to allow kids to hunt? They dont have the patience or the knowledge of a seasoned hunter, and often times dont make that clean kill. I personally have started my daughter young with guns and will continue grooming her and training her to shoot and when i think she can make a shot under prerssure is when i will take her out in the woods. I think responsibility goes hand in hand with both the ethical debate and the sporting debate.

They are one in the same. Just diferent letters!