SF Chronicle : Shooting with dart guns would revolutionize big-game hunting

sfgate.com ^ | 3-14-2004 | Tom Stienstra

[Trailer Trash]

The world's oldest and now most controversial sport -- big-game hunting -- could be transformed into a provocative quest acceptable to most anyone if a new sport were created: catch-and-release hunting.

Imagine the thrill of tracking, spotting, stalking and hunting the world's greatest game animals at close range in Africa -- lion, Cape buffalo, leopard, elephant and rhinoceros -- without killing any of them.

[templar]

Imagine the thrill of tracking, spotting, stalking and hunting the world's greatest game animals at close range in Africa -- lion, Cape buffalo, leopard, elephant and rhinoceros -- without killing any of them.

Personally, I don't think I would want to shoot a charging Cape buffalo (or a Rhino) at close range with a dart. A 700 Nitro wold be more to my taste.

[longtermmemmory]

What happens when the same buck gets "darted" again and again. What happens if they start to get conditioned to the drug so a larger dose is required?

What about animals adiction?

This is a folish article, written by someone who is obviously ignorant and has never had to skip a meal.

I prefer catch and eat.

[Prodigal Son]

You can do the same thing with a camera really. Getting close enough to get a really good shot of an animal with a 35mm slr would require the same sort of skills the author is mentioning when he talks about dart guns. You still get your trophy- a nice picture that you can blow up and hang on your wall.

If I weren't going to hunt I'd just go the photography route. I wouldn't bother trying to kit myself out with a dart gun.

[Prodigal Son]

Most big game hunters like the illusion of danger but not the reality.

And you know this how? How many big game hunters do you actually know?

[THX 1138]

The world's oldest and now most controversial sport -- big-game hunting...

There they go again; controversial to who (or is it whom)? Not once have I ever heard the liberal media refer to anything that, let's say, Al Sharpton has ever said as "controversial".

[philetus]

"Introducing dart hunting would also change how the mainstream public around the world views the sport."

Indeed it would.

The mainstream public would go from thinking hunters are bloodthirsty killers to morons.

[tcuoohjohn]

I'm a bow and black powder hunter. Technology has made hunting meaningless. Today, the hunting skills of our ancestors have been lost to technology. If you want to see what hunting has become in America it is some moron wandering arround with a .44 magnum pistol.

The average hunter in America can't read sign, can't stalk, doesn't have the necessary patience in a stand or blind so he makes up for it with mud buggies, beer, and a 30.06.

[Condor51]

Yep, your right.
Then there's hunting Mountain Lion with a pistol - I know a guy in AZ that does it. You have to get pretty close. I Think he uses a S&W .44 Magnum (could be a .357), it definitely takes 'nads'.

[robertpaulsen]

"Shooting with dart guns would revolutionize big-game hunting."

Yep. The same way switching to flag football would revolutionize the National Football League.

Or switching to Wiffle® balls would revolutionize Major League Baseball.

[tcuoohjohn]

Three

[Lurker]

Most likely you'd end up with a dead hunter underneath a sleeping animal.

L

[Southack]

When everything old is new again...

[tcuoohjohn]

You nor an animal can get addicted to fast acting anesthetics. There is no " high" in it. They are fast acting and of short duration. There are no halothane or sodium pentathol junkies. You breathe it in or inject it and you pass out. You wake up with a terrific headache. Not the sort of pleasure experience that causes addiction.

[Jack Armstrong]

OH!
I did leave out something...
Michael Jackson & Martha Stewart are sentenced by a social engineering judge to do community service "work-release" with Bill Moyers producing a documentary for TV on the revolutionary new hunting technique of darts in Africa!However they are inadvertently lost in the bush but stumble into the next "Survivor" episode. The terrorists capture all of them & assume they will be perfect material to ransom back to the USA! This ill fated group of American's leftovers are totally helpless & at the mercy of the evil doers (terrorist radicals). When suddenly from the back of the bamboo cage the whimpering voice of John Kerry begins to sing... "We shall over come"... The whole ensemble raise up in song as the camera crews start to film the epic event. But copyright and royalty arguments proceed to break out within the rank and file "union" (Movie producers), ... So rev Al Sharpton & Jesse Jackson are self-elected in a last ditch effort to moderate the arbitration. Does that about sum it up?

[taxed2death]

he, he, he....we should set the author of this silly article up with an all expense paid trip to Africa. Have him shoot a Cape Buffalo with a dart gun. Damn, I'd pay good money to see this idiot being chased around for like.....15 seconds before getting trampled to dust under 2500 lbs of pissed off Buffalo.


he, he, he.....too funny...

[Fiddlstix]

Ping

[Squantos]

so the hunt provides a benefit to wildlife science.........NOT !

Oh Boy....more good ideas from San Francisco. Surprised they ain't trying to get us to marry the animals vs hunt em with darts. Nothing I'd like more than to stand my ground with a pissed off grizzly charging me while wondering if the drug hit home and how sensitive the critter is to it.

Stay Safe !

[Blzbba]

"We go to hunt to EAT it ... and take the trophy"


You eat rhinos, elephants, and lions?!

[BallyBill]

This is great. I've been having problems with the "Kill and Release Program". It never seemed to be worth it.

[Squantos]

LMAO......I used to love listening to that old fart explain the scenes .........Lets watch as the lion bites off Jims arm..... Or ...Lets watch Jim struggle with the anaconda under water.... Now watch Jim try an rope a grizzly bear....etc etc. Wonder if old Jim ever survived that gig of being second fiddle to Marlin Perkins ?

Stay Safe !