Next time the GPS receiver stays home

[eidsvolling]

They say confession is good for the soul. We're about to find out.

This was my first deer hunting season, after 17 years of working as a SAR dog handler that had left little time for other pursuits. I will unblushingly call myself an expert in wilderness navigation, having practiced and taught it for more than 35 years in AK, MN, NH, and WA. I have preached the "map and compass first, then the GPS" sermon many hundreds of times.

When I equipped myself for deer hunting, I included my GPS receiver along with topo maps and compass. I used the GPS to record my track and some waypoints along the way. One of those waypoints was a spot I stood forty yards from a brush-obscured four-pointer. Another was an ambush location overlooking three scrapes that made ME salivate on the last day of the season.

The other day I was reading on an Alaska outdoor forum the text of new ethical rules for guides. This one caught my eye: Field craft standards. All classes of guides shall . . . avoid utilizing, in any manner, global positioning system (GPS) or other electronic devices to assist in the taking of a big game animal[.]

I felt like I'd been struck by the proverbial two-by-four upside the head. What the hell was I doing?

Short answer: I'd used advanced technology to give myself an edge that conflicted with my developing hunting ethic. I take pride in going out alone, prepared to deal with the backcountry challenges of the weather, the terrain, whitetail canniness, and the hoped-for difficulty of field dressing and hauling a deer out of the woods solo. Using a GPS receiver to mark deer locations was antithetical to all that, in my perspective.

It's all about line drawing, and I just found mine. YMMV, and I'm not here to disparage your choices, only to offer mine for discussion.

 

[USMC - Retired]

As a Hunters Education Instructor I applaud your strong sense of ethics and fair chase but, I wonder if you are being a bit hard on yourself needlessly. By your own account, you already have developed good skills in navigation so you are not using the GPS to compensate for a lack of those skills. I would think that marking a waypoint on your GPS would be no different than marking it on a map so you don't really gain any significant advantage. I have discussed the use of some of our more advanced technologies with my students in the past and have mixed feelings about the subject. I am a firm believer that you must build good woodsmanship skills because technology can and does fail. Most often when you need it most. However, if you apply Darwin’s theory to hunting you could make an argument that hunting most game today is much harder than it was 100 years ago. Each year hunters take the animals that have either fallen for our tricks or allowed us to pattern them. So the ones left to breed are the ones that either did not fall for our tricks or did not give us a chance to pattern them. So, based on this, one could draw the conclusion that we are making game animals "smarter". With that being said, we in turn have had to get smarter when it comes to either tricking or patterning these animals and as with everything else in modern life we have turned to technology. I won't say that using a GPS is ethical or not, it's up to you to make that decision. What I will say is that a few hundred years ago a compass may have been considered high tech, or a scoped rifle or any rifled gun for that matter. So if you look back you'll notice that we have continued to evolve our hunting tools to keep up with the game.

 

['Card]

I respect your decision, but I've chosen differently.

In fact, I have a blast using my GPS unit. I love creating waypoints when I spot does, see scrapes, areas where deer have been feeding, heavy traffic lanes, and beds. That evening I'll load the waypoints onto my laptop and display them with my mapping software, and if a pattern suggests itself I'll factor that into planning the next day's hunt.

Does all of this improve my sucess rate? I dunno. I was usually successful to some extent before I had a GPS. I'm usually successful to some extent now. I don't think I do it in order to improve my success rate. I think for the most part I do it because it's fun.
______________

Now, one area I'm sometimes a little bit uncomfortable with is that my entire hunting party uses Garmin RINO units, which are integrated two-way radios and GPS units. Basically the way they work is that when someone in the party talks on the radio, it plots their location on my GPS display. This allows me to see pretty much exactly where everyone in the party is at all times.

Does that give us an unfair advantage? Yeah, sometimes I think it does. But the fact is that 4 of the 6 people in the group I normally hunt with are either close to or over 60 years old. The possibility of someone having a serious medical problem in the woods is something I have to take pretty seriously, and the RINO units would allow me to locate them much more quickly in the event that one of them needed help. Safety trumps ethics in my personal equation, so I swallow my reluctance and we'll continue using the RINO's.
_______________

I'll be honest though and say I'm not always comfortable with these discussions about "ethical hunting". Ethics are a private and personal matter to me, and I think they should be to everybody. But it seems like it's pretty much impossible to have a discussion about them without some people telling other people how to behave. There are things I won't do, like hunting deer with dogs, or hunting over bait, for example. Does that make me an ethical hunter? Hell if I know. I have good friends who raise dogs specifically for deer hunting, and they don't seem unethical to me at all.

The point is that to me, a lot of this stuff is just a matter of preferences. What I'm comfortable with, as opposed to things that other people are comfortable with. But when you start tossing the word 'ethics' around it kind of carries the implication that my preferences should be everybody's preferences, and I guess I'm just not that arrogant.

 

[MCgunner]

I have no qualms about using my GPS. To each his own, I ain't an Alaskan guide OR Daniel Boone. I use it mostly to mark my truck, though. I mark the truck, turn it off, go on my way. Then, if I get lost, I can find my way back to the truck without taking too much of a detour trying to find my way out. I see it as a safety device, not a hunting tool. But, if I find a spot I want to return to, I'll not hesitate to mark it.

 

[Lennyjoe]

I use my GPS to keep me from getting lost, not marking deer trails, scrapes or hot spots. Trust me, when you get out of the vehicle and start walking washes and ridges its easy to get turned around in the desert. Same as when I hunted in Georgia in the swamps. 10 minutes walk from the edge of the swamp and everything looks the same.

 

[Steve in PA]

Saying using a GPS is unethical is retarted. There is nothing unethical about using it. It doesn't find game, it doesn't point you in their direction, etc.

Marking a trail, rub line, scrape line, feeding & bedding areas on a GPS is no different than doing the same thing on a paper map.

So, if I mark a certain spot on my GPS I'm doing something wrong, but if I remember it in my head I'm okay?

 

[Idano]

I admire your ethical stand about not using technology to improve your odds and I agree with you. I prefer hunting alone but I do use a GPS when I hunt and like many people I mainly use it to mark my vehicle but I also carry maps of the area and more then one compass. I find the GPS very useful for marking downed game that is going to require me more then one trip to carry out. Also I don't think you can be too safe. I have been caught in white outs where I couldn't get a visual to plot a course and the GPS kept me from spending a cold night in woods until the weather cleared.

 

[dracphelan]

Now, one area I'm sometimes a little bit uncomfortable with is that my entire hunting party uses Garmin RINO units, which are integrated two-way radios and GPS units. Basically the way they work is that when someone in the party talks on the radio, it plots their location on my GPS display. This allows me to see pretty much exactly where everyone in the party is at all times.

I see this as a safety feature when hunting in a group. It is another method of determining if you have a clear shot.

 

[MrDig]

Geez I never thought about using the thing to find the game, I only brought it as a security blanket if I had to track said Game After the shot. I guess I am too enamored with the Traditional spot and stalk and watching the patterns of the game over the seasons. I love being out there but if I am in an unfamiliar area I will want my blanky.

 

[quatin]

keep up with the game.

Not to butt in or go OT, but what did game do in the last thousand years that warrants a rifle instead of a spear?

 

[Il Duca]

I will most likely be carrying a GPS next time I go hunting. I do n't have the best sense of direction when I'm in the woods and I get turned around pretty easy. And the woods I hunt in, if you miss your trail by 20 ft or so, it's real easy to get lost. Thick stuff, lots of Palmettoes and the like. It would also be useful to mark a spot where you last saw a wounded animal if you were tracking something and needed to go get someone to assist you.

 

[S&Wfan]

I'm planning on using my GPS soon to plot every deer stand's TRUE location on our 1,000 acre club and then plot them on a new map.

We currently have a big 4'x8' log in board at the meeting area so everyone can place a numbered metal disc on a nail that identifies each stand's "location" on the drawn-in map.

Unfortunately, some folks are WAAAAY off where they put their nails denoting a stand's location.

An accurate, plotted topographical map AND also a plotted photo map would be a great thing for the club.


I also use my GPS to mark each of my stands in the woods. The GPS allows me to go to 'em with no confusion or delay!

T.

 

[Bigreno]

Field craft standards. All classes of guides shall . . . avoid utilizing, in any manner, global positioning system (GPS) or other electronic devices to assist in the taking of a big game animal[.]

I think some people are misreading that statement. I may be the one that is incorrect but I am pretty sure it says that guides are not to use GPS or other electronic tracing devices to find game. I.E. a GPS collar or electronic transmitter placed on the aminals prior to the hunt.

Like this...LINK

Can't see how that would have anything to do with personal navigation.

 

[.38 Special]

I feel that using a map and compass is unethical too. You should use your god-given senses to find your way around the woods.

Also, I feel that modern clothing is too great an advantage. All these breathable, insulated, comfortable clothes are for sissies. And those hunting boots? Huh-uh. The deer don't have shoes; neither should you.

Firearms, of course, are a ridiculous advantage. You should be on the same level as the game animal: whatever weapons they have, you may also have. Antlers for deer, tusks for boar, etc.

So anybody who isn't a big fat cheater heads to the woods naked, barefoot, unarmed, and not exactly sure how to get home. Got it?

 

[bowfin]

Marking a trail, rub line, scrape line, feeding & bedding areas on a GPS is no different than doing the same thing on a paper map.

Then why did you buy a $150 GPS, rather than a four dollar map?

I guess I judge all the new technologies by their use, rather than their features. If you use one to get back to your starting point, no problem. If you use one with your trail camera to pinpoint where to park your ATV and set up your decoy, and from there use your laser rangefinder to pick how far back to put up your portable blind, then you might be more of a techno junkie than a hunter.

 

[eidsvolling]

Thanks for all the comments (well, maybe 99.9% . . . )

To those who see no ethical difference between GPS and scoped rifle, etc. -- you're logically consistent and I have no rational answer to counter your argument. And yet I will use the scope and leave the GPS at home in the future. The innate ability to make that kind of apparently paradoxical choice is what distinguishes me from a cyborg.

p.s. I've sold the Rinos in the past exactly for the medical reason cited in the post from 'Card above. I've also had a diabetic come into the store looking for a pair for that reason. If this is why you want one, make sure that the model chosen will be able to query the location of all the other units in your party, without a transmission attempted by the person who is down on the ground.

p.p.s. "Ethics" for me are personal choices, i.e., "preferences." Nothing more. I'll leave it at that before I lapse into meta-ethical discourse . . . .

 

[Stinger]

I'm with Bigreno on this one. I think the use of the GPS described is for marking the animals with a collar or other such device, not for navigation.

Regards,

Stinger

 

[Steve in PA]

My GPS serves a multitude of functions, from driving, to geocaching to hunting.

When hunting my GPS lets me know EXACTLY where I am, where I've been and where I want to go. I am pretty proficient with a map and compass, but a GPS makes life much easier.

If I find a certain spot and want to return to it some day I can mark it, and not have to worry about hoping I can find it again.

A GPS does not pick up radio collared signals from animals.

If you want to make the claim that I'm not a hunter because I have a GPS, then so be it. Like some else said, unless your hunting with a sharpened stick, your a hypocrite to claim that you are a hunter.

 

[.38 Special]

Like some else said, unless your hunting with a sharpened stick, your a hypocrite to claim that you are a hunter.

Sharpened sticks are unethical. You may grow your nails long, if you want, and teeth are okay too.

So am I being too subtle?

 

[JoeK]

I am also one of those people that are skilled with a map, compass, and altimeter (military, alpine climbing), but will likely use a GPS hunting this year. To me it's just another tool to make my life easier. I can't think of a good reason not to use one.