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.

[Jack Armstrong]

While in confinement the AID's carring limp wrists from Frisco demand their rights to health care & separate but equal housing!
Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton take up the mantle demanding
all same sex married couples in the cell be allowed to have accommodations and hospitalization. In a valiant attempt to appear noble, John Kerry leaps on one of the darts lying on the dirt floor so as to look like he has saved his fellow man from the brunt horror of the weapon's force. The film crews miss it so it has to be re-shot. All the libs in the cage get the idea they will be on the 6 o'clock news if they cover a dart ...so... the group of idiots begin leaping about the cell landing on darts.

[Jack Armstrong]

OK I got it!
Let's elaborate a bit shall we?
John Kerry, Al Franken and a bunch of limp wristed liberals from Frisco -(in order to be politically correct!)- all load up and head over to Africa to demonstrate this new sport of blow dart therapy!

They are immediately over taken by terrorists with real rifles and guns but some how the PC "good guys" (libs) try to influence the terrorists into using the antique out moded weapons of the socialist elite left! Once in compete domination by third world terrorists, John,Al and the libs break down and blame their situation on the narrow minded conservatives for not "saving" them fast enough! 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.While in confinement the AID's carring limp wrists from Frisco demand their rights to health care & separate but equal housing!
Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton take up the mantle demanding
all same sex married couples in the cell be allowed to have accommodations and hospitalization. In a valiant attempt to appear noble, John Kerry leaps on one of the darts lying on the dirt floor so as to look like he has saved his fellow man from the brunt horror of the weapon's force. The film crews miss it so it has to be re-shot. All the libs in the cage get the idea they will be on the 6 o'clock news if they cover a dart ...so... the group of idiots begin leaping about the cell landing on darts.

[elmer fudd]

Well, I'm a hunter who could go for this as long as it didn't completely replace conventional hunting. It would be great to be able to hunt game in the spring and summer and if it were properly regulated there would be minimal harm to the animals. I sure wouldn't want some damn biologist tagging along with me though.

You can do the same thing with a paintball gun. I think it's technically illegal in most states, (harassing wildlife), but it actually teaches the animals good survival skills.

[Prodigal Son]

Three

Not really a good basis to make a statement about 'most big game hunters' is it?

[longtermmemmory]

So the animal would suffer prolonged and repeated headaches with each "darting".

Makes the article all the more moronic.

[FutureMarine]

Sounds pretty boring if you ask me. And why would I want to ruin a perfectly good rifle by converting it to a dart gun??

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

You eat rhinos, elephants, and lions?!

Rhino is good and lion is not bad but zebra is outstanding!

Never had elephant that I know of but then there were many times I didn't ask. I just smiled, said thank you, and ate.

[tpaine]

You claim to know 3 big game hunters, but you post crap about them like this?

Big Game Hunters ain't got the balls for it. Most big game hunters like the illusion of danger but not the reality. To use a dart gun requires that you get very close. Under 60 yards. Screw it up and the distinction between the hunter and the hunted gets reversed.
Our very distant ancestors knew what hunting really was. They went after big game with spears and rocks. It was no game to them wearing fru-fru hats and using high velocity rifles. For them the prize was life not ego.Failure didn't mean low self esteem it mean't death.

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.

I think you're an anti-hunting troll, blowing smoke. In close to 60 years of hunting I've known hundreds of hunters that can read sign, can stalk, and a few who have had the necessary patience in a stand or blind to get skunked for several years in a row, before getting their deer.

My son is a trophy hunter. - He's went to Africa twice, and has been skunked both times on Cape Buffalo. Seen them, couldn't get close enough fir a clean kill.
One of the two Grizzlys my son has killed was charging him at 20 yds, not an uncommon occurrence in Alaska or BC.

You are simply wrong about big game hunting, and those who hunt.

[Double Tap]

I'm a bow and black powder hunter.

I believe that bow hunters and BP hunters are the most unethical, inhumane hunters out there. They don't care that their weapons are the most ineffective and often wound the animal and leave it to a long, wasteful death.

/sarcasm/turning of the tables.

See how that broad brush you are slinging works??? The only people I see making broad, idiotic statements like you made are: A. Elitist/supremist hunters that wouldn't mind seeing most types of hunting banned EXCEPT for the kind of hunting they do. OR, B. You are in fact an anti-hunter trying to disguise yourself as the one and only "true" hunter.

Which is it?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I believe that bow hunters and BP hunters are the most unethical, inhumane hunters out there.

Hey!

/sarcasm/turning of the tables.

Oh, that's ok then.

[Double Tap]

You eat rhinos, elephants, and lions?!

The foreign hunter who killed it probably will not get to eat much of it, but the locals will more than likely get all the meat they can stand out of those kills.

[Old Professer]

Well, it works with rapists and murderers, why not?

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[ahayes]

I agree. I don't think the author has ever read about the difficulty zoo vets have in anesthesizing some exotic animals without killing them. Especially in the wild you don't know the animal's weight and health, so it's easy to deliver the wrong dosage.

And I wouldn't want to try to take down a charging water buffalo with a trank gun.

I was reading a veterinary journal a couple of days ago and they said that the use of compressed gas powered guns was dangerous and should be left to the pros. Perhaps they should take blowpipes on safari instead, since those were said to be more safe.

[tcuoohjohn]

Bad hunters are bad hunters rifle,bow or black powder. I have passed shots that are high probables to wait for that perfect shot. Sometimes it happens. Most times it doesn't. If it isn't perfect then don't shoot.

The quality of a hunter isn't determined by the method he chooses but the skill that he brings to the field. Unfortunately, few hunters these days bring much skill to the field.

[Uncle Hal]

This story could only be written in the ultra liberal SF Chronicle which is located in the ultra liberal city of SF.

[Double Tap]

The quality of a hunter isn't determined by the method he chooses but the skill that he brings to the field. Unfortunately, few hunters these days bring much skill to the field.

Then why did you bring method into the discussion? And again, you are slinging a broad brush. "few hunters"??? I would claim the opposite. There is more skill and knowledge involved in hunting now than ever before. Breeding behavior, feeding patterns, scent knowledge, animal movement behavior... most hunters are much more aware of these than they were 10, 20, or 100 years ago.

[Centurion2000]

I'm a bow and black powder hunter. Technology has made hunting meaningless.

You do it your way. I'll do it mine. I'm not there for the sport ... I'm there to fill my freezer with meat.

and my 30-06 will knock them down and they stay down.

[Mr. Jeeves]

The hunt would end not with a photograph of a rich guy standing next to a carcass...

So...it would end with a photograph of a rich guy standing next to a comatose animal?

There are a few problems with this plan:

1. As a previous poster pointed out, I wouldn't want to depend on a dart gun to take out a Cape Buffalo.

2. Using enough tranquilizer to ensure a safe knockout of a big game animal might easily kill the animal, anyway. It's an inexact science.

3. Illegal poachers are the problem, not legal hunters.

Stienstra is a hunter and long-time outdoorsman who has been writing for the Chronicle for as long as I can remember. I guess to keep his job, he had to start parroting this environmentalist swill. I'd be willing to bet he knows perfectly well that this plan wouldn't really work.

[muawiyah]

And those animals ~ wow ~ can you imagine what they are going to think the next time they see a human being after being hit a couple of times with darts?

They'll be so neurotic they'll be dangerous. Buffalo bulls creeping up on settlements at night, ripping and snorting, and then the elephants ~ they'll do a double stomp as they go through the village cornfields.