Wow, this opens the can further.

First, hunting ethics is NOT cut and dry. For example, I meant my post very seriously when I outlined only a few of the modern technological advances that make hunting "easier". Yet they are all seemingly so accepted and so ingrained into the sport today that nobody even addressed them as effecting the ethics of the sport at all! And yet they do {if one sees "ethics" in hunting}.

These "ethics" discussions in an international forum are quite fascinating. I mean, certain hunting METHODS are used in this country or that which would be considered absolutely unsporting in another country. I personally just don't see "morality" in killing animals. I do see game management goals, I do see tradition, but in neither do I find "good" or "bad" per se.

There is absolutely no doubt that the scoped, modern rifle complete with rangefinder and modern boots and raingear puts meat on the table {more to the point, horns on the wall} that would simply not have been there in years gone by, to name just a very few. And more to the point of the thread, please all, think about modern vehicles. Good grief, fellows, does anybody demand the outlawing of 4x4's for hunting in Africa? In my mind, there is no difference between a heli and a 4x4. And as for the "big fat guys" that were ridiculed at the beginning of the thread, nowhere do I see more of them on TV hunting shows than...in Africa...

Quite literally, I see the use of the 4x4 and heli, etc, as game management issues; IF NZ wants to use the heli as a tool to manage their game, and if that tool reaches their national and local goals, go for it. If game eradication is a problem, that can be addressed thru simple bag limits as it is everywhere.

Protection of the natural resource can be achieved without elimination of an industry.

And, I totally agree if NZ hunters find the use of heli's to be "unsporting" and they want to ban them, then that is fine, too. I guess the only problem I see is if the NZ government was in theory to use a poll that included input from "for'ners". I say let the Anzacs decide for themselves.

As for Cingiale's post quoted here, WOW did he nail a H-U-G-E problem for me personally right here in Idaho. Not with heli's but with 4x4 ATV's that are all over, sat on commonly by the "BFG". I personally hate them for use as hunting vehicles {except for varmints!!}. They are used to ruin hunt after hunt for everybody, BUT...there are times when I use one too, for getting TO my hunting spot and for getting dead game OUT. So...how many hunters are doing the same thing and ruining my hunt...? I don't know.

So I don't push for their exclusion/legal banning even tho I don't always like what they are used for.

In a general sense I am always leery about infighting among hunters. It is easy to attack bowhunting as "unethical", or hound hunting as "unsporting" or the use of a modern rifle as "eliminating fair chase", etc, etc, etc. So in the end, I look at all tools as the means to a management end. If that end can be achieved with the given tool {heli, ATV, rifle, funky Norwegian elg extractor {

} or whatever, then OK by me. But at the very least, let the LOCAL powers-that-be decide what should be allowed, not those from the outside. Then there will be true "diversity" {if that is a good thing...

} in the hunting fields, with some areas allowing this or that, and everyone can choose what they like or how they want to make the kill.

And all of this is just my opinion, a forum is for opinions at times I guess, so I mean no insult to anyone. In the final analysis, it's NZ's game, so they can decide the rules to play by and what they choose is OK by me.