Using 2-way radios while hunting. Legal, ethical or what?

[Coach]

This whole 2-way radio controversy is way overblown in my opinion. I think radios in the field are an efficient tool, just like off-highway vehicles, high quality optics, cell phones, GPS units, trail cameras, etc. We actually had a well respected member of this forum leave a few years back over this debate. Of all the technology I just mentioned, only ONE is specifically called out by the big record-keeping organizations, and that is 2-way radios.

 

I've used this example in the past, but it is worth repeating.

 

Situation 1: Let's say a 16 year old kid goes hunting with his buddy using a long bow, locates a good buck and does a perfect stalk into 20 yards using radio help from his buddy, and makes the shot.

 

Situation 2: Let's take some guy who has a boat-load of cash, hires best guides money can buy, sits in his office on the other side of the country, conducting business until he gets the call that a great buck has been spotted and is being watched for days by a team of guides. At his convenience, he jumps in his Lear jet, flies to a small landing strip in Utah, puts on some wool camo and shoots a buck with his expensive, long-range gun, which he has probably never shot before (this is an actual scenario, btw all on video)

 

Situation #3. A guy goes to the Midwest, hires an outfitter that owns land and has built up several food plots. These plots and all the game trails leading in and out are monitored with trail cameras year-round and managed specifically for attracting deer. The guy sits a treestand he didn't put up, shoots a certain buck that was identified by the trail cams to use a specific route, at a certain time of day.

 

Which one of these guys is ineligible for Boone and Crockett/Pope and Young because his hunt is deemed "unethical"? You guessed it, the kid in Situation #1, because he used 2-way radios to aid his stalk.

 

Food for thought on ethics and record-book mentality.

[muledeerarea33?]

I don't know Becker but I think he's a taxidermist, not a guide? He is just very blessed and has the time to go out and find/kill huge deer. I think the kid in situation #1 has better moral values than the others but in the end... It's all legal and if you ain't broke, have fun hunting what you can afford. It's no ones business how you hunt it as long as you have a tag before you submit a record.

[AZLance]

The kid can do whatever he wants, but has to know radios=no record book. Many people shoot animals with their long bow without radios.

[Whitesheep]

I received a response by e-mail from Tim Christie today (7/23/13) and here is what he wrote:

 

Marc

Thanks for your email.

 

The information concerning hunters using radios and cell phones contained in my hunting ethics article in Arizona Wildlife Views is incorrect. They are legal to use while hunting in Arizona, as I now understand it. While researching the article, I received inaccurate information; regrettably I didn’t double-check the accuracy of the facts concerning radio and cell phone usage. I take full responsibility for the mistake in the article. There will be a correction made in the next issue of the magazine.

 

Tim

 

Nothing yet from AZ Wildlife Views.

 

I guess that settles it. Thank you everyone for all the input.

[wildwoody]

heck ya, next

[SirRoyal]

Coach , I like your thinking, Ding Ding people need to wake up.

[Scooter]

I carry three radios (2 15 channel FRS 5 milers and 1 22 channel GMRS 22-miler) with me when I hunt. I don't have any hunting partners here in AZ so I'm always hunting by myself. I only carry them for safety reasons and I don't use them to chat with or scan radio traffic from other people. I consider it an absolute essential for safety to have one or two in your pack/camp. If I fall and bust my arse and cannot get myself out- those FRS's and GMRS's can save your life if there are other people in the area. Think about it- if your cell phone is dead or doesn't get strong signal where you hunt- it's a GREAT option to turn on your radio, listen for any traffic and call for help when you find a channel that folks are talking on. Not all of us can afford a SPOT or SATphone- so in my mind an FRS or GMRS radio is the bee's knees in a pinch where you are in trouble. Do I like the idea of ten or twelve dudes working for a big-name outfitter out there posted up on top of ridges babysitting canyons/hills chatting away on the cell phone or radio to the one or two tag-holders letting them know where the bucks/bulls are? NOPE! But the two guys hunting together who split up to find deer/elk and both have tags- that's fine. I don't use them in the pursuit of game- but I'd sure dislike it if they told me I couoldn't have them while hunting as a safety feature.

[Whitesheep]

Hey Scooter, Why do you carry three radios? I understand the "one is none, two is done" philosophy, but three radios would be pushing it for me. Just for curiosity sake, how many knives, flashlights and firearms to you carry while hunting?

 

Personally I use Garmin Rino's because they combine a radio and GPS allowing my group to keep situational awareness without having to talk. My iPhone is a great backup GPS with full topo maps that work off grid, but it is rather fragile and not great for battery life. When hunting my group is usually so far apart that the Rino or a radio would not be useful in pursuit of game, but it is sure handy to verify if one of my group took a shot and to call in reinforcements to field dress and pack out a kill.

 

For the record, 1 skinning/boning knife with a gut hook and a small multi-tool and two flashlights. One LED headlamp and medium sized LED hand held light. Usually one rifle, but if I am carrying a single shoot in the demilitarized zone south of I-10, probably a large caliber pistol or revolver (for bears in unit 29 ya know).

[Scooter]

Hey Scooter, Why do you carry three radios? I understand the "one is none, two is done" philosophy, but three radios would be pushing it for me. Just for curiosity sake, how many knives, flashlights and firearms to you carry while hunting?

 

Personally I use Garmin Rino's because they combine a radio and GPS allowing my group to keep situational awareness without having to talk. My iPhone is a great backup GPS with full topo maps that work off grid, but it is rather fragile and not great for battery life. When hunting my group is usually so far apart that the Rino or a radio would not be useful in pursuit of game, but it is sure handy to verify if one of my group took a shot and to call in reinforcements to field dress and pack out a kill.

 

For the record, 1 skinning/boning knife with a gut hook and a small multi-tool and two flashlights. One LED headlamp and medium sized LED hand held light. Usually one rifle, but if I am carrying a single shoot in the demilitarized zone south of I-10, probably a large caliber pistol or revolver (for bears in unit 29 ya know).

 

I carry three because, well... I guess I've never asked myself why! The funny thing is I carry extra AA batteries for all three too. I carry my favorite field dressing knife- Buck Pathfinder 110, a skinning knife, a small Puma mini-stag folding knife (everywhere), a Gerber suspension multitool, an original leatherman, matches, two lighters, one headlamp, one mini maglite, and a pocket sharpener. As for guns- if I am bowhunting on-post here at huachuca I cannot carry a sidearm but off-post usually I bring along a handgun with a barrel of 4" or less. Gun hunting I bring my "custom" 7.62x54R rifle and two boxes of handloaded ammo. Then there's my "possibles" bag for when I hunt with a frontstuffer... that's when things get really heavy!!!

[StickFlicker]

Just a few points for clarification. Record books don't disallow you to carry radios or phones. In the case of Pope & Young for example, they do not allow entry of animals taken:

 

"By the use of electronic devices for attracting, locating or pursuing game or guiding the hunter to such game...".

 

It's fine if you carry them for safety, etc. Secondly, cell phones are not allowed in record books anymore than radios, if used in the above-described manner.

 

And for those that record books are bad because a few bad apples either enter things after they have broken the rules or for any other similar reason, that would be the same as anti-hunters condemning all hunters because of poachers. You don't like it when poachers are called hunters (because they are really criminals), so don't criticize record programs by painting them with such a broad brush just because a small percentage of "hunters" use them for a different agenda.

 

As mentioned earlier, records books are a great "record" of the animals taken. They help hunters that wish to pursue larger trophies to reasearch hunting areas that are more likely to produce such trophies, and often show the best times to hunt and many other helpful facts that can make us better hunters. In the case of Arizona's bowhunting record book, Bowhunting in Arizona, they have tables that show the units that produce the most records of each species, the times of days that produce the most records of each species, the average distance of shot, by species, and a great deal of other information. They can be a very valuable tool, although their programs can be misused by some just like anything else.

[Chris]

I like the Bowhunting in Az record book. It certainly helps to increase your odds for finding a big one. When does the 5th edition come out?

 

Ooops, sorry.... back to radios!

[.270]

Using radios while hunting in Colorado is illegal. So are cell phones. Lark

[bonecollector777]

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