Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Define Road Hunting

Using the mirrors on your truck for a rest is road hunting.

Spending 10 hours cruising ranch roads looking for antelope is not road hunting.

Seeing a whitetail while driving down a two track and jumping out, loading your rifle and shooting it, is road hunting.

So the answer is, "It depends".

Road hunting = hunting from the road.

In my area it is just a bunch of lazy dumba$$e$ driving slowly along the road (paved or dirt) with their barrel literally pointing out the window waiting for something to shoot at FROM THEIR CAR! By the end of hunting season I am ready to just start ramming them with my truck.

Get out of your car and hunt or go home!

Simple, clear definition. Works for me.

Sometimes road hunting is WAY the most efficient and best way to hunt. No stigma there for me. Other times and places it is lazy, inefficient, bad form or manners, etc.

I have done a lot of backpack hunting, horse pack, fly in, boat in etc. I've also done a fair amount of driving to vantage points and glassing for game which would then be pursued by driving closer and then hiking; stalked from the glassing point, etc. My pard and I glassed a Rocky Mtn. goat from a road and he killed it two days of strenuous backpacking later. Road hunting? We would not have climbed if we had not seen the critter.

And once in awhile a critter delivers himself into your hands when you have quit and are driving home. I'm not too proud to get out, load my rifle and bust him if it is legal.

There's a little more sensitivity on this topic than warranted, for me anyway. If you are comfortable in your skin and well within the law and safety, I'll stay off of your case, even if I wouldn't do it that way myself.

In certain situations road hunting is the best way to do it. I've never been in one, but I know they exist. In other situations it's just lazy redneck hunting.

In all situations it can't be called anything but road hunting.

True, but in very few situations when antelope hunting with a rifle does it make sense to do anything but "road hunt". By that, I don't mean shoot from the road, but use your vehicle to find game and figure out a game plan from there. Walking to the next minor rise 2 miles away to see if there is an antelope over there makes very little sense when there will probably be one much more accessible by road in the next couple of minutes. If you want to make it hard, and take longer than it should, go for it. But I'm usually on some sort of time crunch and have quite a few tags to fill. So if you want to be efficient about it, just drive on till you find antelope that are huntable. I've learned to quit trying to stalk every single herd you see. Just because you can see them, doesn't mean you need to try to stalk them if they are in a difficult to stalk position. Not if your group needs to kill 10-12 or maybe more in a weekend.

You serious road hunters probably already have a subscription, but if not there is a publication just for you!

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I have to take a 4WD road 8 miles to my elk hunting area this year. Of course when I get there it's all hiking.

Am I road hunting?

It makes plenty of sense in some environments:






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Please note the surrounding terrain. I'd be laughing at anyone not doing something that resembled road hunting.

In Africa, I shot 6 Baboons from the truck,but not game.
I have popped a groundhog from the cab a time or two...

Baboons are not game? News to me. Vermin?

Several years ago in PA or maybe it was W VA, a man and his
son were road hunting and shot a black bear close to someones
house and got caught. It wasnt even bear season if I remember
correctly.

"Road" hunting in Alaska includes hunting from your boat too.
_______________________________________________________________

This happened just this week about 70 miles from where I'm at

Shooting brown bear from a skiff earns Haines man a date in court
A Haines man accused of shooting big game from a boat has a date in court next month.

A State Trooper dispatch says 33 year old Wayne Szabo was contacted Sunday evening after an investigation revealed that he shot a brown bear near Lutak Inlet from his skiff.

The dispatch says the skiff was about a hundred yards from where the bear was standing.

When contacted by Alaska Wildlife Troopers, they found that Szabo also failed to validate his brown bear harvest ticket.

A mandatory court appearance was scheduled for 10 a.m. on June 1 in Haines District Court.

Everybody takes advantage of technology to be successful while hunting. Telescopic sights, long range rifles, compound bows, laser rangefinders, scents, treestands, popup blinds, and the list goes on and on. Putting down a hunter for his choice of equipment is counterproductive to our common cause - hunting. I suspect a lot of this kind of prejucice comes from people who can't afford things and are insanely jealous of those who can.

As long as its legal, you hunt your way, and I'll hunt mine.

Yes,Baboons are varmints where I was(Zim),tear up anything they can get their mitts on...The landowner hated them.

Why don't you use your "Permanent Disabled Colorado Hunting Permit"?Doesn't it allow you to road hunt etc?

Jayco

There you go Dave and I agree 100%..Many don't take into account that like in Idaho, if a person is disabled they can hunt from the road/they can hunt from an ATV/they can hunt behind some closed Forest Service gates while some just assume there breaking the law, without knowing.

I say kudos to those that meet the requirements and can still hunt with whatever disability they have for however long they have left in this world.

To many just assume wrongly.

Jayco

We spotted a small herd from the road and took off after it on foot. An hour later Nephew got his first.


This gal was in a herd spotted from the road while driving home, at dusk. Another mile or two and we would have been on the highway and in high gear, headed back to Colorado. Sort stalk, short pack out, excellent eating.


Another trip to Wyoming, we spotted a herd on private land on the last day of the hunt while we were headed back to camp and then home. We contacted the landowner and paid a $50 trespass fee for a couple hours hunting (had to be out by noon and it was already nearly 10:00). My son-in-law missed a couple shots (again) and, since I had been waiting for him to fill his tags first, neither of mine were filled. After his misses I decided I�d had enough fun playing guide. One shot took this one and a short while later we were headed back home again.


Not sure what the story was on this one but chances are very high it was part of a herd spotted from the road � hiking through miles of sage to see what is over the next hill just isn�t necessary when hunting does � unless you like to work a lot harder than necessary, and we don�t.


Yup, another public land Wyoming doe spotted from the road as we were headed back to camp just before dusk, last night of the hunt.


Got this one a mile from the house while driving a neighbor�s ranch looking for coyotes just before a Sunday morning Broncos game. Hadn�t seen any antelope there in the previous week and wasn�t expecting any, but had an appropriate rifle with me just in case. The buck ran up from out of a draw. I stopped the truck and watched it through the passenger window for a bit, hoping the buck would run off so I could watch the game and knowing if I pulled the trigger that wouldn�t happen. The buck didn�t move so I quietly got out of the truck and lasered it at 167 yards � Zero range for the Marlin 375 (.375 Winchester) I was carrying. �Run� I was thinking as I took my time setting up for a shot. It never moved except for a death leap and I had to listen to the game on the radio as I drove to the meat processor and back. (The Marlin 375 had previously proven itself to be effective on coyotes, too. )

The disability is for my eyesight. It allows me to use a scope in muzzleloader season which is normally just iron sights.

I get around just fine.

Kazakstan. Kustanaj. Siberian roe deer hunting: