Hunting Ethics vs Regulations

[Omega]

A story in the NRA's American Hunter got me thinking, not so much about shooting turkey in flight which is what the story is mainly about, but about the quote below:

 

 

It’s no different than counting a wounded dove in your limit instead of continuing to shoot more.

 

I honestly never thought about  doing that, mainly because if the dove were wounded it usually goes down and I go in to retrieve and dispatch it.  The ones that I have shot at and got nothing but feathers seemed to be not wounded so didn't pay much attention to them afterward.  Specially considering that when I go to clean them up many only have one or two pellets in them.  So what are your thoughts on this practice; do you count the wounded ones and if so how do you tell? I haven't seen anything in the Regs about this but have seen something where you could not keep bass smaller than 15" even if they are likely to die (swallowed hook) so you had to put them back.  BTW its been quite some time since I got into a good dove field so if you have one...

[Hozzie]

Never thought of it either.  I can't think of any I have knowingly wounded and not found and killed.  To be honest, I probably wouldn't have considered it in my limit, but I will now as I believe in conservation.  One more dove isn't going to make or break any of us.

[10-Ring]

I make all reasonable efforts to recover lost game.  I would not count wounded game towards my limit but that's just me.  Not that I'm trying to take more than my share but the biologists take these things into account.  If you run into these issues very often you may need to reevaluate some things.  As far as a foul hooked undersized fish?  I'm probably going to go with what I think is ethical, I hate to see game go to waste.

Edited April 14, 2016 by 10-Ring