Terminoligy?

captdavid

Well-Known Member
Terminology?

Two great nations seperated by the same language! Someone corrected me by saying, basically, that deer were 'stalked,' and 'hunting' was done on horses. Ok, that I see, but what do you when after rabbits, pheasants &etc? thanks, capt david
 
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Hunting is a generic term that covers the various disciplines such as shooting, stalking, lamping, coursing, falconry etc. Lots of people I know that don't shoot ask if I'm going hunting whether it's wildfowling, pigeon shooting, stalking or whatever. Most most that do these activities would think of hunting as doing so with hounds.
 
If you're going to come on here and ask questions about English you might spell terminology correctly :)

Having worked with Americans I find the puzzled look when we start talking bo77ocks and f4nnys quite amusing.
 
Or missing :D. Oh that could just be me!!

A few years ago I met a bloke who was at least 65yrs, he told me he had been stalking all his life and that he had never missed a deer. I ask him what he was taking for his senile dementia. Anyone brave enough to start up a honest miss/loss thread?
 
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Hunting for me is in the pursuit of game. Stalking is a more specific hunting of deer or other ground game by stealth and concealment.
I would 'hunt' for a walked up pheasant,snipe etc but would 'shoot' driven game.
Then of course there is 'Haunting' done by chaps and their fillies on horseback, 'unting done by thin guys in big boots on the fells and decoying done by blokes who like mud.
 
Majority rules, "hunting" is used world wide to describe in one word the different shooting, snaring, trapping or whatever methods of baging animals.
UK and Ireland seem to use the word "shooting" which I think is only one small part of the activity....and overall not correct.
edi
 
Majority rules, "hunting" is used world wide to describe in one word the different shooting, snaring, trapping or whatever methods of baging animals.
edi

Well... That's not really what we say here though, is it?

"Hunting": Is a word which may be used in it's general sense here in the UK, as you've described above i.e. in the "American" sense. However, it is usually taken by those who know what they're talking about to mean... hunting with hounds, whether accompanied by red (or occasionally other coloured) jacketed horse riders or not and whether in pursuit of live fox or an aniseed, or otherwise, soaked dummy (the drag hunt)... or even the pursuit of a very sporting and suitably scented athlete :)

Hunting using a gun, as in the American sense, is practiced here in many forms but it's nearly all described under the heading "shooting". At least, that is and always has been my understanding.
 
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There is a long tradition in Europe generally of using specific words to describe different types of sport. Even the word "sport" itself is properly limited to the pursuit of game or fish by whatever method, and maybe horse racing. Activities such as football or tennis or golf are "games" not sport.

In the UK and Ireland the traditional meanings of various words are quite clear to all of us who practise these sports.

The term "hunting" is properly limited to the pursuit of game, usually foxes or deer with a pack of hounds that hunt primarily by scent. This is not exclusive to packs of hounds with the followers mounted on horse back. Many packs of hounds are hunted by people on foot.

Pursuit of game - (normally hares), with a single (or pair) of greyhounds or lurchers (which hunt by sight not scent) is correctly called "coursing".

The pursuit of any winged or small ground game with a shotgun is called "shooting". End of. Shooting can be driven, walked up, rough or whatever, but it will never be refered to as hunting in these islands.

The taking of deer with a rifled weapon firing a single projectile is "stalking", even if conducted from a high seat rather than on foot.

All of us who practise these sports know the correct teminology. I have never heard anyone here refer to any sport conducted with a shotgun or rifle as "hunting".
 
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A few years ago I met a bloke who was at least 65yrs, he told me he had been stalking all his life and that he had never missed a deer. I ask him what he was taking for his senile dementia. Anyone brave enough to start up a honest miss/loss thread?

He only shot at and killed the one then, 100% record.
 
The term "hunting" is properly limited to the pursuit of game, usually foxes or deer with a pack of hounds that hunt primarily by scent. This is not exclusive to packs of hounds with the followers mounted on horse back. Many packs of hounds are hunted by people on foot.

Can you still hunt deer with horse and hound in N.I.?

I thought the England and Wales Hunting Act 2004 scuppered the deer hounds there and it's something I've never been aware of here (In Scotland) though I'd love to see it.

I know how the exemptions in Scottish law can allow ways of pursuing fox, providing it is the intention that the fox will be shot and conduct on the day is such that it is reasonable to argue that this is what is going to happen. If the dogs get the fox first then that can be viewed as unfortunate but not wrong doing, per se, all else being in place, which always struck me as a bit of a gaping oops! :eek: in the legislation, but sensible and welcome all the same.
 
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Tamus, deer hunting with hounds (and fox hunting for that matter) is still legal in NI. There are I think two packs here in Co Down. What is law in England and Wales is not automatically so here, even before devolution.

There was a bit of a barney here last season when the RSCPA and the polis stopped a 4x4 and trailer with a stag in the back. The implication was that the stag was being "carted" to be released for the hunt. That was 5 miles form here last season.
 
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Tamus, deer hunting with hounds (and fox hunting for that matter) is still legal in NI. There are I think two packs here in Co Down. What is law in England and Wales is not automatically so here, even before devolution.

There was a bit of a barney here last season when the RSCPA and the polis stopped a 4x4 and trailer with a stag in the back. The implication was that the stag was being "carted" to be released for the hunt. That was 5 miles form here last season.

Great :D... thanks for letting me know and apologies for my ignorance. I'm not a horseman, as you may have gathered, but I do know of quite a few Scots who keep horses over in Ireland, or ferry them across, just for the sport. So, I probably should have known :oops:

However, I do know how often law varies, sometimes subtly sometimes hugely between the home nations. So it's no real surprise.

Trailering a stag? ... Perish the thought that there would have been any mischief.

Atb~Tom
 
....seperated by a common language. I guess our tradition in America(US) began when the first ship arrived. One went 'hunting,' to procure food. Now, when we go out to 'kill' take something, fur or fowl, generally for the pot, it is called hunting. When we go to the range we go 'shooting.' A couple of exceptions are: we shoot prairie dogs and crows and hunt coyotes. Maybe it goes back to medieval times when only nobles were allowed to take deer and it was done as a sport, more than the need for food, while the serfs/pesants were left to hunt for the other animals for food. This is purely speculation on my part. capt david
 
Hunt is a word that shares it's etymological roots with the word hound... It's an Indo-European linguistic kinda thang...:lol:

To me hounds are a type of dog and hunting is a type of sport that uses them. Then everyone goes and uses words a little bit differently till they seem like different words... confusion... but now you know what the same difference is. Btw "same difference" is one of our Scots expressions that gets exported a lot but is seldom understood.

How far do you want to go with this "two nation's divided by a common language" thing? ;)
 
There is a long tradition in Europe generally of using specific words to describe different types of sport. Even the word "sport" itself is properly limited to the pursuit of game or fish by whatever method, and maybe horse racing. Activities such as football or tennis or golf are "games" not sport.

In the UK and Ireland the traditional meanings of various words are quite clear to all of us who practise these sports.

The term "hunting" is properly limited to the pursuit of game, usually foxes or deer with a pack of hounds that hunt primarily by scent. This is not exclusive to packs of hounds with the followers mounted on horse back. Many packs of hounds are hunted by people on foot.

Pursuit of game - (normally hares), with a single (or pair) of greyhounds or lurchers (which hunt by sight not scent) is correctly called "coursing".

The pursuit of any winged or small ground game with a shotgun is called "shooting". End of. Shooting can be driven, walked up, rough or whatever, but it will never be refered to as hunting in these islands.

The taking of deer with a rifled weapon firing a single projectile is "stalking", even if conducted from a high seat rather than on foot.

All of us who practise these sports know the correct teminology. I have never heard anyone here refer to any sport conducted with a shotgun or rifle as "hunting".

Bang on sir your dead right
 
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