Hunting requires choosing a weapon that lets you take down prey in your preferred style. While most hunters prefer rifles, handguns, and revolvers over other equipment, some are a bit more traditional with their selections.
Hunters who want to immerse themselves in our ancestors’ earlier hunting experiences use spears and crossbows in their ventures. In particular, spears allow modern hunters to experience the thrill of merely using a stake to attempt to take down an animal.
Still, before attempting this dangerous hunting excursion, one has to be skilled with a spear. You must also know if such a venture is legal in your local area. Get your body in shape for spear hunting by checking out The Body Training.
So, is spear hunting legal in your neck of the woods? Let’s find out.
Where Is Spear Hunting Legal?
There are only four states in the USA that legalize spear hunting: Hawaii, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Alabama. However, how this law applies in each state varies considerably.
The Four States
Nebraska permits hunting turkey, deer, antelope, and mountain sheep with spears but stipulates that spears shouldn’t have poison or any chemical that stuns an animal. In Hawaii, spears are only for hunting wild goats, sheep, and pigs. Oklahoma authorizes spear hunting in several situations, including small game and frog hunting.
Then, we have Alabama. To say that this state is pretty loose on their spear hunting rule is an understatement. Here, you can pretty much hunt anything with a spear.
The Remaining 46 States
Aside from these four states, other states remain mostly mum about the issue. Of course, this doesn’t mean hunters are free to hunt with spears in these areas.
There isn’t a definite answer as to whether or not you can use spears for hunting in the other 46 states because hunting laws are presented in general. The law usually tells you what weapons are employable during hunting and not what aren’t. Still, if a weapon is not listed, you should assume that it’s illegal.
In Idaho, where hunting is immensely popular among locals and tourists, the law makes it clear that using weapons other than the crossbow, shotgun, muzzleloader, and handgun is illegal. So, that means spears are simply out of the question.
Is Spear Hunting Ethical?
Hunters are often vilified unfairly on the internet. Often, the victims are those who hunt using spears and other methods deemed as archaic.
Why employ these methods when there are obviously better and more effective ones out there? Well, that’s because there’s more to hunting than the goal of taking down an animal.
It’s not just about putting a meal on the table; it’s also about the thrill of the chase. Like a predator, you feel the more danger there is in a hunt, the more thrilling and exciting it becomes.
Still, the question needs to be asked: is spear hunting ethical? Spear-hunting videos that have circulated on social media have shone a negative light on the particular hunting style for the following reasons:
1. Does Not Kill Instantly
Success in spear hunting relies so much on how you’re able to injure the animal. Very rarely does an instant or even near-kill occur.
In most cases, the prey gets injured but can still runoff, resulting in hours of suffering until the hunter can track it down. Many view this as a ruthless fate that no animal should endure.
Several hunting methods are praised for their cruelty-free ways of killing. Sadly, spear hunting isn’t one of them.
2. Depends So Much on a Person’s Skill
There’s a reason many don’t hunt with spears anymore. Aside from being archaic, it requires too much skill and considerable physical strength to perfect.
While fitness is something we’ve come to expect modern hunters to possess, they don’t even come close to our hunter-gatherer ancestors’ fitness levels. To even have the chance to execute spear hunting humanely requires considerable training and practice. Even then, you might only injure the animal and leave it to suffer for hours or days.
3. Dangerous
There’s always a certain level of danger involved in hunting. Some methods, though, are clearly more dangerous than others. Hunting with spears, which requires you to get closer to an animal than other weapons, is definitely one of them.
While it’s true that your skill in such a craft can lessen the danger involved, the fact that you’re so close to the animal and its territory gives you limited options to protect yourself.
Should You Hunt With Spears?
If you happen to live in Alabama, Oklahoma, Nebraska, or Hawaii and are skilled enough with a spear, then we see no reason why you shouldn’t. After all, the rules set in place in these areas specifically keeps hunters from executing spear hunting inhumanely. Just make sure to look into this law thoroughly since it can vary depending on which of the four states you’re hunting in.
