GMMAT

Good answer. Thanks.

AF Hunter

GMMAT, I truly believe it is an ego thing. "Look at this monster I shot in Illinois!", "Yeah, last year I took all my execs to Kansas and the first morning over the feeder I nailed this beauty as he stood there lapping up corn!". ETC.

On the other hand, there are those who do it for the friendship and I don't begrudge that.

early in

I think you know why I go where I go, so I needn't gointo too many details. Jeff, for meit's all about "location"/no tag draw.

GMMAT

???

There's nothing wrong with your reasoning, EI....but I'd like to hear exactly what that is....

Thanks.

_Dan

Exactly......its an ego thing, and I have to feed mine.

I try to hunt as many places as possible to see whitetails in their diverse habitats. This fall I'll be hunting WI, IL, Ontario, Alberta and possiblySaskatchewan and/or ND. Each of these places has a totally different terrain and habitat that deer live in. It's amazing, to me, that whitetails live in and adapted to almost all parts of NA.

As for hiring a guide.....In Alberta and Saskatchewan, its the only way you can do it. No choice. Truly, I just love to see the country and if I have to have a guide, so be it.

buttonbuckmaster

I think it boils down to 2 things.

1) You are perfectly happy shooting the size deer NC holds. I see nothing wrong with that at all.

2) You could possibly be on thecheap side. [8D]

There are things I would pay to hunt and others I wouldn't. I would pay to hog hunt, maybe black bear hunt. Those are things I can't hunt here. I've talked to others about hunting different state with smaller deer than what I have here. Its all about the experience, not the antlers to me.

GMMAT

This isn't about me. I don't do it!....lol

We spend $5-$6K traveling every year. We just don't go to whitetail destinations.

NEW61375

I never have but I would love to. I would probably prefer a semi-guided or do it yourself type hunt that provides lodging and acess to some pretty land. My brother and I talk about it often and for us it is more about the thrill of hunting new woods in an area that may or may ot have some giants wandering around but more importantly it would be a get away, an oppurtunity to travel & hunt with family and friends and share a camp where someone kind of caters to you and you can relax and hunt, kind of just take it all in. I look at itlike a vacation which just so happens to include hunting. Wouldn't mind doing one of those drop hunts up in Alaska, that would probably be an unbelievable experience.

The E.T.A of my first trip will be approximately 20 years when my youngest graduates college, I'll make sure to contact iamyourhuckleberry for some travel/luggage tips.

bawanajim

Some people enjoy a week of full time hunting with people that have the same passion as we hunters do,the chance of a truly great trophy makes it just that much better.Great country &great friends are the rewards of a great hunt.

Others spend weeks in third world countries where the language is foreign and the water toxic. To each their own.[:-]

For me the great Rockey mountains hold far more intrigue than typhoons and drug lords.

Rob/PA Bowyer

AF, I take exception to that. I'm traveling to IL this year with friends. It has NOTHING to do with my ego. I bought a friend a bow several years ago, this trip is his way of paying me back in sorts. I would however pay anyway as the group of people going, it's going to be a great trip with friends regardless of the outcome.

I won't be sitting behind a giant whitetail saying I'm the greatest hunting on HNI cause I got this done in IL. I realize someone else did most of the work but we're allowed to move stands/locations if we see what we want to see, inseason scouting and that's exactly what I'll do.

I might accept that answer if it were refering to "penned" whitetails or whatever inside a fence. Hunting with a guided outfit is just that, it's hunting, it's not killing. They have access to the land, we don't.

That would be like me saying all of IL hunters have egos cause look at me behind this big buck. Paying for a guided hunt is paying to access the land, not a guarantee on the kill.