tv overload
#11
Thats something I can respect fully. It should be up to each person to decide what they want from hunting and not be treated like scum from fellow hunters.
#12
Fork Horn
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: PA
Posts: 430
i couldnt agree more, i hunt on state gamelands and believe me, there is no picking out funnels etc.. or passing a small 6 or 8 pointer, , but its a form of entertainment, and i watch them now and again, i dont take to much of it to heart, my lord with all the informercials you would have to be a millionare to have all the equipment and such for food plots and everything else they have, but more power to them as long as they are having fun, thats what its all about...
#13
Fork Horn
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 320
i couldnt agree more, i hunt on state gamelands and believe me, there is no picking out funnels etc.. or passing a small 6 or 8 pointer, , but its a form of entertainment, and i watch them now and again, i dont take to much of it to heart, my lord with all the informercials you would have to be a millionare to have all the equipment and such for food plots and everything else they have, but more power to them as long as they are having fun, thats what its all about...
We've even tried to follow QDM strategies on our 160-acre piece of property up north (gun season), and it's made no difference in buck age or quality. Why? Every one of the neighbors knocks down the first thing that walks by. That's not to say that I'll take out a spike or fork, but after several years of never seeing a 140-class buck, you learn to lower your standards if you want to fill a tag. It's that simple. That probably won't change until the local hunting culture changes (or mandatory regulations are developed).
Point is, for many of us, those hunting shows are total fantasy because we're not able to have the options and choices that they do, so we're forced to be more realistic if we want to fill a tag. And there are many years that I don't fill a buck tag (if I want meat I can take a doe). That's all I meant.
#14
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 1,210
I hunt from 10 acres to 50 acre parcels and game lands and I pass anything that isn't at least 3.5 yrs. The rule about being outside the ears is because my son & my buddy and his son cannot age deer, so basically outside the ears.The sons have a free pass but I encourage them to make it better than their last deer. But I can't let MY decisions be based on someone else's decisions. I used tohunt with the "shoot or someone else will" mentality , eventually I got over it. When I see a neighbor with a deer I passed and mention that "Oh yea I passed him earlier this year" and they ask why. After my explanation that you will never kill a big deer by shooting mediocre deer, they change their viewpoint. Now some of the neighbors are changing their viewpoints. But it has to start somewhere.
#15
Fork Horn
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 320
Contrast this with where I bow hunt farther south...there I can realistically set a higher standard for bucks.
That's the point of this thread IMO: every hunter should set his own standards and not be pressured by unrealistic hunting shows.