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I try to practice quality deer management and let the younger little bucks walk and let the breeding does breed again. I will take a fawn or a dry doe and have a 8 pt or bigger rule for my property. I have no problems with anybody taking a deer as long as its legal, these are just my rules that I follow.
I should be clear I am fine with people that hunt only for meat. I find every year there are groups that push bushes and shoot everything that comes out. Then next year, express their concern for the herd in their area because sightings are down or that they don't see quality bucks. I think we all benefit from good management. I have shot a few does and smaller bucks in the past and have been very happy with them. I also see no problem in taking pride in antlers and hanging them on your wall. This is how I remember the hunt and the animal. As a hunter I eat everything I shoot outside of coyotes or varmint. To each their own I guess. Good luck to everyone in the rest of the season.
I've always thought quality bucks depended more on the food they have available moreso than hunters passing on smaller animals. There's no way one can take all the quality bucks from an area. They're just too smart.
Hey, every deer hunter is legal, and wants to shoot a nice buck. And we all like deer meat I hope. If I can fill my doe tag with a decent doe I'm happy as hell, specially at the table. Unfortunately, more so now than ever in society it seems, the person who decides he wants to harvest a more mature buck can be stigmatized as a "Trophy Hunter" these days, when in reality nothing could be more wrong, it's just leverage for the antis. Most non hunters just don't get. We are all the same for the most part. Guys can have personal trophys if that's what they're looking to achieve. There's no difference in camp if we fill doe tags or get braggin rights that year. We're all comrades in the deer hunt, camp members and solo guys alike in my books.
It's a good thing we have party hunting and a long bow season here. This conversation would be so different in Quebec I figure.
I also think the brown is down term has kind of run it's course, even though it's just an old saying that usually pertains to the last days of hunt camp. Seems too easy for the general online public to take it the wrong way.
In regards to the meat end of it, if it was Christmas holidays off with no venison for a year or two and a legal buck fawn gave me a good bow shot I would be tempted for sure. Specially the last week.
Cheers folks
Meat for me, fortunately we are still in a period of additional tags so the freezer is half full with an 8 pt already, but with one more tag in my pocket, if presented with a shot I'll take it. We are very fortunate to be able to put this fine meat on the table, I'm not passing up that opportunity, its too tasty.
For the table. Small one already in the freezer during rifle and I hope to go out on the bow after the red ants leave the bush and it calms down a bit. I will try for the rack now and enjoy the bush.
I think it has a lot to do with where you're hunting. If you're hunting in areas wherever the deer numbers are high and you see a number of deer over the course of the season then I can see the selective harvest. When you hunt bush with single tag availability and on averege you see (never mind get a shot at) 0-2 deer per year if you don't take what comes to you you often get skunked. We truly value having a freezer full of high quality meat for the year. I have passed on 4 or 5 deer in my time (does, fawns, spikes)and each time I've ended the year skunked. Will still think twice about taking does as they represent 2 more deer next year. So I guess I'm more likely to selectively harvest for quantity as opposed to quality.
It might be controversial, but I witnessed it again this year at camp; we have a couple of guys who DON'T hunt for either the rack nor the meat..just the fun of hunting. In a camp environment this works well, they put meat on the pole but don't want a cut of the meat.
Controversial... because there are a faction of 'Hunters' (not anti's), that feel that just enjoying 'killing' a deer without a want for the meat is wrong.
I like deer meat, and I like big racks. But even if I couldn't keep either, I'd still like to go deer hunting.Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePal
I hunt deer for the love of hunting...meat is a bonus, a nice set of antlers even more so.
I grew up hunting in 55B - where deer were all but non-existant in the 1970's. If you hunted for meat or antlers there and then, you'd give up pretty quickly.
I like venison to eat. And I like big racks. What I decide to put my tag on varies from year to year.
As far as people who don't like venison but like to hunt, what's wrong with that? If you can give the meat to someone that truly enjoys it or maybe a family that is less fortunate and can really use the meat, how is that wrong???