Five Seasons

The holier than thou comes from a good place with good intentions. It's not to stroke an ego or knock someone down. This is a sport we all cherish that is constantly under fire. We try and self police to preserve our sport and keep the standards high. I'm not saying it's right, but that is why we criticize. We have all made poor decisions, poor shots and lost deer. It sucks. Worse part of this thread is it doesn't seem like he tracked the 1st buck very long or hard. So now there's 2 bucks possibly down. I hope he continues to hunt and learn and get better. Final point is that I don't believe in luck. Sure there is a little voo-doo here and there. But practice and preparation is what I define as "luck".

used to live off broadway in Alden. Small ranch with caz creek running through my back yard. Big cliff so no worry about flooding but the basement sump ran constantly. I shoveled that roof with a lot less snow then you guys just got. Hope that place and the new owners are doing well.

don't put yourself in the poor house for deer land. You will not find many more people as die hard about hunting as myself, but nothing is more important to me than my wife and 2 little boys. That being said, maybe there's something else you pay for or own that you could sell/stop to justify it. Maybe get some buddies to pay a lease fee? I would still just put it in one persons name. No mess that way.

30+ in the woods and trimmed between 7 hunters... Lol

Last night of bow season in the south and they wait till the last hour of daylight to check their zero...

freak

that took some balls. if it went down you'd never get it back.

there's a video on one of the facebook pages of a news site that has a deer trying to get through the snow. Gotta be really pissing off some rutting bucks. The weekend thaw will help but some of those critters have got to be hurting.

what's your definition of mature buck? 2.5? or 3.5 and older? To be honest, a lot of us put in a lot of time and effort even on private managed land and don't get many shots at 3.5's and up. Kind of makes it all the more sweeter when you do. If it's 2.5's then your frustration is probably legit. State land can be a bitch. Don't give up man. It'll come.

warm reception guys... My advice is to search the net. But public land hunters are pretty protective. If we gave out our secret spots then they wouldn't be secret spots anymore. Spend some time turkey hunting or after the season scouting. Little late now.

didn't read all 3 pages, but to be clear. You shot a buck, pretty sure he died. Exhausted the search? Then shot at another one? Had you given up on the 1st one so soon? what if you recovered both? Did you also shoot this buck on a ridge having no idea what or who was behind it?

And yet some hunters get knocked for cheering. Funny world we live in.

Quite the hypocrite biz. You climb all over my ass when i generalize gun hunters but it's ok for you to just throw a whole state away? Have you ever been or lived here? To be honest I'm not sure why I'm even entertaining you. People are nice here. I've made good friends, my gun freedoms are in tact and I make good money. Hotty Toddy

We've talked this a few times but it is entirely natural to feel that way when taking a life of an amazing creature. Some guys will say you shouldn't feel that way, or that it goes away. I guess that's fine too but spending so much time watching these animals in the wild leads to a certain amount of respect and wounder. To this day i still feel "something" when I harvest a deer. It starts with the legs shaking before the shot and the joy of recovery and the moment of respect between me and the deer. I hope it never goes away. If it does I'll hang it up.

Very cool story. Could have been a nightmare track job in that blizzard. But you made a good shot and I assume you know your woods and backdrops. I love snow pics of deer!

You can buy a nice house for $300k. It's great... are you taking pride in the fact that you can't buy a shack in downstate for $300k? The disparity in wealth is high, no argument. But there is some big money connected to the university. I don't know if you're happy to pay what you do in property taxes, but I'm happy my $300k house is $1.5k a year and gas costs $2.50 a gallon and the schools are nationally ranked. Oh and there's no rust on my cars.

the crossbow issue was something i am not and was not in favor of. what i don't like is that people don't put in a lot of time and effort and then they bitch about their lack of success. There's at least a dozen active threads about people complaining they didn't see any deer or never see any big deer. Some of them might be the same guys who don't believe in scent control, or don't spend a minute in the woods in the offseason. Guess what? this sport is hard. It's a challenge. that's the amazing reward part that we all love. So yes, I do get annoyed when the hunter who does not put in the effort wants a crossbow to make it easier, or legalize baiting or is vehemently against ARs. You may call this elitist, I do not. Why does the sport have to change? When did it become broken? Why must we alter to accommodate those less willing to put in work? I have a full time job taking at least 50 hours a week. A 2 year old and another due the end of January. I live 16 hours from any family. Guess what that does to my hunting time? But you don't here me bitching that they should make it easier for me.

nothing wrong with a multipage thread is there? is it so bad to be passionate about something? nobody has to be in this thread there a bunch of others ripe for posting in.

where's that post. please quote it.... right it's not there. All you will find me saying is that there are more slob gun hunters per capita then there are bow hunters. I stick by that.

now you know me... good lord man, your hardon for how you think I feel and who you think I am amazes me. Total generalizations on your part. I look down on the majority of us? Please explain. I bash anyone who doesn't hunt like I do? Provide one example. My comment "gun hunters" was pretty broad and not specific. I think through numerous posts I clarified my stance, and I stick with it. I do not disagree with strength in numbers, but if those numbers are full of people giving us a bad name then I'd rather be a small group. If a hunter "quits the sport" because he's criticized for talking like that over the radio or shooting unsafely or any other various reasons than good. I'm glad he quit.

probably the best post in this whole thread. Professional athletes deal with. Movie stars deal with it. Like it or not, when you suit up your actions reflect us all. that's what it all boils down to.

you are giving the youth of the world too much credit. There was a story on facebook thats going around about the killing of dolphins in a small town. If you read the comments it'd blow your mind. The article portrays them as endangered and killed for fun, when in fact they are not endangered and the small town eats and uses almost all the animal to survive the winters. http://www.inquisitr.com/1478786/small-town-with-a-dark-secret-dolphin-slaughter-2014-begins-first-dolphin-pod-of-hunting-season-killed/ Jim Shockey's daughter killed a nice bear. People want her dead. Some even said she should kill her dog... makes sense right? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2838178/Huntress-fire-pictures-posing-massive-bear-killed-Facebook.html The internet/social media world that we live in is full of misinformation and ignorance. DO NOT believe that people are smart enough to make a good decision. The anti-hunting crowd has sunk millions into web campaigns. It's no different than the ignorance regarding gun laws. Money will persuade the sheeps. And I wouldn't let priests off the hook. Religion has steadily declined in this country and molesting little boys isn't helping. To continue to defend the bad apples in our sport by ridiculing those like myself whose only intent is to self-police and preserve the sport we love is baffling to me. I condemn reckless and slob hunting and I'm hung out to dry? good lord...

exactly. I'm not wasting my time vjp on someone whose mind will never be changed. I'm spending it on the people whose mind could be. Why do you think presidents never campaign in NY? It doesn't matter. What matters is OH, Iowa, PA, FL etc. how is discussing it on a hunting forum airing our dirty laundry? Is this not the perfect place to self police?

I didn't read that you rented from your brother and was thinking if you rent, one of the perks is that a landlord should fix stuff like that for you.... But hey go off about crystal castles.