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If they stopped all Buck hunting.


Four Season Whitetail's
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1. point me to a harvest thread where someone was picked on for shooting a small buck. I can show you 10 posts in this thread alone where trophy hunters were put down. several by you.

It's not worth the time to go back and poll all the replies and negative responses. I'm not going to do it and I'm damn sure that you haven't either, so the remark is without credibility and serves no purpose anyway. If you feel picked on, I regret that, but the slights are self inflicted as far as I'm concerned and resident only in your own mind. Yes, we all seem to be overly concerned about what the next guy is hunting. Why any of us think that any of that is any of our business .... who knows? But for sure everyone wants to get into the other guy's hunting, trying to prove who the hell knows what. But to try and say it is all coming from one side or the other of these issues just is ignoring the truth, and trying to make some bogus point for some bogus reason.

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It's not worth the time to go back and poll all the replies and negative responses. I'm not going to do it and I'm damn sure that you haven't either, so the remark is without credibility and serves no purpose anyway. If you feel picked on, I regret that, but the slights are self inflicted as far as I'm concerned and resident only in your own mind. Yes, we all seem to be overly concerned about what the next guy is hunting. Why any of us think that any of that is any of our business .... who knows? But for sure everyone wants to get into the other guy's hunting, trying to prove who the hell knows what. But to try and say it is all coming from one side or the other of these issues just is ignoring the truth, and trying to make some bogus point for some bogus reason.

How about just 1 from this years harvests? Just 1.

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1 reply where someone posted a yearling buck they shot and was attacked for it.

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How about you post just one place there where someone posted a so-called  "trophy" buck and got anything but a congrats. I'm not sure why you are so intent on making up controversy, but if you want to be a bit honest about your comments, you will be forced to admit that the "brown and down" comments throughout this forum have not exactly been rare. And if you have any kind of memory, a site research project is not required. So don't be telling me that this is all just from one side. If you are to be honest, you know that isn't the case.

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How about you post just one place there where someone posted a so-called "trophy" buck and got anything but a congrats. I'm not sure why you are so intent on making up controversy, but if you want to be a bit honest about your comments, you will be forced to admit that the "brown and down" comments throughout this forum have not exactly been rare. And if you have any kind of memory, a site research project is not required. So don't be telling me that this is all just from one side. If you are to be honest, you know that isn't the case.

That there is just a more eloquent way of saying he is whacked.

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My point is that there are a lot of comments when we talk about ARs that trophy hunters are tying the sport and are really bad people. Just read this thread. Yet I don't see any of the trophy hunters putting down the best hunters. It's the pot calling the kettle black. That is what is whack.

well, look at it this way...nobody is telling the "selective hunters" what to shoot, by law or otherwise......on the other hand, the "non selective hunters" are being told what they can shoot.....so it's only natural that one group may be more annoyed than another.right?....or maybe DEC will enact an "my wife just had a baby so I don't have enough time to trophy hunt so I need to lower my standards for this year, but normally I would never shoot a buck of this size clause" to the AR laws..........

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well, look at it this way...nobody is telling the "selective hunters" what to shoot, by law or otherwise......on the other hand, the "non selective hunters" are being told what they can shoot.....so it's only natural that one group may be more annoyed than another.right?....or maybe DEC will enact an "my wife just had a baby so I don't have enough time to trophy hunt so I need to lower my standards for this year, but normally I would never shoot a buck of this size clause" to the AR laws..........

They already tell you what,when and how many deer you can harvest. Dont you think that new dad would have liked to kill that little great tasting buck with 21/2 inch spikes?

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They already tell you what,when and how many deer you can harvest. Dont you think that new dad would have liked to kill that little great tasting buck with 21/2 inch spikes?

Kind of like the old "slippery slope" theory. They're already messin' with ya, so why not just give up the rest. There's a lot of bad law created with that kind of thinking and justification.

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Just to pause for a moment and get back to the original question (which I thought was a great one) : "If they stopped all buck hunting would you continue to hunt at the same level and desire?", it kind of makes me wonder why if antlers are end-all and be-all of hunting why is it that only the cervids are valued in that fashion? We continue to hunt and enjoy preying on all kinds of other animals that have no means of counting or measuring or otherwise manufacturing some bogus means of "keeping score" and we still enjoy the hell out of hunting. So why is our total enjoyment of hunting locked to these pointy things that are primarily unique to the male deer? There really is no logic or rationality to trying to measure the success of hunting by such a ridiculous criteria. So the proper reply to the question should be, "Why not!" 

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Just to pause for a moment and get back to the original question (which I thought was a great one) : "If they stopped all buck hunting would you continue to hunt at the same level and desire?", it kind of makes me wonder why if antlers are end-all and be-all of hunting why is it that only the cervids are valued in that fashion? We continue to hunt and enjoy preying on all kinds of other animals that have no means of counting or measuring or otherwise manufacturing some bogus means of "keeping score" and we still enjoy the hell out of hunting. So why is our total enjoyment of hunting locked to these pointy things that are primarily unique to the male deer? There really is no logic or rationality to trying to measure the success of hunting by such a ridiculous criteria. So the proper reply to the question should be, "Why not!" 

 

It's the same as playing games and sports... not all games are the same and each has a different objective... I grew up playing sports that were very physical... football, lacrosse etc. But I also liked baseball and basketball... I like the shooting sports like trap and skeet, but also enjoy a good game of chess... each has it's own attraction.. for some reason most deer hunters have an attraction to antlers, in fact, BIG antlers... and to say it isn't so would not be honest... each sport, game, animal hunted... has it's own attraction that makes it fun for the participant... I believe that deer hunting wouldn't have nearly as many participants if the bucks didn't have antlers... I think hunters like to rate themselves as a hunter, whether we admit it or not... Big antlers, being rarer and harder to come by over the years got chosen, for some reason as a gauge of hunting prowess... Why? That's anyone's guess... but I think true none the less.

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One of the best hunts ever was when I was deer hunting and had 6 bear show up in one afternoon sit. It had nothing todo with horns! 

 

some crisp mornings with great sunsets and some early fall evenings with beautiful sunsets. Pileated woodpeckers, weasels, fox etc. All make some of my favorite sits. But I don't think there's enough there to go out without the chance I might harvest a nice buck too. Otherwise I think a lot of us would sit during the off season. I know of a few photographers but not many of us are sitting in the tree unarmed. So again, nature being a big reason why I hunt it is certainly not the main driver. I'd just as well go for a hike.

 

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It's the same as playing games and sports... not all games are the same and each has a different objective... I grew up playing sports that were very physical... football, lacrosse etc. But I also liked baseball and basketball... I like the shooting sports like trap and skeet, but also enjoy a good game of chess... each has it's own attraction.. for some reason most deer hunters have an attraction to antlers, in fact, BIG antlers... and to say it isn't so would not be honest... each sport, game, animal hunted... has it's own attraction that makes it fun for the participant... I believe that deer hunting wouldn't have nearly as many participants if the bucks didn't have antlers... I think hunters like to rate themselves as a hunter, whether we admit it or not... Big antlers, being rarer and harder to come by over the years got chosen, for some reason as a gauge of hunting prowess... Why? That's anyone's guess... but I think true none the less.

Oh you probably are right, but it still makes absolutely no sense or logic. There are some pretty amazing animals that are hunted and far more cunning than deer, and yet we don't drool over some body-part that they have....lol. for example, if you really want to test your woods-lore and hunting prowess, old Wiley Coyote really would be a great yardstick for self-measurement. Try hunting them in a one-on-one basis with no dogs or callers if you want to measure your hunting prowess. And yet there are no record book entries for coyotes. There are probably dozens of other examples that I'm not thinking of too where the challenge and demonstration of hunting prowess is much greater and yet no one has developed a trumped up score keeping system. The logic just doesn't hold up. But I agree, many people can't seem to enjoy hunting as a recreation. There seems to be some reason why we have to keep score and turn it into some sort of competition with other hunters instead of just keeping the competition between ourselves and the quarry. Something psychological going on there that I just really don't follow. But anyway the original question was a great one and opens up some insight as to why we have so much infighting within our ranks. We all have different goals and purposes for our hunting, and they don't all have the same ways to achieve the satisfaction and fulfillment that we each need individually. For me, hunting is an entire experience, and competition with other hunters or even myself doesn't really enter into much of it. And so, a system of score keeping doesn't have any part in my hunting mentality. I think that is why AR and such doesn't pique my interest at all. It doesn't add a thing to my hunting experience or any of the reasons why I hunt.

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Oh you probably are right, but it still makes absolutely no sense or logic. There are some pretty amazing animals that are hunted and far more cunning than deer, and yet we don't drool over some body-part that they have....lol. for example, if you really want to test your woods-lore and hunting prowess, old Wiley Coyote really would be a great yardstick for self-measurement. Try hunting them in a one-on-one basis with no dogs or callers if you want to measure your hunting prowess. And yet there are no record book entries for coyotes. There are probably dozens of other examples that I'm not thinking of too where the challenge and demonstration of hunting prowess is much greater and yet no one has developed a trumped up score keeping system. The logic just doesn't hold up. But I agree, many people can't seem to enjoy hunting as a recreation. There seems to be some reason why we have to keep score and turn it into some sort of competition with other hunters instead of just keeping the competition between ourselves and the quarry. Something psychological going on there that I just really don't follow. But anyway the original question was a great one and opens up some insight as to why we have so much infighting within our ranks. We all have different goals and purposes for our hunting, and they don't all have the same ways to achieve the satisfaction and fulfillment that we each need individually. For me, hunting is an entire experience, and competition with other hunters or even myself doesn't really enter into much of it. And so, a system of score keeping doesn't have any part in my hunting mentality. I think that is why AR and such doesn't pique my interest at all. It doesn't add a thing to my hunting experience or any of the reasons why I hunt.

Yeah I agree with you about the competition thing... I never understood the hunter vs. hunter thing either... I have always been for recording exceptional examples of big whitetail bucks for future generations of hunters to see... probably because I am one of those that appreciates the majesty that the antlers give the mature whitetail buck.. and like it or not, those big antlered bucks are the rarest and hardest to find (let alone kill) of all the whitetails. At this stage in my hunting life, that challenge is where I get my satisfaction... along with the adventures of each hunt and the stories those hunts create. The implementation of AR's would have no impact for me personally... My only acceptance of AR's comes from the belief in a broad buck age structure in a good deer management program... The idea of using AR's to increase the amount of trophy bucks in the deer population does not interest me... I have spent most of my hunting life trying to find the most challenging ways to kill a mature buck... not the easiest. I don't see the fun or satisfaction in that.

 

You and I aren't that far apart with our views ... we might not be on the exact same road, but they both go in the same direction :)

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You and I aren't that far apart with our views ... we might not be on the exact same road, but they both go in the same direction :)

Re-reading my reply, perhaps it did sound like I have no appreciation for a good set of antlers on a older buck. That's not exactly accurate. As illogical as using antlers as a yardstick may be, I think we all appreciate a good set of antlers as part of nature's art.

 

And truly if for some weird reason, bucks were declared illegal to harvest, I definitely would feel like something had been lost, and indeed an important option (choice) would have been eliminated (nothing I would ever be in favor of).

 

But back to the original question, I know that even without a buck option, I would still enjoy the hell out of my deer hunting and be out there excited about getting a doe or whatever is legal to hunt. At my age with deer season having become such a huge part of all those years, I have to be on the hunt, antlers or no antlers.

 

Yes, I also would be working my tail off to get the buck option restored, but while that was going on, I would be enthusiastically hunting the does.

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I'd like to put the old buck meat debate to the rest but thought it interesting watching an episode of Meat Hunter that was dedicated to tough cuts of meat that he specifically mentioned and talked to this point.

 

Young bucks are generally under a lot less pressure and hang with does, while the big bucks are sparing and fighting toughening the muscles and creating a "chewier" meat. Again, this is mostly applicable to front and hind quarters.

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