ORIGINAL: 24/7 hunter
Im 15 and hunt with my dad and his buddy on a piece of land they lease. They dont tell me what i need to shoot, but they do tell me what i cant shoot. What really ticks me off is needing to know a deer's age before you can shoot it. I cant tell how old a deer is by looking at it and you dont always have lots of time to score him before its even dead. my dad said the deer need to be 3 1/2 years or older before we can shoot them and he doesnt want to kill the does just cause he doesnt see many and on the cameras we get lots of doe pics. They said if a shoot a young deer there i probably wont be able to hunt there next year but this year i might kill a young buck. It is just as rewarding to me as killing a big buck. As far as competition, ill enter a deer contest every year if its cheap because i could kill a huge buck, but i dont spend all season looking for a certain buck. thats no fun.
This part of the post shows cause for concern. It sounds to me like his dad and his dads buddy have a lease with rules. IMO, it is better to not hunt the land with rules, rather than shooting a buck under the rules limits. If nothing more then just out of respect for his dad. Why embaress dad? Dad should be told that son wants to shoot deer... no rules. Nothing wrong with that. Maybe go to public land or look for more spots. I think it is better to not knowingly violate the rules.