ORIGINAL: GregH
ORIGINAL: gzg38b
People who hunt prime areas like Iowa and Illinois have NO CLUE what it's like to hunt hard every day of the season and only have 2 or 3 DEER come into bow range for the season.
Are you kidding me, man?? Do you think that I hunted all 40 of my seasons in prime Ill. land? I hunted the first 22 years on public land. Then the more I learned the smarter I got. I did take 3 mature bucks there though. The first rule I learned was that if you want to take bigger bucks, you have to hunt where they live. Well, I worked my butt off and still do, to try and maintain and acquire permission to hunt land where they live. Do you really think that I have no clue?
The people that have no clue are the wannabes that don't make the effort to find ways to improve their hunting. The ones that want it to fall into their laps without working for it. The worst ones are the ones that don't even try, then bash the ones who made their own sucess. I get out of hunting what I put into it.
Dude, if you hunt every day of the whole season and only have 2-3 deer come into shooting range, who's fault is that?
I think that I'd start looking someplace else or take up something a little more fun than that. But if you stay hunting there... wow! that's only seeing a deer every 30 days. If you think that it is easy to consistantly get big bucks anywhere you hunt, you're mistaken. Big bucks are tough to get reguardless of where you hunt. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it.
Greg, I never said that YOU have no clue. I made a generalization. You are obviouslyone of the best hunters on this forum. You work your butt off and it pays off for you. I have nothing but respect for that. But not everybody has the time, money, vacation days, energy, or access to great habitat that you do.
I hunted about 12 days this year in Michigan. I would hunt more but I work 60 hours a week, I'm getting my masters degree from Purdue, and I have kids ages 1,2, and 3. Of course I'd like to spend as much time as you do knocking on doors, doing work for landowners, scouting, and hunting but I'm a little busy with life right now.
When I'm done with school and the job slows down and the kids grow up a little, then I will probably have more time to knock on doors, do work for farmers, drive hours to hunt, scout, and dedicate myself to hunting big bucks the way you do. But in the meantime I have to hunt when I have time, and where I have permission. That means I'm simply not going to see alot of deer, I amgoing to see alot of hunters, and I'mprobably not going to kill big bucks. I'm not complaining about that - I've accepted it and I'm fine with it. I have managed to kill 4 deer in the last two years on this property so I'm not doing that bad. I just have to shoot every deer that offers a shot and make every opportunity count.
The reason for the post is to make people understand why I choose to shoot the deer that I shoot. It seems like alot of people are on rack kicks and think that's all that matters. They cannot possibly understand how Icould shoot that 1 1/2 year old six point or the yearling doe and be proud. They assume I'm just lazy or a slob hunter. I just wanted to shed some light on the fact that everybody's situation is different.
I understand it's never easy to consistently take big buck regardless of where you hunt - but I willstandby my statement that the deerI hunted in Illinois were much easier to hunt than the onesathome.They were much more relaxed, generally responded to calls, and didn'tlook up into the trees as they walked past.That's why I'm just as happy with my Michigan 6 point as I was with my mature Illinois buck.