Well, your idea and my idea of "Thoroughly Skilled" may differ. In fact, I'll guarantee when you got right down to the nitty gritty of it I'll guarantee we all have a different benchmark. That said.... we learn and perfect our skills from reading, doing and observing.... and maybe picking brains. I will say that someone who's only hunted a very short time has NO way of being as skilled as someone who's hunted a lifetime. That doesn't mean the guy who's hunted a lifetime is skilled. I've met some real loosy hunters my age. I think the number of kills will definitely tell you something about a persons skills. I've bowhunted 32 years, have shot at least one deer every year except one.(that year I moved the week before bow season to a new state who's bow season was past or only had like a week left) A lot of those years the herds were small, the limit was one. In the past few years I've been making up for that with multiple kills. Todate I have 71 and most are bucks. Would you really question that I might know something about bowhunting. Sure, I don't know it all.... but darn I'm good.<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
As far as the occasional quality animal.... My quality animal and yours may be different. No way do some of us have the size and undesturbed herd others do. If the QUALITY animal theory were restricted to your woods or vicinity then we could use it as a benchmark.... a little. NO, I don't shoot every buck I see, but I shoot enough of them. I started with recurves and wooden arrows, then aluminum and finally compounds. I've done it all, killed with all and have some numbers. If you run across some guy like me and you say "Yeh but,.... I shoot the big ones". He'll probably snicker, give you an ATT-A-BOY and go back to his thing. He doesn't shoot numbers for praise. He does it because he likes to hunt and he's developed some skills.
Saying I passed a lot of small bucks to wait on the big one doesn't put the blood on the ground. I don't count "Could-a Would-a" kills. There are to many things that can go wrong... like me yesterday.
SO, does a guy who has the numbers have anymore or less skills than the guys who shoots a "Quality Animal" every 3 or 4 years. Probably not... but what does it matter. Does the guy who shoots a "Quality Animal" every 3 or 4 years have more or less skills than the guy who whacks a couple deer a year... what does it matter. I don't care what skills the next guy has. Is he a bowhunter, does he have fun?...... GOOD for HIM. Is the guy who gets deer every year over a lot of years lucky? NOPE....he's an experienced bowhunter. Sure he has skills.... enough to achieve HIS goals, not the trophy hunters goals.
