Drew307

Buckhunter14,

If you shoot a deer next time, call the local Conservation officer or county sheriff. Once you shoot an animal it is your ethical responsibility to make every effort to find it. If it goes over a property line, you have a legal right to that deer as long as you are chaperoned by a government official ie, CO, Deputy.It is illegal to tag a big game animal thatyou didn't shoot, unless its hit by a vehicle, then you need a special permit from the sheriff.

Stikbow26,

How much crack did you smoke before you wrote your reply! I can barely interpret what you wrote. As for baiting, how many bucks do you honestly see at a bait pile during the rut? Me, hunting up north the only thing that comes into a bait pile during the gun season are fawns and does. Occasionally a buck will come in and scent check a doe, butrarely. Anybody serious about hunting mature whitetails knows that you can't harvest mature bucks over a bait pile except after 12:00 a.m. with a flashlight.(just joking) As for the 3 day hunting seasons 70% of all bucks are harvested on opening day! 3 days or two weeks doesn't really seem to make a big difference. As for the shotgun only, I agree with buckhunter14. I have seen moredeer injured and lost using shotguns than with rifles. Shotgunswith rifled barrels are capable of shooting out to 200 yards, but most hunters don't take the time to shoot their weapon and experiment with different loads to find the best ammo for their gun. I'd say only about 10% of shotgunners arereally capable ofconsistently shooting deer out to 200 yards. The other 90% spray and pray. BOOM,boom,BOOM,boom,BOOM and then youhear them swearing. Withriflesmost peoplecan be taught in 5 mins to shoot consistently out to 200 yards. Rifles especially the lighter calibers can have less recoil and flatter trajectories than shotgun slugs, making it easier for most people to shoot with surgical precision. The reason you don't see alot of out of state hunters is their isn't enough state land in the big buck producing counties.The mostbuck entries come fromthe southern and central part of the state where majority of the land is private and inaccessible.Upper michigan and the U.P. hashundreds of thousands of acres available for anyone to hunt, but their areso few quality bucks around that nobody bothers. The reason you hunt illinois walt, is because of their years of QDM, your reaping the fruits of their labor. I have buddies that go down to illinois and pass up 130"-140" class bucksto hopefully shoota booner. Granted they have large tracts of manageble land,excellent soil for growing protein rich crops and the genetics, but so does lower michigan. The difference, people in illinois know that in order togrow big bucks you have to pass up the smaller ones!I agree that QDM should not be forced on anybody but after seeing the positive results, you would have to be mentally retarded to not agree with it!