ORIGINAL: BigJ71
Whew..... Ok I just read the entire thread (this is what you get for being late to the party!)
I have afew thoughts about this subject. (this is going to be long
)
This is a bow hunting contest, so even if you live in a multi buck state (like me) and shoot a big buck with yourgun there is still no guarantee you will do the same with your bow...or even shoot one with your bow at all,so I just don't see the advantage. The true advantage (truth be told) is some states have a very generous season like here in Illinois Oct.1st to the middle of January while others don't.
Livingin Illinois or other "long season" states gives you WAY moreof an advantage than how many bucks youcan kill.
Guys, this is a "for fun" contest, I actually think less rules would be better. I agree with the bow, hunter and deer should be in the picture as well as the score listed out by each measurement as we do it now.....but what more do you want? Any further rules will just magnify the distrust that has become apparent between forum members here.
At some point we must step back and take peoples word for it. Will we be lied to at some point? Yep I'm sure it will happen but if someone feels the need to go to such extreme just to "fit in" or to feel they are as "good a hunter" as others here then no amount of rules is going to change that and the deception will continue. If someone was going to enter a gun kill as a bow kill, they're going to do it anyway regardless of the rules. If it's obvious, then the captains vote and we move on.
What's to stop someone from killing a buck in September, not tell anyone, hunt the rest of the season for a bigger buck, come up empty then enter the September buck with a picture of the hunter, bow, full buck, all according to the rules but.....in his garage? No way to tell the time of year. Now we need to apply MORE rules, like someone suggested "pics from the field only". Where does it end?
I'm not intending to make this personal so I will keep this part as short as possible.
I know there has been some underlying contempt for the buck atlas posted because he posted it after a later archery buck was taken and a month or so after he killed it. Guys, he broke no rules and no matter how you feel about him personally, he has NEVER been dishonest in fact he is probably the polar opposite of dishonest.
What he
does do is march to his own drum beat and he always has. This does not make him dishonest only different...is that bad? I'm not here to defend Atlas, he pretty good at that himself. We have disagreed on many points but I have never pegged him as dishonest, quite the opposite.
Back to the new rule:
What happens if the gun forum applies the same rules about first deer killed?? Now folks will have to pick between the two contests because you couldn't be in both. So much for bringing hunters together.
This will put an even bigger split between gun hunters and bow hunters.
We have a pretty good set of rules and a way to enforce them (Captains vote) let's just keep it at that. People are going to cheat it's inevitable but this contest is for fun. Pick out the obvious and move on.
If it were for money I would be more than happy to come up with some pretty fail safe rules to ensure each and every one of the kills is a bow kill with tag numbers, dates and anything else needed in the picture. But that wouldn't be fun anymore and I certainly wouldn't participate.
If we all took Germ's approach to this, this contest would be full of fun with stories being told and friendships formed. We need to step back and look at where this is going.
later....