RE: Drury boys ok with me...
I could not disagree more with a few of the last comments.
First, let's start with the doe shooting comment. In the current releases that I just watched there are probably 20 hunts per DVD. I would wager to say that 16-17 of them are buck hunts and maybe a select few does sprinkled in. Likewise, the doe hunts are given a fraction of the time that the buck hunts are given simply because people don't enjoy watching them as much. I can understand and relate, I enjoy watching a big buck get shot just as much as the next guy and we all have to feed our addiction to the horn porn, right? But to say they overdo it is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. 80%+ of their hunts are for bucks, many of them 150" plus. Isn't that enough? And with all the talk about hunting "mature" whitetails and doing proper management, why wouldn't anyone want to see more emphasis put on this? They only show a small fraction of the does they have to kill every year to maintain the sex ratios they have on those farms. I would like them to show more of this to be honest with you. Maybe then people would start getting it through their thick skulls that we need to be shooting more does.
Furthermore, I always hear all this complaining and ignorant comments about how these deer are "as close to pen raised as possible" and even though they're not behind a high fence they like shooting cows. Anyone who says that flat out is an idiot. I'll bet money on the fact that people with this mentality have never hunted in a well managed area with quality genetics in their lives and have no idea what they're even talking about. Every single professional with a lot of experience and time on their side who is good enough to get paid to do something day in and day out is going to make it look easy on TV. From baseball and football to golf, tennis, poker, rodeo, paintball, or any other sporting event it's all the same. Tiger makes it look easy to play the way he plays, but there's a reason nobody else can play that well and that's because it IS NOT easy. The same with guys like Mark and Terry Drury who were smart enough to capitalize on their businesses, make enough money to own good pieces of land, learn how to hunt incredibly well,and can now reap those benefits by hunting more than most of us could ever dream and be able to have the opportunity to kill big bucks on a regular basis.
Now let's move on to one of my favorites, the "they should come to my land and hunt and see how good they are" comments. Well for a lot of people that would mean hunting areas with unbalanced herds, highly pressured animals, and less than ideal conditions for hunting in general. So the video would consist of a lot of sitting around not seeing anything, or not seeing the quality of deer they want to kill, or the quality of deer that any of us want to see on TV, right? Because according to a lot of people they don't want to see does getting shot, and I'm sure they don't want to see any "non-mature" bucks getting shot either. The lynch mob would come out for sure then! Which means that you have to hunt were the big bucks are at, which isn't on most people's "average joe" hunting land now is it?
So which is it? Do we want to see less does and deer management and more giant bucks, or do we want them to go hunt some public land in PA and shoot a spiker? I'm sure we all know what the answer is.
I think it's rather unfair to label guys like Mark and Terry Drury who have undoubtedly worked their asses off for close to 20 years for what they have as hunters who don't have to work hard for their trophies, or guys that push their beliefs and products in your face. They would not be nearly as successful or respected in this industry if weren't very good at what they do. And that's working hard to kill big bucks and produce top quality videos and TV shows.