I'm not talking about history, or really even the equipment, but something has come up that I would like to talk about a little bit...
I shoot winter "spot", although they aren't spots, they're paper animals with the spot target super-imposed on them, andI have shot with these same 30 fellas for three years now, last Monday was the first night.....and the two prevailing topics were Who shot the biggest deer followed by who shot the most, and this talk went on the whole shoot, even included pictures, well I have no problem with someone shooting a big deer, but this seemed to be the primaryfocus of nearly everyone there, they all were talking on how Indiana surpassed the other states in big deer this year,and about how good it was for the hunters here and how they would like to shout it from the rooftops so everyone would know, well I brought up Illinois, Kansas, Iowa and how good it has been for them, siting increased leasing,decreased hunting opportunities,increased license costs and the influx of out of state hunters and the effects that can happen because of it............ instant silence......glaring looks..... and cold shoulders, and then the topic changed to who shot the most... well, I found this even more sickning, these same fellas.. Good fellas for the most part, who couldn't shoot the biggest, now focused on shooting the most.. one fella shot 5 kept only the backstraps and gave the rest away, another shot 8, kept one and gave the rest away too.. now I do have a problem with that. I was always taught"eat what you shoot, and if you don't want to eat it don't shoot" ....I guess I'm old school, but what ever happened to these values? I have noticed them more prevalent in the trad community, but it seems these compound fellas beat to a different drummer, bigger is better, more is great, and my 3 year old bow is out dated, I need a new one.....with all new trimmings...... Is this what bowhunting has come to? Horn porn and waste?

And before anyone accuses me of being a compound hater,.. I'm not, I have 2, and I shot compounds for 25 years...... but never because I wanted bigger or more deer than we need, it was a tool to feed my family...Steve