blodg, I know you didn't mean to bash anyone. And your point is well taken, that you root for those deer that you yourself are after. I do the same thing. But as these threads often do, it doesn’t take long for bashing to begin.

I root for the deer too. I root and cheer for them while they cross the neighbors property ("Keep coming baby"), pass the guy sleeping in the tree house ("Quiet now, Stay Low"), skirt around the corn feeder in the cedar field ("Com' on, keep coming"), jump the barbed wire fence ("careful"), and walk within fifty yards of my Remington 870. ("Stop... right...there...hold") My final cheer is when he hits the ground. ("YES!")

Root for the hunter!

Toward hammering other hunters, I would say this...

If you go to the deer hunting boards, they say we bowhunters "poke and hope. " We wound too many and we kill too many of their bucks. (In fact, the gun hunter may root for the deer all during bow season thus the point of this thread) Then here, deer drives, rifle slugs, and semi-automatic rifles are lambasted. Christ, if there were a slingshot board, they would say that you traditional guys are high tech. Paper clips and rubber bands anyone? Why don’t we just count coup? I could have killed that buck therefore I am superior and I am better because Billy Bob actually killed his. What a freaking loser.

I love bowhunting, I sit quietly in my tree from September until December. I shoot or hold my shot based on my own ethics.

I love the shotgun. I sit quietly in my stand through all of December. I even enjoy deer drives, the deer aren't nearly as predictable as you think. Drives require stealth, self control, and a knowledge of escape routes and deer habits. Just different habits. My heart pounds as I hear a deer approaching and I shake uncontrollably after a kill. What is the difference? From where I sit, the only difference is it is less personal than with the bow. Again it is a difference, there is no inherent superiority.

I love my muzzleloader. I switched to an inline last year. You know, now I'm a killin machine! Right through January and that rounds out my deer hunting year.

Other than that, it is all very enjoyable. So again I say, what is the difference? In the end, my emotions are the same or similar and the bottom line is I am using a tool someone invented to kill a deer. The path I choose and the decisions I make in the woods are mine. Sorry others don’t like it or agree with it or don’t think it is as fine a method of killing as theirs is but I really do love it.

There are slobs who bowhunt, gun hunt, hike, fish, and bird watch. Every bowhunter cannot be painted with the same brush and the same holds true for the gun hunters. All inconsiderate and unethical behavior, like littering and defacing the woods is totally unacceptable and I say that that is what sucks. You kill deer and I kill deer, I pray over every one. Do you? No...Then am I better because I revere what I have just killed(?)

I suggest all hunters who want to hammer other hunters should instead give them honest congratulations! Tell them nice deer. Find out if it got their heart pumping. Wonder if it was the big one you saw near their property in September while you were looking for deer with your kids. And think about how you can get a picture of "Mr. Hatrack" and yourself in the sporting goods store next season.

To each his own. We can all hang together or we will surely all hang alone.

Greg