ORIGINAL: BOWDACIOUS
You keep referring to my "assuming" I am NOT assuming or pretending or anything else, to try and establish what is a trophy in everyone elses view.....I simply am trying to get those who will listen, (who are on the border, who are still in the grey), to some common sense, to pass on younger bucks and let them grow to their potential.
QDM itself is one big assumption that everyone shares the same goal..........bigger racked bucks. Again, I will state that I like big bruisers as much as the next guy but I don't judge the success or failure of my season based on it. I don't sit in my treestand and daydream of a spike buck walking down the path..........I do however know my woods VERY well and am extremely realistic about what I can expect to harvest. The woods I hunt are mostly state forest and it gets POUNDED by gun hunters EVERY year.......it's a miracle anything survives. So for someone to tell me that I should sit there and pass on 1 1/2 yr old bucks doesn't sit very well with me...........Seeing a deer in those woods is a good day........getting a shot opportunity is a GREAT day...........chances to take a deer may come every 20 minutes where you hunt but they sure don't around here.......if I imposed a personal ban on anything but 4 1/2 yr old or older where I hunt I would go the rest of my life without taking a buck cause there ain't no way in hell a buck is gonna live to be 4 1/2 in the battlefields I hunt.
If it is a "trophy" to you at 1 1/2 years of age, it only makes sense that the same deer would be a more desirable trophy at the age of 6 1/2.
There you go assuming again.
For several reasons, his rack would be bigger(maybe) if that is part of the criteria for a trophy for you.
What if it isn't?
He would be more difficult to hunt, because of his maturity. These older "seasoned bucks" are almost a different species of deer altogether.
The oldest and biggest deer I have killed was a 13 pointer a couple years ago and it was one of the easiest deer I ever killed.......I was walking on the ground and he was coming through a field of goldenrod as I broke through the hedgerow.....I killed him with a gun but he was easily in bow range. I tend to think that a lot of the "Supernatural" powers of older whitetails is hunter created to pump up our egos and make our accomplishment sound so much better. Let's be real here.....hundreds of thousands of big bucks get killed EVERY year and we have enough technology in our hands to take almost all the guesswork out of it.........and most telling of all is you could take an average to below average hunter and if you put him in a honey hole with a good population of big bucks he will tag one. Look at all the dorks in the world that have 160 class deer on their wall because they had enough money to pay for a hunt in primo land with great bucks and even greater chance of getting one. They couldn't find their way back to the truck alone but put them in a unpressured spot full of big boys and he will have a mount on his wall anyone would appreciate. What's the old saying??.....don't judge a hunter by what is on his wall..........older deer are not dummies for sure but some people get all mythical and make them seem unhuntable.
I am hoping to reach those that have reached a place in their hunting career when its not so satisfying to kill a spike or 4pt every year..... but aren't sure how to go about changing it.
When you talk about restrictions you include us all............and what business is it of yours anyways what other people do or don't shoot?? Ever notice the QDM crowd is always trying to convince everyone else they should be more like them??? Worry about yourself. If you want to hold off for a deer so old he os farting dust I couldn't care less........when you start telling other people they should do the same is where it gets irritating.
Also because I or anyone suggest that the other hunters in some area should consider passing on younger bucks doesn't mean that I expect everyone to do that....or anyone to do that.....but I certainly have a right to suggest it, and I will continue to do so.
Dozens of guys here "suggest" people pass on smaller bucks........and most of them do it without using phrases like "better"....."more challenging"........or by trying to make others feel like they should be embarrassed to shoot a smaller buck. Sometimes it's not what you say...........it's how you say it.
if you don't like the preachin.....turn off the radio....
You seem to be the one that doesn't like the fact that not everyone is drinking your Kool Aid.
don't critisize me and talk down to me because of what I believe. OR for trying to help improve the quality of hunting in the state I live in and hunt in
Do you even see it??........you are pushing your definition of quality on other people as an improvement from where they are now........in other words......your way is better. PA tried to force that down the throats of a million licensed hunters and now they have a statewide nightmare on their hands......I am only an hour from the PA border and have hunted there myself and know many guys who go there every year.......a bunch of them have already said they are not going back and everyone I know in PA says the deer hunting is worse then they have ever seen it.........forcing QDM on PA has resulted in a LOT of unhappy people.
I talk to hundreds of hunters every year that share the same sentiments and values and am trying to find a way to accomplish similar goals. Our Wildlife dept. certainly isn't doing much to change it.
What does that tell you??........Wildlife agencies do what the most people demand.....they cater to the average hunter and their wants and needs. Bowhunting is not a good tool for herd control as it is........and for every hundred bowhunters you know pushing QDM there are 1,000 gun hunters that want the woods full of deer........period. You are in a serious minority whether you want to admit it or not.
"CRAP" Ok partner......YOU find a mature buck close to where you live next year.....
spot one.....take the time to talk to neigbors, other hunters, find one.... and then beg, lease or whatever it takes and HUNT THAT BUCK......if you don't find it MORE challenging than sitting in your back yard killing a yearling (by the way I like the pictures of the deer in your back yard) if it doesn't take more disire that you've ever had to muster, if your skills don't improve.....then I will not mention mature bucks again.
I can't hunt in my yard............and if you had any idea how hard I hunt just to get the deer I do then you wouldn't be so wuick to dismiss it as not challenging.
When someone starts telling me what I assume and what I think
Sound familar??..........you don't like it either huh
I don't talk down to people......just to you.
I'm just the one that pointed it out.
Dude your the one making this an issue about the size of the rack..... I never said you should feel ashamed about killing something with a small rack.
All that talk about no one cares about the small bucks at a check station unless it's a unskilled, unexperienced kid with his first deer meant what then??
I have said a kzillion times its NOT the size of the rack that makes a trophy
So, obviously it is then............just admit it.......if bucks dropped their racks for good at age 2 1/2 no one would give a damn about tagging an older buck......guys walls would be full of racks still.......and not antlerless heads of old deer.
I wouldn't care about killing 160 class yearlings either.....its too easy for a veteran hunter.
Killing a yearling deer is "too easy" for a "veteran" hunter huh?? Please tell me you are starting to see how condescending that sounds.
I have worked very diligently at becoming the best bow hunter I can be.
So have a lot of other people here........don't belittle their accomplishments by implying what they do is "easy" or not "challenging"