Washington Hunter

My thoughts exactly.

btomlin

My best friend is a guide/outfitter and I know he has most of the mature animals NAMED. We know them inside out because we are constantly filming them, gamecaming them, scouting them, planting food for them, etc. When one of his hunters tags one it is very exciting, because we have worked so hard. We actually "killed" that animal, but didn't loose the arrow is all....so yeah, as a "guide's assistant" it is just as exciting as when you tag a big one yourself!!!!!

manuman

Don't care for the Fitzgerald's obvious disrespectful approach, but care even less for the approach to hunting as some , ego focused, and solely score conscious elitists that try to make hunting a farming cocncept rather than an outdoor lifestyle that has existed since the beginning of time. If you want to , in the name of hunting, turn it into some kind of competition with how you can bypass reality to manipulate, futilly, and attempt to control 'your' deer's size and antler configuration, as if that is all that matters, knock yourself out! But , don't denigrate thos eof us who hunt old school and care more about the overall , long range benefit and effect of practicing moderate control measures(the original QDM concept before the bigger the better, and don't tell us it's wrong, cause we can crowd tried to take over) If high fence hunting ,and raising and farming is the future, I'll stay in the past!I take mature bucks and allow younger deer to 'walk', but I won't fault a man that simply gets a thrill out of taking a spike. I will celebrtae the day that I take a 'trophy class' buck, because he will have gotten that way through the natural process rather than 'deer steroids' and ridiculously unnatural 'management' practices. BTW, I regularly do take , in a part of my state that is not known for 'trophies', deer in the 110-130' class. I have regular sightings of 150" class deer, and saw 2 last year and had a 180 class nontypical within bowrange that didn't present a shot. Do I feel less of a hunter because I diudn't 'close the deal'? No! Will I feel superior to someone else that never sees or takes these kinds of animals when I finally do No!?I'm still thrilled with any buck, that I have taken under my 6 point or better self induced standard.But, I don't force othersto have to follow my guidelines, and neither should you or anyone else.The only standards that you or I need to worrry about with regards to others is keeping within the laws of the area we hunt.

metro

Gimme a break, he raises deer in a large pen, where no one else has an opportunity to hunt them and they can't escape. Hestudies them, their habits, where they feed and drink. Not too tough to know where they feed though when it's a huge feeder you can drive up to on a quad. Then he waits till the oportune time to harvest the animal.

You think that might be the reason Pope & Young won't recognize it?

THATS CALLED FARMING!

Serious and dedicated approach to hunting top end animals?

You're pathetic

RedAllison

I can see both sides (first too the antlers vs who shot em) but I think one thing is being overlooked. When you are seeing a "hunt" on film you very seldom are seeing the actual killing shot as it is fired and rarely are you seeing the hunter/s as they first walk up too the kill. Cinematograpy is TOUGH and when dealing with live animals it is nearly impossible to show the hunter drawing his bow/aiming his gun while at the same time shooting the animal or the animals reaction too the shot. Not unless there are several cameras from different directions in the woods. In the interest of time, expense and scent control you just can't do it that way.

So you gotta "recreate" the shot and that is what you are seeing also when you see them walk up too the trophy. A hunters first priority is to succesfully follow up on the bloodtrail and THEN see the animal. If I am wrong then everyones camera men are MUCH better trackers than the hunters and guides!

Brittinghams buck WAS special. Penned or not it was a genetic mutant and an extremely rare animal that attained that size. However it was NOT a special hunter who "took it",
RA

Jack Ryan

I love this. It desearves to be framed or tattoed to every head hanging in some lawyer hunter wanna be out there's office. Straight from a guide himself, I don't think I could give a better description myself of exactly what I feel when I see one of those rich buy a buck bozo's led around by the hand until a guide says "stand here", "shoot there", "I'll go get the truck and load it for you."

Fishhook

It doesn't really bother me that someone grabs the animal, but what I think is odd is when NOBODY touches it. I have watched shows where a grown man shoots a trophy elk, walks up to it with his gun on his shoulder and just stands there and looks at it. I don't know how excited they are but the first thing I do is grab the antlers, feel them all over and then roll him over checking out the shot and the animal from head to toe. It's that intial contact that gives me closure.

manuman

[:'(] You are absolutely right! Their superiority complex is so unfounded. I would love to ask some of these guys to tag along and actually watch them try to find a deer on their own.As for calling Brittingham's bucka mutant, [:-]you're right. And that is NOT a good thing! It is nothing special though, unless he was to gain those proportions in the wild, as some do--without all the 'help' some hunters seem to feel they have to supply! Start spending less time on a tractor and more time scouting and learning how to hunt. Not everybody wants to or has the money, time, and oppurtunity to produce their own 'trophy'. And some people wouldn't want to if they did!

silentassassin

I could care less who touches the antler or in what order they touch it in.

MA Jay

The guide should touch the antlers first in most cases.. he is the person who actually did all the hunting. Most anybody can make a shot within the kill zone of a big game animal at reasonable distances, but very few people can get within shooting distance of trophy size animals often. If you need the guide, or even want one just because of lack of time and energy to do the scouting yourself then you give up the hero "I touched it first" argument.