Let 'em go and let 'em grow
09-26-2005 | 08:46 AM
#111
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 913
Likes: 0
From: North Carolina
RE: Let 'em go and let 'em grow
ORIGINAL: Sylvan
Really?
"I hunt deer because I love the entire process; the preparations, the excitement, and sustained suspense of trying to match my woodslore against the finely honed instincts of these creatures. On most days spent in the woods, I come home with an honestly earned feeling that something good has taken place. It makes no difference whether I got anything; it has to do with how the day was spent."
"Life in the open is one of the finest rewards. I enjoy and become completely immersed in the high challenge and increased opportunity to become for a time a part of nature. Deer hunting is a classical exercise in freedom. It is a return to fundamentals that I instinctively feel are basic and right."
"I have always tempered my killing with respect for the game pursued. I see the animal not only as a target but as a living creature with more freedom than I will ever have. I take that life if I can with regret as well as joy, and with the sure knowledge that nature's ways of fang and claw or exposure and starvation are a far crueler fate than I bestow."
Fred Bear
I believe there is far too much emphasis placed on killing a big buck. I can tell you from experience that the satisfaction and joy of killing a trophy animal is temporary but what Fred is talking about will last a lifetime. If every buck in the woods was a scrawny 4 pt I'd still be out there and I wouldn't be bored. I love hunting!
It all has to do with the area we hunt and the land and average caliber of animals that we see on a regular basis. I would be bored to death if I had to hunt where some of you guys hunt.......
"I hunt deer because I love the entire process; the preparations, the excitement, and sustained suspense of trying to match my woodslore against the finely honed instincts of these creatures. On most days spent in the woods, I come home with an honestly earned feeling that something good has taken place. It makes no difference whether I got anything; it has to do with how the day was spent."
"Life in the open is one of the finest rewards. I enjoy and become completely immersed in the high challenge and increased opportunity to become for a time a part of nature. Deer hunting is a classical exercise in freedom. It is a return to fundamentals that I instinctively feel are basic and right."
"I have always tempered my killing with respect for the game pursued. I see the animal not only as a target but as a living creature with more freedom than I will ever have. I take that life if I can with regret as well as joy, and with the sure knowledge that nature's ways of fang and claw or exposure and starvation are a far crueler fate than I bestow."
Fred Bear
I believe there is far too much emphasis placed on killing a big buck. I can tell you from experience that the satisfaction and joy of killing a trophy animal is temporary but what Fred is talking about will last a lifetime. If every buck in the woods was a scrawny 4 pt I'd still be out there and I wouldn't be bored. I love hunting!
09-26-2005 | 09:07 AM
#112
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 3,903
Likes: 0
From: Wisconsin
RE: Let 'em go and let 'em grow
I believe there is far too much emphasis placed on killing a big buck. I can tell you from experience that the satisfaction and joy of killing a trophy animal is temporary but what Fred is talking about will last a lifetime. If every buck in the woods was a scrawny 4 pt I'd still be out there and I wouldn't be bored. I love hunting!
09-26-2005 | 09:13 AM
#113
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,758
Likes: 0
From:
RE: Let 'em go and let 'em grow
I agree, I always have a bunch of guys tell me that there is no big bucks on there land. I ask them what they have shot in the past 10 years and they say "that just it all i ever get is little basket racks" I say well there is your problem let them walk and next year you have bigger bucks. Some people just dont get it. But i have no problem with people that harvest little bucks, just so long as they dont do it on my land which is 125" or bigger
09-26-2005 | 09:22 AM
#114
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,180
Likes: 0
From: Cenral Illinois
RE: Let 'em go and let 'em grow
Up in the big woods of the U.P.the buck to doe ratio is way screwed up, and the mature buck to doe ratio is WAY OFF!! I have taken a couple nice 8's the last couple of years, but we manage our land meticulously ad its only my brother, dad, and me that hunt it. It is not at all uncommon to see 25-30 does and only have one buck come through, and that one is very often just a spike or a fork. The Michigan DNR really ties the hands of the hunters though because everyone that buys a license can get 2 buck tags, but you have to enter a lottery for doe tags, and the areas where the tags are available are very limited. In the county where I live, about half of it is 3 points or more to one side, and my good friend has harvest three very nice 8's an one 9 in the 5 years since it started. I am a very firm believer in "Let 'em grow" adn the proof is in the pudding. Before that rule started, the whole area around where they hunt was all very small basket racks if you were lucky, but tons of wierd three and four pointers. I really with the MI DNR would step up and put some more programs in place. There are plenty of meat hunters where I live but they are shooting the spikes and forks to get meat because taking a doe is not an option a lot of the time. I place the responsibility on the hunter to take the deer to manage the herd, but I also think that the state agencies really need to give some help through regulations to try and manage a better herd. Just my $.02 Good luck to everyone this season!!!
09-26-2005 | 09:23 AM
#115
Site Bouncer
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 4,099
Likes: 0
From: Illinois
RE: Let 'em go and let 'em grow
ORIGINAL: BOWFANATIC
Amen brother!!!!
I believe there is far too much emphasis placed on killing a big buck. I can tell you from experience that the satisfaction and joy of killing a trophy animal is temporary but what Fred is talking about will last a lifetime. If every buck in the woods was a scrawny 4 pt I'd still be out there and I wouldn't be bored. I love hunting!
09-26-2005 | 09:33 AM
#116
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 823
Likes: 0
From: Flowery Branch Ga. 30542
RE: Let 'em go and let 'em grow
I have been letting them go for 5 season and I still don't have a mature deer around here. Let's face it as long as the guns go bang during the rut, there isn't going to be any mature deer around here. So screw it,I think there is going to be at least one less immature buck for the gunners this year.
09-26-2005 | 10:08 AM
#117
Nontypical Buck
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,002
Likes: 0
From: Almost Heaven. Boone Co. WV
RE: Let 'em go and let 'em grow
Unless your its your first deer or your going hungry, for God sakes is it too much to ask to let the spikes and 4-pointers have a chance to mature?? If you go out hunting and stick a spike rather than the doe standing right next to him, don't expect people like me to "RESPECT" your decision. Things like "I bought my tags" and "I'm gonna fill my freezer with any deer I can" makes hunters look bad... not the guys who couldhavekilled the same spike but choose not too... When I see some experienced 40-year-old hunter checking in his 4 pt at the check station it makes me physically sick. Actually it makes me embarrassed for him. Kinda the equivalent of beating up a sixth grader and being proud of it. Here's an idea, next spike that walks by your stand, draw... aim.... and then back the bow down...Trust me, its a far better feeling than killing it.
New Flash.....the hunting world does not revolve around you!!!!
If you came to a checking station in my area with that attitude, you would probably leave with some free dental work.......
I generally do not get fired up about things like this, but your pompass attitude takes the cake.
Bored wouldnt be the word, I would be either done hunting completely or putting alot less time/money/effort into it. Some of these guys just need to be taken to the midwest here and they would get an entire different perception. Its all about location folks, some of you dont relize the "hunting" your missing.
Killing a deer is a bonus in addition to the expereice of the hunt with Family and friends..................size or sex of the Deer does not come into play.........ever!
I honestly feel blessed to be able to enjoy hunting for the simple aspects! When money and the size of the deer killed become the most important things to Hunters, we are all loosing touch with our roots and why Hunting is a positiveand productive past time for our youngsters! Think about the qualities that you want to pass along to your children Is it A. The bigger the better? or B. Have fun and learn to respect time spend in the deer woods with Family Friends and the quarry you are after.
I know what I''ll be passing along to my kids................do you?
09-26-2005 | 11:06 AM
#120
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 620
Likes: 0
From: TX Panhandle
RE: Let 'em go and let 'em grow
"A particular virtue of wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct. Whatever his acts, they are dictated by his own conscience, rather than a mob of onlookers. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this point"
Aldo Leopold
Aldo Leopold