atlasman

I've never been one to care about the deer record books............but I wonder for those of you that DO care and take them seriously with a sense of pride in being included..........what do you think about the current and soon to be greater flood of huge racked bucks that are filling these books now. Does this "cheapen" or "taint" any aspect of them or do you simply look at them in the same manner as you did years ago.

Things I would be talking about of course are the growing of racks through supplemental feeding.........the common practice of paying to hunt huge bucks.........."selective" harvesting and breeding and selling of genetic material........no more 65% let off rule...........and so on.

Will this era be looked back upon similar to the way baseball is looked at in the 90's now??.......with artificial means being introduced with obvious results.

Also.........would you be pissed to see a genetically and nutritionally "farmed" deer take over the top spot in these books??

GMMAT

By some, probably. I don't look at baseball that way......so it's hard for me to relate.

I agree (records don't lie)......125" ain't what it used to be (historically).

Germ

Some recordshave stood for a long time, from old photos I have deer werebigger back than.
There was not the pressure there is today. More big bucks, more people hunting them.

In the wild(free) there are still very few deer that reach 5.5. Once they get a decent set of head gear they are a target.
How many record book bucks where shot this year?

Milo still standing and so is the archery record, since the 60's.

Food is a key, but age is still the main factor IMO.

don128

I never had much faith in the record books for Whitetail. I don't register any of mine, nor do any of my friends in this area. The Olds barns and sheds in this part of the country have piles of racks just lying around that I'm positive would change the books considerably, prob true throughout the Midwest. I don't know how the books could be even close to accurate when the majority of hunters never enter their Bucks. States like Illinoise show high numbers of entry's because most hunters register. Most farmers in my area that shoot a 180" 10 point, or even a 200+ buck generally just throw it in the shed or ditch, with very little show or bragging. As for pen raised deer, I hope not many ever get snuck into the records. I know it sounds crazy, but I think there are many World record racks just laying around.

Rob/PA Bowyer

HHmm, if I lived in the Midwest I might not be concerned with it either.

125" is still 125" in my area of PA. They come few and far between. I've hunted 26 seasons with a bow. My biggest is a 95" but of course, I must not know what I'm doing. [:-]

GMMAT

Hey ROb....

I hunted1 day by your house and saw a 125"[8D]

(OK.....That didn't work out too well for me, either....)

Carry on.[&:]

GR8atta2d

I'm sure many qualifying bucks do not make the books from everywhere. BUT I think Atlas was talking about "All Time Records" I guarentee you if someone shoots a buck like that, it won't end up in the loft of some barn. A record (all-time) Buck is a check waiting to be cashed!

The records are not tainted. Records are made so that others may break them. It doesn't diminish the success of the past. Be it a a camp record, a State record or an all time record, one can easily gage the previous achievement by the length of time it endured. As that window gets smaller (the length of time a record stands) on can see where Habitat, Genetics..etc contributed. This doesn't diminish a thing!

Schultzy

Of everything you listed this one is what concerns me most as a bow hunter and P@Y member. Bow manufacturers and bow hunters fought this let off rule very heavily and finally won there battle for P@Y to recognize anything higher then 65% let off in the books, anything higher then that now has a * by it. Is it fair to others, if P@Y stops right here and doesn't take it any farther, to me its fair then!

Vabowman

A lot of things can be said here. I mean, did the use of compound bows taint the records? Should trad and modern equipment even be in the same category for these records, do need 2 categories? I don't know, and don't have an opinion, other than the traditional guys having their efforts reduced because of compounds. I mean let's face it, traditional equipment is the Alfa and Omega of bowhunting. Period. I have never taken an animal with trad equipment, I learned how to shoot using a recurve but I knew from the get go, that i was not talented enough to shoot animals with it. Anyone who takes an animal with trad eq, should be in a seperate class. One that a rank above modern equipment. My only opinion on the matter, I know Im going to catch it for this one!![]

muzzyman88

I pay attention to the records pretty closely. I don't think this "era" is tainted. Regardless of whether or not the deer has good nutrition and is allowed to live past 5.5 years of age, the hunter still has to hunt him. All the nutrition in the world isn't going to put that deer on the wall.

However, the growing number of rack factories, meaning the farms where they raise and genetically enhance deer for the sole purpose of selling them to ranches to increase the genetics of a herd, or, worse yet, for someone to pay huge dollars to come in and hunt is a real concern.