"selling out"
 

If you are targeting a certain animal (for whatever reason), be it a deer, turkey, bear, elk etc., and you don't kill that certain one but you kill one you aren't targeting...do you feel you sold your self out? Or, do you not shoot any animal BUT the one you are targeting. Interested in the responses.

RE: "selling out"
 

I'm yet to target a specific animal. When the right one walks by, I shoot it. Be that a buck, doe, or a turkey.

RE: "selling out"
 

I got a little credit for targeting a specific buck I shot last year. Truth be told.....if another deer close to its caliber had strolled by.....he'd be (hopefully) in my avatar and NOT the one I ended up taking.

Would I felt like I "sold out"? Nope. I'd have taken advantage of the situation. Am I glad it worked out the way it did?

;):)

RE: "selling out"
 

Once they are in range, then they become a target

RE: "selling out"
 

I dont trget any one deer,if it looks good hopefully it goes down.

RE: "selling out"
 

Every year I develop a "hit list" based on the deer I am familiar with(Photos, sheds and encounters.) If an unfamiliar deer shows up that meets the criteria I've already established in creating my list, I'll whack him. To me a sellout would be shooting a deer that doesn't meet my standards just for the sake of taking up space on the meat pole.

RE: "selling out"
 

how could you not?

RE: "selling out"
 

If I am targeting a certain deer, I usually do not shoot a different one.

I said usually because I did shoot a deer I had mistaken for a different deer. I felt a bit bummed, but not like I sold out.

RE: "selling out"
 

I don't consider it a sell out in the least, the ranch I hunt is in a part of Texas where we have whitetail, axis, fallow, sika, audad, mouflan, stag and elk and various other all free ranging (no fences), therefore I can't consider it a sell out at all b/c you never know what you will see when hunting this place.

RE: "selling out"
 

I really target a specific deer. I will have deer on camera that I want to take, but again I don't really say I am hunting for this ONE deer. With that being said, I do have a "type" of buck I am hunting for and will not shoot anything that does not meet the requirements. I would think it would be really hard to hunt one buck. I know in my part of Illinois, once the rut starts you may not even see the bucks you have been getting trail pictures of and will see bucks that you have not seen all year.

RE: "selling out"
 

I feel I sold myself out this last year bear hunting, specially this last year when I knew I had 400+lb and 500+lb bear at a few of our baits. All of these were easily P@Y and some probably B@C. I did get my bear last fall but it was not the bear that I was targeting. So yes I sold out, I don't have the time to keep driving 4 hours up north every weekend to hunt these critters plus the expense of gas would kick my butt! All in all I was still very very happy with my 135lb bear. If I lived closer I wouldn't shoot any bear that I wasn't targeting. With the whitetails I don't sell out I don't think. I won't shoot a little buck because I can't get the one I'm after. How ever I will shoot a different P@Y buck if he gives me the opportunity. Maybe thats selling out too. Is it?

RE: "selling out"
 

Hell no!....lol:D

Only you can answer that Schultzy.....and it shouldn't matter what anyone else thinks.;)

RE: "selling out"
 

I'm not quite as focused as some. If another comes by and is big enough to make mutter "OMG" then he'll do, and I don't think I'll have any regrets. I hope.:)

RE: "selling out"
 

This is exactly how I roll[8D]

RE: "selling out"
 

This last year was an awesome year according to our trail camera's. I know we had 4 and possibly 5 bucks that were bookers on camera. The booker I got this last year we never seen on camera, I wasn't after him and almost didn't shoot him. I had him at 12 yards for over a half an hour and finally decided I was going to take him which I damn near almost screwed up when my stand pinged when I drew on him.[:@] I had a nice 10 point on camera that was in that 150" range, that was the one I was after. The funny thing is I only hunted 3 times this last year. I started hunting the pre rut on October 19th. I skipped a few days and went back out on the 23rd and possibly seen the same buck I later got but he wouldn't come in any closer then 35 yards. The next evening on the 24th I brought the rattling antlers and rattled in the buck I ended up shooting. I feel as If I didn't even earn the buck I got last year being I only hunted 3 times. Weather I sold myself short or not I enjoyed the experience I had with him in the woods. Thanks for the kind words Jeff.

RE: "selling out"
 

No way you could have sold your self short, with that sentance added. Congrats on all the success, Steve.

RE: "selling out"
 

I am not a huge target "one" and go for him. I tend to pick areas with a lot of traffic moving through.

RE: "selling out"
 

I say if you are not going to be satisfied or pleased with what you shoot there is an easy way to remedy that,don't shoot.
Having said that I have shot animals that I wished I hadn't in the past and I did feel like I sold out or gave in.Honestly I feel like the animal deserves better.Either be thankful and satisfied or proud or don't kill.I believe it to be part of the evolution of many hunters.

RE: "selling out"
 

I've never targeted a specific animal until I shot at it.

RE: "selling out"
 

I always like to scout 2 or 3 good bucksto hunt, but ifsomething different walks past I wont think twice about pulling the trigger. I hunted a perticuler buck hard in 06 never had a shotandended uptaking a slightly smaller buck.I was very happy untill I walked back to the truck and kicked theSOB upno more then 70 yards from where I parked. It all worked out in the end though I gothim this year with the smokepole.

RE: "selling out"
 

I've targeted specific animals and won. I've targeted a VERY specific animal and lost. I've taken targets of opportunity while hunting some other critter. To be very honest, the animal that gives me the most joy in my memories as a hunterwas a giant Georgia buck I hunted for 3 and a half years and lost. He was magnificient. I saw him(after he picked me off 3 times) The last time we had an encounter he just plain flim flammed me and almost made me crap myself. I literally threw up my hands and YELLED, "YOU F-----G WIN"! I never hunted him again. He was a magnificient beast and deserved to die alone in his swamp at peace. I returned to Georgia a few years later and killed one of his grand children by going into the beast swamp after putting on my rain suit and water proof boots and taping my self up to keep the cold December water out. I waded through chest deep water to get to his hideout. I shot him at 7 yards from the ground. But Grand Daddy won. It's a wonderful memory I'll cherish forever. I didn't sell out on any animal I've taken. I won some, lost some and it's been a heck of a ride.

RE: "selling out"
 

I pick out deer id love to target, but then when i situation presents itself, I do what will make me happy for the moment.... Hopefully that will change once i get accustomed to slaying a few with my bow.

RE: "selling out"
 

Great plan buckmaster. In the beginning have fun. Heck, in the end have fun. I tell beginners I've had dealings with. Shoot something. Shoot a couple does. Try not to shoot bambi. Don't worry about becoming the "Great White Trophy Hunter". It really is suppose to be fun. If you set your sites based on other peoples woods and accomplishments you're destined to be very disappointed. Experience the let downs and the highs of just succeeding or failing. When you're ready or the big guy shows up you'll be ready.

RE: "selling out"
 

same here, if it tickles my fancy, im shooting :D

RE: "selling out"
 

If I can eat it, I have a tag, and the camera is running.........I'm tossing Carbon.

RE: "selling out"
 

I don't get to target a specific buck much. I'm in a new location just about every year..[&:]

But.. while shed hunting and scouting a new spot I'll find a shed or two I like and try like Haiti's for him.

I imagine if I had a good piece of ground where I could really get intimate with the deer.. I would search out a specific deer. But I don't see this happening anytime soon.

But I don't think you would be selling out.. you'd just be an opportunist.

RE: "selling out"
 

If the deer meets my standards - I'll take him...

RE: "selling out"
 

When I pull the trigger be it my bow or my turkey shotgun, it's the animal I want and I am happy.

RE: "selling out"
 

I always feel blessed with what I get. I try to harvest the best animal I can. I never feel that I sold out for just one animal.

RE: "selling out"
 

You got a point Duke.

RE: "selling out"
 

Thats a good question. Last season I had an encounter/trail cam pics of a nice buck that would probably go 135". I guess I 'targeted' him and specifically hunted for him as I gameplanned and tried to stump the big boy. But, ironically, I was hunting an area wherehe could show himself and a heavy 8 pointer presented a shot. I toook him and didnt feel sold out at all. I think if you feel sold out then its kinda disrespectful to the animal. You should feel gratefull and blessed to take that animal (any animal for that matter) and feelin' bad for not taken that 'specific' deer would do an injustice to the deer you just harvested.

RE: "selling out"
 

I TARGET JUST BIGGER BUCKS NOT A SINGLE DEER, AND I WILL STICK A SQUIRRELL OR RABBIT WITH A JUDO POOINT

RE: "selling out"
 

I am only to the point that I am targeting a certain caliber of deer that meets my pre-set standards. If I were to target specific deer I would have to target a couple of different ones in different locations, because I have a lot of little spots, as opposed to 1 or 2 big spots.

Now, if I have set my standards and shoot something below those standards I wouldfeel that I have let myself down, but I haven't done that yet, so I've been fortunate.

RE: "selling out"
 

I once spent the late half of one season and the following season after a certain buck. I've said before some of the ones I let walk during that season and a half still make me shake my head. At the time it was the right thing to do. Hindsight is always easy. To this day I have not seen that certain buck again after a couple glimpses in that second year. I would imagine by now he has moved on to the biologic filed in the sky. I doubt he was taken by hunter or car/vehicle accident, he was of the caliber that the story would have circulated..

I don't know if I'll get the personally involved again in one buck. It was work, However if I get game cam pics of that piebald in the summer..I'll leave my options open. :D

RE: "selling out"
 

You have to do what makes you happy. If you target a buck and another deer comes along that you would be happy burning your tag on then shoot. If not let him go. I don't NEED to kill a deer to have a good season. Even toward the end of season if a smaller buck walks by I let him go. I just tell myself that I will have that buck to hunt in a year or 2. Then I take my frustations out on some poor defenseless does.:D