vermont bowhunter

I am kind of a older dude,but i wish everyone would wake up and smell the coffee on these tv shows telling hunters to let bucks walk because they'll be bigger next year...come on folks wake up...the real fact of the matter is this is on privite land and theres alot of it.
if you only have 30-40 acres of land that buck you think will get bigger will most likely get nailed right after you let him walk..everyone believes they can have 200 inch deer on thier land just like the tv shows...it takes years and years of work...and to tell the truth these arent real wild deer theyre hunting .theyre farm raised livestock...so guys what do you think,,,,,,hunt----or farm
your choice...

UPHunter08

I hear ya. I know it's probably heresy to say this on this forum, but I rarely watch those hunting shows because they're largely fantasy. At the very least, they hardly ever resemble the situations on the land where I hunt. For the most part, they're just infomercials anyway and a waste of time.

Kybuckhunter

I hunt a small tract of private land. I have passed a lot of bucks over the years. I want to shoot a big mature buck and I can't do that by shooting the first small buck that walks by. I'm sure 90 percent of the deer I pass get shot by someone else but that has no effect on my standards. I don't worry about "if I don't shoot it someone else will". If I don't see one that fits my standards then I just don't shoot one. I have shot several very nice bucks over the years with my best bow kill going over 173 inches. I could care less what someone else wants to shoot but I have one buck tag and I'm going to do my best to take a mature buck with it. It's the challenge I'm after not just filling a tag.

vermont bowhunter

in some ways i agree with you about wanting a nice mature buck..but that wasnt what i wrote the post about.maybe i didnt make myself clear on the subject...we are not talking about passing on a little fork or 6 point here ,,we're talking about passing on 130 plus inch deer becuase they say too on tv..i just dont think its a smart thing to do when it might be the only buck you draw on all year.and as for going with out a buck,,,im out there to put deer meat in my freezer..i spend alot of money on tags and gear that could be used to pay for other things! its my duty to my wife and family to harvest food for them when i spend good money to be out there...at any rate we.re all brothers out there good luck

V8Ranger

If I saw a 130" deer walk by, I would probably fall out of the tree. I too only have 35 acres to hunt on. And I know the people around me shoot anything that walks by. I have my standards also. I wont shoot a little fork horn. I'm hoping to get the 6 point that I have been seeing on my camera. There are two of them that I have been seeing, The one is a pretty nice 6 for my area. It has no brow tines or it would be a 8. I have shot everything from a spike to a 7 point, so I'm hoping for an 8 this year.

nctaxi

This is what cracks me up! We only have ourselves to live up to, if you are fine shooting 4pters or 12ptrs, so what? The lands that I control, you can only shoot deer outside the ears. My rules. I have hunted one piece for 8 years and have seen the difference it makes. When I first started hunting there, a 5 ptr was the biggest deer I had pics of, 8 years later I have pics of 13 different "shooter" bucks (last year) including one that will make book. If guys don't want to hunt by my rules, they don't hunt there.
That being said, if I go to their land and the rule is to only shoot 3 legged, one eared does with pink poka dots, so be it. I know that I have passed deer and made others pass deer that they would have shot in a heartbeat. Will I ever see a 170"+ deer on the lands that I hunt, not likely. Will I see deer that have reached their pinnacle of growth and age, the chance is there every time I go. I have shot one buck in the last 6 years, BTW. It' shard living up to my standards but they are mine and I continue to see a difference.

LKNCHOPPERS

How many basket racks and spikes skull caps can you put on the wall. If your goal is to shoot a small buck for meat than that is OK, but I hear everybody say " I want to get a big Buck" and that doesn't happen by shooting the first scrub buck that walks by. I don't let 120" deer walk by, that is a real trophy in this area but if I want meat I would rather shoot a couple of does.

PY Antlers

All you guys are right in a lot of ways. Going back to what this post started out to be, you have to remember where most of these tv guys are hunting. There in the midwest for the most part were a 4 1/2 year old buck is a monster. I own 140 acres in west central WI and we don't shoot anything smaller than a 120". When we draw a tag for Iowa the farm we hunt it's agreed that only 140" or better get shot at. On our Iowa off years we go to Kansas it's agreed 150" or better until the last day of your hunt you take a crack at a 140". Also keep in mind that all these areas are bow only no gun hunting and we harvest a lot of does off all these farms. We simply choose to shoot mature bucks and does to fill our freezers, and trust me, we eat a lot of venison.

Hunt or Die

The way I look at it... YOUR GROUND= YOU CHOOSE HOW TO HUNT! I mean if you as a hunter are happy with the way your are taking deer, than who gives a hoot about what other people think. You are the one that pays the taxes, manages, and takes care or you property. Hunt the way you want!

The Rev

The way I see it is I can't eat horns... I've never been a trophy hunter, when I get big bucks I use the antlers for knife handles anyway. I cut up a big six by six elk antlers, make cool knife handles.

In fact here's an elk handle knife.