That's an opinion coming from an instructor unfamiluar with the very regulations your suppose to be teaching. What you can't back up is with the facts. No where is there a post that I say take a bad shot, don't do all you can to track a shot animal, hunt before or after hours and so on. What I can point out is that there have been several post from people in the mid-atlantic area sick and tired of the deer. Several members hunt year round because the land owners consider deer to be Rodents. They call demanding the bow hunters kill more deer. If we don't the snipers do it in the middle of the night.

You got pissed because I stated I don't care for the shoulders. There has been other members who also don't care for shoulders. One shoots 25/yr and feeds his friends dog with the shoulder. I also stated that for now on I will make it a point to donate all my shoulders to Hunters for the Hungry, just like I have done with several deer. How many have you donated?

To recall those post lead to the following conclusion:

If you are totally ethical you eat everything Balls and All.
If you are a little less ethical you stop at the heart and liver.
Next level you eat hind qtrs, shoulders, back straps, tender loins and neck.
Just below that you don't harvest the neck and so on.

So where do you stand chick? How much do you harvest. Do the Balls taste like chicken?

To conclude I don't hold a grudge. You and/or your husband should expirience this first hand. This fall why don't you all take a vacation to the DC area. It's a nice family trip and I will take one of you hunting in one of my honey holes. You will see a minmum of 4 dozen deer with 2 dozen with in 25 yrds. Several 130 - 140 class bucks and atleast one or two monsters. I should also include about 4 dozen dead deer on the side of the road hit by the cars daily.

The last thing I will close with, I will be in Idaho in the fall of 2005 shooting one of your big bulls with my bow. No I don't plan on eating the meat (though I do like Elk) but I do plan on donating the whole thing to Hunters for the Hungry.

What we teach is to be ethical and take all of the animal. Before you go judging me you should know that I HAVE eaten rocky mt. oysters and except for the texture they weren't all that bad. Your arrogant attitude is what makes hunters have a bad name. We teach that you have to speak intelligently about the sport. You don't do that. You brag it up as much as you can and then expect people to think you are a hero. If you check back you were the first to throw an insult about me being in the kitchen. Therefore, you lost the argument first. As for donating to the hungry, do you really think that you can make up for your idiocy by now saying I have to match you pound for pound? Give me a break! And I have been to DC. I KNOW how bad the problems are there. I have family there. Don't lecture me.... I'm not the uneducated one here. Just the ethical one. You can be a hunter without making yourself out to be a god. If you really have seen the error of your ways as far as taking the shoulders then I commend you. Now fix your attitude. It still stinks. You might be doing someone a favor by taking a deer but, you don't do anything for the sport of hunting by opening your mouth and spouting off how great you are. That is the surest way to make us believe otherwise. And by the way.... I have donated meat. Every year that we get an elk or 2 meat is donated to families that we know who are having a hard time putting food on the table. Don't pull a self-righteous attitude with me. It doesn't work for you.

There you go your high ethics. Threatning to fail me before I get to your class rather then attempt to teach me as a real instructor would do.


Once again your opinion with no facts. Please show me where I have bragged about how good I am. I have answered a few post about my first kill with a bow and shoot two. I guess that was unethical. I have also bragged about the amount of deer I see every hunt but so have a lot of others. I have also responded to post that talked about how far I've taken shoots for deer again unethical. Maybe you didn't like my comment to Mlaubner on what to do with unborn deer from the Does this spring? I certainly don't think stuffing them is unethical. Leaving them in the gut pile I would feel to be even more unethical. A friend of mine has a pair they look great and besides it was DNR who sold them to him for doing full mounts. Again the post your ticked off about was whether or not to gut. I found out the most do but a handful don't take the time to do that. Thats what this form is about to better yourself through questions, but then again you know everything.

You also know fall 2005 I'll be in your back yard havesting one of your big bulls.

I'm sorry about that last comment. I guess I'm bragging again.

If Hikchick is cooking in the kitchen during archery season? She filled her elk tag early in the season. I am sure she will gladly cook you an elk steak off of her elk.

I think that archery education is a JOKE. I took my hunters safety class years ago. I have never taken a archery education class. I was "grandfathered" in, I was bow hunting before they ever offered the class. You can not teach someone ethics in a 20-hour class. They either have them or they don't.
You also can not pass or fail someone because you do not like them. If they pass the test they pass the course.

Hikchick:

I dont eat the neck meat, the ribs, the deer balls, the heart or the liver, and I dont eat the deer guts, does that make me "unethical"? lol just wondering.


I got my hunter safety card (which the class was a total joke) so why would I need a bowhunting safety course to?

I can never say a class is a joke. You can always learn something new whether being the instructor or the student. It maybe filled with a whole lot of BS at times but, something will be new or it may make you question what you think you know.

Lets get back on track. What else is need to hunt in Idaho. I'm good with everything except my favorite sight. The scope has to go. Do any of you all use stands or do you prefer to stalk?

"I can never say a class is a joke. You can always learn something new whether being the instructor or the student."


Not always, especailly the class that my nephew took. The instructor read them a book about gun saftey and hunting equipment. Then they watched a video about aging and scoring a whitetail buck, and they watched another video about gutting, cleaning, and quarting a deer. After that they took a test, in which a 5 year old should be able to pass. Then they were given a certicate and told congrat's. About 2 months later he got his hunter safety card in the mail. Just about everybody in that class new more then the instructor. I just dont see how taking a class like this is suppose to make the hunter more safe and ethical? I'm sure not all of the classes are ran like this.

But to me, its just a way for the State to make more money. They charge you X amount of $ to take this test and learn stuff that you've known since you were a kid.


But anyway back to the original post. Field mouse I hope you have fun in Idaho, are you going to hunt a OTC unit? Keep us posted, and make sure to post your big elk picture when you get one.

TXhighrack,
You write something that you attribute to me when it wasn't me who said it. I don't care what animal you hunt as long as you follow the law and make ethical decisions. Fieldmouse's decision not to use the shoulders and let them just waste is unethical and illegal. I'm not on everyone's case that doesn't eat every ounce. The one thing that I will thank Fieldmouse for is standing up for classes. The class that you (TX) describe is nothing like what we teach. Much of what we teach are ethics, information on arrows, broadheads, and bows, laws and the care of game. If you came to my class I would guarantee that you would walk out with at least 1 new piece of information. If you didn't then I would refund your whoppin' $8. For what the student gets in our class the $8 doesn't cover. It costs more than that to put it out there. Also, we don't get paid, it is all volunteer and if I need classroom supplies it comes out of MY pocket. Please don't lead anyone else to believe that our class is no good. There are many people, children and adult, who have come out of it with a great education.

I think this whole thread got off on the wrong foot from the beginning. I was born so long before Hunter Ed was even an issue that I never would have had to worry about taking one. But I did. In 1980 I took a coarse. My reason. Traveling to other states in the future. I felt that they would all require it someday eventually. That has not happened, but if it does I'm prepared. I believe Hunter's Ed is invaluable to people that are beginners in the sport of hunting. The young especially. Seasoned hunters dont need it. Like some have posted, some hunters are more knowledgeable than instructors. If you can prove you have had archery permits in other states there should be no need for a class. As far as Field Rats and Stay in the Kitchen that's all un-called for.