ecm747x

I would say I fall under both catagories. I hunt for the meat as well as a wall hangar. My goal is to take two doe per year. That is my primary meat in the freezer hunting. My family and I all like deer meat and also have a good time when processing it.
I also look for a nice buck for a wall hanger. I have passed on 4 Bucks this season, each within 25 yards and open shots. I did take a larger 8 point with 3 small kickers, that field dressed at 192. It scored 144 so not a bad one at all in my book.
Do I have to hunt to feed my family..no I do it for the love of the hunt and being out, getting away from all the daily hassels life can bring down on us. Don't get me wrong, when I come out of the woods without a deer do feel a little bit of a letdown. But, I feel a heck of a lot better comming out than when I went in, with or without a deer. That is the biggest reason I hunt.....

Muskratpete

I agree with many of the above posts but I probably identify most closely with WVCrittergitter's post. I'm mainly in it for the overall experience. I would have a pretty miserable time of it if I were to judge my success on the size of the rack I brought home. IL-Cornfed may have something when he says the meathunters are merely poor hunters. I admit I'm a novice. This is the first year I've really put any time into bowhunting although I've rifle hunted many years. That doesn't mean I enjoy it any less. I'm having much more fun bowhunting this year than I've ever had rifle hunting. I enjoy watching these wily critters in the woods. I love to watch them as they come in and just observe their habits and movements. I guess my "trophy" is the succulent table fare my hunting provides throughout the months following hunting season, provided I'm able to drag one out of the woods.

Whether I get a deer or not, I enjoy the other moments hunting provides, watching daybreak in the woods, the smell of the fall leaves, watching the squirrles, the jays, the woodpeckers and all the other creatures that happen by the stand. Then there's that rush when you catch a glimps of brown fur moving in your peripheral vision and realize you have a deer coming in.

I have several friends that are trophy hunters and that's fine. That's their enjoyment from hunting. I don't look down on them for the way they enjoy the sport just as they don't look down on me, (I'm hoping here!) for the way I enjoy it. There's no "right way" and no "wrong way" as far as I'm concerned. Life is too short and we all enjoy it for different reasons. I'm just thankful we have a site and message board like this where we can share our views and our experiences plus pass on some helpful tips and information to those of us that are less experienced.

BOWFANATIC

It's pretty simple for me anyway. It means if I couldn't eat the meat I wouldn't bother hunting! I was raised to eat what you kill and ONLY kill what you're gonna eat. If I couldn't eat venison then I wouldn't kill deer! I'd still hunt but my hunting would be with a camera. A succesfull season to me is filling up my freezer. If I shot the biggest buck in the world and didn't recover it until after the coyotes consumed the carcass that season would be a failure in my mind.
Whats hard to understand about that?

Thats where we're different. It's a good thing that people are different , dont ya think? Maybe alot of it's bloodline? Both of my parents grew up in single room cabins in northern Wisconsin during a time when you had to hunt if you wanted to eat. My dad didn't eat his first hamburger made from beef until he was sixteen years old. Putting venison on the table is top priority for me. Not only does my family love the taste of venison , it's healthier than anything I can buy at any store. I also love being in the woods but that alone isn't a reason to hunt in my opinion. I can grab a camera or a good book and go sit in the woods if thats the only reason I can come up with for hunting.
Do I love the challenge of hunting with stick -n- string? No doubt! Who doesn't? Thats primal instincts and/or heritage instincts. I have no problem filling my freezer with does , in fact I prefer doe meat over buck meat. If the seasons winding down and my freezer isn't full I also have no problem filling my freezer with young bucks.
Do I love hanging big racks on my wall? You bet!! Thats also primal instinct. Kind of like earning your warrior feather.
I dont have a problem with trophy hunters in general. I do have a problem with trophy hunters who want/expect everyone else to make it easier for them to get their trophy!

atlasman

Go buy your meat at Aldi's if you want. I prefer to eat clean natural venison rather then drug and piss soaked beef raised in a box.........but that's just me




Are you freakin' kidding me???

If you hunt for a legal excuse to kill you are not a hunter.......you are a sicko freak.

I hope you were joking.

atlasman

Thanks BOWFANATIC..........saved me the time of typing. That is perfect

Why kill something if you aren't gonna eat it?

I have said it many times...........if a deer has antlers great......if it doesn't that's great too. They all look the same in the freezer. I have killed 8 deer in the last 2+ years (5 bucks and 3 does.......1 buck is a big fella) and I don't look at any of them any differently. They all provided me with great hunts, many memories and a bunch of meat for the long off season.

I really enjoy the bounty of meat from my successful hunts. I butcher them myself and love to cook so maybe that has something to do with it.

Straightarrow

Everyone's a bit different, so what I say here, has to do with averages, not individuals. I've never bought into the argument that it's cheaper or healthier. It may be for some, but most spend more on hunting than the deer is worth. In addition, most are at least 20 lbs overweight and eat far more beef than venison, so they're not really into healthier, it's just wishful thinking. I do however, think all hunters enjoy the sense of accomplishment when they take a deer. I think this is the number one reason most hunt. Accomplishment is felt whether shooting a small doe or trophy buck. You feel it when you feed the deer to your family and you feel it when you think back on the hunt. Self-esteem is very high on the list of important human emotions, and hunting fulfills this need.

Some choose to get multiple, but slightly smaller boosts of self esteem by shooting anything they can, whenever the opportunity. Others, decide to have fewer boosts of feeling good, and prefer the one giant rush they get when doing something very difficult - like taking a trophy in an area that has very few. It's a known fact that accomplishing more difficult tasks, brings a greater sense of accomplishment. This is why almost all young hunters shoot the first thing that comes by, and some very experienced hunters will be selective. Some of the experienced guys have developed the desire to get a greater rush, by looking for deer that are bigger than they've taken before. They're adenaline junkies to a degree. I fall in this category. If you've shot 50 small bucks in 20 years of hunting, killing a small one doesn't give you the same feeling a guy gets, who's never shot one. In order to get that feeling, you have to up the ante, so to speak.

Neither shooting the first thing, or holding-out is right or wrong, but I can say without a doubt that a very small percentage are willing to forgo the small rewards, in search of the big one. This holds true in whatever endeavor you want to talk about. So, shooting the first things that comes by will be the norm anywhere it isn't restristed by law. Nothing wrong with that.

Bob H in NH

This was in the first post:

"I have little bucks and does around me almost EVERY SINGLE DAY that I hunt. Shooting one of those for meat would hardly result in the same fondness and memories as shooting the mature buck that only comes around once or twice the entire year. "

These arguments always crack me up, really. The truth is that hunting and the quality of it vary GREATLY around the country. There is simply no place around here that you could honestly make that statement. There simply are not enough deer in NH. We run an overall success rate around 12-13% statewide, archery only drops to around 7-8%. We have around 80K hunters who should around 10-11K deer a year. There are MANY hunters who do not even SEE a deer in a year, never mind get a shot at one. If you hold out for a BIG deer only you often times go home empty. We also are restricted to bucks only for most of the gun season.

I hunt for several reasons:

- my family enjoys the meat, no you can NOT get it at a supermarket.
- I enjoy it.

--Bob

atlasman

Good point.

Most people who have deer crawling all over their stands every day have no idea that it isn't like that everywhere.

A deer sighting of any kind is a good day for me..........a shot opportunity is a GREAT day.

I hunted 13 straight days of archery this year in 3 different counties on public and private land.


Saw 1 deer []


Your views and success in hunting depend GREATLY on the land you are fortunate enough to hunt.


Anyone in this forum could kill a mature if they had access to land with plenty of them around..........likewise anyone here could kill multiple deer if they were on land with densely populated woods full of deer. On the flip side anyone in this forum would struggle if they were forced to hunt land that had no realistic chance for a mature deer and/or very limited population............if they aren't there you can't get 'em. Pretty simple.

gutshot

My point has been validated by a few on here with the comments of "Most meat hunters really just don't know how to hunt" and" these are the people that usually cause the accidental shootings". So just because I chose not to set in a stand from daylight to dark and let 20-30 deer walk every year I'm dangerous. The way that I look at it I'm not getting up hours before daylight and giving up the time with my wife and son jsut to set in a treestand all day and watch deer walk through the woods and not shoot one of them. Don't get me wrong I love the entire bowhunting experience but I get excitement out of every deer that I shoot not just the big bucks. Now if this makes me a slob or danger to society so be it. But I can promise you that in my 35 years of hunting I have never put anyones life in danger.

Gryan

Good post. I agree with many in that hunting is the total experience. The trips to the sporting goods store for supplies, planning for the hunts, scouting, setting of stands, hanging with my friends, practicing toward a goal, thinking, dreaming, reading, and watching videos - it is a long term psych up that gets released when my personal standard comes walking through the woods toward me.

Then, what no one has alluded to is the actual kill. I don’t hunt exclusively for the pleasure of the kill as suggested someplace in the woodpile. The kill without the preparation would get boring very quickly. HOWEVER, without the kill, why bother? That is the last stage, the final bow, the moment when all the preparation and planning and patience meet with the chance and the energy is suddenly released. What a feeling. I try to think of it every time, man, when it all comes together in the quick death of the animal that I was after, it is a rush with a good dose of relief and sadness. In those moments of coming down after the shot, after a successful recovery, the moment of aloneness with the animal I just killed as I pay my respects is intense. The kill is often the shortest part of the hunt, minutes or even seconds in most cases but the emotions are like winning that state championship football game and hearing of the death of a family friend on the way home. Is that weird?

So yes, I think myself a meat hunter...for the practical side of my experience. My family and I eat seven deer a year. My laws cater to the meat hunting mentality in that we have to shoot does to be able to shoot bucks. (earn-a-buck stuff) I hunt on property that deer cross three other properties to get to. If I don’t shoot them someone else will. I live in NJ, see many bucks in the books from NJ? Why doesn’t anyone want to book a hunt here? We do have nice bucks here and a lot of them. On one property, I wait for the big one. On the other property, there is no big one and that big old doe that busted me all last year is my goal. She knows my routines and I know hers. Who will win?

To dig a bit deeper, I consider my acorn collection from hunts with friends and family a trophy collection. The buck skull I found while tracking with a friend is another trophy in my “study.” I have beaver chewed wood, feathers from ducks killed and eaten, antlers that I’ve found and from deer I’ve killed, a full mount turkey, coyote skulls, deer hides, “Flounder” my personal best buck, photos, notes, poems, they are all my trophies. My favorite little corner is my collection of spent 20 guage shells. One marked Ryan's first duck, another Ryan's first goose, another Ryan's first deer. Ryan is my 11 yr old son. Now that is a trophy collection! So are all the memories that come flooding back as I sit here writing this.

So I guess that answers somebody’s question. I wrote this 1000 word essay about why I hunt because it made me think about 1000 of my hunts. Anyway, if I didn’t want to write it, why would I log on to the bowhunting board?

Greg