RE: "I only hunt for the meat"?
 

MOTOWNHONKEY, most hunters enjoy talking about hunting and sharing stories/experiences. Besides, right now here in Ohio it is gun season and I do not hunt with a gun. It has been almost a week since I have been out and these discussions are helping to provide my deer hunting "fix". If you don't enjoy reading them then you are missing out and I have no idea why you would bother visiting a bowhunting forum.

Now that is out of the way, wow there are some great posts on here and thanks everyone for taking the time to share your thoughts and insight. I see IL-Cornfed, Paul, Staightarrow and I share some similar thoughts. And Gryan I know what you mean by "other" trophies, your descriptions of some of the little things about hunting are excellent. Like I said at the beginning and others have as well, there is no right and wrong, we are all hunters but I do enjoy learning why others do things. BOWFANATIC explained fairly well the mindset of someone who hunts purely for the meat and I do understand a little better.

Now that is one of the statements that makes no sense to me. atlasman, I do not shoot the first thing that walks by but of course I am going to eat the venison of whatever I do shoot when the time comes. Do you actually think that guys who are selective DON'T eat the meat?

Bob in NH had a good point that atlasman is eluding to above. There is no doubt that some areas of the country do not have the same number of deer and or mature bucks as others. And yes if they are not there you can not kill them. I am very fortunate to have a good hunting spot where I see 1 or 2 mature bucks a year. I don't know of any place that has "plenty of them around" and I doubt it is easy anywhere. For example, in the woods I hunt my I have shot three 130+ class bucks and I put my son on one his first year of hunting this year to make it four in the last 12 years. Hunting this same property I have two good buddies who hunt with me, my dad who just quit going the last few years, my Dad's couple friends, and 2 or 3 other guys I don't know but run into them occasionally. Out of this group of 7 or 8 guys they have shot a total of 1 mature buck when bowhunting the exact same farm over the same time frame. These guys are all good hunters and kill deer each year but not everyone can shoot the mature bucks even when they are around.

I really would like to try and understand this comment a little more, it makes no sense to me but maybe that is another thread? My 11 yr. old son in 1 year of actual hunting and 2 years of sitting with me has seen several deer make scrapes, he has seen bucks chasing does, he has seen coyotes pass 20 yards from us while we were sitting on the ground, he has seen does bed down and then be made to stand to be scent checked by young bucks, he has been stomped and snorted at, and not to mention he shot a 140+ buck this year for his first deer ever. Now if we would have shot at the first deer to walk by then he would not have had any of the above experiences so I truly don't understand how being selective and enjoying the outdoors while waiting for a nice one is hurting our sport?

RE: "I only hunt for the meat"?
 

Bowfanatic,

Your post brings up a good question. Have you ever killed a coyote? If so did you eat him?

RE: "I only hunt for the meat"?
 

Ya know i just love to hunt. I dont know much about anything (atleast i dont think so) but i know how to hunt, and i am damn good at it, and i just love it. I can spend all day in the woods weather permitting just looking around and hunting and stalking and building fires, and forts and all that. Its just my instinct. I love it. I hunt for meat, but i also like to take a good looking buck. I have never gone without taking a deer in 15 years of hunting.
Here is a pic of a beautiful doe in a ray of sunlight, its just great to see.

RE: "I only hunt for the meat"?
 

No I haven't and unless someone has some good recipes I never will!

All kidding aside , I never could bring myself to even try eating a dog.[:'(]

RE: "I only hunt for the meat"?
 

Since the other thread where I asked this question was (for unknown reasons) locked , I'll ask here.

RE: "I only hunt for the meat"?
 

I think there's a bit of the "trophy hunter" in every hunter. What hunter out there, if faced with a buck with large antlers and an equally large doe standing next to him, wouldn't opt for the big buck? I love the meat the I get from the deer I shoot, but I also love the trophy that a large buck represents. If you are truly a meat hunter, then you would choose to shoot yearlings to 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 year old does since they are the best providers of tender meat. Most hunters will take the big buck when he's there.

RE: "I only hunt for the meat"?
 

I personally don't but I may have a skewed perception of that. The reason being is that the two different public hunting areas that I hunt are bow only and one is 15,000 acres and the other is close to 30,000 acres. One of these is pretty much limited to access by boat and the other you typically have to walk 1 1/2 miles to get to decent hunting. Therefore, the deer are realtively unpressured. I have occaisional access to a large tract of QDM land (1500 acres) that is bordered by one of these WMA's on two sides. I haven't found it any easier (nor have the guys that lease it) to kill good deer on the QDM land. I think big deer are big deer and they are tough to kill no matter where they are. I think the key to killing big deer is hunting where they are but I think if you kill it with a bow then you deserve a pat on the back. I think some areas of the country lend themselves more to being able to pattern and therefore kill big deer. For example, I find the mid-west to be much easier to hunt than the contiguous 30,000 acre block of bottom land timber, that I hunt, that has virtually no distinquishing characteristics from a terrain standpoint. It has no funnels, no draws, no thick areas that you can distinguish as bedding areas etc. but at the end of the day you still got to get the deer in close and you have to be able to get drawn on him etc. and you have to keep your composure together enough to make the shot, and you ultimately have to make the shot. So no I don't make any categorical distinctions between the two.

RE: "I only hunt for the meat"?
 

I am sure there are plenty of "trophy" hunters that couldn't care less about the meat on a deer. I have seen people celebrate on this very forum after finding the head and rack of a buck they shot a few days before and didn't find until the coyotes got it first. They are happy as can be............I would be miserable.

Just hunt for sheds if all you want is bone.


Do I hunt for the meat???


You decide ;)

RE: "I only hunt for the meat"?
 

I agree, they exist. I know a few guys who love to hunt, but don't like venison. They donate it to public programs that accept venison for the hungry. I see nothing wrong with that.

I've also seen plenty of hunters (it's always been gun hunters that I've seen do this), who shoot a fawn and let it hang in a tree for 3 months before they cut it down and throw it out. These guys are certainly not trophy hunters, yet appear to not really like the meat. People who purposely waste the meat are the bad guys in my eyes. The meat hunters and the trophy hunters are all good in my eyes. At this point in time (where I hunt), meat hunters far outnumber anyone who considers themselves a trophy hunter (probably a 100 to 1).

After having read through this thread, I would say that very few " only hunt for the meat", as the original topic question asked. Most hunt for many other reasons. I also didn't notice anyone saying they didn't use the meat. So, it seems that everyone contributing to this discussion is a "meat hunter" to a degree, and that many consider "trophy hunting" to play at least a small part in their hunting goals.

RE: "I only hunt for the meat"?
 

The way that I look at it is who gives a rats behind whether I'm more or less impressed with the method that they used to kill thier trophy buck. I mean if I would kill a 150" monster on private land with a xbow in Ohio do you think that I'm going to loose sleep over it if people here say "well I'm not impressed because he didn't make his bow and arrows himself" NO. I just think that it's my right to knock another persons deer because he didn't kill it using MY preferred method. IMHO