Now that was funny!!!!:happy0001:

I am somewhat sympathetic to Muley's comments about what whitetail deer hunting has become compared to what is was like in Illininois back in the day. I have seen similar changes there in the past 35 years. I somewhat agree that SOME people have to have all sorts of gadgetry and do some rather unchallenging whitetail hunting, especially in terms of what we see on hunting shows. But then you also hear about plenty of deer hunts that are pretty challenging. Dunno that sitting in a deer stand for 8 hours in sub-freezing temps, etc. is exactly a walk in the park.

But on the other hand, based on what I have seen on some hunting shows and have heard, it seems like there is no shortage of Mule Deer and elk hunts where all sorts of gadgets are used and/or you have a pro guiding someone into the position to take a 100 yard shot with a scoped .300 mag. But then again you can have people who do things much harder as Muley says.

Its all good....

I understand where Muley is coming from especially on the bolded part. I have hunted whitetails for the past 46 years mostly in the northeast. In the past 15 years I have ventured out and done some hunting in the mid west, Canada and for the past 4 years out west. Times have changed for the deer hunter and all the TV productions glorifying horn porn plays a part. I remember stealthycat making a post a few years ago saying practically what Muley said about how hunting is changing and the old times were better. I don't agree with changing this forum away from whitetail. If there was enough interest then the owners could create a separate mule deer forum. The real important part of his post is in bold and should be discussed further.

Hey Muley boy, I don't think you got up to 226lbs on the friggen treadmill!:s2::s2:

the reason we have all these methods for big mature whitetail deer....because it is HARD to kill one! we cant just sit in our car and scout deer 2 miles away and shoot them a half mile away with our rifle with a million power scope mounted on it!
go to the big game forum to talk about your mule deer.
ENOUGH SAID

I completely agree as well, with both you and Muley on that. I said earlier that I don't own a trail cam and I don't plan on it. I hunt by scouting and tracking myself, trying to find their trails and their habits. For instance I plan on hunting some public lands this weekend (saturday and sunday) and friday before I go I am going to go and scout it out, see if I can't find any tracks or droppings or any sort of signs.

All in all, I don't think anyone here has anything against mule deer hunting or you, Muley, but next time don't come out and offend those you seek advice from, or whatever it was you wanted. I myself would love to go out west and hunt Mule deer, simply because I love hunting, no matter the animal I just love being out in the woods with a buddy or alone and feeling the adrenaline from fair chase.

I think you are the one watching two much hunting vids. When you come to the northeast, cut a track of a mature 3.5 yr. and older whitetail buck, stalk him then kill him. Come back and tell us how easy they are to kill. in the mean time, ride around a ranch in your pickup and glass for muleys and when you see one put on your stalk to within 200 yards and pop him.

Indeed there is alot of truth in this statement, however, painting all hunters with the same wide brush puts a dent in the ol credability.

I realize how fortunate I am to have land that I can hunt on where I don't have to open the checkbook and jump through all the hoops. I can be old school and while I won't probably get a record book buck, I still have plenty of fun with it.

I came to this realization after a morning hunt with my 8 year old daughter. We hunted and watched a young spike all morning then went home and flipped on TV to watch a few hunting shows. That show, the 'Bucks of Tecomate' that runs on Versus, Saturday mornings. I explained to my kid that hunting isn't like 'that'. She seemed to get it pretty well and has not been deterred by the difference between edited TV 'drama' and real life.

Ironically, I'm a little grouchy today. We have some nice land but it falls under the 'common sense' herd management theory. We own a large construction company and we have opportunities to go on 'canned' hunts with the bank, for example. My brother and dad are going down to south Texas tomorrow for a weekend hunt on a big bank's heavily managed, high fenced ranch.

Would I like to go? Hell yes. I'm not going to apologize for that. We get 2 full months straight of rifle season. If I could go on a 'canned' hunt once a season and take a trophy (heh, we're not THAT good of customers, we get to pick a buck off of menu 'B' or something) heck, I'd do it. Would I give up my other hunting for it? Never. But just for one weekend? yeah. Well, I was odd man out this year and in fact, haven't been on one of those before. /shrug.

But yes...deer hunting has changed alot from those piles of black and white photos from the 50's in my grandma's house. Then again, nostalgia glosses over some things....not everything about the way it used to be done was superior.

For that matter....though White Tail hunting seems to be the most egregiously infested with commercialism, all forms of hunting suffer from it.

You must have been sitting on somebody's couch to have 40 extra lbs to lose.

I dont think that this thread was originally intended as a discussion about how TV shows have dumbed down whitetail hunting or "horn porn", I hate all that crap too. I think it was a obvious attempt to marginalize whitetail hunting as some lame activity, out of frustration of the fact that whitetail hunting is way more popular in this counrty than mule deer hunting(OPs hunting)is. lets be honest, mule deer hunting is basically spot and stalk, im sure it poses its own challenges and im sure theres plenty to talk about within that particular microcosm, but compared to whiletail hunting, its pretty 1 dementional. For one, the WTs range is many Xs greater than the mule deers and varys greatly, so there gonna be a wide variety of differnt tactics to disscuss from region to region. 2nd, whitetails themselve, vary greatly in size and behavior from region to region, so naturally theres just more to disscuss and way more people to discuss it. no need to turn your nose down at somthing just cause its more popular than what youre into. this is the most active forum on HN can anyone really expect this thread to be taken positivly?

It does need to be discussed further. At what point has the gadget aquisition gone to far? At what point does the horn porn negatively effect hunting? I talked about in the big game forum a switch to my open site 30/30 this year. I spent the better part of a day getting into position on an elk herd, even belly crawling to get in close to the herd. They walked all around me and I was right in with them. Never found the legal bull, but it was an awsome hunt. There was a joy in the simplicity of the hunt. I wore woolies and a flannel shirt with an orange vest, and man I felt alive crawling in there. No scope, no camo, no scents, nothing. We have gone too far. If you set up a trail cam and have a big buck go by, then hunt that buck and kill him, you relied on video equipment to harvest that deer. You can candy coat it all you want to but the truth is the truth. It's sickening some of the practices alleged hunters will undertake for the pursuit of a "trophy" buck. It's not just deer either, the "Spider Bull" episode from last year was equally repulsive. If you have money, you too can buy an auction tag and be given special hunting privalages. Lets not worry about the common folks, as that tag money goes toward conservation. Let me say this and hear me out: Most members on this board DO NOT have the financial resources to keep pace with the direction hunting is going.

Got your attention though didn't I? If you don't know the intent of this thread, then you don't know me very well. There are a few on here who know my MO, and this thread has gone exactly where it was intended to go.

Much food for thought spread like seed in a field in most of these post and responses for sure. But Muley your tone and manner of expressing yourself ruined any chance of your question or desire for another Forum less focused on what we enjoy hunting being taken serious and geting profitable input overall. Passion about what you enjoy is good but mocking anothers different passion is not a good thing. I likewise being new to the sport find all the commercial excesses a bit disapointing but hey this is Capitalism and a free marketplace world in which we in America live in right? Respecting others who differ with us is a lost art but a needful one for us all.

Isn't that how chicks often times start their conversations? By NOT saying what they intend to say or mean and instead try to manipulate a conversation in a certain direction? You must be a chick. A VERY LARGE chick.

I've actually liked a lot of what you've said later in this thread, you just had a dumbassed way of getting to it.

Seriously, who cares what you think, it's your opinion and it is worthless to me. You come in here blasting people for hunting whitetails and tell them your way is more challenging. I hope you don't hunt any whitetails again, maybe someone who is more appreciative will get to harvest the big ones you would have easily taken due to your superior hunting skills.

Take what you see on TV with a grain of salt, most whitetail hunters do not use all that stuff or get to control the land they hunt.

Actually it belongs in the ( Enhancement Request/ Wish List )
Forum, that I am moving it to.

jrbsr

3 months on the mountain most of us on this forum actually have to work for a living.

x2 on that! :rock:

iSnipe