HuntinGUS

Good Grief!!! This blows my mind!

Who cares what DD or anyone else shots? Small Buck, Button Buck, Doe, yearling doe? Why is it necessary to always have something negative to say? If someone takes the time to share a story with us about a kill.......big or small, they are obvisously somewhat proud of it.............as they should be.

Tha attitudes from some on this board are pompass and just plainmoronic.

DD, I would not appologize to anyone. Your response IMO was accurate.

trophyhuntr

no because there are alot of peckerheads on here

3Ddepression

Im going to state something obvious!

There aremany factors that come in to play when managing game to get grand trophy bucks but lets narrow them down to what we can influence. Its all about heritage and environment.

The environment means food and any external force connectingwith the antlers. What a hunter can do about this is to provide, if necessary, extra nutrients and maybe extra minerals so that the endogenous traits can develop to their inherent peak.

The genetic factors we can only influence by shooting the ones we do not want to reproduce and saving the ones we want to. So shoot the below average ones as early in life as possible so the good ones get better chances toreproduce. Take these buck when they no longer reproduce.

If you want the best trophy that every buck has in him, dont shoot him young but when he peaks. But if you want really good trophies think several generations and let the better ones reproduce and kill immature deer.

Not that it had anything to do with your great hunt or wonderful season but rather where this thread has lead.

DoctorDeath

3D that is a very good post ... very well thought out ..the only think I would add to it is the fact you need a decent sized piece of property if you going to manage your deer ... I have three pieces that I can hunt in Alabama and Tennessee ... one piece is about 120 acres ...one other (were I am hunting now) is about 80 acres and I have one other that is about 27 acres ... makes it EXTREAMLY hard to manage deer on those small pieces pf property but if someone can tell me how (short of putting up a high fence) then I would be tickeld to try .. personally I think this "managing" deer and "Trophy" hunting is way over rated due to all the TV shows...(Im just a deer hunter plain and simple)...and depending on what part of the country you live in you just can't do it in some places ... I get a LOT of criticisum on here for shooting "imature" bucks ..but yet it seems most of that comes from hunters up north who get to hunt big property ..in big woods that produce big bucks..BUT I very seldom get critcised from southern hunters who know what it is like to hunt the way I have to...small tracts of land ...everybody and their teenage brother hunting next to you...nothing but cotton for the most part .....not making excuses but just stating the facts ..so when I get the chance to take a buck ..as long as its not a button or a yearing .. and if I know the meat will be appreciated I take it if I can ... Thus the name "Doctor Death" ...now with that said I wont mention that I got # 11 this morning at about 7.25 ..

dd

DoctorDeath

Thank you Gus ..I appreciate your attitude BUT when I called Buckeye a "Punk" I wasjust a wrong to do that as he was for the snyde remark I felt he made ...

dd

HuntinGUS

You are better than I Doc. I get aggitated hearing the rude comments made toward you, I can't imagine my response if they were made toward me.

#11 this AM huh? Rock on! Maybe after all this crap settles down, you can give us a slide show!!!!![:-]

DeerWhisperer

All i got to say Doc is, it's your property you do what you want on it. If someone don't like it, screw em.
10 deer, doc, i'm hunting with you next year. I'll bring the beer.

DoctorDeath

D.W. come on down buddy ..I can use some help dragging them out LOL ...

dd

m.t.hands

one place i hunt i let a small six point walk, in 20 minutes i heard a shot, when leaving i see the guy and he ask if i had seen the deer "it came from where you were hunting", yea i saw the deer, and i could have shot him several times, now if hunting that property i do if i so desire, cause if i don't shoot him somebody else thru the woods will, the place we used to have leased was 3500 continious acres, everyone in the club/lease respected the rules we had established, 8pt 16" spread, you were allowed one scrub per season and all the does you wanted, this worked pretty good and i killed several "mounters" but when hunting a small tract around here, if you want the deer take it, the chances of a deer getting to 3.5-5.5 years old around here is slim at best[&o], i love deer meat i useally try and kill several does with my bow for the meat, then i look for better deer, anyway enough babbling

BTW, way to go DD, you are on fire, i remeber a few seasons like that

NY Bowhunter

Quote:

the only think I would add to it is the fact you need a decent sized piece of property if you going to manage your deer ...

Or all your neighbors playing by the same rules!

You cant' just makea blanket statement that eveyone should only shoot mature bucks and be a trophy hunter. That's just simply not practical. There are way too many uncontrollable variables involved.

There are just some tracts of land people hunt that will NEVER hold a mature buck on it. If this is all someone has access to how can anyone honestly ask or expect them to pass young buck after young buck? That particular hunter should buy a hunting license and sit in a treestand watching buck after buck pass by holding out for the 140 class buck to magically pop out of the brush?

I have 2 main pieces of land I hunt.........

#1
700 acres of hardwoods, food plots, swamp, dense brush, creeks, etc..... It's a great chunk of land with lots of deer and lots of decent to monster bucks on it. We personally know every neighboring property and hunting party that hunts the surrounding area that encompasses our land. We've talked extensively and usually get together every year to discuss things. Everyone is on the same page and practices the same philosophy of only taking mature bucks or cull bucks. We try to manage the buck to doe ratio to the best of our ability. All totalled it consists of about 2500 acres of good land. We have a good thing going there. That kind of opportunity is almost like a fairy tale these days. This piece of land I will NEVER shoot an inmature buck. I know for fact there are bruisers roaming around. There are bucks that I've seen several times that ARE going to be bruisers in another year or two as well. And there are a gazillion young bucks.

#2
This piece of land is about 60 acres in size. It's surrounded by hunters (a lot of them) that could really care less about QDM or trophies. They want to hunt and put food in their freezer. They don't get too much time in the woods and want to shoot A buck period. It is hunted pretty heavily. I've hunted this place for years(since I started hunting).There are usually deer all over the place. Plenty of does andsome young bucks. The doe to buck ratios is absurd however. I go here to take my kids to see deer, to shoot a doe when I feel like it, to give my stands at my main land a break, just because I started out there, or if I feel like being in the great outdoors. I can count on one hand over the years how many "big bucks" I've seen at this piece of land. That includes trail cams, bowseason, spotlighting fields at night, scouting in off season etc.... There simply arent' any there. If a buck makes it past 2.5 years old here he's a magician.

My point is. I go to land #2 with ZERO expectations of seeing a "trophy" buck let alone sit in a stand hunting one that isnt' there. If this type of land is all that is available to some hunters then how can someone expect them to "hold out for the big boys"?

Bottom line is hunt what you want to hunt and harvest what you want to harvest. While Iwould like toencourage everyone to practice QDM I also know it's simply not practical everyplace. Know your land and it's potential and go from there.

IMO hunting is a personal encounter. I don't believe you need to justify, explain, or get acceptance from ANYONE about what deer youchoose to shoot. If it brings you gratification and you are proud of it ........... that's all that should matter.