It's a suggestion, not a mandate. It's what I do. I'm not just going to shoot every little buck that walks past. If I did, I'd get kicked off the lease. We've got an abundance of deer where I hunt, so, if I'm just looking for meat, I shoot a doe. If I shoot a buck, it's either going to be a mature (absolute minimum of 3 1/2)one, or a cull/management buck that's being taken out of the herd due to poor genetics.

The only thing I can say to this statement is ...your idea of hunting and mine is light years apart. I live in the Northeast and all our hunting is done by looking for sign and lots of tracking. Most hunters here still hunt their way over many miles of thick and steep terrain. Some people like to sit on an oak ridge or along a field but those tactics rarely result in the harvest of a mature buck.Can't see a deer without a feeder...come on give me a break. Sorry to be a little negative but to hunt over a timed feeder just isn't the same as still hunting several miles of mountains. Worry about not being able to find deer in hundreds of acres, try thousands. We do it all the time and those deer are hard to find. To each his own though and where those tactics are legal I don't have a problem with it. I just hate to see someone short change themselves by limiting their perception of hunting to fences and feeders.

I have not read all the post so if this has been asked, sorry. But is there any "natural" high fence hunt ranches out west or in Texas? What I mean is a say a basin with cliffs or gorges on all the sides and it is huge inside like over several thousand acres. Then the only opening is up in the front where the owner has the lodge and some dogs chained up, maybe only fifty or a hundred yards wide. No high fence, but it is really like one. Have any of you guys heard of a natural high fence ranch like this. I am sure they would be rare, but mother nature has had to make a few out there that a rancher has found and taken advantage of?

We call them lakes and ponds. Deer can swim but will follow the edge of water which acts like a funnel. Great spot to still hunt your way along the game trail with your face to the wind.

here in Florida, on public land you can not shoot doe's. so barely legal bucks are all some people can get. i hunt public land, so QDM is out the window. if i pass on a immature buck, he will be shot within 10 minutes when he walks out in front of someone else. i'm not trying to blast you for your comment, just letting you know some people don't have the luxery of hunting private land and practicing QDM. so don't look down on the hunters that don't shoot "mature bucks".

as i posted above, illegal to shoot doe's on public land (Florida).

We gotta be careful we don't fall into the antis divide and conquer trap. Myself I like hunting public land for the game that lives there naturally. But if the way you hunt is legal, I have no problem with it. Sure it's probably easier to get a deer or whatever on a 40 acre fenced in farm, but so what? Those steaks you get at the grocery store don't come from fair chase cows so what's the big deal?

Ok yeah, we don't want to have to listen to some dude bragging about the 36 point buck he got on a deer farm. But that's really all it come down to. If you don't want to listen to him, go drink beer with somebody else.

I am absolutely loving your point of view!

You guys misunderstand, evidently.

SW and S texas is unlike anywhere else I know of.....

Terrain were not what i was referring to... Deer ranging habits...

The particular area I hunt(Edwards Plateau) is open, but oak trees everwhere.... Water pockets, every where... food, bedding, cover.... everywhere... There are no travel routes, funnels, or rivers/creeks.... edge habitat, is literally everwhere. So logic would say hey, there could be deer anywhere..... but they're not... that's just the way they are there.... The deer don't follow trails... they literallly will come from everywhere and can be seen everywhere.... you cannot pattern them on an even playing field...

We tried that experiment years ago... it did not work... those of us who did kill deer were the ones still hunting through the pastures, not those who picked a spot and sat.

S Texas is much the same, but most of the time you dont have the luxury of the open area between brush... The deer have everything they need in the brush and have no reason to come out where you can see them. Without the cut senderos you would never see deer...

I never said it's not thick anywhere else... but I still say go there and try to hunt your way, without the benefit of guides, senderos, or feeders..... Good luck... because that will be the only way you even see a deer. Regardless of your "skills" as a hunter.

The skill of a hunter is in direct correlation to his intellect. That is our tool, that is our predatory advantage. Period.

Because our customs and methods are different, does not make us lesser hunters. I never said it didnt make hunting easier, but Don't knock it. Hunting does not have to be hard to be fulfilling... not for everyone. It's not all about challenge, not to everyone.

40,000 acres or 100,000 acres, the game will be in the habitat they enjoy, like around the feeders, food plots and water holes. Real tuff to find the game when they can't leave, right?