I guess I don't really hunt either. I have access to a few hundred acres, that I manage for bigger bucks. When I started with this property, there were way too many deer. So I started taking out does and does and more does. I invited friends to help in the doe harvest. No one was allowed to shoot bucks.
I remember the first year that I saw a difference and had trail cams of 13 different "shooter" bucks. I have food plots, mineral sites and different things to allow deer better living. Here in NC baiting is legal and we do bait. I have managed this land for 8 years now and to hear you guys go on about it, I don't even hunt. Yep some of the bucks have names like "The Big Pig", High and Tight", "the Twins", "Crutch". The stands are named to. Hunting season for my buddy and I doesn't end all year because there is always something to do. Shed hunting, hanging stands, food plots, mineral sites, etc.
So from what you guys are saying I don't really hunt? Maybe it's more about passion and obsession. You guys need to come down off your high horses and realize that it doesn't matter whether you like the way that someone else hunts, it's that they hunt, period! I don't care if you hunt with hounds, spear, crossbow, guns, etc I will stand beside you and fight for your right to do so. As long as it's legal and ethical, who cares?

My point is this in a nut shell.

Why have big bucks traditionally been a coveted thing for hunters to kill? Well, I'd say because under normal circumstances they are relatively rare in the deer herd to start with and in order to reach a mature age they have probably had to become pretty woodswise and reclusive. Just seeing one in daylight hours is rare. So killing one was a rare event and something of an accomplishment. Rare + hard to get = highly prized.

On the other hand, some millionaire takes a place and converts it into a deer preserve loaded with large numbers of bioengineered and suplimentally fed bucks that have never had to learn much in the way of survival skills or even to be too fearful of humans due to almost zero hunting pressure. The end result is a situation where big bucks are not rare or shy and elusive due to the completely sheltered lives they have led. You end up with a herd of big bucks that are dumb as a well rope and come to the same spots every day for their human provided feedings. Plentiful + easy to kill = no accomplishment.

Again, a fine breeding and farming/ranching accomplishment there. But don't get on TV trying to pass yourself off as a great deer hunter just because you had the money to set up a preserve like that.

Go kill a deer like those on public land. Then I'll be impressed. Hell, a doe kill on some public land is more of a hunting accomplishment than shooting the biggest thing walking the Tecomate.

You "kinda see both sides" but, the deer killed is "nothing more than a fine prize cow..."

I'm guessing you've formed an opinion without ever seeing the show.

Its funny you say that, here in Texas back in the 70's cattle ranchers soon realised they could get more money per head of deer than head of cattle, that was the beginning of deer management and the end of cattle ranches.

I was watching the show this weekend. David Morris spooked a booner and he knew right where it was going. To another wide open space.

Where we hunt, if you spook a buck, it does not go to a wide open space to get shot. It holes up in the thickest cover around and does not come out again until midnight the next day.

O never mind,I forgot the question already!:eek2:

Those must just be really large sheep that keep wandering past my blind and scaring off all the deer... Or maybe they're just big-bodied bucks with short antlers, that say "moo" a lot. :)

Yes, I have seen it thank you. But thanks for just taking a groundless shot at me rather than pointing out where anything I said was wrong. Typical tactic of some people. Can't counter the facts just attack the person who posted them instead.

Why do you think so many want to hunt Iowa, Kansas, Illinois......?? They go where the big bucks live. Its the same for the Tecomate Ranch. They give someone the chance at a monster if thats what they want. If thats not yout thing fine. Some do. You see the same thing in bass fishing. Some lakes are managed for big bass. Does that make it less "fair" if you catch a big one? Some guys will never have a shot at a big buck unless they hunt a place like that. I don't blame them if thats what they want. It's their time and money.

The "facts" as you call them (I'd refer to them as opinions) are too easy to counter. I didn't think it was necessary.