feeding the family
 

first of hi, I wasnt sure if there is a forum for introducing yourself or not so there is my intro:happy0157:

I have tons of friends who are always talking about letting deer walk and knocking me for shooting anything that comes along. Most of my friends are young enough they dont have a wife and kids yet. I am all for deer management if you have land and money to work with. But I was raised a little different. When we hunted it was for meat, if you smoked a big one than that was awesome, but it wasn't your goal. I still feel the rush when I shoot a button buck. I have shot a few nice bucks but nothing huge and it still feels the same to me. I am also proud to feed my family and not be one of those schmucks from the city that spends ungodly amounts of money on organic meats. Growing up all the oldtimers used to talk about how they would actually track deer for days just to shoot one. Guess deer werent as thick in that area back then. I also get a little sour letting them little guys walk when I know there are other hunters close by who are going to smoke that sucker if he walks in front of them. I hear a lot of guys talkin about deer management and lettin deer walk, but when they get to the woods they cant control themselves.
Not sayin there is anything wrong with huntin for big bucks or deer management, but whats wrong with someone who hunts to feed their family?;)

Welcome to the board, not any particular forum to join in on so just join in. They usually want you to keep topics close to the forum title, but that is about all.
I've killed a ton of deer over the years, been in a few clubs that got on the "management" idea, but honestly I had rather hunt and hunt with others that just stick to the state regulations and everybody have a good time. Deer range over a large area and unless you have a big pen, with good genetics, and can feed special feed I don't totally think you can raise and harvest "trophy bucks". Sure if you pass a young deer there is a chance you might get him in 4 years when he is mature, but there is a bigger chance you will never see that deer again.

With all that said, I just don't understand why people shoot buck fawn's!? Why not shoot a doe, there bigger. If people would talk with each other in an area it's not that hard to do management for 2-3 year old bucks.

I totally agree with you.We follow all the rules so if it comes by me and its legal it is going on my 4 wheeler.

Of course... NOTHING.

I replied to Jimmy S' post about something similar and said I'm a meat hunter too. However, after thinking about it, I like being in the woods. I like the thrill of the hunt. The kill is only about 5% of the experience for me. The anticipation of "What's coming next" is a strong allure for me when being out there. I also have times when I'm a big rack hunter only. For the most part it's about the meat.

With that said, I hardly ever... almost never shoot the first deer I see because I'm looking for a decent size doe or medium young buck and they're usually not what I see first.

Who here has said anything negative about being a meat hunter?

iSnipe

Here we go again. 3rd time this topic has come up this week.

And once again why? Guys want to measure why they hunt against why someone else hunts.

99.9 percent of us hunt be cause we love it. The thrill of the outdoors and going one on one with a deer. Everything else is secondary.

One side isn't more pure or righteous than the other so why do we feel we must keep pointing it out. Have fun, fill the freezer, plaster the wall with racks....and keep supporting other hunters even when they don't follow your drum beat.

Yeah, shame on you sussexhunter for being a rookie here and starting trouble already with only your 2nd post.

Welcome aboard friend. LOL!

iSnipe

sorry fellas, wasnt tryin to start no problems. I guess I could have looked a little harder and found those other posts. No one on here said anything, just other hunters I have talked to. Not measuring up either, I would love to have enough land to manage deer on. Right now I am lucky enough to have a little more than ten acres to hunt on. But I feel lucky that I can hunt and have at least somewhere to do hunt. oh and I shoot the fawns because they are tender. Feed them to the kids.:biggrin:

sussexhunter!

You have to read between the lines. I'm being feticious. kybuckhunter is being *_______*. (fill in yourself) You should have known by my "LOL!" &

How can you have known of other similar posts? To have someone complain of your post is ridiculous to me... very.

I understand you're looking for other like-minded individuals who hunt for the same reasons you do. To criticize you for that is... well, like I said, ridiculous. I hunt both ways. I hunt for the meat and sometimes I hunt for large racks. In the end my freezer has venison in it and I usually have a fun time doing it too!

Take care,

iSnipe

iSnipe you must be rather young....by the way you respond.

Why don't we see guys asking if you dove hunt for meat....or squirrel hunt? I never belittled anyone in my response like you feel you must.

You simply can't comprehend why the question itself is divisive. Some trophy hunters always jump on guys for shooting small deer and the brown its down guys jump on the "whats he score" crowd. I'm not taking sides of any one group. I want hunters to realize there is more than one way to skin a cat so to speak.

I don't use a crossbow but I defend others right to do so. You can find many post where some act like the xbow guys and gun hunters are scum as well as people hunting over bait.

You need to understand we need to educate our own to be tolerant of others in our sport. Maybe when you get older you will understand.

What? LOL! You're reply is quite by the way you responded to his post!

It's hilarious reading your reply to his. Most all the horse pucky you wrote hadn't a thing to do with what he said. Matter o' fact, let's check one out...

sussexhunter says:

"Not sayin there is anything wrong with huntin for big bucks or deer management, but whats wrong with someone who hunts to feed their family?;)"

From that you gathered all that ** you had to write? Holy smokes dude, ... wow! By that you say his words are "divisive"! In fact, you're trying to make something out of nothing right here and now! Thus you self-fulfilled your own little dissension!

If you want to put words in other people's mouths and mince others, feel free, but carrying on and trying to make something of nothing makes you look.... well, you know. LOL!

You fail to understand and CAN'T comprehend your interpretation and reply to this gentleman's post is in itself... "divisive". LOL! So please forgive me that I see the irony here that you're blinded by. :biggrin:

Hang in there sussexhunter! You didn't do anything wrong buddy. :happy0001:

iSnipe

I never said anything was wrong either way did I. I made the reply in another post how this topic keeps coming up and low and behold it's come up and its on the front page three times alone. My whole statement to start with is how it ends up ultimately about one being better than the other. It's always pitting the meat hunter against the trophy hunter. The fact it gets ask just shows someone is looking for justification that they are doing it for the right reason. Apparently you have somewhat of a comprehension disability.

I'm sure glad you are here to police these topics and take up for the downtrodden. These poor souls surely would fold under the pressure of someones elses opinion without you coming to the rescue. You go boy.....

See, that's what I mean. LOL! You're putting words behind his intentions. You don't have a clue of his intentions for his post, yet he explains it so c.l.e.a.r.l.y.!

He isn't looking for justification for anything! He very simply made a post of which part of it said: "Not sayin there is anything wrong with huntin for big bucks or deer management, but whats wrong with someone who hunts to feed their family?:wink:"

Then from that your uncharacteristic rants(for a normal hunter) started to take place. LOL! Talk about comprehension disability. Look who's talking! The poor guy practically introduces himself, makes a post about meat hunting that pisses you off and you flip out. That's fact. You go girl. LOL!

iSnipe

Flip out ...haha...right. I post a reply to a topic and you post a reply to a reply. It's like you follow me around and dissect my post. You surely have something constructive to do rather than show your juvenile behavior. Get out of your moms basement and get a job....

LOL,ya know sniper, LOL ,I put you on my ignore list a while back,LOL but unfortunately LOL I can read your posts when Im logged out LOL, Seriously be honest, how old are you? cause if youre a day over 15, id be shocked. do you think you sound tough or cool calling adult men "girl" or "boy" from behind you PC screen?LOL Grow up! LOL ,KYBH didnt flip out, he simply pointed out theres alot of these meat hunter threadsLOL ,and the subects pretty much has been beat to death,LOL and even if he did, youre the last person to criticize someone flipping out.LOL ,Oh and we get that your "laughing out loud"LOL you dont have to type LOLOLOLOLOLOLLOLOLOLLOLOLLLLLLLLLLOLLOL! every 3rd word ...LOL

Bear pig, go eat some corn. KYman, I consider the source for guys like you and I'm not impressed in the least. Go create "divisive" posts elsewhere that people may appreciate your comedy routine.

iSnipe

I guess one has to ask himself, if he hunting for a challenge and for fun, or hunting to show pictures and say you kill one.

I don't like it when I see button bucks killed. I have accidentally done it myself. Kick myself when it happens.

One thing I can say, if you hold out and kill a mature 200lb deer, he will have more meat than 4 button bucks. So if you really are a meat hunter, it doesn't make sense shooting a fawn or button buck. Kinda like planting a garden and going out picking the corn when its not half grown.

I mean, you can kill two birds with one stone. Be a meat hunter, hunt for the challenge and still come out ahead.

I used to say I was a meat hunter. It was the days when numbers where down. I mean if you didn't take a scraggly 3 pt, you might not get a deer. But in MD/DE, thats not the case.

When I started passing on deer, i was amazed on what was right behind that doe. But a person can grow old and never see a mature deer if he shoots the first thing he sees.

And look at it this way, hunting a button buck is about as challenging as playing hide and seek with a 4-5 year old. But imagine outsmarting a 30 year old. Its an accomplishment.

Thats happened to me alot over the years, some of those BBs can be as big as momma does, by gun season. It always seemed like a waste to me. I will also not argue that when it comes to being dumb, fawns are at the top of the list, but if youre hunting in really cold and miserable conditions, just staying out there is a challenge. I muzzleloader hunted for 5 years before I got a deer w/ one. I just couldnt seem to find any deer during ML season. I wanted to wack a brown thing my ML so bad,I was willing to pull the trigger on any deer, I finally came upon 2 fawns bedded behind a tree, on a ridiculously cold and windy day in dec. I sat there for 30 minutes saying, the 1st one to stand up is toast, the one that stood up was a BB and I gladly put a .50 maxi ball through him. I was stoked! I consider that hunt a challenge because I my frozen finger could barely pull the trigger!

What’s wrong with yearlings.

Why do we eat veal? Whenever I see a yearling I just picture those succulent oh so tender back straps on the grill.

When I see a 4 year old I just see sausage and burger.

Yearlings are challenging:

Small target, need to be accurate, either head it (if you are qualified), or wait for that perfect broadside shot, it is critical not to damage any meat.

Yearling doe’s reproduce, so I have no problem keeping the population in check. I don’t take the little guys though, I usually use my hand gun when filling the freezer so identification is never a problem. But there are some people who I hunt with who need their eyes checked. Out of 20 some deer we took last year, 3 were of the button buck variety. I would rather see more doe’s taken. I want to see those mature deer work a little harder to find companionship during the rut.

There should be a yearling only thread. I’d be all over it.

bb

big country, you raise a point about the size equivalence of a big buck to four small ones. It might be a little over kill of a comparison, but I do see your point. A little food for thought, is it realistic that you may only pass up on four deer before killing a nice mature buck. There are parts of DE that have very nice mature bucks. There are also parts that do not. One thing I ve noticed since moving from PA is, these guys are well fed. They dont have to climb up and down mountains all day and scavenge for food. They are practically livestock in their dietary lifestyles. I have noticed that many of the larger deer are on private land. My cousin in law shot two 12 pointers last year on his buddies farm. I do not have much land to hunt on and the surrounding areas are public, its like a company picnic during shotgun season. I will say that when the freezer gets close to full and my wife has canned all the meat she is willing to can in a year:action-smiley-099:, I dont mind to wait and see what comes out after a few does.

I'm starting to think you have some real issues. :confused0024:

I think you nailed it down for me pretty much. When I started hunting any deer was awesome. My first bow kill was a button buck and for several years to come if it didnt have spots I would shoot it. After a number of kills like this however I wanted more. Like you say...a button buck isn't too sharp and I think I could kill one with a club.

Most guys naturally progress to something more challenging either hunting bigger deer or like you using a more restrictive weapon....Or both.

It used to bother me in m younger days if I didn't get my buck every year. I thought I had to keep up with the other guys. Now I set goals for myself and hunt for me. As long as everyone hunts for themselves they will enjoy hunting much better......no matter what the shoot.

In the early 90s we could shoot two bucks in Ky. I remember saying and hearing that "I'll shoot the first buck and take the pressure off then hunt for a big one." I wasn't really hunting for me then....

hunt and kill for you.be happy hunting dont have to be hard or an ego stroker..unless you need it to be..

big does here weigh 90-100 lbs some of the younger bucks weigh 95-115lbs,, i love deer meat..some of my easiest kills were mature bucks behind a does.not challenging at all

i will let the moment tell me if i am shooting or not ..the body size usually determines if im shooting or not...just have fun hunting and laugh in the faces of the ones critisizing your way of hunting.

Really? Mature bucks easy to shoot? Interesting. Your probably the first guy I ever heard say that.

But, I think we all know what this really says.

I respect someone meat hunting and supporting their family. I have done it in the past. I hunt for bigger bucks now, so yes Im sure that makes me a trophy hunter. But thats my choice. I say do whats right for you as long as its ethical and legal. :)

we all know it really says you are hunting a different deer than i am..my buck following a deer has his mind mainly on that doe and chasing away littler bucks following that doe where and when he normally wouldnt do .. i know your buck doesnt change a thing..

i have had spikes bust out of the area just like i have had older bucks do. but give that buck mature or not some tail to chase he is a different deer,some people accept that and some dont kind of a hit to their ego sorry well that what we all know it says ...just telling you like i see it...

killed them folling does on the day after christmas kind of a long time from when the rut is about to kick on and when it ends..

ya know Big Country sitting here thinking about it i was wrong saying that mature bucks are an easy kill..i was letting the antler size determine maybe the maturity of the animal. which i dont really care about the antlers.. but still they change their ways..


oldest two bucks i have seen and not killed with in bow range ,,were pretty aware during the rut pretty much went on about their business,i tried to stop them, both had somewhere to be and was getting there..this happened different years not on the same day...


i know antler dont determine the age of a deer.. heck my oldest deer was a 6pnt four one side fork on other but very old and heavy deer..

I don't care a thing about horns. I shoot meat, and I'm damn proud of it. I'm proud to feed my family.
I know I really aggravate my neighboring hunters who's land borders where I hunt. They make no bones about it, 8pt or bigger. When I leave(we share a common road), and they see a spike in the bed, they really give me the 3rd degree. I give it right back. They don't even eat the deer they kill. If I'm in the stand 10 minutes, or 10 hours, I don't care.
Ive shot deer before I got fully situated in my stand. Good for me!

Just figuring some dumb math here, eating deer meat 2 meals a day, 5 days a week, saves me probably 3K easily a year just on meat. Thats meager eating, like Deerburger Helper, Deer Chili, Deer Manwich, Tenderloin with eggs, etc.

Remember: Don't eat the tomatoes!, Don't eat the peppers!, Don't eat the peanut butter!, Don't eat the pistachios!, Don't eat the hamburger!......

I garden, freeze, jelly, pickle, and can too. Along with my butchering.
I might be a wierdo to many who know me, but by God we can eat!!!

Now having said all of the above, I DO like a sporting challenge.
I took up handgun hunting, and have found that extremely rewarding in harvesting meat.

Your wrong on many more things.

So you harvest 260lbs of venison a year from spikes?

I have no doubt that's exactly what you read.

sussexhunter fill that freezer with what ever deer you choose to kill..have fun hunting and come home in one piece...if you and your family love deer meat have at it..cant eat this year on what you pass up for next year..

Big Country im wrong on many things..like bucks dont get stupid during the rut,, maybe i was wrong on trying to stop a very mature deer but he paid me no attention cause he had somewhere to go,your were there werent you...or you cant age deer by the antler size,,i could be kinda wrong there.. you are talking to the wrong people if they say that bucks dont change during the rut oh i got it it was a blow to your ego sorry but its true..your saying im wrong but knowing im right..

The punchline. First you said those fawns and spikes are much harder to kill than those mature deer. Now this. Quit it now. I am busting a gut laughing so hard.

i just cant remember saying that spikes and fawns are much harder to kill than mature bucks..

i typed that some of my easiest kills have been mature bucks behind does or following does...meaning so you dont resort to reading one thing and making it say another...barney style for you.. a buck following a doe has his mind on that doe and keeping other bucks away. he gets stupid now go bust some of that gut laughing..


had to check profile see if i was dealing with a minor... believe what you want to believe in as long as you are happy and it gets you through life..much like the bible..

There's no greater enjoyment for me than to sit down for a meal
with my family that includes game that I've hunted, killed,
butchered and cooked.
No trophy on the wall.
No picture.
No self satisfaction brought on by a score or measurment.

If it's legal and gets eaten, I don't care who kills what in size or sex.

sussex the city? in va?

LOL!

Good point on several things here... especially the part where it said "you dont resort to reading one thing and making it say another". I've seen that from others on many occasions. It's as if they can't read or comprehend what's in front of them sometimes. To steal an old carpenter's axiom, but rephrased... "Read twice, reply once".

iSnipe

This somehow reminds me of the arguments I have to break up between my 3- and 4-year old kids :confused:

Welcome aboard, sussexhunter! I hope they haven't scared you off.

rw

sometimes you got to let them fight or voice their opinions no harm in that , but yes it went on to long sorry Sussexhunter..as i will always tell you hunt for yourself, you will be happier.. and fill that freezer...