tatonka

I think the Whitetail World has gone just a little crazy. These days we have more posted signs than hunters, people are buying and leasing land faster than Donald Trump can fire people, and on and on and on.... ......Food plots and trail cams up the ying yang, mineral supplements being put out, hunters buying every gadget under the sun, etc.

A 140" buck doesn't even get a second glance these days. Unless you live in Vermont or Maine, no one gives a hoot about body weight. It used to be body weight was the measure of a big buck...not these days. It's all about who can grow the biggest buck on their farm. I read a story recently about a guy whose family bought a 3,000 acre farm and then hired a manager to run it and watch over it as they lived in a big city somewhere or another. He shoots a big buck and then pats himself on the back for it. Really? Why not just go to a preserve and shoot a big buck....pretty much the same thing.

Speaking of preserves, deer farms and shooting preserves are popping up all over the US and Canada and from what I understand most are booked solid. Thousands of whopper bucks are killed on these preserves and I'm sure many are being passed off as being killed in free range areas. Egos gone wild....

I don't get it. I love hunting big bucks and love a big rack as much as the next guy, but it's really gotten out of hand. I rarely watch a deer hunting show on tv anymore. If you seen one buck shot out of a tree stand over a food plot you've seen them all. It's nuts!!!!

t.shaffer

amen to that brother! you hit the nail right on the head or otherwise BULLSEYE. hunting is becoming a richman's sport. whatever happened to the days of meat hunting.?

Rob in VT

Timbrhuntr

Were you not just in Saskatchewan complaining about seeing only small bucks. I'm not sure are you now complaining about people only trying to shoot bigger bucks ? As far as the guy patting himself on the back for shooting a big buck on his property that is managed by someone else why shouldn't he ? I hunted a buddies place in Kansas for the past 4 years and am still waiting to shoot a big buck !As long as its free range and not high fence good for him. I wish it was as easy as you seem to think well actually maybe not. I wish I had the money to be able to purchase a nice piece of property and have it managed for deer ! I should also add that I have hunted Montana for the past 5 years and if I lived there I don't think I could ever complain about hunting man you have it good there
Of course if your just fishing to get some traffic here then you got me LOL

tatonka

I hear you. I'm a "Vermont guy" too, although I've lived in Montana for the past 41 years but I was born and raised in Salisbury. Lots of great memories growing up there...hunting camp, little deer drives with the uncles and cousins, etc....where any buck is a trophy and rightfully so. 35 years ago we could apply for a second buck tag in the district south of town here in Chinook. They gave out 200 extra tags every year. They never even had 200 applicants, so I drew a second buck tag every year. I came out here for the first time in 1974 and the non-resident license included two deer tags and an elk tag and the two tags were good for either a whitetail buck or mule deer buck in most of central and eastern Montana. I'm getting off the subject.

At any rate, the big buck mania is slowly but surely ruining deer hunting (IMO). A 5/12 year old buck should be a shooter anywhere in the country regardless of score...that's a real trophy in my book!!!

tatonka

You missed my point... Yes, I did just go to SK, but I didn't buy a farm, lease land, lock everyone else out, etc. If I had my own farm, planted food plots, used every gadget under the sun, etc. and couldn't shoot a whopper buck I'd take up golf or bowling..... I wasn't complaining about Montana. I was making observations about what hunting whitetails has become in general. It's not about me complaining about people wanting to shoot big bucks.....it's what they're doing to accomplish it. Shoot, we all want to shoot big bucks but when does it become an obsession rather than a fun pastime? I know guys who work part-time jobs to go out of state to hunt and will hunt 3 or 4 states every fall.. Nothing wrong with that to a point, but several of those guys have ended up divorced. That's a lot of time away from the wives and children. Is a big buck really more important than family?

You're right....living in Montana is wonderful as far as hunting and fishing goes (if you can get access to places to hunt). It gets more difficult here every year.

OK...bash away...

mrbb

first I am going to say I think HUNTING TV SHOWS< all suck and show p!ss poor examples of what hunting SHOULD be like

BUT that said,
you lime im MT a place that has millions of acres of public land to hunt

YET you state its getting harder and harder to find places to hunt? HUMM

that seems ODD to me(and yes I have hunted in MT )

the REASON folks BUY land and then spend $$$$$$$ to make it into better lands for HUNTING and or?? is, the simple FACT< like you I bet
you want to hunt GREAT places and not just HUNT!

as if all you wanted to do is HUNT< again there are millions of acres of public land in MT
problem is there NOT all great acres to hunt, its NOT a issue getting on huntable land
problem is you want to ONLY hunt GOOD/great land, that well some private person owns and , well most likely manages for better quality
I don;t think most folks BUY land and manage it with whole intentions of keeping other off it
its just a BY product of what happens when you want BETTER hunting lands, so when you have short time to hunt, you can hunt GOOD land, better odd's of being successful, and well, NOT being walked in on sme idiot that doesn't have resprt for others

SO< folks save up $$ BUY Themselves a GOOD place and well MAKE it better
that is the american way
folks that cry the most about this happening tend to be those that cannot do the samre thing due to maybe lack of $$
and I I one of them folks
if I had the $$$ I would own a NICE chunk of land, manage it for above average game populations and quality of game, and have MYSELF a great place to enjoy what I enjoy
however I cannot afford that, SO< I do what I can, I WORK hard to gain access to better private lands, or would walk in farther hunt harder on public lands
I still have NO issue finding places to hunt, there not every where as they once were, but human population is not as low as it was either!
and that is IMO< taking up way more land and places to hunt, than anyone being greedy and buying up land to keep others off
its just that by product of things that makes it seem that way

folks with lots of $$ have to spend it some out and land is a GREAT investment, if you can make it work for more ways than that, as most do, no suprise here at all
more posted signs in PA than most all other states I have been to, and we also have the largest amount of public hunting lands east of the Mississippi
again, nature of the beast! but NO one in PA< can cry about NO places to hunt either, they just all want BETTER places, and thus, come all them gadgets and silly hunting shows , teaching them all what there MAYBE missing,
Marketing at its best, counting on most hunters to be suckers too for gadgets and hype!
I am sure glad I grew up when I did and got to hunt all the great places I did as well
feel bad for the new generations, !

blsjds

I could not agree more. I was just saying the same thing to my wife and brother-in-law yesterday.

flags

The single minded emphasis on antlers will be the death of hunting in the future. Most non-hunters have no problem with hunting for meat but they do have an issue with hunting strictly for trophies. If they get to the point where the overall perception is that antlers is all anyone really cares about then they can use the ballot box to seriously impede hunting in many areas. And for those of you who are living under a rock and think it cannot be done then I point you to my native CO that used the ballot box to stop spring bear hunting and trapping all in the same election cycle.

My question is: When did hunting for meat become secondary? For me and my family that has always been the primary reason for going, not the size of antlers. It is actually kind of sad to see what it has become.

mrbb

personally I think a LOT of folks started hunting for antlers a LONG time ago, its NOT really something new, , just look back at when records of things got started?
but I think TV hunting shows, if they can be called that at all, , have been the bigger down side to things, all the more so, AMMO< for the NON hunters, that see a bunch of yahoo's screaming and hollering after they shot a big MATURE buck as they always call them such ??
I also don;t get how gun and archery safety went out the window with TV shows too, always showing video for folks pointing guns and drawing bows at the cameraman?? a number one safety NO NO in my book??


BUT I do think a LOT more folks look for larger antlers and such on most things they hunt over JUST for meat
and this is honestly due to the fact so few folks rely on venison and wild game meat to live! and that too has been a LONG time since that was a MUST have to make it thru for MOST folks deal!

I personally hunted for BOTH< I wanted some meat and used my doe tags for that, I never found it hard to fill them tags almost at will, so that gave me time to hunt for NICE antlered deer, I would NOT call myself a trophy hunter, but I also didn;'t feel the need to shoot the first LEGAL buck I seen, , all the more so when I used to have 3+ months of a season to hunt and time off work to do so!


I do agree, the way so many market and SHOW hunters today, is for sure the down fall of this sport, NOT all TV hunters maybe are bad, but WOW< the few shows I see , are sad to me!
making for either spoiled brat like hunters, or why bother to hunt at all> if you don;'t have deep pockets and prime land! and GOD help you if you DON"T shoot a MATURE buck in a day or two of hunting
GOT to love to hear these guys complain and cry about being on a hunt for 3-4 days and NOT KILLING a BIG buck yet! LOL
its hunting NOT shooting, and its NOT about trophy's, its about enjoying a sport HOW YOU like, as long as its legal, and you play by the rules, I THINK we have a chance to keep things alive
just don't forget your actions speak LOUD words to the anti hunters that are out numbering us hunters more and more every yr!