• Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.

    We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.

    Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103

Strange Day for Me in the Woods.

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I’ve just chalked up the “let ‘em walk” feeling I’ve experienced lately to laziness. Cleaning and dragging them out of the woods is a lot of work!

I still do take a doe or two each year, tho. Venison burritos or a nice piece of blackstrap are always good.

I’m not a horn hunter. If Bullwinkle happens by, he’s in trouble, but he’s gotta be really big to make my finger twitch.
 
This change in motivations seems to come to many of us as the decades accumulate. At 70, I sure don't have that fire in the belly that I did when 20 years old and a "full bag limit" was my goal, whether of quail, grouse or trout. While I have hunted several seasons with a muzzleloader -- either a TC or a Lyman GPR -- I have never had a shot. Wouldn't mind killing a doe or meat buck -- or, here in Texas, an Axis doe for the freezer. I would happily whack one of these feral hogs I keep hearing about. But having been present at and often the cause of death of a number of large animals, I have come to appreciate the absolute miracle of life on this planet and the fact that as a human, I can snuff it out in an instant, but am utterly helpless to create or resurrect it. So it is a thing I do not take lightly. Of course, I have no issue at all with anyone else taking game. We have a responsibility to manage the populations of wild things whose habitat we have messed up.
I was thinking it was just me. Now after reading some of these posts I realized that I am not alone. Oh I have taken my share of game in my younger days, however now I like watching wildlife instead. I still like a walk in the woods with my rifle, still like target shooting and if I needed game for food I would take it. However I have no desire to take game for the sake of taking it.
 
Like in Bull Fighting an exceptional animal gets spared.
But most of us would have had that Rack on our wall.
Understandably, the majesty of God's creation can be
awe inspiring. We each have to do what sits right with
us at the time. Whether you shot him or not, that
animal provided the excitement of the hunt. And there
will be other Bucks coming along that you might take.
 
I was thinking it was just me. Now after reading some of these posts I realized that I am not alone. Oh I have taken my share of game in my younger days, however now I like watching wildlife instead. I still like a walk in the woods with my rifle, still like target shooting and if I needed game for food I would take it. However I have no desire to take game for the sake of taking it.
George I see we are neighbors
 
I'm 76 and still get in the woods as often as possible. I always carry and am ready to shoot but rarely do as just watching has become more important. Having the loaded gun and choosing NOT to shoot is not the same as just watching without one; it's BETTER! It must be psychological. :dunno:
 
In these parts the most worrisome animals in the wood walk on two legs.
Amen, brother, AMEN! Although I no longer hunt, I keep my acreage open for all who will respect both it and good ol' Mother Nature. Sometimes I wonder if I've made a mistake, when my North Forty starts sounding like Viet Nam and it feels as though whomever it is doing ammo dumps may not be: A) An ethical hunter. (or a hunter at all), B) The safest person to have around and C) That person has more money to burn than they have common sense.
 
Everyone to their own thing. As for me, the only way I am going to willingly give up my hunting is if I am no longer physically able to do so. As a meat eater, I refuse to eat or buy meat from the store. If I don't kill it, I don't eat it.
You do not have to hunt hard to get plenty of meat in KY. A friend went up there hunting last week and shot a big one, he gave me a backstrap. WOW, that strap was as big as my leg. Never saw such in my life, Kinda gave me the fever.
 
I'm 76 and still get in the woods as often as possible. I always carry and am ready to shoot but rarely do as just watching has become more important. Having the loaded gun and choosing NOT to shoot is not the same as just watching without one; it's BETTER! It must be psychological. :dunno:
This is very much the way I feel.
 
I am 69 years old and after a lifetime of hunting I'm a one-wild-pig-a-year person. I hunt frequently and actually have an extra pig tag to be able to hunt...but after that first pig I'm done. The National Forest wanderings are epic, however. I share your essential joy in being able to walk with a rifle and commune with our ancestors. It's a magical time.
 
The last two years I have not killed a deer. Had more than enough chances. Two things did it for me.. One in 2020 I killed my personal best buck. Not the biggest, but not the smallest either.
But what actually changed it for me was our local area big buck night. My deer was both the heaviest and the biggest rack for the year in our area.
But the jealously and nasty comments just ruined it for me.
So many people are hung up on the antler score. It's rediculas. Even our DNR officer couldn't get it through his head why I wouldn't get it scored for our area record books. It seems few people hunt for the enjoyment anymore. Sad very sad....
 
The last two years I have not killed a deer. Had more than enough chances. Two things did it for me.. One in 2020 I killed my personal best buck. Not the biggest, but not the smallest either.
But what actually changed it for me was our local area big buck night. My deer was both the heaviest and the biggest rack for the year in our area.
But the jealously and nasty comments just ruined it for me.
So many people are hung up on the antler score. It's rediculas. Even our DNR officer couldn't get it through his head why I wouldn't get it scored for our area record books. It seems few people hunt for the enjoyment anymore. Sad very sad....
It is true. So tired of hearing about "Booners!", and having fella describe a buck to me using a scoring system. Used to, if you got a nice buck, it was just, "I got a nice 10-point!" Now it is, "Yeah, he ain't no Booner, buy will probably go about 140."

Speaking of jealously and competition, I shot very nice 10 point on my property about 12-15 years ago. Was not a "Booner!", but a very nice heavily racked buck. Back then, we had to physically check our deer in at a DNR sanctioned location. When dudes saw my buck, they were torqued because they were sure it was the "Big buck they had been watching all summer long on their land!" I was accused of trespassing by numerous jokers, whom I didn't even know, and my property wasn't within miles of wherever they were located at. I ended up selling my land, as a big hunting club bought up all the acreage around me, putting stands on the perimeter of my fence. As soon as I would leave, they would position slobs with rifles at the end of my gullies, and then chase deer to them using UTV's. Saw them on several occasions, even got pics/video of them cutting my fences, and driving across my land. Provided those pics to the county sheriff (Ray County, Missouri) and local conservation agent, they could not have cared less. Told me to come down and file a report. Big Whoop. No use in owning land and paying taxes when some D@mn "Hunting Club" (Arrowhead Hunting Club) is constantly trespassing and poaching deer.
 
"Scores" or numbers don't denigrate a deer...only certain people do by making derogatory comments about someone else's deer. To me, a "score" helps me visualize a deer I have not seen and that's all. Scores are just numbers that mean nothing as to the personal value of the animal to the hunter.

I have several small bucks (and a doe) mounted for the memory (and "art") and have had visitors comment "What the heck did you mount THAT one for!" I explain a particularly exciting hunt with my bow and arrows made by my hand, off the ground at mere feet, or my first with a traditional muzzleloader, but I find that most of these people DO NOT get it at all!

The picture below shows two bow killed bucks. I have them side by side for a purpose.

The yearling seven was, without a doubt, the most exciting hunt I have ever been on...late season snow, low deer numbers, cold weather, called him in from over 100 yds with soft doe talk, on the ground, longbow, wood arrows. At one point he was mere feet from me trying to push through the thick oak deadfall I was hiding in and I shot him when he came around the open front just a few yards away. The whole hunt was as good as it gets. I want to remember that forever.

The mature 11 is my biggest but "the hunt" was almost boring. I sat for an hour in nice weather. He came in chasing a doe, stopped broadside, shot him from a tree stand, he went 20 yds and fell over.

I tell people the two stories and most don't get how the yearling could mean as much or more to me than the "booner with a bow." Their skepticism and comments mean NOTHING to me.

I have three eligible "booners" and numerous P&Y whitetails, none taken with modern firearms. Never entered any of them in any competitions or record books. They, along with several "small" bucks mean just as much to me on my walls.

So don't be disheartened when others ONLY focus on scores or numbers. They can never take away the pride of a hunt well done and only show that they have no clue as to what the hunt is all about.

20150807_173914.jpg
 
I had two thoughts while out in the woods today.
#1 I saw 4 bucks chasing a very tired doe - but she wasn’t ready for the boys. Three of the bucks were very nice. I drew a bead on one and thought “bang” in my head - but let him go. How would any of us like it if we were in pursuit of a little sex and only to get shot???
#2 I bet a bunch of us can testify that it’s ok to leave a ML loaded for a good while…
 
I had two thoughts while out in the woods today.
#1 I saw 4 bucks chasing a very tired doe - but she wasn’t ready for the boys. Three of the bucks were very nice. I drew a bead on one and thought “bang” in my head - but let him go. How would any of us like it if we were in pursuit of a little sex and only to get shot???
#2 I bet a bunch of us can testify that it’s ok to leave a ML loaded for a good while…
I was after a nice gal and got shown her dads 44 magnum, so I can sympathize….
 
Back
Top