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antlers vs meat??
- Thread starter Birdman
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In one of my books on deer hunting the author says there is no such thing as a meat hunter, just disgruntled trophy hunters. I've always liked that. I am neither a trophy hunter nor a meat hunter. I am a hunter and given the choice of a nice buck or a doe I'll shoot the buck every time. I have killed a big truck load of deer in my life, probably 3/4's of them were does. If the meat is taken care of properly I cannot tell the difference in a buck or a doe. I don't shoot yearlings, just can't bring myself to do it. Something that gets me is hunters "harvesting" a game animal. I am a hunter, not a farmer. I have yet to "harvest" an animal. As these hunting shows go there are very few I can tolerate. I watched the "Bone Collectors" one time and as a hunter found the show offensive. So how do non hunters find it? I thought they were just a bunch of immature idiots. I feel as hunters we should project a positive demeanor to the public 100% of the time. How these people can sit in a box over a food plot (just another name for legalized baiting) and kill an animal and call it hunting is beyond me. I won't do it, I can't do it. I guess my dad raised me better. I cannot imagine life without hunting, or life without a good gunne or two. Sorry for the rantings of a slightly demented old deer hunter. If I've stepped on anyones toes I humbly apologize.
Tom Black
Cantucky
Tom Black
Cantucky
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bobman said:
Thats a whole different thing from your post I quoted. I'd shoot the bigger one too.
What I am trying to say is I'll shoot the big buck everytime I dont care if hes with his girl friend his little brother or a hamster :rotf: .
I try to kill big bucks everytime I go, most times I settle for lesser deer. They all eat the same.
I will kill 12 this year.
I try to kill big bucks everytime I go, most times I settle for lesser deer. They all eat the same.
I will kill 12 this year.
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bobman said:
I know what you said, you also said this,
And I told you, you just met somebody who can say has done that.
" How these people can sit in a box over a food plot (just another name for legalized baiting) and kill an animal and call it hunting is beyond me."
I guess it depends on what kind of "hunting" one is introduced to, I have deer in my back yard in town that I could easily shoot with little concealment or effort even the big bucks, but I don't think there would be much feeling of accomplishment or "sport" in it but everyone sees hunting thru different eyes, I would think that knowing what the bucks were and how many, how big and just waiting for the one which needs to be taken would remove the element of anticipation and the "high' of the hunt, I don't think I could accept an invitation to such a hunt if offered, it just does not seem to have anything to offer as I see it, but that is the whole point of the various methods of hunting around the country, do not take this as a slam to those who hunt this style it is likely my area and hunting style would not appeal to many.
I guess it depends on what kind of "hunting" one is introduced to, I have deer in my back yard in town that I could easily shoot with little concealment or effort even the big bucks, but I don't think there would be much feeling of accomplishment or "sport" in it but everyone sees hunting thru different eyes, I would think that knowing what the bucks were and how many, how big and just waiting for the one which needs to be taken would remove the element of anticipation and the "high' of the hunt, I don't think I could accept an invitation to such a hunt if offered, it just does not seem to have anything to offer as I see it, but that is the whole point of the various methods of hunting around the country, do not take this as a slam to those who hunt this style it is likely my area and hunting style would not appeal to many.
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It's the way of the future TG. People are willing to pay big money for Trophy's. Fifty years from now, unless you own a good size track of land Hunting anywhere other than State land I fear will be something most of us will not be able to afford. It's going to be a rich mans game and I'm glad I won't be here to see it. :shake:
"
It's the way of the future"
Not much of a future I would think, I guess I will be content to spend what years I have left trying to take on the Blacktail one on one in the brushy devils club choked gullies of the Pacific coatal Mts, and be comfortable calling it "hunting"
It's the way of the future"
Not much of a future I would think, I guess I will be content to spend what years I have left trying to take on the Blacktail one on one in the brushy devils club choked gullies of the Pacific coatal Mts, and be comfortable calling it "hunting"
fyrfyter43
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bobman said:
No matter how long I boil 'em, those horns just don't make good soup.
Like I said, I hunt strictly for meat. I very seldom buy or even eat beef. I'd rather have venison any day of the week. And if I had my choice, it would be a 1.5 year old doe.
I've never had a set of antlers hanging on my wall, and I never will. It's just not my thing.
I usually don't even waste my money buying one of those buck tags I mentioned earlier. That tag is required to shoot a buck during the permit archery season (Oct. 31 - Dec. 31) and the muzzleloader season (about 65 days total from Nov. 30 until Feb. 13). It's also required to take a buck during the permit shotgun season, which I don't hunt. The buck permits have to be purchased before the start of each season. You cannot buy one once the season has started.
That's no BS!
fort fireman
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Good luck Roundball. I think i feel a flu comin on next week. I may have to head to uwharrie national forest for awhile. The fresh air and woods may hurry my recuperation along a bit. :haha: I have a new smoothbore that needs to go for a walk in the woods real bad. :rotf: Andy
Yeah, and I really still don't see all the hoop-a-la about these things...I had a 33" barreled half stock .58cal, now I have a 38" barreled full stock .58cal.
I load it, sit down and lean against a post at the range like it was a tree, same fast ignition, ball still goes in the target where I want it at 50 yards...so I suspect if I get a good shooter in the sights he'll go down within sight of me the same way they did with the .58cal T/C Hawken...it's a puzzler for sure.
Oh wait :hmm: ...I remember the difference now...I had to sell a few T/C Hawkens to pay for it.
I load it, sit down and lean against a post at the range like it was a tree, same fast ignition, ball still goes in the target where I want it at 50 yards...so I suspect if I get a good shooter in the sights he'll go down within sight of me the same way they did with the .58cal T/C Hawken...it's a puzzler for sure.
Oh wait :hmm: ...I remember the difference now...I had to sell a few T/C Hawkens to pay for it.
No question - I'm in it for the meat and the enjoyment I get from being outdoors with a purpose. Because I do tend to take what comes along I have decided to hunt with more challenging instruments - sightless recurve bows with cedar arrows and traditional muzzleloaders. I hunt my own 20 acres that has little to attract deer - no real "easy" agricultural food nearby and just the mast from oaks and hickories. Deer are few and far between.
Still, the satisfaction I get from taking one of "my" deer is far greater than some of the fat & sassy bucks I lucked into in my old hunting haunts along the hedgerows of corn and alfalfa fields. In those spots it also tended to be a shooting gallery on opening day right through the first week. I'd see 12 or 18 other hunters in a day. In the last three years here I've seen two other hunters. I like that a lot.
But here I've bowhunted eight days this season and have yet to see a deer of any description. Don't like that so much. But I'm patient.
Sure, I'd love to take a huge wall-hanger someday. But I don't pass on the large does (my largest dressed out at 210 pounds!) or the regular fork horns and six-pointers that make up my usual take.
We've got four scull-cap mounts in the house; all hat racks in our mud room. My first deer (an eight-point), my wife's first deer (a six-point), my first bow killed deer (a seven point) and the unique antlers from a feral fallow deer that I shot on the property. Ate him, too (disappointing livery taste throughout the meat). The rest to show for 30 years of hunting has been sliced up for knife handles or powder measures or left behind nailed to the shed when we moved (mostly so disintegrated I figured they'd crumble if I pulled them anyway). I've got a few scattered hereabouts in the garage and cellar.
It's the hunt and the meat, not the antlers for me.
Still, the satisfaction I get from taking one of "my" deer is far greater than some of the fat & sassy bucks I lucked into in my old hunting haunts along the hedgerows of corn and alfalfa fields. In those spots it also tended to be a shooting gallery on opening day right through the first week. I'd see 12 or 18 other hunters in a day. In the last three years here I've seen two other hunters. I like that a lot.
But here I've bowhunted eight days this season and have yet to see a deer of any description. Don't like that so much. But I'm patient.
Sure, I'd love to take a huge wall-hanger someday. But I don't pass on the large does (my largest dressed out at 210 pounds!) or the regular fork horns and six-pointers that make up my usual take.
We've got four scull-cap mounts in the house; all hat racks in our mud room. My first deer (an eight-point), my wife's first deer (a six-point), my first bow killed deer (a seven point) and the unique antlers from a feral fallow deer that I shot on the property. Ate him, too (disappointing livery taste throughout the meat). The rest to show for 30 years of hunting has been sliced up for knife handles or powder measures or left behind nailed to the shed when we moved (mostly so disintegrated I figured they'd crumble if I pulled them anyway). I've got a few scattered hereabouts in the garage and cellar.
It's the hunt and the meat, not the antlers for me.
Idaho Ron
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To be honest I don't know why it has to be antlers vs meat. If taken care of properly big bucks are good to eat. I had stakes off of my buck last night and they were fantastic.
I also cut my own meat and NEVER take a animal to the butcher. I have seen some of the animals that go to the butcher and I don't want my animals even hanging in the same cooler. Butchers also leave the bone in and that makes for nasty tasting meat.
I used to take my hamburger to the butcher to grind. I was getting a good deal by taking it in and they would grind it last that day and I would wait and pick it up. They were charging .10 cents a pound just to grind. They went up to .80 cents to grind and I got my own grinder. 1 hp cabelas #22 neck. It grinds so fast it is scary, and I have the equipment to stuff it into the bags. I am not wild about cutting and grinding, but I do all my own. Even beef! Ron
I also cut my own meat and NEVER take a animal to the butcher. I have seen some of the animals that go to the butcher and I don't want my animals even hanging in the same cooler. Butchers also leave the bone in and that makes for nasty tasting meat.
I used to take my hamburger to the butcher to grind. I was getting a good deal by taking it in and they would grind it last that day and I would wait and pick it up. They were charging .10 cents a pound just to grind. They went up to .80 cents to grind and I got my own grinder. 1 hp cabelas #22 neck. It grinds so fast it is scary, and I have the equipment to stuff it into the bags. I am not wild about cutting and grinding, but I do all my own. Even beef! Ron
I've eaten "big bucks" and there's no comparison w/ a 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 old doe, anyways where I hunt..... the "biguns" now go into sausage. Since the advent of multiple tags, liberal bag limits and big deer herds, I think some of the "luster" has left deer hunting. Now, don't get me wrong...as a meat hunter I like filling the larder and perhaps because of my subsistence hunting during the "Great Depression", never experienced the "lofty outlook" some associate w/ deer hunting. Have been hunting for 70 yrs and have enjoyed every minute spent in the woods hunting many edible animals and have thoroughly enjoyed the "wild tablefare" through out the many years. But....for whatever reason people hunt, it's a very personal thing and who can say otherwise?...Fred
If we didn't keep score then we wouldn't know who won... How come nobody ever sees a small 4 point runnibng across a field? Seems it's always a big 12 point... I've seen some big deer and unless they are dead still, where I can get a good look, I can't honestly tell you how many points they had. Now inch class size is a different matter. You can get a fair idea at a glance if a ~>120" is going to "make the cut".
But the topic is "meat vs.antlers". The rut is on here in North Central Ohia, and I spent most of yesterday on stand, hunting with traditional archery equipment. Our gun season is a few weeks away. If the chance prevails, I'll take a nice doe, or a nice antlered buck. Having taken a few >120" bucks with traditional archery gear, and a few not greater with primitive gear, "made the bow, made the arra, made the point..." and a few (!) with ML's there's not much left to prove for me.
Which leaves me with the thrill of the hunt and the method that I take the deer with, antlered or not.
As a side note, if I had taken my .36 flinter yeaterday instead of my longbow, I'b be eating Squirrel today (and yes, I was tempted, but I came for deer). Life is full of choices.
R
But the topic is "meat vs.antlers". The rut is on here in North Central Ohia, and I spent most of yesterday on stand, hunting with traditional archery equipment. Our gun season is a few weeks away. If the chance prevails, I'll take a nice doe, or a nice antlered buck. Having taken a few >120" bucks with traditional archery gear, and a few not greater with primitive gear, "made the bow, made the arra, made the point..." and a few (!) with ML's there's not much left to prove for me.
Which leaves me with the thrill of the hunt and the method that I take the deer with, antlered or not.
As a side note, if I had taken my .36 flinter yeaterday instead of my longbow, I'b be eating Squirrel today (and yes, I was tempted, but I came for deer). Life is full of choices.
R
I've enjoyed taking just a very few squirrels after deer season the past couple years with a smoothbore Flintlock and it brought back such good memories from decades ago, I'm hoping I punch a good deer tag early so I can switch and start squirrel hunting while I'm still on vacation :grin:
