Hunting Question

[musketman]

On deer hunting, will you shoot the first deer that presents you with the proper shot for a humane kill (for meat) or hold out for a trophy buck this year?

Or both if you can get it...

 

[Randal Zartman]

In regular rifle season I am concentrating on taking my two daughters out. If I get a day by myself,due to their success, I will focus on getting a nice buck. In late muzzleloader season I will also focus on a buck until the last day. Reason being is I see alot of deer on the farm I hunt the last day. If I don't get a doe, it ain't the guns fault. The other possibility is my nephew wants to hunt late season m/l with me because he has a junior combination (not from Wendy's) license that allows him to shoot a doe in late m/l season. Come on hunting season. I am ready and anxious. :winking:
Zman

 

[Stumpkiller]

If it's brown, fits the restrictions of whatever tags I have, is full grown (and has good body size) and presents a good target I take the shot. If I'm in what I think is a really good spot and I know there's a bruiser around I'll pass on AM shots and wait out a PM one . . . perhaps.

Antlers are nice, but I don't wait for the next biggest. When it feels right I pull the trigger. I don't believe I've EVER passed on anything with at least a fork. They're all trophys to me. :winking:

 

[Rebel]

First legal deer that comes by. I food hunt. I haven't figured out a good recipe for antlers yet.

 

[roundball]

I am a very, very lucky guy to live & hunt where there are lot's of deer, get 4 buck & 2 doe tags per year, have very long deer seasons, and I hunt on private land...so I can afford to gamble for the first week or so in the early part of the season.

Every year I take off two weeks vacation during the 2nd/3rd week of November and hunt the rut hard for two solid weeks while bucks are moving constantly throughout the day looking for the ladies.

Last fall, I saw at least one buck every day for 9 days that I hunted the rut, and two different bucks on a few days...passed on some of them and filled 4 tags with the others.

I never shoot does until I've filled my buck tags...I like those live decoys walking around as much as possible, especially hunting the rut. And by the same token, so I don't spook deer unnecessarily when I start hunting the rut, I also pass on small bucks, yearlings, etc. and see how things play out.

Once I did take an unusually large beamed 4 pointer with a .50cal percussion but ordinarily pass in the early part of the season cause I never know if "big daddy" might be coming along 100yds behind him...but if the season is drawing to a close and I still have a buck tag in my pocket, then a 4 pointer is in serious trouble.

I don't eat vension at all, give them all away to needy families out in the country where I hunt, but I love to hunt them, especially now with flintlocks!

 

[Huntinfool]

BOTH !! MM

Hey Roundball, I get just the opposite 2 buck and 4 anterless tags a year! LOL! :thumbsup:

I plan to fill em all as I have for several years.


YMH&OS,
Chuck Goodall
The Original Huntin' Fool
&
Kanawha Ranger Scribe

 

[bob1961]

musketman....the first best shot that i can make it goes down and into the freezer....

rebel....you can grind the antlers into powder for for your peter enhanchment :crackup: like the chinamen do or say works......................bob

 

[RussB]

Roundball....Some of you guys are very fortunate to live where you do, when it comes to liberal bag limits.
I was once stationed in Alabama and the limit there was simply. "no more than one (1) per day".
The first year I was there, I went absolutely crazy! But it didn't take me long to realize you can only deal with so many deer.
In theory, a person shooting a bow, then muzzleloader, then modern, could take about 90+ deer every year. Deer were thicker than fleas on a dog! Somewhat smallish, but plenty of them. Anyone living in some of the SE States, and loves to hunt, has just got to be in Heaven!
I think Washington state has got to have some of the most strict game laws in the nation.
I do envy some of you fellers!
In response to the thread...I guess it would all depend on where ya live.
Russ

 

[roundball]

And I absolutely know I'm lucky...built up a good relationship with a couple of landowners over the past 15 years...they each made me write them a check for $1.00 to make the lease official !!

But I give them big Christmas hams every year, presents for their family / kids...a couple of gift certificates during the rest of the year to restaurants or something...they are so generous to let me hunt their farms...and it's year round...I'll go after Doves a couple afternoons in September with my SxS BP smoothbore, then deer November /December, then squirrels in January, Turkey in the spring, etc.

Yes, I've heard about the deer population and bag limits in Alabama...must be an incredible deer herd there

 

[RussB]

...and it's year round...I'll go after Doves a couple afternoons in September with my SxS BP smoothbore, then deer November /December, then squirrels in January, Turkey in the spring, etc.

:cry: :cry: :cry:

Isn't there some kinda law, somewhere, about having too much fun?.......You lucky dog!
Russ

 

[leadball]

First legal deer that comes by. I food hunt. I haven't figured out a good recipe for antlers yet.

My dog chews them for me first to soften them up a bit :bull: :crackup:

 

[Bearclaw]

Howdy Pilgrim! Here in Virginia all lands are posted. So, unless you know a farmer that will let you hunt his land, you can only hunt in wildlife management areas. I don't hunt on Saturdays becaude it's like being in the middle of Iraq and after that first Saturday it's tough to get any buck.(All WMA's are buck's only for the most part)Now that I'm retired I will hunt only in the middle of the week to keep from "gittin kilt!" Wachyer Topknot
Bearclaw :results:
P.S. We have a great wild turkey population (different season), and a whole lot less hunting pressure