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Right_Tackle74

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
418
Location
Loudon, TN, USA
I hope and I pray this does not lead to a debate. But here goes. In my Hunting history, I started by myself. My Dad never Hunted. My Pappaw and Uncle Hunted but they never told me anything about it or any advice. What I learned I learned by first hand mistakes, Time in the woods. I learned to use rifles, muzzleloaders, Bows and adjust them by myself. People like myself I consider Group A.)

Other Hunters I'll refer to as Group B.) are those I consider as Dad taking them out in the woods, Scouting, Sitting on stand and general woodsmanship, Dad or Uncle shows them how to shoot a bow etc.

My questions when these "Debates occur" on here is this, Those Hunters who came up alone in Group A.) and Those who were taught by a mentor (Dad, Deacon @ Church, etc.) How does that stack up. Like myself I take pride and accomplishment in any Deer I take. This week I picked up two antler plaques of a 5 point and 3 point, But they are going on the same wall as my 16 point and 10 point shoulder mounts in the man cave. I was able to harvest them by myself on land I hunt by legal means and I'm proud I've learned how to do this alone. Whereas someone who sat with Dad 10 years ago and Dad whispered "Let that Buck walk, He's too young."

No one sat beside me to say "Let it walk". I'm not debating or arguing. Is it a consensus that Group A.) Hunters will taking any Doe or Buck (Legally speaking here) and Group B. Hunters (mentored) will be more apt to QDM, or other Harvest means. Sorry If I lost anyone. I'm trying to narrow down the root causes in why some hunters feel passionate one way and others another way. Thank you for your time and God Bless.
 
I grew up hunting brown it's down for the first seven years (1993-2000) but have slowly progressed to the point I am at today. I never had a daddy or uncle guide me and tell me to let anything walk. Somehow I just morphed into who I am today through increased self-imposed regulation. It is just how I like to approach deer hunting to challenge myself in my own unique ways, not how I think others should approach it. To each his own as long as it is within applicable guidelines and regulations. My .02
 
Andy S. said:
I grew up hunting brown it's down for the first seven years (1993-2000) but have slowly progressed to the point I am at today. I never had a daddy or uncle guide me and tell me to let anything walk. Somehow I just morphed into who I am today through increased self-imposed regulation. It is just how I like to approach deer hunting to challenge myself in my own unique ways, not how I think others should approach it. To each his own as long as it is within applicable guidelines and regulations. My .02
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Exactly what I would have wrote. if I were articulate.
 
Im group B but grew up in a its brown its down situation. My Dad and our hunting group would have thought its crazy to let any legal buck walk. Now out of that hunting group of around 10 guys, only 2 still practice brown down mentality. It was a progression that changed the majority of us into letting 1.5 year old bucks walk.
 
Group B. I shoot whatever I feel like at the time. Sometimes I pass until I see a mature buck and sometimes I just shoot the first thing that walks in front of me. I just go off how I feel that day.

I always admire the group A guys and I'm glad you have choosen the path you have.
 
Why should ther be any "stacking up"? Why should killing anything be predicated by how the person learned to do it. The truth is, 95% of all deer killed are the result of luck more than anything else.

I grew up dog hunting deer. You sat down and if a dog ran a legal deer by, you shot it. I passed through the brown and down into a little more picky into trophy hunting and now shoot whatever I want if it is legal. I may shoot a spike or I may not. It just depends on how I feel that day.

What does any of it have to do with whether we were self-taught or had a mentor?

Maybe I don't understand the question.
 
I'm solidly in Group B and was blessed to have lots of family that hunted: Grandaddy, dad, siblings, uncles, cousins. There'd be 4 or 5 muddy trucks pull up to the barn on any given saturday during the fall...all of'em full of guys wearing orange. We were happy to shoot whatever came by then, and truth be told most are still the same way today.

A few of us (myself included) are very selective about pulling the trigger on a buck but it doesn't make a bit of difference to me one way or other. Shoot what makes you happy.
 
Hey Bowriter, I'm mostly trying to get the "What was your thought process" type question. I know people debate everything on antler regulations to bag limit. I'm just curious as to the mind set to the thinking of the Hunter. Like You've heard of the Nature vs. Nuture question. Same principal. I'm just curious as if those who were brought up by other Hunters are more likely to be the ones who Trophy Hunt and Manage Deer than those who Buy a license a box of shells and learn it all by themselves and don't have the "Hunting Lessons" so to speak as they would view Hunting NOT DIFFERENTLY, but from another point of view. Like a Group A.) Hunter are they more inclined to Brown it's Down to a Group B.) Hunter who may be more inclined to restrictions. Just trying to get into the mindset.
 
Another vote for Group B.

I grew up with a granddad who was an awesome hunter, fisherman, trapper, outdoorsman, etc. He sacrificed many hunting opportunities in his 6o's hauling my butt around teaching me about the outdoors. Likewise, I thankfully sacrificed many hunting opportunities in my 20's hauling his butt around while he battled Parkinson's.

I had the great fortune to grow up hunting a private family club in the MS River bottoms of the MS Delta. We progressed from brown is down, to 4 point or better, to 4 on one side, to 16" spread, to the current 20" main beam regulations. I haven't killed more than one buck in a season since my teens.
 
I would say I'm a mixture, My dad and neighbor took me hunting but mostly for small game, I wanted to try deer hunting and pretty much self taught myself how to do it, the first few years I hunted anything was fair game but after that I became more selective up to the point today where as far as bucks go I hunt for age up to a point, I'm not gonna pass a a 170" 3 y/o for a 5 y/o 6 point
 
I am Group A. I started out wanting to shoot any legal deer. I did so for about a dozen years. Then I learned about QDM and started practicing that, but I already had plenty of deer under my belt by that time.
 
I think a lot of a hunters beginnings are going to come down to when they started hunting. QDM didn't hit the mainstream until the late 90s and after--basically only the last 10-15 years.
 
im in group B and im begining to start a little QDM. but i dont hesitate to shoot a small buck if its been a bad year with little to no buck sitings. And i still get that rush wether its a spike doe or 160in deer.
 
I think most of the older fellers here started as i did.Any legal deer was taken.Back in the 60s you were lucky with any buck that came by.My first buck, a 6 pointer, i killed in Sumner county the first year it was open.There were no experienced deer hunters at that time.It was new to all.I guess i was an "A" then.
The older i get the more i am a "B".Kinda picky about what i shoot.Dont want to gut em,drag em and almost impossible to load by myself.
Its getting harder to pull the trigger,the older i get.

I'll say something now i havent told anyone.The buck i killed lasy year was on of my largest bow kills.I passed him up 4 days earlier because it was almost dark.At 7Am he came through my funnel,I drew back and stuck him good.Got my cell out to call a friend for help.Found him,cleaned him and drug him out to the field.It was the next day it dawned on me i never once got excited.No "OH YEAH!"no "FISTPUMP".

Maybe this on was to easy.I usually hunt 3 or more days in a row befor i connect.All dayers,the second week of november.This time i hunted the evening before and shot him the next morning.

I am thinking about going back to traditional archery.Only think holding me back is i dont want to give up my portable climber.Hard to shoot a long bow out of a stand.

Getting off subject here.

I think most will go from an A to a B over time.
For the hunters that start out a B. Thats great.
 
bowriter said:
Why should ther be any "stacking up"? Why should killing anything be predicated by how the person learned to do it. The truth is, 95% of all deer killed are the result of luck more than anything else.
Click to expand...

Yep, pretty much sums it up with me as well.
When I started hunting in the good old 60s the seasons were short and if you even saw a deer it was reason for celebration.
Heck I taught my dad how to deer hunt instead of him teaching me. Of course he did teach me how to hunt squirrells and rabbits because that was all we had to hunt.
Back then shooting a doe was frowned on by most. I remember my friends kidding me for even "trying" to kill a deer with a bow. BTW compounds weren't even invented then, I killed my first deer ever with a 60+ inch Ben Pearson recurve that only drew 45 lbs. Do I think that makes me a better hunter than someone who learned to hunt by shooting an Xbow, and who had a family member or friend sitting beside them to wake them up when a deer stepped into view? No, I don't. They were just more fortunate than I was.
For me, I like eating venison so I "usually" kill the first legal deer I see come bow season, then try to better that as the seasons and the weapons change.
 
Im the same way as you Right_tackle74,my dad hunted but had stopped hunting long before I got old enough to start hunting with him.So I started deer hunting when I was 15 bymyself with his old slug gun he used,and what little bit of info he gave me.I have done everything on my own,and when I did kill my first deer on my own,it was an awesome feeling to know I did it by trial and error and on my own.Still to this day I hunt 99% of the time bymyself and find that any deer I kill im extreamly proud of it,doesn't matter if its a small doe/spike or a big 4.5yr old 10pt.But as I have more deer kills under my belt,I find myself letting more and more deer walk when I could have killed them.
 
buzz mcmanus said:
Group B. I shoot whatever I feel like at the time. Sometimes I pass until I see a mature buck and sometimes I just shoot the first thing that walks in front of me. I just go off how I feel that day.

I always admire the group A guys and I'm glad you have choosen the path you have.
Click to expand...

I'm like Buzz, except i'm a group A guy. I also hunt heavily pressured public land, so i don't see many mature bucks no matter how long i sit. :D I try to shoot does for meat though more now than I did when i was young. However if it has been a while since I've seen a deer, I am short on meat, or i just feel like shooting a deer I will kill the first one by.
 

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