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First day of rifle season and you encounter a 170”+ deer.

What do you do???

  • Total voters
    126
I'd shoot it and much less than 170. Cameras can be good and bad. Most people end up hunting based on what's on their camera vs just go hunting. Just because you don't have pics on camera doesn't mean anything. What makes you think there's not thousands of other routes for a big buck to take. He doesn't have to walk passed your camera. But people will start to believe there isn't any big bucks around due to no camera pics. Cameras will end up ruining what could have been a great hunt. Of course it can be used to help. But don't rely on them alone.
 
I have shot a lot smaller. I would be shaking like Barney Fife but I would shower him with lead!
 
Buzzard Breath said:
Now that I understand the full question, I let the buck walk. I want to be able to look at the trophies on my wall have be able to recall the memories of the hunt. Shooting one from just off the right-of-way, porch, gate (etc....) has no appeal to me.
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Same here. Half of the reason I shoot bucks is for the challenge of the hunt and out smarting them. I love playing the game. In this scenario there is no chess match and I wouldn't be outsmarting them so no I would pass.
 
killingtime 41 said:
I'd shoot it and much less than 170. Cameras can be good and bad. Most people end up hunting based on what's on their camera vs just go hunting. Just because you don't have pics on camera doesn't mean anything. What makes you think there's not thousands of other routes for a big buck to take. He doesn't have to walk passed your camera. But people will start to believe there isn't any big bucks around due to no camera pics. Cameras will end up ruining what could have been a great hunt. Of course it can be used to help. But don't rely on them alone.
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The 9 point I shot last year with my bow during muzzleloader, I had zero pics of on my cameras and had several cameras out on the property. It was during the seeking part of the rut and he came into a doe that was behind me. Prime example of if I would've just used my cams to base my decision to hunt I would've never been there that day in that spot.
 
As someone above already said... hunting means different things to different people.
I told this story the other day, but I think it's appropriate here.

Couple years ago, I had two nice bucks on camera. One really got my interest. I hunted him for most of the season...never got an opportunity.
Came home from town one day with wife and kids. As we were unloading car I noticed the buck up on a hill behind neighbor's house. He was locked down on a doe.
Finished unloading car and called the neighbor to ask for permission to shoot from their yard. Permission granted. Grabbed my rifle and some orange and headed across neighbor's yard. I could have shot from our yard but I would have had to shoot over their house. Wasn't doing that. Got where I wanted, used a small tree to steady myself, and ...killed the buck.
At first I was excited...got the buck I had been after. But after things calmed down...I don't feel so well about it. His Euro is hanging over my head as I type this. Everytime I look at it I think....that wasn't hunting, at least not by my definition. I don't feel good about what I did...and won't do it again.
Just an FYI...it was a legal kill...just not "hunting".
 
Well if it's legal I'm shooting, it must be rough being a trophy hunter hearing of all the small deer killed, I am just a deer hunter that eats what I shoot and could care less how big a set of horns are, I do like to shoot older bigger deer but on this side of the state I probably wouldn't be eating much deer meat waiting on 1 above 110" ymmv.
 
mike243 said:
Well if it's legal I'm shooting, it must be rough being a trophy hunter hearing of all the small deer killed, I am just a deer hunter that eats what I shoot and could care less how big a set of horns are, I do like to shoot older bigger deer but on this side of the state I probably wouldn't be eating much deer meat waiting on 1 above 110" ymmv.
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That's the gist of it. A guy who drives up to the steps of his climate controlled shooting house, sits in a reclining office chair while sipping coffee and watching the game on his phone, overlooking a food plot 200yds away waiting for a buck to step out, is not going to lecture me about "real hunting" because I was lucky & shot a big buck from the back porch of my cabin or from the gate or from my neighbor's back yard. And I'm not going to feel like less of a hunter for doing so. I'll be grinning the biggest smile you've ever seen because I'm gripping 170" of antler.

Hunting is weird. It's not a team sport but so many hunters really seem to care what other hunters think so they can try to fit some mold or box. I've never met a man who chases a buck down, squares off with his antlers in a face to face fight, and kills him fair. Instead we ALL look for opportunities to surprise our prey by ambush from distance with a projectile. Whether you do that from the ground, stand, blind, back porch, etc., it's all the same concept of opportunistically flinging a projectile from distance at an unsuspecting animal. Who exactly dictates what is real and not real hunting? Trying to say one way is real and another is not is hypocrisy, IMO.

The buck wouldn't have to be 170" for me. I've killed some very big bucks in real wilderness but I'd also 100% kill a 130 8pt if he was out back & I could get a shot off in time. And I'd be thankful for the opportunity, as well as proud to show off the antlers & tell the story. I'm not afraid to own it.
 
I became an "OFFICIAL" measurer for B/C P/Y in 2017. Pryor to that I knew how to and had scored several book deer who I referred to Ben Layton for official scoring before I became official.

It never ceases to amaze me how few people know that a true Boone and Crocket is NOT 170".

It IS 160".

I have scored MANY perspective "Booners" Since 2017. VERY VERY few have made the 160" net MINIMUMS.

Anyone who EVER gets a chance to legally, ethically kill a 170 gross or not is NUTS to say they are a deer hunter, but yet passes up a LEGAL, ETHICAL, FAIR CHASE, chance at a legit 170" deer.

Do you honestly think some of the B/C bucks in the books now were known to the hunter before they killed it, some even with a BORROWED 30-30 lever action on a DEER DRIVE!

Some of the highest scoring bucks EVER weren't even taken by a hunter. A TRAIN allegedly killed one of the biggest.

Some were found in a ditch.

Big racks are about BIG RACKS! The books HONOR THE BUCK. Not necessarily the hunter!

EXTREMELY few hunters will EVER see a 160" GROSS buck.

People throw these numbers around like skittles.

The "BOOK" for Tennessee gun hunters is a VERY respectable 140" buck
Bow is 115"

GREAT for a Tennessee buck.

There is your reality check for the day!
 
Tenntrapper said:
As someone above already said... hunting means different things to different people.
I told this story the other day, but I think it's appropriate here.

Couple years ago, I had two nice bucks on camera. One really got my interest. I hunted him for most of the season...never got an opportunity.
Came home from town one day with wife and kids. As we were unloading car I noticed the buck up on a hill behind neighbor's house. He was locked down on a doe.
Finished unloading car and called the neighbor to ask for permission to shoot from their yard. Permission granted. Grabbed my rifle and some orange and headed across neighbor's yard. I could have shot from our yard but I would have had to shoot over their house. Wasn't doing that. Got where I wanted, used a small tree to steady myself, and ...killed the buck.
At first I was excited...got the buck I had been after. But after things calmed down...I don't feel so well about it. His Euro is hanging over my head as I type this. Everytime I look at it I think....that wasn't hunting, at least not by my definition. I don't feel good about what I did...and won't do it again.
Just an FYI...it was a legal kill...just not "hunting".
Click to expand...
I have a similar story: I was jumping on the trampoline with my daughter a few years ago when a driver came by my house and stopped just down the road. I knew what was about to happen and sure enough I heard his rifle fire as he drove away. Took my daughter inside, grabbed my rifle, and drove to the end of the driveway. As I looked across the road I saw a small 8 standing in my pasture. Neighbor pulls up a few minutes later and we sit there talking for a bit about this buck. He kept pressuring me to take the shot. Wasn't a terrible buck but wasn't even close to being a no-brainer. I ended up taking the deer and have always regretted it. I have his euro somewhere too in a closet. For me hunting is all about the story and everything that goes into the harvest from food plots, to cameras, to stand sites is part of the enjoyment. Shooting that deer, when it was all said and done, gave me no joy.
 

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