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To shoot or not?

My take on it is this. I want everyone to get the maximum enjoyment they can from the hunt. I have had people ask me why would you pass that buck if the neighbor is just gonna shoot it? I said well the neighbor will be really happy when he shoots it and I won't be as thrilled if I shoot it. If I was a meat hunter, assuming there were plenty of deer around and that I could get plenty of doe tags, I would just shoot does. But that's just me. If processing costs was a factor, I'd just cut them up myself. It's pretty easy to do.
 
megalomaniac said:
I prefer the taste of well cared for, dry aged (10d is good enough) old bucks.
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I do, too. Lots of folks talk about tough, old, chewy, stringy bucks but I've not found that. When I kill a big old gnarly buck, the first thing we do when getting it strung up is pulling the tenderloins out & frying them up right there. It's always the tender & mild & tasty.
 
Ski said:
I do, too. Lots of folks talk about tough, old, chewy, stringy bucks but I've not found that. When I kill a big old gnarly buck, the first thing we do when getting it strung up is pulling the tenderloins out & frying them up right there. It's always the tender & mild & tasty.
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Many variables here, but there is no comparison from an old deer to a young one. While I have not had any bad venison, there is a difference.
 
Gravey said:
I'll be happy to try and kill the big ones. Just point me in the right direction. 😉🤣 Kill what you want if it's your own property or within the rules of a club.
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Sumner county, 3 does PER DAY is legal.
Coupla years ago I pulled into the processor with three does and a buck.
Lotta work that morning for a 72 year old guy, dragging, gutting, loading.
 
Never was a horn hunter. The wife and I like venison so I generally take what the good Lord sends my way.... I then try to make the pic interesting by inserting a nice flintlock rifle.
 

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Last season I decided for the first time I would only focus on one particular buck. I put weeks into scouting and reviewing cam footage. Worked hard for that buck. Let countless smaller bucks and does walk because I wanted that one buck. Looking back on it, worst season of my life and the worst hunting decision I've ever made. It took one of my greatest joys and made it a job. It also stripped all the fun out of it and in the end I killed nothing. I had no jerky to gnaw on, no fun times processing out my deer with my older friend from church, and long hours in the saddle doing nothing more than staring at dead leaves. It was stupid. Heading into this season I'm going the opposite direction. I'm going to view it like I'm 12 again. Regain that joy and drive. Brown it's down so long as it isn't an 1 yr old, etc. Hunting is fun and I'm going to let it be fun again.
 
Many years of hunting on poor habitat, difficult Terrain public land has given me an appreciation for any deer I kill. I have two nice places to hunt now where killing something is not a problem. If I see a branch antler buck I'm likely to shoot, a spike not so much. Last year I only killed antlerless deer, not because I wanted to but never had a shot at a buck dang it. A great part of the joy of hunting for me is field dressing, dragging and loading a deer. I should not be proud but sometimes I do take pride in the fact that I can go into the woods with a rifle and come back with meat. I thank God for giving me that ability because many people cannot do that. And by the way my wife and I eat every scrap of every deer I kill.
 
UCStandSitter said:
Last season I decided for the first time I would only focus on one particular buck. I put weeks into scouting and reviewing cam footage. Worked hard for that buck. Let countless smaller bucks and does walk because I wanted that one buck. Looking back on it, worst season of my life and the worst hunting decision I've ever made. It took one of my greatest joys and made it a job. It also stripped all the fun out of it and in the end I killed nothing. I had no jerky to gnaw on, no fun times processing out my deer with my older friend from church, and long hours in the saddle doing nothing more than staring at dead leaves. It was stupid. Heading into this season I'm going the opposite direction. I'm going to view it like I'm 12 again. Regain that joy and drive. Brown it's down so long as it isn't an 1 yr old, etc. Hunting is fun and I'm going to let it be fun again.
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I'm the opposite. I enjoy the tough challenge of chasing one particular buck even though it often means no kill.

However, my family and I thoroughly enjoy venison. We use it all year long and in many different recipes. This week in fact I'm making 25lbs of summer sausage. So I always shoot something. It's usually doe patrol. I usually kill between 3 and 6 every year for food and focus the fun on an old buck.
 
rifle02 said:
I should not be proud but sometimes I do take pride in the fact that I can go into the woods with a rifle and come back with meat. I thank God for giving me that ability because many people cannot do that. And by the way my wife and I eat every scrap of every deer I kill.
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Be proud! It's an accomplishment of self reliance to be able to bring meat home. I often think of God as a parent, and he instilled in us an inherent feeling of pride when we do something the way we're supposed to, and shame when we do something we're not supposed to do. It's not unlike positive reinforcement we practice on our children to make them feel good about doing something well. We learned that tactic from our own heavenly father. It's built into us. So be proud! You earned it.
 
UCStandSitter said:
Last season I decided for the first time I would only focus on one particular buck. I put weeks into scouting and reviewing cam footage. Worked hard for that buck. Let countless smaller bucks and does walk because I wanted that one buck. Looking back on it, worst season of my life and the worst hunting decision I've ever made. It took one of my greatest joys and made it a job. It also stripped all the fun out of it and in the end I killed nothing. I had no jerky to gnaw on, no fun times processing out my deer with my older friend from church, and long hours in the saddle doing nothing more than staring at dead leaves. It was stupid. Heading into this season I'm going the opposite direction. I'm going to view it like I'm 12 again. Regain that joy and drive. Brown it's down so long as it isn't an 1 yr old, etc. Hunting is fun and I'm going to let it be fun again.
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I couldn't agree more. I too got all wrapped up in the horn hunting, and thinking a buck had to be mature. That really took the fun out of hunting. Now I hunt because I love hunting. I'm still a little particular about the buck I kill (we don't have enough does to start shooting does yet), but not that particular. I have my standards set on a goal that I am likely to accomplish most year.
 
The more you relax about hunting the more satisfying it becomes. I have mixed feelings about bringing a newby out to kill a whopper, unless there is a special friendship there and you want to build a memory together. Killing a whopper can have mixed blessings. Often it creates unrealistic expectations that ruin hunting. If you are a newby without the experience to understand how rare an oversized deer is, and have one put in your lap, then that becomes the metric you measure your hunts by. Unfortunately, all the media is geared towards booner bucks and too many hunters fall for it and equate success with inches of horn, or "mature" bucks. Some of my best and most memorable hunts have been with friends where nobody killed anything or got a deer that would be sneered at or ignored by the hunting industry. Big bucks are nice, but with the cultural and hunting industry focus on antler size, it warps hunting to be about that, not about all the other wonderful things about a hunt, regardless of what you kill or don't kill.
 
Ski said:
I'm the opposite. I enjoy the tough challenge of chasing one particular buck even though it often means no kill.

However, my family and I thoroughly enjoy venison. We use it all year long and in many different recipes. This week in fact I'm making 25lbs of summer sausage. So I always shoot something. It's usually doe patrol. I usually kill between 3 and 6 every year for food and focus the fun on an old buck.
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Exactly the way I have approached TN deer season the last 20 years. 4-6 does each season for eating/sharing with friends/family, and 0-2 bucks, depending on the year. I have rarely needed more than one "statewide" buck tag since 2004, maybe a couple of years. As my wife likes to joke and say, you are not a buck "hunter", you are a buck "watcher". :)
 
hammer33 said:
The more you relax about hunting the more satisfying it becomes. I have mixed feelings about bringing a newby out to kill a whopper, unless there is a special friendship there and you want to build a memory together. Killing a whopper can have mixed blessings. Often it creates unrealistic expectations that ruin hunting. If you are a newby without the experience to understand how rare an oversized deer is, and have one put in your lap, then that becomes the metric you measure your hunts by. Unfortunately, all the media is geared towards booner bucks and too many hunters fall for it and equate success with inches of horn, or "mature" bucks. Some of my best and most memorable hunts have been with friends where nobody killed anything or got a deer that would be sneered at or ignored by the hunting industry. Big bucks are nice, but with the cultural and hunting industry focus on antler size, it warps hunting to be about that, not about all the other wonderful things about a hunt, regardless of what you kill or don't kill.
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Well said.
 
hammer33 said:
The more you relax about hunting the more satisfying it becomes. I have mixed feelings about bringing a newby out to kill a whopper, unless there is a special friendship there and you want to build a memory together. Killing a whopper can have mixed blessings. Often it creates unrealistic expectations that ruin hunting. If you are a newby without the experience to understand how rare an oversized deer is, and have one put in your lap, then that becomes the metric you measure your hunts by. Unfortunately, all the media is geared towards booner bucks and too many hunters fall for it and equate success with inches of horn, or "mature" bucks. Some of my best and most memorable hunts have been with friends where nobody killed anything or got a deer that would be sneered at or ignored by the hunting industry. Big bucks are nice, but with the cultural and hunting industry focus on antler size, it warps hunting to be about that, not about all the other wonderful things about a hunt, regardless of what you kill or don't kill.
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Excellent post.

When I was younger, I was driven by my desire to kill the best buck available. I often hunted alone. The goal was all that mattered. But as I aged and mellowed, I started thinking about what I REALLY enjoy most about hunting, and that is hunting with friends/family. Now, that's what I look forward to most, when my entire family is in town to hunt together. Do I still want to kill a good buck each year? You bet! Would I want to kill the best buck available. Absolutely! But that's no longer what I look forward to as deer season approaches.
 

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