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To shoot or not?

I've got three places to hunt and three strategies this year. My public place I'll meat shoot big deer. It's a very short walk to the truck too. My neighborhood place is archery only and I think I'll only shoot yearlings before the rut and save the buck bait to bring in the big boys. There I see many deer but never a big boy until rut. I have no idea where they hide all year.
My friend's I'll only shoot a big boy. He wants does killed but he has a couple good ones there and its a good drive there and even a lot farther when I take it to the processor. This makes it an interesting hunting season. I have several friends and family that like the venison and so do I. Yawl have fun.
 
kaizen leader said:
I've got three places to hunt and three strategies this year. My public place I'll meat shoot big deer. It's a very short walk to the truck too. My neighborhood place is archery only and I think I'll only shoot yearlings before the rut and save the buck bait to bring in the big boys. There I see many deer but never a big boy until rut. I have no idea where they hide all year.
My friend's I'll only shoot a big boy. He wants does killed but he has a couple good ones there and its a good drive there and even a lot farther when I take it to the processor. This makes it an interesting hunting season. I have several friends and family that like the venison and so do I. Yawl have fun.
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Good reason to look for multiple places to hunt; different strategies and expectations for each place.
 
Andy S. said:
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". :)
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Yeah it doesn't have to be a binary choice. You don't have to be trapped in the box of meat hunter only or buck hunter only. I do it all and enjoy every bit of it. I hunt with my buddies and enjoy the time. I hunt with my family and cherish the time. I hunt alone for bucks and enjoy the solitude. And I do doe patrol to meet my family's meat requirements for the year. Deer season lasts September to January. Plenty time to do it all.
 
I was a big horn hunter for many years, bow hunting every day from Nov 1 to December 4, our rut dates in Northern Illinois.
In 1989 and 1990, I killed a Pope and Young deer, each year.
Got them mounted and hung around the house.
But those two deer quenched my thirst for horn hunting.
Never gave a thought to horns after that.
And...gave away those two mounts 10 years later.
 
Hduke86 said:
My take on hunting and this is just MY take on it. If I'm on my own land and a spike walks by and it's later in season well….. it's on the atv on the way home. I'm not out to shoot big bucks and I'm not out to shoot small bucks or a doe. What I am out to shoot is a deer and depending on my mood and success at that point in the season will dictate if that doe or spike gets shot. If a big buck walks by at any point then he's getting shot regardless.If I'm on a friend's place then I go by what they wish and I'm happy to pass does or little bucks.
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My take as well .
 
BSK said:
At my family's hunting cabin, on the coffee table, is a photo album which includes pictures of EVERY deer ever killed on the property. Every doe, every spike, every fawn. That's almost 200 deer. The album is very thick! But that photo album is looked through constantly.
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BSK, please get a digital record of that photo album just in case. Those memories deserved to be preserved.
 

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