# Hunters trade shots ...



## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Hunters trade shots over deer breeding, killing methods ...

The quest for better deer -- specifically bucks with antlers as freakishly big as possible -- has created a rift among deer hunters.

Prize bucks are measured on a complicated scale that involves measurements between antlers, but suffice to say the more and bigger the antlers, the more valued the animal in hunting circles. But hunters who stalk deer through the woods and take them down the old-fashioned way are seeing their records obliterated by deer created by breeders and set free in enclosed areas for weekend warriors to bring down - and mount in mancaves back home.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/1...ling-methods/?intcmp=latestnews#ixzz2f15x4PvC

As a ol-fashioned hunter ... I agree. They should show how/where the deer was killed for A record... I on the other hand hunt for meat not antlers but I see their point.

Your thoughts...


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## Ezmerelda (Oct 17, 2010)

The antlers on that deer are grotesque. Anyone can tell they didn't occur naturally.

This story reminds me of the old saw about Teddy Roosevelt refusing to shoot the bear tied to a tree.


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

I have never hunted for a trophy, you can't eat the antlers. I go after a nice young fat doe, they eat the best.


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## biobacon (Aug 20, 2012)

That's a pretty ugly deer. What makes you happy I suppose but hey rolling a 300 game with the bumpers on aint the same thing now is it?


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Ezmerelda said:


> The antlers on that deer are grotesque. Anyone can tell they didn't occur naturally.
> 
> This story reminds me of the old saw about Teddy Roosevelt refusing to shoot the bear tied to a tree.


Thanks for the memory... 

http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Learn-About-TR/Themes/Culture-and-Society/Teddy-Bear.aspx


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

I have never hunted for a trophy of any kind. I have only hunted for food, camaraderie and fun (and always with my Dad). That last several times I have gone hunting deer we got Doe only licenses and hunted with Muzzle Loaders (traditional style that we completed from kits, not modern). I found it much more sporting and we still got our deer.


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## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

Glad to see so many meat hunters as opposed to trophy hunters. A fat doe tastes better anyway and I have yet to meet a woman excited about the prospect of having a dead animal head hanging in the house. I leave the young bucks for other hunters. Sometimes Ill take an older one to let the young ones rise through the ranks and improve the herd but thats about the only time.


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## smaj100 (Oct 17, 2012)

I agree with all of the other posters so far. I've never hunted anything that I couldn't or wouldn't eat. I won't let anyone hunt my land who won't either eat themselves, donate it to my freezer or to a charity. Crack has it right I'll take an older large buck if the opportunity presents itself only to maintain a healthy herd.

My wife has made it abundantly clear, she'll eat just about anything I bring home, but there will be no animal heads on the walls of her house! I can put it in my man cave if I want too, just don't have a desire to brag that much about something. A picture speaks volumes enough for me.


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## Mortblanc (Apr 20, 2013)

I had a head mounted once. It freaked the cat out to no end. I had to move it out of the den and into my office.

What is not being considered here is that both Boone and Crockett and Pope and Young ratings have divisions for typical and non-typical trophies. They are not all lumped into the same pot.

Every advance in ay activity draws concerns. Traditional muzzle loaders do not want game taken with in-line rifles included in their ratings and in the past there was a dispute over use of compound bows for the B&C trophy ratings.

There is also the difference between tying a deer to a tree and an "enclosed hunt" in a field with 5,000 acres. Here in the east almost every deer hunting activity takes place in a fenced area and my last three deer were taken from thickets of less than 5 acres bordered by the chain link fences of suburbia. 

At one time I leased hunting rights to my land and you had better believe I "managed" my deer. I culled small bodied and weak racked bucks and allowed the big bucks to breed. I kept them well fed, happy and hanging around the home territory. 

People paid me big money to roam my land and get a chance at those bucks. Some succeeded and some did not. Some settled for small does and others held out for one of the big bucks. That was their choice. 

The WMA has been encouraging this in every state I know of for many years. They do the same thing in their own test breeding areas. 

We have elk in KY now due to the very careful "management" of a test heard to get a strain of animals resistant to TB. People are waiting in line for a lottery draw every year that allows them to take these "genetically engineered" elk. 

People that kill trophies eat them too. It's not all snob hunting.

And showing off that full freezer is just as much a trophy display as a head on a wall.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Mortblanc said:


> I had a head mounted once. It freaked the cat out to no end. I had to move it out of the den and into my office.


LOL! A friend in Montana had a bearskin rug made from a black bear he shot and put it on the living room floor. The cat wanted nothing to do with it!!! It was majorly freaked out..... it would go behind the sofa to get from one part of the house to the other!



Mortblanc said:


> Traditional muzzle loaders do not want game taken with in-line rifles included in their ratings and in the past there was a dispute over use of compound bows for the B&C trophy ratings.


I would agree the ratings should be in separate skills classes - a bow hunt is FAR harder to be successful at than a Model 700 with good optics and match ammo. Not the same at all.


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

Canned hunts are an aberration.those guys aren't hunters, they are thrill killers.
Put those poor freaks out of their misery.


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