Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting will you ever pay to kill a whitetail?.

Yes. I'd like very much to hunt Coues whitetail.

Should add that I'd never pay money to kill a whitetail, nor any critter for that matter.

I would pay to hunt them though.

That must be how they are all done. Glad you saw a show.

just to many good whitetails in this country on puplic land and private land that can be had.i just can't see me ever spending the money for a outfitter to hunt them.

Pouring rain here and I'm tired from the last 5 days trying to get a Whitetail-physically and mentally-so it is a break morning......

We all "pay" to hunt in one way or another.

For the majority, the days of so called free "out the backdoor" hunting died a long time ago.

When Whitetails were more numerous in Pa just about anyone could find a Buck if they spent the time. This year at least 7 were taken from my area in archery before the rifle hunters had their chance, and a couple were pretty nice.

Around here it puts the hunt back in hunting and I'm not as good at it as I once thought.

It's like 'free pussy'

Nobody said that's how they all do it .I said in SOME cases it's like shooting a steer.

just to many good whitetails in this country on puplic land and private land that can be had.i just can't see me ever spending the money for a outfitter to hunt them.

big time whitetail hunting

What exactly does that mean? I've hunted on my own in areas that a guided hunter pays $3K-$5K to hunt deer. Same goes for Mule Deer. I've never paid more than a little of my time during planting/harvest, calving/round-up or a few packages of filleted walleyes to hunt any parcel of ground

I paid $6500 door-to-door (travel, lodging, fuel, licenses, etc.) for an AB moose hunt because as a non-resident alien of AB/Canada, that's my only option to hunt in AB. I didn't want to wait to draw my home state's once in a lifetime no-preference point bull moose tag, I wanted to hunt a moose.

I paid $7K door-to-door (Flights, lodging, licenses, air-freight return of antlers/capes, etc) for a 2 Caribou drop camp hunt in AK.

For that $300 you pay for a lease I can hunt my home state and a neighboring state annually. 2500ac would feel very constricting.

As for whitetails themselves, I don't care much for them. They are the American equivalent of 'roo's. Too many, very little in the way or quality animals and they are a damn pest on the roads.

Now mulie's.......they are special. Those, I really like and would give up a dozen white tails to one any day.

John

And if you wouldn't try to shoot a big whitetail when it popped up in mule deer country you are kidding yourself.

I think the question that needs to be asked is should I pay to hunt, not would I pay.......

The number one enemy of the hunter in this country is not PETA, the Sierra Club, or the Humane Society, it is the hunter himself...Our hunting heritage began to die the minute the first hunter decided to pay for access to private land or pay to be led around by the hand by an outfitter.

As we all strive to kill TV sized game, more and more private land gets leased every year by outfitters. Meanwhile groups of average hunters are scrambling to keep pace by consolidating funds and carving out a lease of their own via hunt clubs..

Those who cannot afford to lease or are just not willing to, are eventually displaced. It's why the public lands get more crowded every year! Folks like Tedthorn who get sick of the public land hunting pressure either quit hunting or try to keep pace with outfitters. I have followed Ted's posts over the years and I know where he leases. I know because 20yrs ago I used to knock on doors up there and get permission to hunt for free.

The days of knocking on doors and gaining permission are largely over. Landowners know that there is no shortage of people willing to line up with their wallets out...... Those who think they can continue to keep pace with outfitter lease rates are kidding themselves. The average group of guys simply cannot compete with an outfitter running as many hunters a year as possible...

This has become our hunting culture. Largely predicated by hunting shows, social media, and the urbanization of this country. The longer we allow this culture to continue without even giving it some thought, the more the average hunter is going to get shut out. Forming hunt clubs and consolidating funds is a great idea but it is not going to work forever. There are simply too many people willing to pay an outfitter a lot of damn money to shoot trophy animals...

How long before the lease rates become so high that it requires so many average guys to fund a hunt club that the lease itself begins to resemble public land hunting? Not long fellas!

The single most important factor in changing this culture and continuing the hunting heritage passed down to us lies with the next generation and their fathers. That's us dumb asses, wake up!

It is our duty to pass down the heritage of hunting but more and more dads are finding it difficult to take their kids hunting simply because there are increasingly less and less places to go..

We have got to change this trophy animal no matter the cost mentality. We as trophy hunters are doing far more damage to ourselves than the anti hunting groups ever could.

I find myself resentful of what we as hunters have become. We have got to stop paying outfitters for private land access or for sh+t we can do ourselves.....Period!

See signature line.........................................


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just to many good whitetails in this country on puplic land and private land that can be had.i just can't see me ever spending the money for a outfitter to hunt them.

Yes.

But I'd never pay to kill a deer - I DO occasionally pay for the right to hunt them. Have you never once dreamed of hunting in Canada? Or perhaps a different state?

score means didlysquat to me on a whitetail.

Sure seems to given the amount of thinking you're giving to how other folks go about filling a tag.

Laffin'....Yep.
Convenient avatar switch by the OP too.

just changed it to my last buck. if score mattered i would not have shot him. he wouldn't score good at all.just an old mature buck that i had a blast hunting.

You're uglier than I remember...

I think the question that needs to be asked is should I pay to hunt, not would I pay.......

The number one enemy of the hunter in this country is not PETA, the Sierra Club, or the Humane Society, it is the hunter himself...Our hunting heritage began to die the minute the first hunter decided to pay for access to private land or pay to be led around by the hand by an outfitter.

As we all strive to kill TV sized game, more and more private land gets leased every year by outfitters. Meanwhile groups of average hunters are scrambling to keep pace by consolidating funds and carving out a lease of their own via hunt clubs..

Those who cannot afford to lease or are just not willing to, are eventually displaced. It's why the public lands get more crowded every year! Folks like Tedthorn who get sick of the public land hunting pressure either quit hunting or try to keep pace with outfitters. I have followed Ted's posts over the years and I know where he leases. I know because 20yrs ago I used to knock on doors up there and get permission to hunt for free.

The days of knocking on doors and gaining permission are largely over. Landowners know that there is no shortage of people willing to line up with their wallets out...... Those who think they can continue to keep pace with outfitter lease rates are kidding themselves. The average group of guys simply cannot compete with an outfitter running as many hunters a year as possible...

This has become our hunting culture. Largely predicated by hunting shows, social media, and the urbanization of this country. The longer we allow this culture to continue without even giving it some thought, the more the average hunter is going to get shut out. Forming hunt clubs and consolidating funds is a great idea but it is not going to work forever. There are simply too many people willing to pay an outfitter a lot of damn money to shoot trophy animals...

How long before the lease rates become so high that it requires so many average guys to fund a hunt club that the lease itself begins to resemble public land hunting? Not long fellas!

The single most important factor in changing this culture and continuing the hunting heritage passed down to us lies with the next generation and their fathers. That's us dumb asses, wake up!

It is our duty to pass down the heritage of hunting but more and more dads are finding it difficult to take their kids hunting simply because there are increasingly less and less places to go..

We have got to change this trophy animal no matter the cost mentality. We as trophy hunters are doing far more damage to ourselves than the anti hunting groups ever could.

I find myself resentful of what we as hunters have become. We have got to stop paying outfitters for private land access or for sh+t we can do ourselves.....Period!

See signature line.........................................


X-VERMINATOR

As someone who hunts public land and non-posted private land it would be nice to hunt an area that doesn't see quite as much pressure. Never fun to find human or four wheeler tracks all over the place...

What exactly is non-posted private land ?

In my home area in Idaho, it's what the newer generation of neighbors and drive-by-road hunters view as "their" rights to hunt your land without asking. We are seeing more and more folks coming onto non-posted land without a thought of stopping at the house and asking permission. I doubt we'd ever say "no", but it would be nice to be asked before hearing shots on your property.

So what is the term used if they jump in your truck and take it for a spin without asking. Kinda the same thing in my book. I gotta figure if it isn't yours, you don't belong on it or in it.

I'd pay to hunt Iowa or Illinois and I'm considering it for next year. Gun only though so Id need a guide that includes gun hunting.

Mike,
You'll likely need at least one preference point (maybe more) to draw the shotgun tag in Iowa. (depends on unit) It's not impossible to draw without a PP though. I did a couple years back and had a good hunt around the Bloomfield area.

What exactly is non-posted private land ?

Somebody always got to start a thread about how their way is superior and every other way sucks. Whether it's ph*ckin or huntin...it's personal, and if you don't feel good enough about your way to just do it without judging how others do it, then you probably need to examine how you do it more than how others do.

Nope, not to kill, but I have, and will for fair chase hunting with the deer behaving naturally. Living in MA that's only possible in bow season, thus why I pay to hunt with rifles out of state, but mostly unguided. While I wouldn't pass up a trophy, its the quality of the hunt that I am looking for, letting me make my own success or failure.

just a simple question. not meant for simple minds.

Your last sentence says it all. Each year my wife and I pay and pay dearly for the opportunity to hunt Anticosti. Guided?????????????? If that's your idea of guided. He sets you up with a location and points you in a direction and then success or failure is up to you. Come on guys..........The ONE common denominator is that we ALL hunt. How we hunt is a personal decision and no amount of infighting will change that.


BTW WESTERN Mass is a GREAT place!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Someone here, on the fire, has a tag line that goes something like this;

Those that spend all their time shooting their mouth off are usually the ones that don't do much real shooting !

IMHO, it usually holds true.

no comment at all woulda made more sense then what you said.

just a simple question. not meant for simple minds.