I always enjoyed reading John Wootters. I’m sure many here did too. I recently found a web page containing pictures and many of his articles and wanted to share it here.
https://johnwootters.com/gallery
Thanks, have a couple of his books
Thnx Doc
I like JW also.
At first I was skeptical of a few things he wrote
but I verified those.
I think he was entertaining as well as informative.
I have a couple of his sayings etched in my mind.
Thnx for the link.
Jerry
Have mentioned before that the very first time I met John (at one of my first SHOT Shows, and I attended my first in 1988) he said that gun writing was entertainment. He'd done "real journalisim" while working for the Houston newspaper, including reporting on a major hurricane, so knew what he was talking about. That said, he was a great gun journalist--and hunting story teller!
Thanks. I have one of his books…“The complete book of Practical hand loading”. It gave me several ideas about reloading projects and techniques.
I always enjoyed reading his work, kinda like those of our Mule Deer
He was one of my favorites when I discovered Peterson Hunting in the early 90’s, along with Milek, Barsness and Coogan. I also really enjoyed reading Gary Sitton. He always grabbed my attention. I still have most of those magazines, and occasionally dig them out and take a trip down memory lane. Good stuff.
I have some of those magazines, and also dig them out!
I knew Gary Sitton too, though not was well as John Wootters--who aside from in-person meetings used to phone once in a while, and his calls were always pretty long!
Unfortunately, Gary had some personal demons (as quite a few really good writers have since the inception of the written word), and consequently left us long before he might have. Would have loved to read his take on hunting and rifles today.
He was one of my favorites when I discovered Peterson Hunting in the early 90’s, along with Milek, Barsness and Coogan. I also really enjoyed reading Gary Sitton. He always grabbed my attention. I still have most of those magazines, and occasionally dig them out and take a trip down memory lane. Good stuff.
Gary Sitton! Now there is someone who could really write some great articles and stories. I always turned to his page first (the last page of the magazine, iirc) whenever I got the new issue. Wish I would have kept those magazines.
Wooters was also excellent. I believe he was a big .308 fan.
I have some of those magazines, and also dig them out!
I knew Gary Sitton too, though not was well as John Wootters--who aside from in-person meetings used to phone once in a while, and his calls were always pretty long!
Unfortunately, Gary had some personal demons (as quite a few really good writers have since the inception of the written word), and consequently left us long before he might have. Would have loved to read his take on hunting and rifles today.
Gary was one of my favorites. He never actually came out and detailed the personal demons you speak of but he clearly dropped hints along the way that he made a mess of his life at times. But he was a brilliant writer. He wrote columns under a pen name as well. Also brilliant.
I have some of those magazines, and also dig them out!
I knew Gary Sitton too, though not was well as John Wootters--who aside from in-person meetings used to phone once in a while, and his calls were always pretty long!
Unfortunately, Gary had some personal demons (as quite a few really good writers have since the inception of the written word), and consequently left us long before he might have. Would have loved to read his take on hunting and rifles today.
Gary was one of my favorites. He never actually came out and detailed the personal demons you speak of but he clearly dropped hints along the way that he made a mess of his life at times. But he was a brilliant writer. He wrote columns under a pen name as well. Also brilliant.
I believe his pen name was Jacob Bowers.
Thanks a million for posting this !
Got to meet him once around 1990 at a Hunting&Fishing Show.I always enjoyed John's writings.
I really wish that whoever has Gary Sitton's estate would put together, as many books as it would take, an anthology of his work. His back of the magazine articles were worth the price of admission, and then some. May he RIP.
I really wish that whoever has Gary Sitton's estate would put together, as many books as it would take, an anthology of his work. His back of the magazine articles were worth the price of admission, and then some. May he RIP.
Agreed. I remember many great articles from him. Squirrel rifles, lever action rifles for turkey, hunting Alaska with a reader who won the trip, and many more.
I always like John Wooter's work. He wrote well. I enjoyed his style. I've got nothing against him, and I write this more as a question than a condemnation.
John wrote a book, Hunting Trophy Deer , published in 1977. I've got a copy here in front of me. John used his vast knowledge of hunting whitetails in Texas to its utmost. This and several articles he wrote got hunters thinking about culling inferior bucks. This is a story of unintended consequences.
The next thing you know, the whole world was burning their deer tags on every misshapen rack they could find. When I started my stint over at Deer & Deer Hunting, there was a large mass of hunters who were determined to rid the world of inferior bucks. I was appalled. I had read Wooter's book at the dawn of my hunting career-- picked it up used at the bookstore over on the next block. The part folks seemed to be missing was the part where all this culling was taking place behind a high fence. I've got nothing against high fences either. It's just that you cannot do effective culling on anything but a captive population. I was surrounded by men determined to rid their farms, national forests, and WMA's-- the entirety of our fruited plains, from sea to shining sea of inferior bucks.
Thankfully, that nonsense has died down in the past decade or so. I am proud of whatever small part I had in its demise.
As I dug back as to a reason for this madness, I came back to Wooters. It is a tribute to Mister Wooters that his idea of culling spread so far and so fully. However, I was not really paying attention to all this when it happened. I did not start deer hunting until the early 80's, and I read outdoor magazines mostly things other than hunting. On my first pass, deer hunting content got just a cursory glance. By the time I started paying attention, Hunting Trophy Whitetails had been out for some time , and there were articles everywhere about how to cull your herd and what to look out for in a cull buck.
I think one of the saddest things in all this was all the poor wretches that posted their cull buck pics on the burgeoning new medium of internet forums. Rather than proudly proclaiming their success at hunting, guys tried to make it sound like they'd done the world a favor. Truth is, that "cull buck" probably could have grown into something awesome given a few more years. It took until about the 2010's for the culling fashion to die out.
I have questions for you all. First off, am I correct in saying Wooters popularized this whole culling thing? I never read anything by anyone about this subject prior to him. Second, why didn't anyone do anything? What I mean is that it is pretty obvious that culling a wild herd is spitting in the ocean. Someone besides me must have seen the madness for what it was.
To what extent did Wooter's change high fence hunting? What I remember from early the '80s was that "cull hunts" were a big thing. Guys readily signed up for a chance to hunt deer with 8 points or less at a discount. Did Wooters influence or popularize this, or did he just document the fad?
I read that book a long time ago. I don’t recall him advocating for anything like that, but then again it was years ago. Seems at odds with my impression of Wooters.
“Not many of us live long enough to kill a giant buck by accident.” John Wooters Trophy Bucks, Sports Afield October, 1977
I have some of those magazines, and also dig them out!
I knew Gary Sitton too, though not was well as John Wootters--who aside from in-person meetings used to phone once in a while, and his calls were always pretty long!
Unfortunately, Gary had some personal demons (as quite a few really good writers have since the inception of the written word), and consequently left us long before he might have. Would have loved to read his take on hunting and rifles today.
Gary was one of my favorites. He never actually came out and detailed the personal demons you speak of but he clearly dropped hints along the way that he made a mess of his life at times. But he was a brilliant writer. He wrote columns under a pen name as well. Also brilliant.
I believe his pen name was Jacob Bowers.
You are correct, Sir. I came across a few Peterson's Hunting magazines last night from the early 90's and that's the name he was writing under at the time. Very talented writer.
He was one of my favorites when I discovered Peterson Hunting in the early 90’s, along with Milek, Barsness and Coogan. I also really enjoyed reading Gary Sitton. He always grabbed my attention. I still have most of those magazines, and occasionally dig them out and take a trip down memory lane. Good stuff.
Gary Sitton! Now there is someone who could really write some great articles and stories. I always turned to his page first (the last page of the magazine, iirc) whenever I got the new issue. Wish I would have kept those magazines.
Wooters was also excellent. I believe he was a big .308 fan.
Yep did the same thing.
I think Seyfried contributed as well.
I always like John Wooter's work. He wrote well. I enjoyed his style. I've got nothing against him, and I write this more as a question than a condemnation.
John wrote a book, Hunting Trophy Deer , published in 1977. I've got a copy here in front of me. John used his vast knowledge of hunting whitetails in Texas to its utmost. This and several articles he wrote got hunters thinking about culling inferior bucks. This is a story of unintended consequences.
The next thing you know, the whole world was burning their deer tags on every misshapen rack they could find. When I started my stint over at Deer & Deer Hunting, there was a large mass of hunters who were determined to rid the world of inferior bucks. I was appalled. I had read Wooter's book at the dawn of my hunting career-- picked it up used at the bookstore over on the next block. The part folks seemed to be missing was the part where all this culling was taking place behind a high fence. I've got nothing against high fences either. It's just that you cannot do effective culling on anything but a captive population. I was surrounded by men determined to rid their farms, national forests, and WMA's-- the entirety of our fruited plains, from sea to shining sea of inferior bucks.
Thankfully, that nonsense has died down in the past decade or so. I am proud of whatever small part I had in its demise.
As I dug back as to a reason for this madness, I came back to Wooters. It is a tribute to Mister Wooters that his idea of culling spread so far and so fully. However, I was not really paying attention to all this when it happened. I did not start deer hunting until the early 80's, and I read outdoor magazines mostly things other than hunting. On my first pass, deer hunting content got just a cursory glance. By the time I started paying attention, Hunting Trophy Whitetails had been out for some time , and there were articles everywhere about how to cull your herd and what to look out for in a cull buck.
I think one of the saddest things in all this was all the poor wretches that posted their cull buck pics on the burgeoning new medium of internet forums. Rather than proudly proclaiming their success at hunting, guys tried to make it sound like they'd done the world a favor. Truth is, that "cull buck" probably could have grown into something awesome given a few more years. It took until about the 2010's for the culling fashion to die out.
I have questions for you all. First off, am I correct in saying Wooters popularized this whole culling thing? I never read anything by anyone about this subject prior to him. Second, why didn't anyone do anything? What I mean is that it is pretty obvious that culling a wild herd is spitting in the ocean. Someone besides me must have seen the madness for what it was.
To what extent did Wooter's change high fence hunting? What I remember from early the '80s was that "cull hunts" were a big thing. Guys readily signed up for a chance to hunt deer with 8 points or less at a discount. Did Wooters influence or popularize this, or did he just document the fad?
Wooters started the whole "trophy management" QDM, raise your very own trophy buck bullshyt that has ruined deer hunting and been responsible for millions of posted signs going up and lease fees being charged all over the Country.
I always like John Wooter's work. He wrote well. I enjoyed his style. I've got nothing against him, and I write this more as a question than a condemnation.
John wrote a book, Hunting Trophy Deer , published in 1977. I've got a copy here in front of me. John used his vast knowledge of hunting whitetails in Texas to its utmost. This and several articles he wrote got hunters thinking about culling inferior bucks. This is a story of unintended consequences.
The next thing you know, the whole world was burning their deer tags on every misshapen rack they could find. When I started my stint over at Deer & Deer Hunting, there was a large mass of hunters who were determined to rid the world of inferior bucks. I was appalled. I had read Wooter's book at the dawn of my hunting career-- picked it up used at the bookstore over on the next block. The part folks seemed to be missing was the part where all this culling was taking place behind a high fence. I've got nothing against high fences either. It's just that you cannot do effective culling on anything but a captive population. I was surrounded by men determined to rid their farms, national forests, and WMA's-- the entirety of our fruited plains, from sea to shining sea of inferior bucks.
Thankfully, that nonsense has died down in the past decade or so. I am proud of whatever small part I had in its demise.
As I dug back as to a reason for this madness, I came back to Wooters. It is a tribute to Mister Wooters that his idea of culling spread so far and so fully. However, I was not really paying attention to all this when it happened. I did not start deer hunting until the early 80's, and I read outdoor magazines mostly things other than hunting. On my first pass, deer hunting content got just a cursory glance. By the time I started paying attention, Hunting Trophy Whitetails had been out for some time , and there were articles everywhere about how to cull your herd and what to look out for in a cull buck.
I think one of the saddest things in all this was all the poor wretches that posted their cull buck pics on the burgeoning new medium of internet forums. Rather than proudly proclaiming their success at hunting, guys tried to make it sound like they'd done the world a favor. Truth is, that "cull buck" probably could have grown into something awesome given a few more years. It took until about the 2010's for the culling fashion to die out.
I have questions for you all. First off, am I correct in saying Wooters popularized this whole culling thing? I never read anything by anyone about this subject prior to him. Second, why didn't anyone do anything? What I mean is that it is pretty obvious that culling a wild herd is spitting in the ocean. Someone besides me must have seen the madness for what it was.
To what extent did Wooter's change high fence hunting? What I remember from early the '80s was that "cull hunts" were a big thing. Guys readily signed up for a chance to hunt deer with 8 points or less at a discount. Did Wooters influence or popularize this, or did he just document the fad?
Wooters started the whole "trophy management" QDM, raise your very own trophy buck bullshyt that has ruined deer hunting and been responsible for millions of posted signs going up and lease fees being charged all over the Country.
I’m not sure about that just yet. I’m reading an article taken from his book right now, and just scored a copy of the book itself to re-read. So far, in reading the article I don’t see anything except his definition of a trophy deer, and his suggestion that folks that want to kill one need to pass on shooting the little ones, and shoot spikes and does for meat, not 1.5 year-old rack bucks. That’s not the same as culling inferior bucks to remove them from the gene pool.
If you know of other stuff he’s written that pushes modern QDM, where was it? Meanwhile, until the book arrives, I’ll be reading his articles on the site linked above.
I always like John Wooter's work. He wrote well. I enjoyed his style. I've got nothing against him, and I write this more as a question than a condemnation.
John wrote a book, Hunting Trophy Deer , published in 1977. I've got a copy here in front of me. John used his vast knowledge of hunting whitetails in Texas to its utmost. This and several articles he wrote got hunters thinking about culling inferior bucks. This is a story of unintended consequences.
The next thing you know, the whole world was burning their deer tags on every misshapen rack they could find. When I started my stint over at Deer & Deer Hunting, there was a large mass of hunters who were determined to rid the world of inferior bucks. I was appalled. I had read Wooter's book at the dawn of my hunting career-- picked it up used at the bookstore over on the next block. The part folks seemed to be missing was the part where all this culling was taking place behind a high fence. I've got nothing against high fences either. It's just that you cannot do effective culling on anything but a captive population. I was surrounded by men determined to rid their farms, national forests, and WMA's-- the entirety of our fruited plains, from sea to shining sea of inferior bucks.
Thankfully, that nonsense has died down in the past decade or so. I am proud of whatever small part I had in its demise.
As I dug back as to a reason for this madness, I came back to Wooters. It is a tribute to Mister Wooters that his idea of culling spread so far and so fully. However, I was not really paying attention to all this when it happened. I did not start deer hunting until the early 80's, and I read outdoor magazines mostly things other than hunting. On my first pass, deer hunting content got just a cursory glance. By the time I started paying attention, Hunting Trophy Whitetails had been out for some time , and there were articles everywhere about how to cull your herd and what to look out for in a cull buck.
I think one of the saddest things in all this was all the poor wretches that posted their cull buck pics on the burgeoning new medium of internet forums. Rather than proudly proclaiming their success at hunting, guys tried to make it sound like they'd done the world a favor. Truth is, that "cull buck" probably could have grown into something awesome given a few more years. It took until about the 2010's for the culling fashion to die out.
I have questions for you all. First off, am I correct in saying Wooters popularized this whole culling thing? I never read anything by anyone about this subject prior to him. Second, why didn't anyone do anything? What I mean is that it is pretty obvious that culling a wild herd is spitting in the ocean. Someone besides me must have seen the madness for what it was.
To what extent did Wooter's change high fence hunting? What I remember from early the '80s was that "cull hunts" were a big thing. Guys readily signed up for a chance to hunt deer with 8 points or less at a discount. Did Wooters influence or popularize this, or did he just document the fad?
Wooters started the whole "trophy management" QDM, raise your very own trophy buck bullshyt that has ruined deer hunting and been responsible for millions of posted signs going up and lease fees being charged all over the Country.
I’m not sure about that just yet. I’m reading an article taken from his book right now, and just scored a copy of the book itself to re-read. So far, in reading the article I don’t see anything except his definition of a trophy deer, and his suggestion that folks that want to kill one need to pass on shooting the little ones, and shoot spikes and does for meat, not 1.5 year-old rack bucks. That’s not the same as culling inferior bucks to remove them from the gene pool.
If you know of other stuff he’s written that pushes modern QDM, where was it? Meanwhile, until the book arrives, I’ll be reading his articles on the site linked above.
He wrote a lot of magazine articles about managing for "trophy bucks". Nobody heard of that shyt here or cared much about it before that. Folks mostly hunted for recreation/fun/meat and thought any legal buck was a good buck and many if not most farmers in the area considered them crop eating pests. There was still a lot of unposted land and most farmers would give you permission to hunt if you asked. Those days are pretty much over now as everybody wants to be involved in the "grow a trophy buck" program and are willing to pay outrageous lease fee's to lock up private hunting land. Combine Wooters articles with the explosion of all the QDM/ grow your own trophy "hunting" shows and here we are. They successfully turned deer hunting into a deer farmer pay to play dick measuring contest for the well to do "sportsman".
I have to agree but give him credit that was not his intention. Yep, nothing ruins a good hunting experience like competition.
I grew up hunting in the Catskill Mountains in upstate NY. Those were my least productive hunts but by far the most enjoyable. This was almost 50 years ago.
Because of Wooters, I searched hard for a full stock Sako Bofors .308, just like the one he had with a 1.5x5 x20 Leupold. I still have the rifle.
For a while, I was friends with Joe Balicki who stocked some of Wooters rifles. He also hunted on his ranch. Joe was quite the character! I even got to see his work shop and the awesome stocks that he inletted and checkered.
PacNor is finishing up my Wooter’s wildcat. Should have it soon. I was always enamored of his 25/222 Copperhead. It will soon be a reality.
I read everything he wrote as a young hunter and shooter. Always looked forward to the next articles.
I had the pleasure of meeting John and his lovely wife, Jeanne at the NRA Annual Meetings in Charlotte in 2000 I believe. They were a genuially nice couple. John shared with me his love of his Sako full stock in .308 and the long missing Winchester Model 88. I had always liked his writing and I walked away happy that I got to meet these two beautiful people. The world was a little better off when John was with us.
The book I snagged today is LN, inscribed, and autographed. $35. Not bad.
I have a number of what I think Wolfe put out maybe quarterly titled "Hunting something" where Mr. Sitton scribed some great stuff. I am too lazy to go chase them down. In fact, I seem to recall a MD write of his LW 280 that the now deceased builder in Montana built, Dave Gentry?
I read that book a long time ago. I don’t recall him advocating for anything like that, but then again it was years ago. Seems at odds with my impression of Wooters.
“Not many of us live long enough to kill a giant buck by accident.” John Wooters Trophy Bucks, Sports Afield October, 1977
In
Hunting Trophy Whitetails Wooters has a whole chapter on "Management Principles and Problems." That was where he really laid out his ideas. There are comparison photos of bucks -- keepers vs. culls, and studies cited.
Now, I'm not trying to castigate Wooters for writing what he did. He was right. He was writing truth as it was known at the time. The problem arises from the fact that these are captive herds he's writing about. If you don't make that assumption, you would conclude that culling is a great idea anywhere you go. The other problem is that there were studies done in the '80s and '90s that showed a lot of racks that would have been classified as culls actually turn out to be great racks if the deer is allowed to grow older.
The other major howler in all this is that the doe contributes 50% of the DNA to an offspring. How does one go about improving the genetics of a herd when you're culling the inferior bucks and not culling their mothers as well?
Inside a large fenced hunting preserve, such as what you have in Texas, it does make sense to cull. If you see a big-bodied deer with crappy antlers, this animal is hogging valuable resources that you would rather go to a trophy buck. Texas is hot and arid and there is far less food and water to go around.
Where this all gets really sad, is when you get an email from some guy in Switzerland County, IN wondering how many of his precious buck tags he needs to devote to culling, before he's going to see improvement in his bucks on his Dad's dairy farm. That county, btw, is a Mecca for hunters in our region, and regularly produces some unholy hatracks.
What they do on private, high-fenced land is for the most part their business, and probably effective over time. On open land, culling is probably a waste of time, except when you harvest does to balance the sex ratio, and shoot scrags instead of potential boomers (not Booners) to allow the good ones to get better, not to affect genetics. Mature scrags can have some interesting racks too. Some even prefer them. Actually, simply letting small bucks walk can be very effective. My neighbor did that on a nearby farm for over twenty years and took some really excellent bucks as a result. If you have food and cover, you’ll have does, with does you’ll have bucks. If you let them get old, you’ll have big bucks, some of which will be nice ones. Any old deer is a trophy, buck or doe, because they are hard to fool.
I don’t think you can blame the interest in trophy deer for the lack of access to private land. It’s very tough here to get permission, but it’s mostly because the owners are against hunting, have relatives that hunt, or very often because they worry about damage to their crops by wounded deer running through them and the recovery. They complain about deer damage, but won’t let people hunt, or if they do it’s after the damage has been done. In the adjacent VA county, firearms doe season on private land begins, I believe, on Labor day. They also have a two-doe Earn-a-Buck restriction. Similar rules are going into effect in other counties. I don’t see much benefit because no one will let people come in and hunt, and there’s not public land in every county with the new seasons, Clarke for example.
I hunt Public, and shoot what I see, except obvious fawns. There’s an Earn-a-Buck in this county too, but just one must be taken before a second buck. Also there’s a three-buck per year statewide limit. Never got close on that one!
I don’t think you can blame the interest in trophy deer for the lack of access to private land. It’s very tough here to get permission, but it’s mostly because the owners are against hunting, have relatives that hunt, or very often because they worry about damage to their crops by wounded deer running through them and the recovery.
I've asked permission from a buttload of landowners over the years. Around here there are very few against hunting. I only ever heard one say "Sorry, I don't allow anyone to hunt on my land." Never heard a one say they were concerned about crops as a reason for denying permission either. What you hear most often these days is "sorry, can't do it, I've got it leased out to some hunters already". The next most heard response is, " nope, me and my family hunt it and that's enough". Thankfully we do have a lot of public land here and having lived here all my life, I personally know/am friends with a good number of landowners who do grant me permission. If you don't know somebody, good luck.
I tried to lease a farm where we had permission, but they seemed afraid to “lose control” of the ability to control access when they wanted. Most farms here are smaller now, and surrounded by residential properties, so safety becomes a big issue. A lot of them show up on On-X as family trusts too.
I have about 1400 acres of public 20 minutes away and tens of thousands more within a hour or two. A little driving beats dealing with cranky farmers, and I like the woods, deer or no deer. Just bought a satellite locator so my wife will know where to send the cadaver dogs if I don’t come home.
I too was heavily influenced by Wootters 25 Copperhead. I was looking to build a small bolt-face deer rifle and looked seriously at the 25 Copperhead and during the search found others, 257 Kimber and 6.35x47 etc. Along came the 204 case 2004/2005 and I ended up building a 25-204 and really appreciate JW for peeking my interest in a small bolt-face .257 This season it will be headed to AZ for coyotes and Javelina . For the past 16yrs it has been a faithful game taker.
I, too, really enjoyed reading Wooters. I have to say though, wherever the idea of culling started I am sick to death of the term"management" hunt or shooting a "management" deer. That's one term that I wish would just go away.....
I tried to lease a farm where we had permission, but they seemed afraid to “lose control” of the ability to control access when they wanted. Most farms here are smaller now, and surrounded by residential properties, so safety becomes a big issue. A lot of them show up on On-X as family trusts too.
I have about 1400 acres of public 20 minutes away and tens of thousands more within a hour or two. A little driving beats dealing with cranky farmers, and I like the woods, deer or no deer. Just bought a satellite locator so my wife will know where to send the cadaver dogs if I don’t come home.
I have permission to hunt a couple properties now that I just won't anymore because of the landowner rules. The one guy has about 40 cameras out on his property and shows you pics of every buck seen on the property. He goes through them telling you what you can shoot and what you can't. "Don't shoot this nice 8 point because in another year he'll be a real slob". Don't shoot this young 6 point or this young 8 point because they need more time to grow and will be nice bucks in a few more years." You can shoot these spikes because they've got inferior genetics and need to be culled." " Oh and don't shoot any of my does, I need them to keep my bucks coming around." Fugg all that, I'll hunt someplace else where I can shoot what I want.
I tried to lease a farm where we had permission, but they seemed afraid to “lose control” of the ability to control access when they wanted. Most farms here are smaller now, and surrounded by residential properties, so safety becomes a big issue. A lot of them show up on On-X as family trusts too.
I have about 1400 acres of public 20 minutes away and tens of thousands more within a hour or two. A little driving beats dealing with cranky farmers, and I like the woods, deer or no deer. Just bought a satellite locator so my wife will know where to send the cadaver dogs if I don’t come home.
I have permission to hunt a couple properties now that I just won't anymore because of the landowner rules. The one guy has about 40 cameras out on his property and shows you pics of every buck seen on the property. He goes through them telling you what you can shoot and what you can't. "Don't shoot this nice 8 point because in another year he'll be a real slob". Don't shoot this young 6 point or this young 8 point because they need more time to grow and will be nice bucks in a few more years." You can shoot these spikes because they've got inferior genetics and need to be culled." " Oh and don't shoot any of my does, I need them to keep my bucks coming around." Fugg all that, I'll hunt someplace else where I can shoot what I want.
Sad that more and more this is what private land hunting is turning into. And I don't care for Wooters because of his role in it all. Thats why I only hunt State Forest now
I am/was a fan of J Wooters.
I DISTINCTLY remember his echoing that ' a spike is always a spike'. Don't tell me he did not.
Before his passing he amended that to 'a spike will never be a trophy buck'.
OTOH - He wrote about guns, rifles, cartridges etc. and he was informative and entertaining.
Give credit where credit is due. He deserves proper credit.
" Them as can writes, them as can't edits",..... J Wooters
Jerry
John and Jeanne have been our friends for over fifty years. We know no better people. His passing was great loss.
I haven't read his book regarding whitetails, but we had many conversations on the subject. John and Jeanne owned a small ranch is south Texas and devoted it to his own study and practice. He verbalized only two rules for those fortunate enough to be invited to hunt whitetails on their ranch.
Rule 1. If you see a hog, and don't kill it, you may leave. Your gun stays here.
Rule 2. Kill no buck aged under four-and-a-half years. If you can't properly judge the age of a buck before your shoot, you probably won't be invited in the first place.
I don't recall any significant conversations regarding spikes or does. He did admit to a distinct preference for Axis venison over whitetail.
John once mentioned being asked to join a Sako collector's group. He protested that he had only one Sako. His protest was met with, "Your 308 makes it a collection of one."
Ken
{I really enjoyed John's writing.........
Mr. O
You said,
"Rule 1. If you see a hog, and don't kill it, you may leave. Your gun stays here. " 
Love that.
Thanks for your input from a close relationship. I appreciate it.
Jerry