We as the ultimate hunter on the planet with skills and good sense to having the prey become a prey of our convenience and by appointment. the self accomplishment of taken a trophy animal by stalk and pursue is surely a thing of the past. Give the outfitter the proper fee and you can now fly from the east coast to the mid west on Friday after work go to a furnished heated mini house shoot your 180 point deer by 9 a.m. get on the plane on sunday and be home in 3 hours and all arrangement for the deer taken care of from picking it up in the food plot to mounting. Now we have the latest fad also known as the LONG RANGER now the pry is shot up to 1000 yards away by a team of pros for a substantial fee. I think the next step is to have a forward observer with a lazer beam held on the side of the animal and radio in the GPS to the client a mile away of which time he will get out of bed open the window fire a smart bullet and return to bed and view his kill later in the day.The hunter is something of the past it is now the trophy hunter and paid pro who has all but put a radio collar on the beast. Oh I have become a fan of bison hunters. a poor animal that stands in the middle of a field and some yo yo dressed in a mountain mans outfit is driven out to within 50 yards of him and shoots him with a 45-70 loaded up to 458 mag specs and everyone congrads him on a great feat. the TV shows are not helping us.

Hunting can be as hard or easy as you want it to be,Not all hunters hunt by the same standards mentioned above.Most of my hunts a DIY,nothing like you describe.As fars as hunting shows go,if it offends you do not watch it.

Maybe you should stay away from the Outdoor Channel and spend some time with an English teacher to learn about sentence structure, punctuation and what a paragraph is supposed to be.

You would be less frustrated and better prepared to make a valid point...

Do tell? I must be using the wrong outfitters or hunting the wrong places DIY. In 40+ years I have seen 3 whitetails that looked like they'd gross 180 or better and didn't kill any of them.

I froze to death several times just to see them.

Where the hell do you hunt? I think you need to hunt more and watch less TV.

You seem upset. Watching that crap on TV will do that. It's along the same lines as watching Obama talk. Listening to him is worse.
There are groups that hunt with flintlock muzzle loaders. You might find such a group. There are others that only hunt with cast bullets. Fun and a worthwhile pursuit.

Bottom line(s)
Watching TV - bad. Going outside, still hunting - good.

Hunt with others that feel the same way as you.

But you'll still get upset sometime when a nimrod does something stupid.

What a load of crap. I just retired and will get or already have hunting licences in 6 states. Wolves and pronghorn will take me from Sept.-March. Throw in some birds and lots of coyotes all done w/out a guide on public land. Our only limitation is time. Whiners are boring.


mike r

Excellent advice on both counts.

Excuse me ma'am, I believe that you have posted on the wrong fora...you seem as though you would be better served at the PETA discussion forum on chatabout.

Have a nice day.

Certainly not the rule for most, but there are some that subscribe to optimum foraging theory. Maximize take with minimal effort. I see the drone thing eventually creeping into several aspects of what we call hunting.

Drones, huh? Now you're talking. Perhaps I'll mosey over to the hobby store and get one with a video camera, and link it to my smartphone. Send it up over the trees and scout the Lower 40 for deer.

That, or invite my buddies over for beer and anti-aircraft fun. Probably this.

OP: There is a lot more important stuff to worry about. "Never sweat the petty stuff and always pet the sweaty stuff."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I agree with you !

I got rid of the sportsmans channel years ago . Sickening watching these people yap and yap about all these products - and having deer under 24/7/365 surveillance riding their bad boy buggy to the stand etc. . Pimping their wives with more products .

I've always considered having someone "take me" hunting to be so silly .
You are right in that many so called hunters have little to no real hunting skills -they don't scout or figure things out for themselves they pay someone to set up a shot for them.

I know there are many hunters here and probably not many who go to hunting resorts , those type of hunters don't sit and think about hunting like most 'fire members do .

It appears some here think you are pointing a finger at them , I didn't take your post like that .

Prithee...what is a "hunting resort"?

Falderal.

Me thinks you've been duped into thinking SCI's show with @zzclown Mike Rogers or whatever the dude from Swarovski (Dean Capuano, IIRC) show is called - thinking you were watching a low fence hunt.

It simply doesn't work like that.

I have no idea where "hunting" is headed, but I do know where I'll be headed, come September.

Pod, this is quite a rant.I don't use any of the modern gadgets and I am a very serious hunter.In the western Canadian mountains we either walk or horse ride in fairly rugged country, it is always a strenuous and wouldn't want it any other other way.I hunt mature antlered or horned game am very selective, killing very few game animals because of this.As a hunter consider myself a steward of the land and if we see garbage , we pack it out.Many, many others look at things like I do .Pod, give it a rethink.

Pod,
Gus was here first. There isn't a need for two of you.

Hunting will be, if it isn't already, an activity for the very rich and the very poor.

https://www.google.com/search?q=lux...=0ahUKEwioweKEnPvMAhVVW1IKHR7pCM8QsAQIGw

---------------------------------------------------------------------

My brothers father-in-law went "hunting" in Michigan every year to a hunting resort fortified with the best of everything . He was a top executive at Procter & Gamble .
Lavish rooms , booze , five star food , beautiful young call girls , tennis , hot tubs heated pool . They didn't tell their wives they were going to a hunting resort , probably worded it a "hunting cabin".

He did bring back a couple of deer to back up his story though , but I doubt he was the one who shot them .

Steven Rinella, nuff said.


Define it as you wish and have the balls to satisfy yourself instead of keeping up with thousands of people you'll never meet and don't matter anyway.

Pod,

Last year I headed up the trail with a 270 and a pack and didn't get back to my truck for 3 days. That's typical for one of my hunting excursions. I was onto elk day one about dark and had to make camp under a tree. At 6 am I was back at it. Tracked Elk all day and got one glimps early morning. This herd was on the move. I spent another night and shot my elk at 9:14 am the next morning. I was around 20 miles from my truck.

This picture is a far cry from the picture you've painted. Where I come from this is more what you'll see. If you don't like what your seeing where you live.....well move to Montana

PS The only reason I hunted with a 270 is because I didn't know it was a gay cartridge.

This year I'll shoot my elk with a 6.5 Swede



Shod

This is wonderfully eloquent and insightful.
Huge +1.

I learned a new word tonight. That is always a highlight for me.

Hmmm...not really seeing a downside with that, apart from the minor irritation of not being able to afford it.

I'm not a writer, but I have to reply. Largely, because of my past command status with TXDPS, I have been invited to hunt out of some world class lodges, with chefs and wait staff on site. Needless to say those hunts were a pleasure, but a hunt none the less. Other than for birds, I don't recall ever firing a shot at one of those, past the rifle range.

In the same hunting season, I have slept in cheaply constructed shacks, old run down ranch houses, even in a leaky surplus semi-trailer. The hunts were quality because of the comradery and/or the game. In the seventies, a friend and I used to hunt and fish from a tent camp. That gets to be work, but we were younger and enjoyed ourselves. ,

In the eighties, we were a little more prosperous. Cousin and I had a year round exclusive lease and a junky trailer house on a small ranch. Our families enjoyed this a lot. Wife and I lived about an hour out and cousin and family were about the same time out via his private plane. No 180 class deer, but lots of fun and not budget bustingly expensive. We later hauled our junk trailer to a larger spread.

For about twenty years, we hunted desert mule deer and scaled quail in the Trans-Pecos, on up to 900 sections of ranches owned and or leased by Sisters employer. This was usually a three day hunt beginning the day after Thanksgiving. Actually, we hunted quail and the deer were incidental. I killed four deer in that time period and passed on dozens. Our camp was a decent, but primitive ranch house. Running water, but no electricity. Good food, great comradery. I really enjoyed Sister's boss, an older gentleman, and some of his cronies. There were enough of us younger guys, at the time, to chase quail and do a bit of heavy lifting.

I am now the older guy in my hunting circle. I have a S-I-L in the Texas Panhandle who farms and ranches. He and his family have lots of hunting opportunity available to me. In that, I am fortunate.

Other S-I-L and daughter and a partner bought a small ranch with a "lodge" already in place. The lodge was a metal barn with a bath, small kitchen, and a bunk room upstairs. The trio have added another bunk room, a bath, and a commercial kitchen downstairs. The place sleeps fourteen comfortabally. It is a great place for extended family functions. Game wise, quail, dove, and fishing are the impitious, with a chance for decent deer and hogs. Again, I am fortunate that the old man gets invited along.

These places to hunt are nothing like OP described. Even at the "lodge", there is lots of work to a hunt. No servant exists to retrieve my game from the food plot, and I still field dress, skin, and butcher my own game. Then someone has to cook, clean, wash dishes, and haul trash.

I'm 78 and I do not apologize for the way I hunt. I generally hunt either from or use a Kawasaki Mule to get to my hunting spots, usually overlooking a game trail or food plot. Again, I am fortunate in land access and in owning a Mule, but life is not as depicted on TV.

Good hunting,

Jack

^^^^^^This^^^^^^

I don't care who you are, that there is funny stuff. Almost shot CC out my nose on that one.

I feel that it will probably continue its current path based on the philosophy of "I've got mine; screw you for not getting yours" instead of being concerned about making hunting available to all.

5sdad, public hunting lands are rare in Texas. Parks and Wildlife has a few places available by draws, and a few places for birds.

Other than those, you are on your own to find places to hunt. Even with a year round lease, you can get screwed. Cousin hand I had a place leased. The rancher patterned our hunts, then day leased the property at times when he was pretty sure we would not be there. I caught him by deciding to burn some vacation time in the middle of the week. We were already on to him as there was brass here and there of caliber(s) that we did not use.

I have been lucky. I have lots of family and a bunch of friends that have access to good hunting statewide. Frankly, most times, hunts that I paid for were a disappointment. Surprisingly, I have had pretty good success by simply asking landowners for permission. I was surprised how many folks in central Kansas allowed us to hunt pheasant, after our original destination proved to be already over hunted.

Best,

Jack