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Tedthorn’s question about sport hunting has got my wheels turning, so I’m gonna share my thoughts on it. I already replied on that thread, but this is gonna open up a big can of worms.😟
So here goes…
As I said in that thread, to myself and almost everyone I know, the objective of hunting is putting meat in the freezer.
I’ve been hunting deer here in Pennsyltucky over 5 decades now.
When I started, The Old Man told me “deer hunting is 90% luck and 10% being at the right place at the right time “! In over 50 years, considering trophy bucks, this is absolute truth.
Like I said in my post, we’ll brag about killing a nice buck, shame the guys who missed one, and generally abuse eachother over it in fun.
But you never shamed the guy who lost a cripple because he’s already feeling bad enough!😩
Everybody I hunt with feels the same way. A guy who won’t do his best to recover a wounded deer is shunned. They’re never welcomed back!
That said, we’re pretty opportunistic. We’re there for the meat, horns don’t count. We believe that “ if God intended deer as throphies, He’d had made them outta bronze. He made them outta meat instead!”😀
We’ll happily take a big legal deer over a smaller deer with a big rack, and I know of nobody who ever passed on a legal buck because it wasn’t big enough.
For a lot of us, it’s brown and down if we got doe tags. Speaking of tagging out, I know guys who won’t use a tag close to home! I also know people who have used a light at night to put meat in the freezer, and nobody will bitch about it unless they’re killing trophy bucks.
“Sportsman” hunters will pay big bucks to hunt trophy deer on a ranch where the deer are grown for that reason. Setting in a blind over bait is fine.
But a guy who’s outta work and killing an illegal deer for food faces a $10 thousand dollar fine and a felony conviction if he’s caught. People like that are “slob hunters”. They give the “sport” a bad name!😝
Meanwhile, Pa Game Commission and other states as well sell entirely too many doe tags, because “there’s too many deer”! CWD is a good excuse too.
The Game Commission allows these big ranches to operate as business, but the warden is more than happy to fine somebody hunts their own land over anything that they can. They’re not protecting game, they’re raising revenue.🤬
This is how I myself, and most of the people I know, feel about hunting versus sport hunting.
Flame away if you’re so inclined, but I believe that we’re right.
One last comment. A 7 year old killing a baited deer from a blind set up by the family is NOT hunting, it’s killing. Setting in a heated shanty ain’t hunting either unless you’re old or disabled.
Hunters work together to be successful, or if they’re alone they’re watching a trail or trying to sneak into a shot. It’s called “still hunting”, and there’s a pile of us old guys who love to do it.
Hunting ain’t about killing for us. We kill to have hunted.
Reon

Some good stuff in there.



Someone will be along shortly to kick your balls into your neck over it.

Lol

🦫

Well, it's plain to see that we don't know each other. And, not meaning to be mean or ugly, you've never hunted in a place where there are lots of deer, or where they didn't allow small bucks to be killed. I'm talking about club/family rules, not state regs. I'm lucky, I hunt on my own place, but there is a club about 3-4 miles from me and they have a 8 pt or bigger rule. Kill a buck with less than 8 pts and out you go.

There are some places where they dont kill the big bucks, leave them for breeding. They only kill what they call 'management bucks'. Deer that haven't lived up to their potential. Say a 4 or 5 yr. old wlth a small rack..... get him out of the breeding population.

These are just examples of what I've seen, but we have lots of deer.

Good post.

The problem is, you have guys that hunt just for the trophy, the antlers and the pictures, then they want to call out others that don't like posting pics of their kills. Those guys are fu cking puzzies as far as I'm concerned. And they know who I'm talking about. They don't know what or how many animals someone else has killed, nor do they know how hard a guy hunts. I for one, do not like posting pics of kills, just for the point of bragging about what I've killed. The animals deserve more respect than that. I also don't hang their head on my walls. To each their own.

At one point in my life, I gave up on hunting and killing because it seemed like I was killing schidt every day with no remorse. Small game like yotes and jackrabbits, ground hogs, sage rats, lizards and fn cow patties. I didn't care. Some guys just don't get that part of it, because they have not had a rifle in their hands that much, yet they think they are all mighty big schit because they kill a buck or 2 a year and maybe one elk in their lifetime.

To me, killing a buck or elk is just a pull of the trigger. Nothing more, nothing less. I don't get excited about it, like I've seen some guys do. Schidt, some guys come un glued with emotion. Those are the same guys that think you need to post pics of your kills too. I can almost guarantee it.

When I hunt, I hunt hard. Harder than if I were actually at work, and I don't have an easy job, fitting, fabricating, welding and building ocean going vessels. I'm more worn out after a week of elk hunting, than if I would have just stayed at work. Taking that week off during the year is my vacation though, and there is a love for the sport, that some guys just can't appreciate or understand. When you practice all year, just for that one shot, you know you are into your sport. Not because you post pics of the kills on an internet forum.

It's also nice to be able to keep the freezer full. To me, hunting is killing to keep the freezer full of meat for my family. It's about being in the woods where you can soak in that peacefulness and get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. It's not about the "thrill of the kill" either. You are taking a life, you should be respectful of that.

I never had the money or the opportunity to go anywhere but around home.
I’m not bitching about the people that do, I’m simply pointing out to the people who look down on myself and my friends As non sportsmen or slob hunters.
I love hunting anything anywhere.
It was always my dream to go yo Africa and go for big nasties or even go out west for Mulies or Grizzlies, but I was born poor and never got rich😩 now I’m too freaking old to go mountaineering after Bighorns, but I love to read about the guys who can.
I’m not out to cut someone down who’s had these opportunities, but for Christ sakes, how to you justify a 10,00 dollar fine and a felony conviction over someone killing deer for food?
Somebody out jacklighting and shooting trophy deer or shooting for the fun of it I can understand, and I agree wholeheartedly. It bothers me to hear about game animals wasted! For that matter, I hate like hell to see any deer get swatted on the road!
But not tagging a legal deer on your own ground or what we call “night hunting” face the same penalty. This ain’t about protecting game.
It’s about revenue, and it’s about restricting gun ownership through felony charges.
You’re more than welcome to change my mind, but you’re gonna need way more than talking about private clubs or Boone & Crockett scores.
Reon

A quite a few years ago, when the family was much bigger, and before the ridiculous fines and felonies, my family killed a pile of deer.
Like I said, we weee opportunistic, and we didn’t bother to fill out many tags if we weren’t in danger of being caught.😀
A buddy that I worked with was constantly questioning me about hunting. ( I always burned my vacation in hunting season, and I use a smoke pole in 2 separate Muzzles Loader seasons.)
My answer was always “if you don’t ask me, I won’t lie to you”!😀
“Dump” ran into my younger brother and asked him how many deer I’d killed this year.
My brother knew of 4, and so a few nights later, the conversation at work went like this.
“Dump”: “You phuqer, you killed 4 deer this year”!
I said “who told you that?”.
“Your brother”!
“Dump, I Killed six this year all told. Muzzle loader and rifle”.
“You SOB! Six?”
“Yeah. But let’s look at this, ok. You lost one in archery season, and killed one with the bow. You crippled two with a damn .223, which I told you ain’t enough gun for hunting, before you tagged out”! “You killed 5 and I killed six”! Difference being the ones I killed are all being eaten by people, and 3 of yours are feeding possums “!🤬
He never asked me again since. We’re still friends, but he knows I was right!
None of mine were legal, but every one of his was!
Reon

Turns out big bucks are made of meat too. They all go in the freezer at my place. I enjoy trying to outfox a smart old buck. If I just whacked the first forked horn I saw on opening day my hunting season would start and end in minutes, I like to hunt too much to do that.

If I spend the entire rifle season looking for a big buck and don’t connect I’m okay with that. We can shoot does and cow elk during the late season if the freezer is in bad shape.

I don’t put out feed or trail cams where I hunt. It takes the thrill out of it for me. I like to hunt. I don’t put up stands or blinds either. I rarely “scout”. I’m going to hunt the same place regardless of what I see before season and a big part of the fun is looking over bucks and getting excited about one I want to make a stalk on. On the opener a few years back Dad and I counted 27 different bucks, no shots fired as there was always another one showing up and the next one could be a real monster.

Very few people today can make a logical argument that hunting for meat is cost effective, especially if they shoot one deer a year. Total up fuel, gear, time you could have been making money instead of hunting and it doesn’t pencil out in most cases. But it’s fun, we get to be in the wilds either alone or with friends, groceries gathered as a result of a punched tag are a perk.

As far as shooting deer out of season and the attendant fines if caught. I suppose that if everyone knew that, “oh it’s alright because they’re just shooting a few does for the meat”, we’d have people out doing it all the time. Then we’d probably be back on the road to having far fewer deer than we do now. After all the whitetail deer was eradicated in many areas of the country by subsistence and market hunters back before there were rules. Don’t take this to mean that I feel anyone who might pot a doe to keep his kids fed is the scum of the earth, my mother and her 5 siblings were raised on deer year around. But if you let one guy do it pretty soon everyone wants to and away we go.

Honestly in my area you would have to have an enormous family of invalids to not be able to kill enough deer legally to feed them if you have a place to hunt. We can shoot 6 or 8 a year. If you have that many kids surely one or more of them would be capable of filling some tags of their own too. 8 or 10 deer a year would make a pretty good bunch of meals. Other areas of the country have far more deer, longer seasons, and more liberal bag limits.

Point taken about “if everybody did it”, but let me say this.
Back in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s, most everyone potted a deer or two to supplement their beef diet.
I do recall two PGC Deputies who were well known around here killing deer and selling to a takeout diner. Deputies are allowed, I guess because it was fairly common knowledge.
Nobody I know would kill more than they need. Like I said originally, we do it for food. We won’t waste any, and we only “kill to have hunted”.
But the PGC (PA Game Commission) claims that there are more deer now than ever! So how can you justify a ridiculous fine (compared to most crimes,) and a felony conviction?
It still doesn’t wash!
Reon

My reasons to hunt may be different and even at cross purposes from your reasons to hunt. So we can argue or fight over them or recognize the common interest in hunting and share a campfire.

High fine amounts and other such penalties are the just reward of egregious and repeat offenders. Poachers are greedy, selfish, thieves and nothing more. Spare everyone the self-righteous rationalizing. If you want deer meat in PA there’s plenty of legal means by which you can get it, year round.

And this is coming from a guy who grew up surrounded by people who did all this rationalizing. I blew off game laws and was wrong.

I shoot what makes me happy and tickles my fancy at the time. I’ve killed big, and small buck and doe. They are all trophies to me. When I decide to squeeze the trigger their is no second guessing.

I’m headed to PA tomorrow with a pocket full of tags. I’ll shoot a 50 pounder if I hunted it fairly I’ll be proud of that deer.

I don’t give a [bleep] what anyone on the internet thinks.

It's about filling the freezer to me. I ain't one of these rich fuucks. Never have been, never will be. If I had to buy beef, I'd eat damn little red meat. I hunt close to home, often right out the back door. I can get 7 to 9 deer tags a year for about a hundred bucks. For that and the price of a few cartridges I can fill my freezer. It's just part of the way I've always lived and made ends meet. Same as cutting and burning wood for heat and raising my own vegetables. I don't poach, I don't trespass and I kill them as quick as I can every season without much concern for the size of the antlers. If it's an adult deer and I have a tag in my pocket it's going home with me.

Well said Reon

Good post by the OP.

100% Reon. Right on!

I hunt for me and I do not give a flying fuck what others think about how I do it, not interested in them seeing it either.

Don't agree at all with the 90% luck, 10% BS, you make your own luck in life and hunting. Deer are varmints and we can't find enough people that want a couple to eat. I'll donate deer to the Hunters for the Hungry program and money to GWF to have them processed just to get rid of them. I'm a slob hunter and like to kill things, but I hate to see venison go to waste. Been there done that using crop depredation permits and it sucks leaving deer to the buzzards and coyotes.

I hunt the way I want, within the law, and don't care how others do it, except that they do it legally. Illegal hunting is poaching and poaching is theft.

I finished a hunt for antlered game this week and passed on many decent candidates. I had in mind what I wanted to take and actually a certain animal that had been seen earlier this year and years past.
As it turns out someone had come on the property and poached it unbeknownst to me until a few days ago.
So be it.
I have time to hunt others but no biggy I’ll apply again next year. See what’s out there next summer. A tag is something that gives me the legal opportunity, it doesn’t say I have to kill something. Cost of the tag hi or low doesn’t change that for me.
Others feel differently, super. Hunt legally have at it and enjoy

Osky

I am first a meat hunter, I enjoy venison.
My thinking on bucks is-- don't pass one on the first day that you would shoot on the last day.