Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting A slightly unusual deer

As a kid growing up and starting out deer hunting in Texas, my father made me walk and stalk with him. He didn't call it stalking, it was just hunting. I would get upset because many of my buddies were hunting out of blinds off feeders with their fathers, and their success ratio was much higher than mine. He would scoff at my complaints, telling me that shooting deer off a feeder was not really hunting.

Dad softened his views on feeder hunting as he got older and it has become even more prevalent here in Texas, but he never did it himself. I have hunted off a feeder, but it always bothered me a bit to do it. But, for many hunters here in Texas, the only opportunity they may have to shoot a deer is from a blind using a feeder. That probably doesn't make it right in the eyes of those folks from other states where using corn and feeders is illegal, but it is what it is.

I've got young boys who I intend to take hunting with me when they're ready. I'm going to make them walk and learn to look for sign and do all the things my father made me do. I suspect I'll hear some griping, probably the same sort of stuff I griped about, but hopefully it will make them better hunters in the long run.

Wildlife has been "managed" since the American Indian owned this land.

They burned the prairie so that it would rejuvenate and produce a better habitat for wildlife. It also would concentrate game in the new growth to make the hunt easier. The Eastern Indian did the same with the forest. The reason was to "manage" not only the game but to ensure and abundance of berries that both they and the game used. They hunted around salt licks that attracted game. The management of game is not something new nor does it make the hunter any less ethical. It has been going on ever since man figured out how to do it for his benefit.

What Ray said. I'm not crazy about driving deer, but sometimes it's the only method. Besides, I've seen my friends have a lot of fun doing it. Methods can be "to each thier own". Some people even "Road Hunt", and call it hunting.

Around here the only way you will see a Mature buck around a feeder is during the rut and he is checking it for does. They use it at night and all killed will have corn in them. I keep at least one feeder out year round but my stands are not watching it. I set up on trails and old fields and the feeder is there to keep the deer close to my land. We don't have a couple of thousand acres to roam around in so we make do with what we have. That is what hunting is to me, adapting to conditions and making it work. This takes scouting and knowing what the deer are doing at different times of the year. miles

I enjoy still hunting more than most anything,but the perfect bull moose is a young stupid one, standing within a winch cable of the road.There is a lot of road hunting done in BC,the best is when you park and watch a crossing.So what can I say about the Texans and their stands ?

Oh I would say that's quite a bit different then those who sit in a shooting house "trophy hunting" over a pile of corn. Hell, to one of my friends the perfect deer is a 70lb (or smaller ) fawn that's standing right next to a 130lb doe, just so she doesn't have to drag/carry the lard arse out! I'll do it too, but that's mostly because they taste better...... grin

Point is neither you nor my friend are trying to pass that off as anything but a fun way to get grocery's. It's not trophy hunting or hunting for the challange...

"It's not trophy hunting or hunting for the challange..."

who said it was?

Trophy hunting moose ??

Wow. Excuse me if I have ever knocked the way anyone else chose to kill a deer.

Thank god I live in a state were we can all hunt the way we prefer. Bow, crossbow, shotgun, rifle, pistol, bait, foodplot, driving, etc.


stumpy

To return to the original subject of this post, that's a helluva good looking deer!

yes it is a very good lookin deer ,i just wish every farm raised whitetail was marked so we all would know forever that its exactly that a 'farm animal' not a naturally grown whitetail.

now days people can't just go out on a piecse of property and 'deer hunt' they alredy have all the named and have been force feeding them for years. i for one enjoy not knowing whats going to come down that trail next.

and VIRGINIA HAS PLENTY OF GREAT WHITETAIL HUNTING.......

[quote]yes it is a very good lookin deer ,i just wish every farm raised whitetail was marked so we all would know forever that its exactly that a 'farm animal' not a naturally grown whitetail./quote]

Are you really that stupid? Have you ever actually seen a farm?

Sure might change things if you could find that deer back during deer season....

Damn I've seen a bunch of good deer about this time of the year, including one hell of a drop tine buck in the hill country one year, that year NO one EVER saw that deer and never have since....

And of course lots of the other folks have never done it here, and have no business commenting IMHO. Would be like me giving advice and comments on buffalo or goat hunting....

Nice deer, would love to see it make a few more years. At least it might over here, anywhere else it would die on sight.

BTW does anyone have a video of how you force feed a wild deer.

it all comes down to who can grow the biggest whitetail, texas has way more ranches trying to do this then any other state. well known for feeders and hunting over bait. you guys can try to say it ain't so all you like,but the rest of the country knows better. i just don't think its the right way to hunt and i don't even consider it hunting. its the same as harvasting any crop.

if i were going to pay to kill a huge deer i'd go where they grow naturally ,and thats not in the south.

Very unusually nice deer. Good luck this season.

stumpy

There are indeed people who "raise" deer in Texas. These are not usually operations that allow hunting, they sell deer as a "crop" - live deer. Strangely, they buy a lot of their breeding stock from up north, so perhaps some people in other states raise deer, also? Texas is big enough to have many types of geography, thus many types of hunting. When I was a kid in East Texas, we used hounds. My uncle who hunted central Texas thought we were outlaws. We thought him sitting in a tree stand over a small oat patch was a terrible thing. Both were right, both were wrong, in different ways. The feeding issue is a non-issue. If it's legal, do it or don't. Since even a lot of hunting in Africa is on managed ranches now, it's hard to hear people chunking rocks at Texas - especially when they've never been here, done that.

For those who find something wrong with the way Texas does it, I have a question.

What have you done for the deer where you hunt? Have you ever planted seedlings for browse and a future acorn food? Have you ever planted a thick stand of pines for thermal cover? Have you ever made small ponds for water? Have you ever harvested out a mature stand of trees so the brush and browsing growth can take hold? Have you ever gone out of your way to introduce kids other than your own to hunting and taught them there is more to it than just shooting? Many Texans with the importance they place on deer do all of these in one way or another.

But I bet if you can hunt near a stand of farm corn that someone else planted you don't turn it down, yet Texans putting it out is wrong.

If all you've ever done is shoot deer, then your nothing but a taker, one who never gives back. I can tell you most are takers.
Narrow minded self-serving adults are one of the reasons I like kids and dogs more than most adults.

There are many places where doing some of these things are impractical. Virginia isn't one of them. Oh and if you pay to go and shoot a big deer someplace else? Your still a taker-if the above questions don't apply-you just paid for the privilege to do so.