Where do we draw the line?

[MADMAX2]

My thought's are I don't care what anybody else thinks about what I choose to harvest as long as it's done ethicaly & legaly!!
If I was that kid I would of shot that deer!!

[Limbs and Sticks]

Those pro-claimed tv guru's don't tell all, the deer are in high fence farms being monitored 24/7, wouldn't surprise me if the deer weren't bugged,If I had of been the kid, dad would have beat my A-- because I would have shot that buck I wonder if they would have taped that too.

Wes

[Michael Stogre]

I never got to hunt deer when I was a youngster. Shot my first deer in my fifties.
I wonder about the starting age. The apprenticeship program begins at 12 here
in Ontario. I think that's about right for a starting point.

MJS

[strum]

[quote="Limbs and Sticks"]Those pro-claimed tv guru's don't tell all, the deer are in high fence farms being monitored 24/7, wouldn't surprise me if the deer weren't bugged,If I had of been the kid, dad would have beat my A-- because I would have shot that buck I wonder if they would have taped that too.

Thats what i always said..its not huntin like im used to..
Around here its a hard thing to kill a deer. its harder than ever to find private land and huntin on public land there is no such thing as managment..
mind you i sometimes let deer walk but im in it for the food and to me any deer i can kill with an arrow is a trophy..
Most of these shows are designed to sell products not teach huntin.what that story tells me is that young man will get to shoot some big ole deer but will he ever be a woodsman? not to say i am a great hunter by any means but i take pride in going out on my own and finding game (and my way back home).

[LongCarbine]

I don't care if folks shoot immature deer to put in the freezer if that's what satisfies them. That's all well and good with me.

However, when those same folks complain about never seeing any mature deer or never having a shot at a mature buck...then they had best realize that if they let the young ones grow up, they may just get that chance.

The same conversation comes up all the time. Hunt how you want to hunt...but if you want to shoot mature deer without needing that 'lightning strike' of one showing up out of the blue, then you may want to look into managing the areas you hunt a little better.

I'm not complaining about not shooting a mature deer .What I'm trying to say is my trophys don't have to have big racks ,to take them cleanly and legally is all I need but I don't care to be looked down on because of it.

[Onetimeonly x-->]

Yes, you definitely have to feel bad for the young man! I guarantee
he will remember that day for ever and he will have learned a life
lession. That is to let his son or daughter make the choice on
whether or not to harvest that animal. Big or small, buck or doe.
I wouldn't be surprised if his father was a US Customs Officer!

[vixenmaster]

I can kill deer here by the hundreds if'en i want to pay $7 per tag after i use my 6 free one's up. A legal deer is all that matters to me fer my food! I will kill any Buck i actually want but most times i pass on many of them & just watch. I let several nice Bucks walk last yr after i had pushed the safety off & they were in the 125-145 class. Fer me its more of do i feel like dragging & cutting one up that morning. Many a morning i hunt & love it but let them walk. Its so much easier on my broken down body.

[gendoc]

I was watching a hunting show last night and this guy is in a ground blind with his son who is maybe 10-12yrs old. The young fella had never killed a deer and wouldn't you know the first deer in the field is a small buck, 6pt about 12-14 inches wide. When the boy raised his gun his dad scolded him saying "we don't shoot deer like that!" Later in the show he compromised and let him shoot a doe for his first deer.
Have we become so obsessed with horns as a hunting society that we won't even let a boy kill his first deer if it doesn't meet certain "guidelines"? Now don't get me wrong i get the QDM thing, if that is what you won't to do god bless you, but just because i take an animal that doesn't meet your standards don't look down your nose at me!! I hunt because i enjoy the outdoors...not killing animals, when i have to start legitimizing the animals i harvest it's time to give up the sport.
Any legal animal taken with any legal weapon should be considered a trophy...to do otherwise dishonor's the animal.

i agree wif you 100%... thats just tha way it is down here in our neck of tha woods
others mite swander... but ifin it does a young hunter's will, then its quite good with everthang else.........
we be ate up wif deer down here and a 6 point and an 10 point don't really have no weight difference. which that my determining factor... weight!! how much can feed us tha most. horns/slick heads/ hawgs/ gators... they all eat real gud

[denisdendenis]

where i hunt 200 arc. in fram land ...if i do not shoot the frist deer we see,the neighbour will get it.i am proud of all the deer i got big and small they are all trophie for me and have a place on the wall.has long it done in respect & ethicaly & legaliy you should be proud
regars
Denis

[one shot scott]

My feelings are that to have a "trophy buck" you must first have a good sized population. Passing up on a young buck alone simply ain't going to do it. Chances are that the areas that have a high population of deer also have a high percentage of trophy hunters because they have so many sightings while in stand, everytime they go out, they would get bored shooting a young deer. A old buck presents more of a challenge simply because they are typically more careful. For me in an area with a deer pop. thats low any deer is a challenge. In short: I won't judge a trophy hunter, but I would like the same respect. And for a kid any deer is a trophy no matter how many, if any, points it has and it's sad to see an adults ego get in the way of teaching a kid what hunting is about.

[novacam]

I can't believe how many tags some of you guys get! We get one buck and if we are lucky enough to get drawn for a doe tag we can take one or the other. We have some big deer here but a 6 pt here can be a nice trophy! I get the argument on letting them go to get big but there a lot of unknowns over the winter, I take 6 and over when I see them. Does are much more tasty though!!

[reaper]

Hey ,My two cents on this subject ,I shot my first deer in 1964 Markam rd &the 401 ayearling doe, back then that was a prize. camps i belong to shot pretty much any deer, 1979 that changed, doe tags were hard to come by, The big buck thing started, If you killed a6 point people would come shake your hand buy you abeer. then 6 extra tags any sex now were back to 79 and no monster bucks, its getting better seen more deer this spring than the last 5 years. so taking does small bucks and monsters ,does not in the bother me, yes my biggest is 197.38. They all taste the same to me & my family. O almost forgot nuisence tags 3 per complianer anything goes there. Thanks

[georgiaboy]

Thank you gang for all the reply's!! Sure is nice to see we can have a good debate without any name calling!! My intent on this thread is not to bash QDM or anybody practicing it...if you have the land and resources to do it i certainly respect you for that!!
My intent is to bring attention to the fear that after 15-20yrs of big buck mania on these hunting shows our younger generation's may start believing that only mature bucks are worth harvesting and lose respect for any animal that doesn't "qualify"
Every discouraging comment that i or my hunting buddies have ever received about the size of an animal taken has been from someone in the area of 30yrs old or younger. They are more worried about an animal's trophy potential than the fact that any animal legally taken is a trophy!!
Maybe i'm just an old fart running off at the mouth about nothing, but in the south respect mean's alot. When i was 14 i took a bad shot at a running deer, when my daddy asked my why i took such a shot my reply was "it didn't matter it was only a doe"...worst whippin i ever got.

[bob1961]

yeah but if you take a young new hunter out and his/her first buck is a wall slammer....that leads to that new young hunter to expect that level of deer every time....my neigbor took his son out on his first deer hunt when he was 10 under PA's youth mentor hunt and got a nice buck for PA, now he expects a buck every trigger pull .......bob

....

[xbowrook]

My son and I have taken our fair share of deer .We hunt on public land mostly. None of our deer are on the wall, but they are all trophys to us. We do get razzed by some people, when we bring in a doe or small buck. But thats their problem ,they just don't get it , or they watch to many hunting shows. Anyway I'll just keep on shooting the one's that taste good in garlic and butter!

could not agree more my friend.. i have only been bow hunting for 7 years and i have shot 6 deer and they are all trophies. i still remember the very first deer i shot as if it were yesterday. the real trophy is hunt in itself, not the bone on it's head. like i always say, you can't eat the antlers!! enjoy being out there, and if you take a deer, consider it a blessing, not a must!! i have been out on hunts and passed deer up just because i didn't feel like shooting them, but rather watch them. had 2 big doe's directly under my stand, they stayed in the area for over 10 minutes. that was an awesome experience. i find it sad when i talk to people and they say the same things.. "i won't shoot doe's"... " that buck's too small"... "why did you shoot this buck? look at the tiny antlers"... it's sad but the commercialism of the sport has spilled over into our bushes and fields and i think alot of people are more concerned with inches rather than pounds.. just my 2 cents..