It's about the scouting camera pics, the big tracks, the rubs, the scrapes, the frosty mornings and last, but not least, the antlers.

I hunt for horns. If I don't kill something that's just fine but I'm out there looking for the biggest animal the ground provides. Can't say I've ever mocked another hunter other than for their lousy shooting ability.

I only shoot doe deer. Leave the bucks alone. Leave them for kids.

This thread got a bit off track.
The OP' s article was honest.
But for all you stating you only hunt for meat,.....
BULLSPIT!!. If you had any any sex tag and a doe walked out followed by a big buck and gave you equal opportunity for a shot, I'll bet my left nut the buck will get the shot

So the buck wouldn't have any useable meat on it ?

I love to hunt and my family loves the meat, we try to put 6 in the freezer every year. I usually take 3-4 does and try to take a mature buck with my buck tag. I hunt a lease in Illinois and I hold out for a good mature buck when hunting up there but my buddy that's on the lease with me usually takes the first decent buck he gets a shot at and it makes him as happy as it does me to take a 5yr old or older buck. I have never looked down on anyone for shooting what makes them happy. I use my doe tags for meat and only try to take one buck per state I hunt and ill admit I like the biggest rack I can get. To each there own

I have hunted for trophy bucks, not for prestige or anything like that, for the challenge it provides during the hunt. I spent five years chasing the same buck one time and then had a guy who never hunted that block before come in drunk as a skunk and shoot the massive 11 pointer during gun season, I was very (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) off and disheartened about it for a couple of years, even today I still am sad when I think about it. My buddy owned the shop the guy registered the deer at and he shoved a cigar in the deer's mouth and had a beer in his off hand for the picture. (This was when I lived in Ohio)

I fully admit that I shoot way more does than bucks and don't mind doing it, but I will hold out IF I KNOW there is a trophy buck in the area or if I have multiple tags to fill then I shoot the first adult doe so I have the meat I want.

I loved the original post here, it brought lots of memories back to my days back home in Ohio and the friends I hunted with back then!

Hello Mr Eunuch.
Only bucks I've ever killed were when the season was buck only. Anybody that kills a buck when a doe is legal is not hunting for meat. Tough stinky sinewy waste of effort bucks.

yup, he is one of them; I be a little guilty of laughing at the slickers in the camo with the jacked truck and the scent stuff though.

Who would wear camo on a deer hunt? Orange is so much better. (more legal too)

We have bull only hunting for conservation reasons. I guess I'm a meat hunter since I leave the antlers in the woods. I shoot the smallest bull. Amazing as it sounds to trophy hunters there are a few people left that understand the real reason to take an animal's life. To give life.

well said.

More than likely around here though that guy quit hunting a few years ago when the property he hunted got sold or got leased out from under him. Access is the biggest hurdle to hunting now.

You either own it, lease hunting rights, or hunt the ever increasingly crowded public land. Hunting on permission is all but dead in the midwest now.

Sounds like BS to me. Let’s be honest here ? No one is sitting in a tree stand, or hunting any other way, is dreaming of a doe or yearling buck to walk by them. We all are dreaming of a big heavy antlered buck presenting a shot. But due to limited vacation time and few mature bucks in most areas, many settle for a doe or yearling buck, and I guess there’s nothing wrong with that.

A non-believer. I understand people obsessed with antlers cannot relate. I remember talking to a city guy who could not understand why anybody would shoot a bull in winter that had shed it's antlers.

you can definitly tell the old bucks that like deer meat and would rather take a chance of getting good meat from a doe or young deer from the young bucks that dream of horns at night. i keep a camera out year round like the pictures on the computer to see the changes from year to year i dont believe in shooting the big buck and leaving the basket rack for breeding stock

And You'd Be Limping Around Missing Your Left Nut.

In Years Past, I've Routinely Dropped The First One Down The Trail Into My Sight Picture and Often It Was A Doe In Rut Being Bird-Dogged By A Buck.

Flop His Old Lady On The Ground and Every One of Those Buck Didn't Pack Their Bags For Greener Pastures.

They All Stood There Slack-Jawed and Tongue Hanging Out Wondering What Happened To Momma.

Sometimes They Took The Next Lead Sleeping Pill, Sometimes Not. But They All Stood There Waiting For Their Medicine.

So Don't Judge Everyone Else By Your Antler-Crazed, Horn Worshipping Standards.

LMAO !!

walleyed

I understand both sides of the isle, but for me I fill my freezer with does, and hunt hard for a mature buck. It is mainly because I love hunting and the work it takes to wait for a old buck. And its my peace time when I'm hunting. About everywhere I hunt I can go any evening and kill a doe or young buck in a hour or so and its not very challenging and I'd be back working quicker. I love sitting in a tree and watching all the critters do there thing and its a nice break from my fast paced life. If my family was hungry I'd lay down the first animal I saw, but its really just something I love to do, and a nice set of horns is icing on the cake. But I don't judge anyone for what they take unless they are just killing for antlers only

If its brown, its down. Always have tags for either sex. Meat first....horns don't matter to me. Still looking but cant find a recipe for horns.

European mount? I've eaten a lot of stuff I've killed simply because I killed it. Woodcock comes immediately to mind. I choke down bear.

The meat can be long gone but decades can pass and I can still admire the antlers hanging on my wall.

I think we all eventually come full circle especially when it comes to deer hunting.

That very first time I climbed into a tree the night before I dreamed about those big racked bucks I had seen on my walks in the woods. I was the first in my family that ever had the desire to deer hunt. My dad was a goose and rabbit hunter and a trapper. My grandpa(my moms dad) was a rabbit and squirrel hunter.So this was all new to me. I applied for a tag and had my dad buy me a box of slugs. I built a stand in a treeline between a big field and a small one that the deer seemed to gather in. I was determined to shoot one of those big boys that I had seen in this field several times,but realized that very first morning when I saw the first deer I was gonna blast the very first one I had close enough.Two days later I shot a button buck. I ran to my uncles house that was just up the road from us and ask him to help me drag it. I remember my mom saying"I cant believe he really got one".

For the next several years my thoughts were on a big boy but I would blast the first deer I saw.In there somewhere I took up bow hunting and managed to kill a few with my bow because then gun hunting was your guaranteed deer and if you got one with a bow it was a bonus.

Somewhere in there I managed to kill a couple of good ones and I realized that if I waited and didnt shoot the first one I saw I had better odds of killing a good deer.So Id shoot the first doe I could with my bow and with my gun and wait as long as I could to fill my other tags. That eventually led to me waiting till the last day to fill my last tags.

Then my boys got old enough to deer hunt and gun season was all about them. I was still in the mode where I would kill the first deer I could with a bow and then buck hunt the rest of the season even if that meant only killing one deer a year. I stopped buying gun tags and just let the boys hunt and when they were done so was I.

For about 3 years I didnt bow hunt because I kinda lost interest in it. Getting up and going to the woods to shoot a deer seemed like more of a hassle than fun. I concentrated my efforts on ducks and trapping.

I seemed to start to miss bow hunting so one fall I started back up but I didnt seem to have the same desire that I once had. I didnt NEED to kill the first one I saw or even kill one at all and if I had a deer close enough to shoot that was a successful hunt in my eyes.That year I killed my biggest bow deer to that time. My need for deer hunting seemed to change. I really wanted to "hunt" for a deer not just the first one that walked by,or even the first one with horns that walked by. I wanted to kill the best one I could. I would NOT consider myself a trophy hunter I go out and find the one that suits me. He needs to be wider than his ears and preferably past his nose.

I dont feel the need to just kill a deer to say I "got my deer" like in the old days. I dont kill bucks so I can go and brag on the Facebook. I dont have them measured or measure them myself. Its more about the sense of accomplishment I feel when I scout and do my homework to get everything just perfect to have him walk into bow range.

With all that being said I dont care what you shoot.I dont care if you have the latest and greatest bow. And honestly if a guy gets out of his newer than 2012 jacked up truck wearing matching camo from head to toe and pulling a boat that looks like it just came off the showroom floor I automatically assume he is a topwater.

Until the freezer is stocked I am specifically looking for the most prime deer meat that is walking. That is young deer, maiden does or young bucks. I try for the does. Since I have started raising sheep it only takes a couple deer to give me what I need.

Once I have my meat I start hunting mature bucks.

I have 3 kids that hunt so I have no lack of deer meat.