HUNTING BLOG

Dear Sofaq2,

I agree...the use of alcohol is directly proportional to the amount of penetration achieved.

Let's make good shots when at all possible. Nobody likes inadequate penetration...especially a doe.

Mark

i see a bunny i would have shot that.

I am disappointed at the fact that most of you adults are bickering like 4 year olds over a lollipop. I am only 14, but am very knowledgable in the tactics and ethics of hunting. Just quit ragging on each other for being an archery hunter or a rifle hunter. Hunting is for relaxation and time away from work/wife/school. Fighting= Hunting=

Well, who know if anybody will read this but here goes my thoughts on the topic. I'm from central Minnesota where about an 8th of the population take part in the annual rifle season. What has been stated in all the about posting is correct to a point. There are many types of hunters whether meat, trophy, or just deer. It doesn't matter. The point is to harvest a deer. Correct? Now to say a little bit about my hunting, I started hunting when I was 12, now 22 minus 3.5 years in the army overseas. And love every minute of it. My success has not been that great, I have shot many does and a few fawns. I try not to but sometimes it is hard to tell. I still have yet to have a legal buck to present a shoot. I hunt for the love of the sport. Also the season is 3 months long so it offers many opportunities to hunt. I spend much of my time bow hunting for the challenge. I typically spend 45 to 55 days/ year hunting and this equates about 400 hours a years. I always keep a log of the days and time spent hunting. I just love the outdoors and after not have the opportunity fir 3.5 years. I embrace every minute I spend outside.

It is my job as the hunter to only take shots which I believe are fatal shots. This is partly why I have yet to tag a buck. Rifle season is a great hunting experience in which you get together with the guys. I wouldn't want to give it up. As for solid shots on deer, A friend for mine shot a nice 10 point buck with his muzzeloader shoulder shot. The buck dropped and was down. He didn't reload (mistake). He got down from his stand and started walking to the deer. At about 20 yards, the buck got up and ran away. I helped him track it for 3 hours but we never found it. The deer was loosing blood and bone chunks but he was one tough SOB. So that goes to show you bow or gun, you need to make sure you make fatal shots. You owe it to the deer. I think the deer feels as much pain as the hunter allows whether bow or rifle. If the hunter takes a risky shot, the deer is more likely to live longer and feel more pain. So just make sure of your shot.

Part2

I believe QDM is a great practice. It shows proven results when practiced correctly. One must realize that a person must have a larger tract of land for it to work or a group of neighbors willing to practice it. Also because as this discussion so clearly brought out the different opinions of all the hunter out there, it will be hard to practice QDM on public land. It is your own personal choice. Now that is not to say there are not big deer on public land. One of the guys I was hunting with for rifle season, shot a nice 8 point opening morning, and that night he shoot a trophy 9 point on the same trail, that had a heavy rack. It was his day. This was hunting public land. I am blessed to have vast amounts of public land to choose from in my county. Plus I have close to 10000 acres of county and state land within 10 miles of my home. The only time I have run into other hunters is rifle hunting for deer. Bow hunting, it seems like I have the whole woods to myself. What all hunters need to realize, rather than complain about your current deer herd, do something to help grow it. It is like voting was mentioned above. If you don't vote, you don't have a right to complain.

Now if you hunters want something to really worry about, look at the new movie “Open Season” This is a children's movie that paints hunters 100x worse than Bambi ever could have. This is the type of lies the children of this generation are being feed. It is up to us as hunters to lay aside our difference and make sure to pass hunting on. If hunters can't unite with each other, our tradition will be put on the butcher block. I can not imagine a generation without hunting and the values and traditions it teaches you.

Now, I'm saying, if you are a hunter who does unethical hunting practices, please stop for the sake of the big picture and nothing more. It doesn't matter the local laws but if you look at the name and face it puts on all hunters, it hurts every single hunter because the public stereotypes us in to the same category as unethical hunters. I understand in some states down south it is legal to use dogs for tracking. Would be unethical in other state. This is not what Im talking about. Poaching, shooting to many deer, taking bad shots and so on. One of these things knocks off a 100 good things hunters may have done or give to nature. So please thing in the big picture next time you pull the trigger.

Well I know I rambled on for quite some time but wishing you all Happy Holidays and great hunting success.

I believe QDM is a great practice. It shows proven results when practiced correctly. One must realize that a person must have a larger tract of land for it to work or a group of neighbors willing to practice it. Also because as this discussion so clearly brought out the different opinions of all the hunter out there, it will be hard to practice QDM on public land. It is your own personal choice. Now that is not to say there are not big deer on public land. One of the guys I was hunting with for rifle season, shot a nice 8 point opening morning, and that night he shoot a trophy 9 point on the same trail, that had a heavy rack. It was his day. This was hunting public land. I am blessed to have vast amounts of public land to choose from in my county. Plus I have close to 10000 acres of county and state land within 10 miles of my home. The only time I have run into other hunters is rifle hunting for deer. Bow hunting, it seems like I have the whole woods to myself. What all hunters need to realize, rather than complain about your current deer herd, do something to help grow it. It is like voting was mentioned above. If you don't vote, you don't have a right to complain.

Now if you hunters want something to really worry about, look at the new movie “Open Season” This is a children's movie that paints hunters 100x worse than Bambi ever could have. This is the type of lies the children of this generation are being feed. It is up to us as hunters to lay aside our difference and make sure to pass hunting on. If hunters can't unite with each other, our tradition will be put on the butcher block. I can not imagine a generation without hunting and the values and traditions it teaches you.

Now, I'm saying, if you are a hunter who does unethical hunting practices, please stop for the sake of the big picture and nothing more. It doesn't matter the local laws but if you look at the name and face it puts on all hunters, it hurts every single hunter because the public stereotypes us in to the same category as unethical hunters. I understand in some states down south it is legal to use dogs for tracking. Would be unethical in other state. This is not what Im talking about. Poaching, shooting to many deer, taking bad shots and so on. One of these things knocks off a 100 good things hunters may have done or give to nature. So please thing in the big picture next time you pull the trigger.

Well I know I rambled on for quite some time but wishing you all Happy Holidays and great hunting success.

I hunt in pa.& this year the game commission started there first mentor hunt. I feel it is a good idea to get youths out learning our hunting tradtion. I took my eight year old granddaughter out for the first time even though she never fired a shot she still injoyed her self! my only problem with the new mentored hunt is why should children under 12 yrs. old. have to shoot a buck? if the game commission wants to interduce children to hunting & better the deer herd why not let them shoot a doe! the buck to doe ratio is way out of wack. and my opinion of bowhunting or gun hunting both weapons are lethal&ethical ways of harvesting game in the right hands. the weapon is only as good as the user! please practice,sight in your weapons&use safe good judgement before you take the shot!!! you can never bring that shot back. be safe, hunt hard, shoot straight,have fun. good luck.

the deer could have also been shot here in florida where a spike is perfectly acceptable to shoot especially on public land

Im 18 years old and love to bow hunt!. This will be my 6th year with a bow. I live in PA so adults have to shoot deer with at least 3 antlers on one side. I have noticed that the bucks have gotten bigger. It upsets me to see an older person shoot something that is not legal. Yes when i was a junior mabey that spike would have been in the dirt. When i was rifle hunting this year a 25 year old man shot a spike like 100 yards from my stand. It pissed me off to no extent. I asked him if he knew the antler restrictions. He said no. I let it go but it fired me back up when he didnt know how to gut or take care of an animal that was just killed. Any idiot that does not know how to gut or properly hunt safely should not have a gun. Anyway about that spike with the poor shot placement, yes there are many reasons why that person could have missed the vitals. The biggest problem is practice. Im sure that person just picked up his-her bow and went hunting. They need to take time in the preseason and practice.

ahahahahah!!!!! thoes hunters suck at hunting!

I live in Southampton County, Virginia and I have been hunting for the past 7 years, and for the last 3 years I have been hunting with a bow. Ever since I started hunting I have used a shotgun(rifles are not allowed for deer hunting in Southampton). I know from experience that no matter what weapon you use, when your adrenalin gets going and you are looking at that deer its hard to shoot at your best. I have taken 21 deer in the past 7 years with a shotgun and 2 with a bow none of which were nice bucks. Hunting in an area where deer hunting with dogs is accepted by most; you dont see many deer outside of archery season if you are not the one using the dogs because the deer stay bunkered down most of the day in fear. I have missed one nice 8 pointer with the shotgun which sucks but dosent have any bad effect except that the deer is really scared now, but I injured a deer with 10 main beams and a bunch of sticker points due to a high shot that hit just behind the shoulder but too high into the tender loin. That in not way makes me happy, I actually think back on it all the time and wish that I had totally missed but I didnt. Again I dont feel good about injuring such a nice deer but I am not going to stop hunting with a bow. I have successfully taken 1 doe in the each of the last 2 years, and my first year hunting with a bow I missed at least 4 or 5 deer, 2 of which were nice bucks. Since then even on the same farm I have not seen any bucks on the property CLOSE ENOUGH to shoot. I believe that this is due largly to the buck to doe ratio which is prabably about 1 buck to every 10-15 does throughout the county and surrounding area. In all actuallity each person should be confident in his or her shot whatever be the weapon and if he or she messes up they should be responsable enough to say "I messed up but I'm not gonna let that happen next time" If you need more practice get more. Reguardless of what you need to do you should be the best hunter you can with whatever weapon you choose. HAPPY HUNTING AND STAY SAFE!!!!!!!

I'm surprised nobody has commented that these photos are probably doctored up using something Photoshop??? What? A buck walks into range of the camera and just as it goes off the arrow hits? Give me a break.

this is to the guy saying bow hunting is bad. i think you are a idiot bow hunting is for real men .gun hunting is cool but if you want a real callenge try bow huntig

that arrow had been in him alredy he didnt just get hit

I believe the point here is to practise before you go out into the field. And whether your shooting a bow, rifle or muzzle loader, be confident in your shot placement. I would also like to bring to everyone's attention the fact that irregardless of our weapon of choice or the type of animal we hunt, we all share one thing in common. WE LOVE TO HUNT! and I believe we would all love to continue to hunt until they put us in the ground, and see our children have the privilage of hunting and our grandchildren, need I continue. If we can't agree amongst ourselves, what chance do we have against the anti-hunting lobbiests. I don't know about you but I live for the day that my son and daughter harvest their first animals.

The same kind of person that that’s shoots a deer in the but (with a bow or a gun) is the same kind of person who feeds them corn like the last picture.

You can be both a meat hunter and a trophy or rack hunter. I agree with shooting does for meat. I hunt 130 acres of land that I own, but it is surrounded by public land that is heavily hunted. Those idiots will shoot anything. The chance of me seeing a nice buck on my land seems to decrease every season. However I don't agree with shooting a spike or a small buck in which your just going to cut the antlers off of. Give these deer a chance to become something better, you want to eat shoot a doe. Your probably the guy I'm cursing when year after year the biggest buck I see is a two year old six point who managed to slip through the morons lining the woods with the mindset "if its brown its down."

Oh and about running dogs, I live in Mississippi where running dogs is legal and very popular. I have been many times, but I have never shot. The reason is your shooting at a deer running through woods or whatever terrain your hunting and you cannot tell what the deer are and with dogs close behind the deer you cant pick a decent shot. Usually its several people unloading clips or shotguns at whatever is running. I didn't like it and wont go again. They do this often on the public land that borders my place; there is nothing worse than settling into your stand and here comes a deer with a pack of baying beagles close behind. I have got down and caught dogs on several different occassions. That crap will ruin a hunt and piss you off for a weekend.