Deerhunters Do You Have an Opinion on This?

[dan_bgblue]

Bred and Raised for their Rack (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/15/hunters-trade-shots-over-deer-breeding-killing-methods/)

[Doc]

I'm a fan of "big racks". In fact, the bigger the rack, the better!

[jazyd]

As a long time hunter I do not like it. It isn't hunting, it is for those with money and egos. They are shooting tame deer basically. IMO those deer should not be allowed to be entered in any record books

[elicat]

Not interested. Partly (mainly) because I've never even shouldered my rifle to aim at a buck. Deer hunting for me is about meat. Big buck meat tastes revolting.

Therefore, does.

So the animals in the linked story are safe from me regardless. But I do think it's appalling.

[DanISSELisdaman]

I don't like it either, there's nothing sporting about hunting a tame deer on 5 acres of land, or a 1000 acres for that matter. I'm not sure Boone and Crockett or Pope and Young would allow farm raised deer to be entered into their record books and they shouldn't IMO.

[CitizenBBN]

From the article and one of the breeders:

"It’s no different than raising cattle that’s going to go on people’s tables," Caroll said.


Exactly, which is why it's not "hunting" or anything close to it. Putting animals in an area big enough for it to still be sport is one thing, there are places out west where 10,000 acres is nothing and is plenty of range for a "hunt", but you get down to something like 4-5 acres that's just slaughtering pigs for dinner.

That's their business I guess, but the records don't count in any hunting record b/c it isn't hunting and they aren't wild animals, and if they use the word "hunt" in any context when bragging about their kill they can be have the snot beaten out of them for the insult. Animals bred for a feature like antlers then staked out like cattle dont' count in the records.

Like elicat I have no particular attraction to trophy hunting but the antlers are important b/c they are a measure of the age and guile and strength of the animal in some precarious way, so if you downed one you downed an experienced, smart animal that in some way points to your skill as a hunter. That's at least the general idea. If any fool can do it there's no record, no measure of your ability, no point. Just hit it with a hammer and move on.

[elicat]

Yes, I get that Citizen. All my friends who hunt, except one, have these philosophical things tied up with it. (Ironically, the one who doesn't is a wildlife biologist. I guess he's in the woods all the time, so it's where he works, not where he plays.) I only started hunting nine years ago, when I moved to South Carolina. I think a lot of people who grow up with it have more time to develop ideas about it. I decided to start hunting when I had an amazing mixed grill at a good restaurant that included venison at around the same time I moved to a state with unusually little restriction on when and how and where you can hunt, so it worked with my schedule.

My father-in-law has ~1000 acres in western KY with plenty of deer, but Kentucky is so restrictive about when you can hunt for what with what weapons and so on. I've never been able to make all those stars align with work and other commitments, plus a nine hour drive each way, so other people get them.

[CitizenBBN]

I'm with you elicat. I don't have much interest in hunting for a trophy, honestly haven't had much interest in hunting in quite a while. I love to shoot, figured out one day that hunting involved a lot of time in the woods and little shooting, so I go to the range and shoot instead. Besides, not much call for UZIs in deer hunting. :)

1,000+ is more than enough to be hunting even if he stocked the place with bought deer, but of course that's unnecessary in Kentucky. Just dont' plow it all and you'll have them. Heck, plow it all and you still will. We hunted on farms much smaller, but without 10' fences and containment like these places where you go to hunt fish in a barrel with dynamite.

Sowing crops to attract particular wildlife and such is a time honored practice for hunting, esp. birds, but if you start buying birds with clipped wings and putting them in the front yard you're not hunting.

[jazyd]

I love smoked deer sausage and we eat it every weekend at camp so shooting a doe isn't a restrictive for me. We try to shoot any bucks with what we co sider trash racks to get that gene out of the herd and shoot 6 or 8 pts but we don't trophy hunt. We don't have any true trophies so for us it is anything wider than 16"

[elicat]

shooting a doe isn't a restrictive for me.

No, me either. That's what I was saying. Does are what I want.

The biggest problem for me in Kentucky is the short modern gun season. I have other small complaints as well, but that's the big one.

[jazyd]

its longer than it used to be :) I think it is close to two weeks now with 2 weekends, plus black powder.
Now here in Miss, we can hunt from the middle of November until last day of Jan.


No, me either. That's what I was saying. Does are what I want.

The biggest problem for me in Kentucky is the short modern gun season. I have other small complaints as well, but that's the big one.

[KeithKSR]

its longer than it used to be :) I think it is close to two weeks now with 2 weekends, plus black powder.
Now here in Miss, we can hunt from the middle of November until last day of Jan.

The zone I live in includes two weeks, including three weekends. I wish the December muzzleloading season was longer and a little earlier.

[DanISSELisdaman]

I'm with you on the Dec. muzzleloader season, but it does have 1 advantage, there's less hunters to contend with. Only the dedicated will stay in the stand in freezing weather.