Hunting and fishing thread

[ALFAMEGA51]

I've never had the oppurtunity to travel and hunt big game yet, but im Content with this buck from last November , Non-Typical 17 pointer, 23 inch spread.

[mtnman]

I guess I just don't see the "ethical" argument over hunting...  It's neither "right" nor "wrong".  It simply "is".

We may like to think we're "above" the rest of the animals, but I don't see that either.  We're just more intelligent.

Like it or not, we are part of the ecosystem, not above the ecosystem.  As such, anything we do is "natural".  Maybe not good, nor bad.  Just part of it all.

The idea of a "balance" in nature between predators and prey is simplistic.  It doesn't work that way.  It's feast or famine.  The predators eat the prey, and when the prey is bountiful, so are the predators.  When the predators become too bountiful, they wipe out the prey, and so wipe out themselves as well.

[Rich52]

I've never had the oppurtunity to travel and hunt big game yet, but im Content with this buck from last November , Non-Typical 17 pointer, 23 inch spread.

(Image removed from quote.)

Nice animal. Ive always shied away from Buck fever. For years I took the first fat doe that came by just for her meat. Then with my 2nd tag I Hunted dominant Bucks but if the bowseason was growing late enough I'd take a lesser Buck or even another doe. Big Buck fever was so bad here in IL. that they were once giving away as many doe tags as you could want for the bow season. It was bow hunters who screwed up the herd cause bow hunters simply refused to take doe's, everyone wanting to be on the front page of a magazine with a big buck, and the deer population/ratio went out of whack and hurt the herd bad. Thats why our Bucks wont come into calls or rattling. There are simply to many doe's to pick from they figure "why bother"? Another bad thing that comes from an out of whack ratio is the dominant Bucks will tend more to only come out at night to chase does, especially if pressured at all. Tho they will make the rounds to checks scrapes during the day.

Now a state like TX they have deer hunting down to a science. Thats why they produce so many fine scoring bucks and exciting hunts cause they manage their doe's right and their Bucks will come into the rattle. Ive had a few bucks come into the rattle, none close enough for my bow, but its exciting cause they come in full of piss and vinegar.

I used to mostly scrape hunt. Either looking for scrapes or setting up my own.