I have dreamed of killing huge whitetails since I was just a youngster. I think most every hunter shares the same dream, but this is my "opinion" of what has happened to the mindset of bowhunters since I began hunting 33 years ago.
I was self taught and bowhunted on my own from the time I was 10 years old. My dad was a trapper and loved hunting squirrels and pheasants but just wasn't into deer hunting. Luckily we lived in the country where I had access to literally a few square miles of farmland dotted with small woodlots and thick brushy fence rows and lots of CRP land.
All the farmers in the area knew me and at one time or another I did some work for most of them like bailing hay and straw, pulling weeds, picking up rocks, milking cows, etc...and I had unlimited access to hunt.
I absolutely lived to bowhunt and the sight of a forkhorn would turn my legs to jello with excitement. I was reading Fur-Fish-Game as soon as I was old enough to read and then began reading Bowhunter magazine and in my teens I read the Wensel and Rothaar books.
Shooting does was a BIG no-no back then but when I finally decided to take a doe with my bow I found out that it was just as much of a thrill as taking a buck yet I still dreamed of closing the deal on a big bruiser.
Fast forward to today, I still cherish each and every hunt just as I did when I was young but I now know that taking the surplus does is a good thing and I do so willingly.
As the past few decades have turned everyone who hoped to get a big buck into stricktly trophy hunters I have seen hunters attitudes change drasticly and mostly for the worse.
I have been told at DNR meetings that since I do not wish to mandate ALL hunters to pass on certain size bucks that I am stupid and don't know how to hunt. I witnessed a QDM representative go ballistic with 4 letter words at a whitetail users group meeting because everyone did not agree with his ideas.
I watch the QDM program on tv and read articles on QDM and in my opinion it is no more than trophy hunting...period. They show a biologist saying that if a deer reaches a certain age and he does not reach a certain "SCORE" then the deer is to be taken out of the herd so it does not pass on its genetics! They show management hunts where undesireable bucks are killed.
QDM representatives show up at DNR meetings and push for crossbows in archery season and advocate inline muzzleloaders in primative weapons seasons. The feeling I get from observing this is that as long as it gives them an advantage and aids them in killing trophy bucks then they are all for it.
I have met teenagers that tell me how I should hunt because they have grown up with this trophy hunting being pushed at them. I have read articles where a father actually said that his 17 year old son has killed several bucks but not a P&Y buck so he wants to help him by buying him an outfitted hunt where success is guarenteed on a huge buck! I killed my 1st buck with a bow at age 17 with LOTS of hours invested...no instant gratification buck for me!
Where will it all end? :confused:
Now for those that know me and think I may be only telling 1 side of the story let me clarify something....I have hunted with outfitters, I have hunted on leases and still do, I hunt states where big bucks are much more common than my home state....BUT this is all a personal choice and having your own personal choice on what makes each of us happy is my idea of what the DNR should allow us.
The wildlife agencies should be concerned about land carrying capacity, habitat, sex ratios...etc.
In our state we would see better age structure and more bucks if we went from our current 2 buck limit to a 1 buck limit and if we were mandated to use a buck tag on a button buck. Hunters already understand that harvesting does is necesary.
I don't want to force other hunters to pass on certain size bucks so we can have a huge buck behind every tree. To me it wouldn't be a special hunt to kill a giant knowing that he only got that big because hunters were forced to pass on him. I want to kill a huge buck that got huge because he was smart enough to survive to get to that age.
Some ask who these groups are that the wildlife commissions seem to cater to and I say, just attend a few meetings and you will see the "trophy bucks special interest groups" that are at every meeting hounding them. When I attended several meetings representing traditional bowhunters I was basically scoffed at since we are such a small minority and we are seen as not being smart enough to be trophy hunters. Attend one of these meetings...it is a real eye opener as to who is ruining our bowhunting today.
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Topic: state antler-pt restrictions (Read 1658 times)
