Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Chew on this

R

River1

New Member
Not trying to stir the pot here. Just looking for a little good conversation. I like to shoot a mature buck as well as most of us here, actually I think it's just a natural progression for people who have been hunting a long time. However, the big buck phenomenon is really changing the face of hunting as we know it. It seems way to easy for people and especially new hunters to loose sight of why we're really in the timber. Big business has it's teeth firmly sunk into midwest whitetail hunting. Money talks and the little guy walks. Will the majority of deer hunters be left out in the cold in years to come? What do you guys think the answer is to what is happening. Or, do you think we are progressing in a good manner?

????????

I took this quote from Don Thomas (writer / author) off of another site. Hope he don't mind. It really struck a chord with me.


[ QUOTE ]
"We all know what came of P&Y's original good intentions... a slow downward spiral into greed, egotism and sellout. Does anyone here really need a tape measure to tell them when they have killed an animal honorably with a bow?"

[/ QUOTE ]
 
Overall, this sport is heading in the wrong direction. Ten years from now you better get your check book out if you want to hunt. I really dont see a feasible anwser to this problem.
 
I agree, glad I live where there are millions of acres of public ground and landowners happy to let me hunt, I don't see a future problem here, most people don't know the difference between a 140 and a 180 buck, they don't care.
 
[ QUOTE ]
It seems way to easy for people and especially new hunters to loose sight of why we're really in the timber.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the key. Unfortunately, the current state of bowhunting seems to be geared toward the glory of shooting big bucks. Many people wouldn't consider you an accomplished hunter until you kill a "Book Buck." To me, an accomplished hunter is a skilled woodsman with ethics and appreciation for the outdoor experience. The "hunter" hunts because he/she loves everything about hunting and the oudoors. If you lose more times than you win, that's o.k. as long as you learn. This is what makes good hunters. The "real hunter" doesn't need a tape measurer, magazine article, or name in a book. Think of some of the people you know personally whom you feel are great hunters. I would guess they don't seek the spotlight. They don't need it. Sharing stories with family and friends is enough. The "real hunter" maybe never has or never will shoot a "buck of a lifetime." But that's O.K. with him as long as he can still go hunting next year.

I guess what I'm trying to say, to answer RBB's question, is that the emphasis needs to be put on the whole experience and not just the end result. There is a whole lot more to hunting than just killing animals.
 
Well being some what "older" then most members here, I can remember when to go "hunting" you could/would stop at any farm house and get permission to hunt. And if you were lucky enough to have a "Deer Tag" and lucky enough to get a shot at one of the few deer in the country at the time it was a good hunt.Everyone in town would talk for weeks about your hunt. Today with all the new guns, bows, cameras, camo, etc, it is like a commerical endevor. I believe in the coming years only those with $$$ will be hunting or only those who are fortunate enough to own thier own land will be hunting. I've seen the land the group i hunt with for the last 10 yrs dewindle down each year as more and more "money" people get the land to hunt by paying large sums of money to the land owners. The land i hunting as a youngster is no longer avalible to hunt. It is "rented" by $$ people to hunt.
It seems everyone is after that trophy buck for the $$$, and that brings out the scum poachers. For the thrill of the hunt is what it is all about, for those of you who have young children hunting with you know what true hunting is. The look in a youngsters eye when he/she bags thier first deer, buck or doe can not be bought with $$$.
I truely miss the "old" days when you could leave anything in the woods and come back weeks later and it was still there. When farmers would call you and let you know they have spotted quail, pheasants, deer on thier land and would you like to hunt them. Trading some game for the use of the land. I agree the "new Hunters" have really lost site of what it is all about. Just my two cents worth.
 
"Does anyone here really need a tape measure to tell them when they have killed an animal honorably with a bow?"

This is a great question to ask ourselves... and the big buck phenomenon also concerns me.

Things sure have changed since I started bowhunting 25 years ago.

It seems beginning hunters are more concerned about the latest and greatest equipment and gizzmos than they are with learning basic woodsmanship.

What do we talk about most on this site?

Is there more focus on Mathews vs. Hoyt or reading deer sign in the timber?
confused.gif


Food for thought.....
 
I don't like the way we are heading toward the money aspect. I am very much against the leasing of hunting rights. I feel like the deer, turkeys, pheasants, or any other animals belong to all of us love and honor them. Deer hunting is rapidly becoming a big money sport and I see the long term effects as being horendous.
As an example lets take a thousand acre farm of prime deer cover in SE Iowa. Some one goes in and offers the owner a $1000 to lease it. He leases the ground and shoots a couple of very nice deer. Another person hears him bragging about it all and goes and offers the land owner $2000 for the lease. More deer are killed and a magizine prints an article about the area and a doctor reads about it and decides to buy the lease. Pretty soon the lease is owned by a very rich person who doesn't really care about anything but some of the huge bucks he can kill and brag about. The deer herd goes to hell because the buck/doe ratio is all messed up and the quality of bucks goes down as the doe numbers go up. The rich guy no longer wants to pay $30000 a year to see only does and little bucks and drops the lease. The land owner has gotten used to the money and doesn't want to lease for less and can't find any takers. The deer herd continues to decline, the original hunter is out because he just got discouraged about hunting, and now the DNR has a big problem with to many deer and not enough hunters. We all suffer deer deprovation and car accidents because of greed and bravado.
I don't have any real good answers but curtailing leasing and more public lands would seem to be a good start. Maybe some kind of tax credit for farmers who allow public hunting to off set leasing revenues. Maybe an extra 1/4 or 1/2 percent sales tax for DNR land aquasition. All I know is that as long as we sit by and say leasing is unstoppable and if you want to play you gotta pay nothing will stop the decline of our sport and our children and grand children will suffer the loss. Sorry this is long but I get wound up over things I love and I hope you do too.
 
I bet the guys from around the Albia area have a very good perpective on this. Big bucks bring in people with big bucks ($$$$$$), and many times leaving the average everyday Joe Hunter holding an empty bag. I know I've seen it up here where I hunt. That's why I hope to purchase my own property in the near future so at least I have a place I can manage and my kids and I can hunt. I have a feeling it's gonna get real tough to find private ground in the next 10 years or so.
 
hey moose, i have some prime iowa farmland, 120 acres, crops and plenty of timber. shot a few big booner bucks off of it the last couple years. lets see......farmland is going at the outrageous price of $1400 and acre, but since you are a hunter, and drooling over the opurtunities of my deer....how does $3000 an acre sound?

coming soon to farmland near you
 
I had an almost 1,000 acre tract of land to hunt in SE Iowa w/ tons of big bucks on it. I thought only me and one other guy hunted it, but in the end someone from Michigan bought it all, and guess what? I can't hunt it anymore. Actually, from what I hear, nobody can. Looks like in the future i'm gonna have to buy my own ground, or hunt public ground. What do you all think about people from other states coming in and buying large tracts of prime hunting land, and not letting anybody else hunt it? Espescially somoene who has hunted it his whole life.
 
That would suck, but if they have a signed leasing giving them exclusive permission, I'd say there's not much you can do about it.

Sadly, this kind of a story is becoming more and more common.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I bet the guys from around the Albia area have a very good perpective on this.

[/ QUOTE ]
They already have. City boys own or have rights to more land then the locals have there. There is no place down there to hunt any more.
frown.gif
 
I am new to an area, and i was asked by my nebior not to take any bucks that are not 10 point or more, great idea, and i run buy that, but knowing that he will take anything, for his self? you just cant trust anyone
 
I still can't believe that the midwest is having such difacultys finding hunting ground, to me the midwest is a huge area with farmland spread through out all of it don't these farmers want the deer dead,or are they super tight on thier belongings. By the sounds of your guys replys you'll be in search in Mizzura or such other places that offer hunting for the poor fella that can't hunt the land he grew up on.. Moose I would continue to hunt it. If there in Michigan what will they know, if your the hunter...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom