KSQ2
PMA Member
Man did I have my eyes opened this year. I haven't been to the site for a while b/c of general discouragement with deer hunting this season. Trying to keep this from being a really long post I'll keep it short. I was married in October (married-life is great btw), and my spouse comes from a farming family, they farm just about 2000 acres and much of it is great hunting land. Obviously, I was excited about the prospects. Season went great, I played cat and mouse with several shooter bucks (135"+). Unfortunately, I never quite connected with anything but a nice doe the day before rifle season. Now for the bad part, my father-in-law told me that opening weekend of rifle season he headed over to the neighbors to see how they'd done so far. 10 bucks hanging on the pole: 8 8-points, a 10, and a 12. Most of the 8's were 2.5 years old's with potential. Both the ten and the twelve were very nice. Even worse, they'd shot at least two more w/o finding them. I know for a fact this bunch did not have tags for all these deer, not one deer even yet had a tag on it. This is an age-old farming community and even though my in-laws weren't happy about the situation, it's the "way its always been". This year was just different because of the late rut and more bucks than usual were shot. I should say in fairness that these people aren't trophy hunters, they shoot whatever comes by... I simply won't ruffle the feathers of my new family yet, so I didn't call any authorities, but I don't know how many seasons I can keep that up. Already next years prospects are looking pretty bad considering the # of bucks shot. I guess I just needed to vent a little. I can't stand it when people have absolutely no respect for the animal. The Kansas Wildlife Department I hope isn't as naive as I was before this year about their deer herd.
