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Opinions on the "Lovstuen" story....

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Rembrandt

Guest
Iowa Fish and Game has just published the first story & pictures on how the Lovstuen buck was harvested.

The article got mixed reactions from our hunting camp....more on that later.

Article was difficult to follow, most had to read it 2 and 3 times to grasp the role of each player. Normally a "first person" narrative mixed with facts works well for a story. However a first person narrative with four individuals was awkward at best. I think we counted one paragraph in particular that used "I", "my", and "me" roughly 12 times, then had to go back to find which person it was refering to. Overall our group thought it was poorly written. Most stories will leave the reader feeling good and informed...it just didn't happen on this one.

The group was also disturbed by the three adults working as a collective team...pursueing the deer day and night with 6 trail cams (which were checked daily)....then near the eve of the Archery season opening date, they go and get a youngster to pull the trigger during the youth season. Appeared this was the only way to get the deer before archers or someone else began putting more pressure on it. Had all the earmarks of "Party Hunting" with only one person having a tag, but still remains a legal take.

Some thought the use of that many cameras to aid in locating the buck was comparable to using electronic devices (ie: 2 way radios, lights, tracking collar), giving the hunters an unfair advantage.

Our group discussed how many of the existing World Record Class bucks have been taken, one-on-one for the most part. But this one seemed different...sort of like parents doing their childs homework and giving them the answers for the test...or the analogy of a parent that professionally builds a "soap box racer" for their child...when other cars were built by kids with their own hands.

The buck "is" legitimate and "is" Tony Lovstuen's...let's make no mistake about that...seemed like the story was more about adults with buck fever than the youngster and his deer, sadly we had hoped it would be different....our group was dissappointed.
 
I guess opinions will be all over the waterfront.

I personally thought Bill Winke did a good job. The story in North american Whitetail is the same only much more detail.

In MY opinion the negative comments are more an illustration of jealousy than anything.

How many of you would share what you knew of such an animal with those in your hunting party???????????
 
Yeah they used the cameras, but they also risked the chance of the deer taking off and residing somewhere else with all that daily comotion. And wasn't the Albia Buck a prize to be had last year and somehow avoided the other hunting pressure you refer to? You make it sound like they penned the deer and walked out and shot it.....

I can see why everyone wished the Lovstuen's good luck after the harvest........

Congrats Tony on the new world record and I hope someday to see the rack....and keep your chin up when you read comments like above...
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hags
 
They not only used trailcams, in my mind they just wrote the "trailcam textbook".
They did what anybody else in their situation would have done. Since the first time that they told we they were going to let Tony have a change at him during the youth season, in the back of my mind I couldnt help but think "ARE YOU CRAZY". I dont know if I could have done that if I was in that situation. I would have wanted it for myself. I mean, lets face it, chances at a buck like that are the same as hitting the powerball.
Looking back at it now, Im glad the way it turned out. Harvesting him before he started breaking tines gave this deer the recognition he deserved!

Congratulations again guys!
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Hags,
Youll have to come down to the Iowa Deer classic this winter and check it out. I bet Onecam would even take you out to lunch..
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I believe in the word of those "in the know" on this site- Old Buck, Onecam, & folks that know the Lovstuens. I'll be first in line to defend free speech but if "opinions" are just trying to stir up trouble for this young man & his family- I hope they are pulled from this site. Enough envy & jealousy on the other sites to more than cover it.
 
Rembrandt, you make a good analogy. Hags, relax! No one is running down the kid. Rembrandt just points out the difference between trophy hunters and trophy takers. The kid that arrowed the new state record n/t is in my mind a trophy hunter. Tony is a trophy taker. Sure it was all legal but it's like rembrandt says, "looks like the kid had his home work done for him" I don't think anyone is ready to call Tony the authority on hunting trophy whitetails, Bill Winke,Yes! Tony Lovstuen, no! It's situations like this why I have a problem with special seasons. Let me add that if this deer lived on my land I would have taken him the same way the lovstuens did, if thats what it took!!!
No one here is running you down Tony, Congrats on the new world record!
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Hunt on All4s
 
I agree that the article does have poor grammatical structure. It’s confusing to discern who did what, etc…I too had to reread paragraphs to understand the story completely.

I also agree that the story was disappointing. Although all state laws were followed, I feel the ethics were pushed a bit. I guess I had envisioned father and son going hunting together, with the father mentoring his son about many of the things that hunting encompasses, as my father did. (Hunting does encompass more than trophy bucks) I didn’t expect the story to be about a group of obsessed hunters with several trail cameras monitoring a single deer.

In my opinion, the Lovstuen hunt doesn’t fully embody the true intentions of the Iowa youth season.
 
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Congrats to Tony on the buck. If he does it correct he will be set up for the future. But I agree it did not seem to be a fitting end to such a majestic animal gut shooting the buck then leaving it until the next day. But best of luck to Tony.
 
Guys - I hope this can be discussed without a meltdown, but opinions will vary on the way this hunt went, in particular as it relates to the extensive trail cam usage. The family sounds like a great bunch of folks and everything was legal from every angle, I think all will agree on that.

However, I will admit to "wondering" about such extensive use of trail cameras to the point that the buck was almost known to show that night, etc. Whereas this was a totally legal harvest, everyone has differences when it comes to ethics. This level of surveillence is not something that I would do, but that doesn't mean that someone else is wrong for doing so.

I think it is hasty to label anyone else who has a different opinion as jealous or whatever. A person can have a different opinion on a matter or different beliefs/ethics than you and not be jealous, etc. I can confidently say that I am not jealous of this young hunter or anyone else who harvests a big buck. Although I love deer hunting and big bucks like many here on this site, on one level it is just a deer that some boy I don't know shot somewhere where I haven't been and don't plan on being.

As far as the shot... Bad shots happen, thankfully the buck was recovered after a good search. Congrats to the whole family, especially the young boy!!!

Actually, in many ways this story mirrors the story of my 11 year old son shooting his first buck this year. Dad (me) knew where to go and when to be there and had loaded the weapon, etc. All that was left for the young boy was to enjoy time with his dad and then shoot if the opportunity presented. ( Granted, my son's deer was oh, say 200" smaller than this one.
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But other than that, there were a lot of similarities!!
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) I didn't feel unethical when a nice buck showed up and my son made a relatively poor shot. We were happy to recover the animal when we did and we had a great time together as it sounds like this family did too.

All in all, it is an awesome animal and the family should feel good about it and not worry about what others think, myself included.
 
You are right Daver, I sure wish I could have had time like that with my son.

Technology is a strange thing. folks don't like it because they don't use it. Trail cams seem to be the latest technology. What kind of bow are you using? What about the guys who use sticks and string? Should they think you are being unethical? What kind of muzzle loader do you use? What about the guy who uses an old flint lock? Should they think you are being unethical? What kind of shotgun do you use? What about the guy who still uses grand dads old Higgins single shot 12ga.? Should they think you are being unethical? So don't get down on somebody for using LEGAL technology. I've got a hunch the Lovstuens probably already knew the bucks patterns and just used the trailcams to confirm their ideas. After all, they had been watching that deer for years. Do you suppose Tony just sat in the house while other folks did the work? I doubt that too.

The 'Bonker
 
I think its awesome what they did!!! they have done what nobody else has, patterned a world record buck. that in itself is amazing. to me it doesnt matter if they used a 100 trail cameras to figure out what he is doing, its no different then sitting 500 yards off a field edge glassing deer, they have done what everyone does, and thats scout deer. if i had the chance, and had numerous trail cameras, they would be out all year until i found the buck of my dreams then i would resituate them all to pattern him. Its like when i taped ole droppy all summer, its just fuel that feeds the fire it becomes an obsession, everytime you go out, you want a better pic, a better look, a better idea of what he is doing, even if you cant hunt them it becomes crazy. and i guarantee you, anyone of you would be more than gladly to get dozens of pictures of a world record buck on your cameras. I know i would, its just one of those deals, if it would of been the same exact story but with a 150 class buck nobody would really think anything of it, but since its a potential world record every aspect is analyzed. Makes yah kind of scared to shoot a world class whitetail, i guess i will just stick to the 140s
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Well, you know what they say, you shouldn't knock someone until you've been in their shoes. Now, if, on YOUR property, you find a world class buck is residing, how many of you would set out every camera you and your buddies could get your hands on? I know I'd have one on every tree. People do funny things when it comes to big whitetails. These people wern't crazy, they were obsessed (sp?)! What would you have done? Of coarse you won't be able to truely answer that until you get the same situation handed to you. They done what they had to do to kill a world record buck. I can think of 319 1/2 reasons why I would have done the same thing.
 
I read the story twice, when this news first broke I like evryone else had this general idea in my head as to how this young man harvested this animal.But the way the story is printed really leaves scratching my head as to if the purpose of the youth season was really fullfilled.This is a time where a father/son relationship or hunting bond starts.Dad teaches the do's and dont's and lessons are learned.I was disapointed in the fact that the young man wasn't even involved in the loading of the gun.He should at the least been present for a walk through session for the correct steps and also what to do if you accidently put the bullet in before the powder.The article just doesn't reflect any of this.Then it talks of two adults and the youth in the blind for the hunt, and refers more to the false sightings that the two adults were making, and not really what was going on in the young mans head.I also feel bad in the sense that the young man wasn't even involved the next day to try and locate this monster he had hit the previous night.After all it was "his tag" and should have been part of the recovering party, imagine the things going through his head at school.I don't think my head would have been on a test when I knew I had just hit this animal.Anyways, yes he did good, no he did great, a wonderful hunt for a youth.The article just takes away from the the whole "youth season" concept, and takes it to a job accomplished for three adults.Hopefully the next article will be generated more towards the young man.
 
I'm really suprised that a buck of this caliber even stuck around the area with all of the human contact (trail cameras) and showed his face in the daylight.

I say congrats to the young lad! I'm curious if he'll hunt next season, since it's fairly obvous he'll never shoot a larger buck in his lifetime.

Pupster
 
I just wanted to clarify my post a bit… I agree that each hunter has their own set of ethics, and I respect that not everyone shares or agrees with mine. There are a couple of you that need reminding that this is an opinion forum and we are allowed to voice our opinions so long as they are not a personal attack or profanity laced. Just because you don’t agree with me or others doesn’t mean we’re jealous of Tony or his deer, or that our posts need to be removed from the site. We’re just raising some ethical questions regarding how the deer was harvested during a special season set aside for youths, not adults. As far as I’m concerned, the Lovstuen’s opened their hunt up for scrutiny when they sold their story to North American Whitetail, which they didn’t have to do. I stand by my statement that the Lovstuen hunt doesn’t fully embody the true intentions of the Iowa youth season. This is for several reasons…

Doug, the father, loaded the muzzleloader for Tony at home while the kid was at school, then called and told him not to mess around after school and to be ready to go shoot the buck that evening, because they knew where it was going to be. Doug and his cousins were absolutely obsessed with this deer, which they freely admit. They were so obsessed that Doug, the father, had intentionally disrupted other family members hunting areas in previous years so that they would not shoot the deer. Even the North American Whitetail article refers to Tony as "simply the triggerman.†I found it odd in the North American Whitetail article that there are field photos of the deer with the 3 men, but none of Tony with HIS deer. I also take issue with Tony not tracking his own deer the following morning. As we all know, the real work begins after the shot. What kind of lesson are you teaching a youth by sending them about their daily business the morning after shooting an animal and not having them attempt to recover it? If you’re not prepared to skip work or school the following day, maybe you shouldn’t be hunting the evening before. You owe the animal at least that much. Also of note was the story during the scoring process, when Doug said that he was "sick" when the scorers informed him that the deer may score only in the 250's.

I think its fine that they used the latest technology at their disposal. I personally use a trail camera, a Mathews bow, and a Knight Muzzleloader. I can also relate to making a gut shot, it happens to us all. In fact, I’d say it was one heck of a shot for a 15 year old facing down a big non-typical, and after all, it was a lethal shot.

It just seems to me that the circumstances and the way they went about it is not what the youth season is intended for. What if Tony had a nice 160 class buck walk past the blind instead, only to be told that he couldn’t shoot it, because it wasn’t the deer he was brought in to shoot. Is this what you think we should be teaching kids during their special season? As I said in my previous post, hunting encompasses more than just trophy bucks. It also includes many lessons that transfer into real life. Lessons like humility, and being thankful at the chance to harvest any deer that comes into range.
 
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