re: Paid white tail hunts VS really earning a trophy

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I am not OCD, but the fact that the deer in the middle on the top row isn't looking straight ahead bothers me.

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You may be OCD...

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I don't know many people regularly killing 130's on private, well managed (not fenced) land

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Are they in the Mississippi delta? That's where these guys are killing their deer. It's a different ball game with delta soil.

Here are some Arkansas deer from this season. There are 5 or 6 from Turner Neal (it's a co-op) hunting club that score over 150".

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I do, otherwise folks wont believe you when you tell them.

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He wouldn't be happy with me posting pictures of his "Kansas" bucks and telling where he really killed them. He doesn't even let his dad or brother know the general area that he hunts

You do realize that every single mount in that pic has a turned head, right?

Oh, and turned head FTMFW. Straight head

I'd rather shoot a doe with my bow on my lease or a WMA than a 180" farm raised deer behind a fence. Don't care how many acres it is.

I've always wanted one with his lip curled up like his was straight up chasing a hot doe...

I think that might look cool straight ahead.

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How is this anything remotely close to what I have described?

Have you ever been on a property with a fence?

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Have you ever had as much butt hurt as you are now?

Have you ever been more defensive about your "hunting"?

That story was not meant to be about you or what you described. It was a story. But if you want to go there, there is a range of "hunting" between total open fair chase and shooting livestock with numbers on them.

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back off canuck, fellow muricans, 1st!

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Whatever 3 fingers...

To me, it's more about the respect for the animal as a whole. These days, you have these deer that are born, bred, and raised just to be shot. They're genetically selected for score. Then, they're put in these fences, after being around people their entire lives, and they're "hunted" and shot. There's no respect for the animal and there's no respect for what (I believe) hunting should be about. To me, hunting is about being in some kind of touch with the natural world, and it helps me realize that I'm just a small part of a much bigger picture.

It's just better summed up as this: I wouldn't want my kids to grow up thinking that's what hunting was all about...that killing huge deer is all that matters, and the end result is more important than the process and the journey. The early season scouting, learning the deer, their habits, why they do what they do, what certain things they eat, when they eat those certain things, why, how deer react to all of the variables in their lives, etc. For me, hunting is about understanding the animal. You don't get that going to pay someone to put you in a stand to shoot one of 40 huge deer that walk by there to eat out of a trough every day.

I don't care that people hunt high fences and shoot farmed deer like that. I just don't respect it, and if I see a deer like that hanging on someone's wall it's most definitely not going to impress me. That's not a "hunter." That's someone with some money that wanted a trophy to hang on their wall. All of the people I hunt with feel the same way. Do what you do. It's all in the outdoors and it's all good, it's just not really what I think hunting is. Just my opinion though.


eta: I would love to be able to go to Canada and hunt some of those deer. Same with those public land giants in the midwest. The opportunity just hasn't come for me yet. Soon enough though.

I'm a meat hunter and just throw the racks away (not that I deer hunt much). I want to take my son elk hunting, but he's going to want a bull. I'd prefer shooting a cow. I can understand somone's desire for a trophy, it's just not my thing.