What's a Shooter?

[elkoholic]

Now, what do consider 'still hunting'?

"Still hunting" as a hunting technique is best defined as a slow progression through known habitat with more time being "still" and looking/glassing for game than moving. In good habitat with dense cover it would not be unusual to move less than 1/4 mile in a day. Many times there is not a lot of time or an unobstructed view of the whole deer before making a decision. Here in the northwest corner of Montana there are millions of acres of public land to hunt with little chance of seeing another hunter. The deer density is not high and the deer are not farm fed, but the chance of seeing a mature buck is fairly good. When I see a buck that I decide to pull the trigger on, he's a shooter. Maybe he would not be tomorrow, or maybe he wasn't yesterday, but today he might just be a shooter. The chances are that he appears to be an older deer and it just feels right. When one begins to put too much emphasis on inches of antler to be satisfied or is worried about what his "friends" might say if the deer he shoots doesn't measure up, well, then the true spirit of the hunt has been lost.

[High Country]

In Kentucky you are allowed one (1) buck...so you have to make it count. For me it is a simple choice, is this the deer that I would like to end my season with...(I still hunt does for meat though)

It also depends on where I am hunting...since I do a lot of public land hunting, it is more difficult to let those 3.5 year old 8 pts walk...but I have passed up a number of them...

The only "absolute" shooter buck I have seen (and missed, unfortunately) was five years ago...big bodied 4.5-6.5 year old, very square, bone white, symmetric 10 pt...about 20-22 inches inside, 14 inch G2s, 8 inch brows, 10 inch G3s...I estimated mid 160s... This old bruiser came in to break up a fight that I was watching between a nice 8 pt and a big bodied 6 pt.