What kind of hunter are you?

[clrj3514]

Meat hunter, trophy hunter, or somewhere in between? Tell me what you're style is & why. And what methods do use while hunting?

[Dawg]

Meat hunter, trophy hunter, or somewhere in between? Tell me what your style is & why. And what methods do use while hunting?

There, I fixed your mistake.

I am a little of both......more of a meat hunter than trophy hunter. Not sure what you mean by "style", but I like to sit in the tree stand or box blind and also like to get out and still hunt every now and then.

[Ethan Givan]

Both. I let small bucks go and wait for a mature buck. I can put meat in the freezer with does. I treestand hunt mostly, and I will shoot a doe in early bow season. When November rolls around does get a pass. If I still have a tag in the late part of bow season during december or January then the does are in trouble again.

Edited June 23, 2010 by Ethan Givan

[Diamond Archer 01]

A little of both. I am more of a meat hunter though because I shoot the does and bucks for the meet. I obviously want to shoot a buck but there are not too many huge ones around here so I will shoot a smaller buck if given the opportunity. So I am more of a meat hunter I think.

[m gardner]

I'm a hunter and usually pick seasons in places that aren't crowded and are longer (usually bowhunt for that reason). I like to roam around and spot and stalk and slip hunt. I want to hunt as much as possible and usually trophy hunt up until the last day or two then I'm in it for the meat. I get to hunt 7 to 8 weeks a year out of a tent camp somewhere out west for mulies and elk. Just love being there.

[sskybnd]

i guess im both, i will shot any leagle deer that i have a chance to opening weekend, to but meat in the freezer, haveing a very liberal harvest of 4 deer a year, normaley i will have the freezer mostly full but the time the rut kicks in, allowing me to horn hunt the remander of the season, i guess my style of hunting would be to be in a climber or ladder stand with my bow.

[mikebohio]

i feel does are for the freezer and bucks are for the wall i wont shoot a buck i wouldnt mount. that is my personal prefrence but you should shoot whatever makes YOU happy. i like to bowhunt out of tree stands and gun hunt out of natural groundblinds. i hunt as often as i can and still remain married.

[redkneck]

You left out "management hunter". I hunt trophies, but take enough meat to manage the herd the best I can.

[clrj3514]

There, I fixed your mistake.

I should have proof-read.

[HUNTINGMAN]

I am also both. I will pass on smaller bucks and shoot does in the early season.I won't pass on a big buck or one that gets me realy excited anytime during the season unless I'm tagged out. But if I am at the end of the season and I still need the meat,then does,big bucks and even small bucks had better stay clear of my stand.as for my style,it's differnt on difrent days,depending on the weather. But I like hunting out of my climbing stand the most .

[woolybear]

Never passed up a big buck with long backstraps.

Have shot more than my fair share of short racks and straps too.

Been known to sweep a few doe's off there feet whenever possable.

Yep.....MEAT fo me!

No hanging from trees or hiding in tents. Make my own blinds.

Edited June 24, 2010 by woolybear

[NY_Bowhunter14]

Have to say both... I won't shoot real small bucks, but if I have a 6 point come up on me, I won't hesitate to shoot... I try and wait for an 8 point or bigger to come by though... We have been attempting QDM where I hunt, however, I don't know if the hunters on the surrounding properties implement QDM on their land...

[wtnhunt]

Just a hunter. I hunt to satisfy my goals which may change year to year depending on what we know is around, that said we do eat venison and love it. With others in the family who hunt there is little pressure on me to fill the freezer as I know the girls will help there. We typically put at least 3 deer in the freezer every year. Prefer to kill mature deer, trophy caliber deer in this area are not so common, but will hold out and go without killing a buck for a year or two if that is what it takes to get one I would be proud to kill or what I consider to be a good deer for this area.

[MUDRUNNER]

I am somewhere in the middle. I will pretty much shoot any doe. but will pass on 1 1/2 year old bucks. A 2 1/2 year old around here is generally an 8 or 10 pointer that's around 200 lbs. live weight...good enough for me.

[Tominator]

I think my deer hunting career is in its 3rd phase, and about to go into the 4th.

When I first started hunting deer in 1987 anything that walked past me got shot at. Back then it didn't matter who I hunted with or where I hunted. I basically hunted as much as I could forsaking all others and things. I climbed trees and sat on branches until I bought a cheap tree stand. I had 1 set of insulated camo so I roasted in early season and froze in late season. I had no idea there was this thing called a rut. Back then you couldn't even shoot a doe in Ohio. After a couple years you could shoot a doe if you got a special permit. I shot my first doe while sitting on a huge sandstone boulder. I shot it with my PSE and Easton Gamegetter 2117. That combo launched an arrow at an incredibly blazing speed of about 150 fps. I stuffed that doe into my 1988 Geo Metro and hauled it back home. Turns out, nobody in my family liked venison except me.

2nd phase started in 1998 when I shot a decent buck. Back then I had a real treestand, better camo and a better bow. I had moved to a better part of the state and deer were more plentiful and so were the areas you could hunt if you were courteous and knocked on some doors. The limit of deer was up to 3, and possibly a lot more if you found property in the "urban zones." Hunting started to be about looking for bigger deer. Passed on a lot of does back then waiting on a big buck. By then I had 3 kids and they all liked "deer steak." That was motivation enough to try and kill at least 1 deer every year. This would have been around the time I started passing on little bucks and shooting does for the freezer. This was also the time when I introduced a good friend to bowhunting and he got hooked. We hunted together quite a bit.

Phase 3 of my deer hunting career evolved with the help of Realtree forums and off and on bouts with cancer. I guess it's no secret my buddy Tom (Ohiobucks) and I have shared the woods (mostly his woods, lol) since 2003. :tt1: That was the year I battled my worst type of cancer. I was pretty depressed for most of that season, but Tom helped me through most of it. Always encouraging me, always trying to get me in the woods, even when I had no desire to kill while I faced my own mortality. Hunting back then was becoming more of a "who" you hunted with, not "what" you were hunting. Hunting at this point has also become an attempt at managing the deer populations. Ohio's limit on deer now is 6 per year in a large portion of the state. When I hunt with Tom on his buddy's property, it's about killing does because of all the crop damage the deer are doing. Of course, we'll shoot a buck if it's big enough. Most importantly for me though is being able to hang out with Tom and his buddies in Knox county.

The writing is on the wall though. I have 4 kids. My oldest son has shown a little interest in deer hunting. My middle son has too, and the youngest boy has been toting around my Red Ryder this entire summer. :gunsmilie: My daughter has even expressed a desire to go on the youth hunt this year. Tom has 3 kids too. His oldest is becoming quite the accomplished hunter in his own right. Branton will soon take to the woods too. The guys in Knox county have kids who hunt too. It will only be a matter of time before I will be squeezed out of my current hunting situation, and as such, so will my kids. In light of this, I made some payroll changes this past spring that will enable me to buy a piece of land for me, my kids and my friends. Seems like the right thing to do. Sticking money in a retirement fund for a day that might not ever come, versus sticking money in a fund that we can use anytime we want (while appreciating in value, I might add), makes way more sense right now. I want to leave something for my kids to hunt on. I don't want my kids to feel beholden to anyone or grovel for permission year after year like I have for the past 20+ years. I'd like a friend or two to say "hey, do you mind if I hunt your property this year..." to which I can say, "you are welcome anytime bud." I think this is where my hunting career is headed. Hopefully in the next couple of years, God willing, this is what kind of hunter I will become.

Aren't you glad you asked? :eat:

[92xj]

Road Hunter.

[Rhino]

I fall into the management hunter category when hunting here at home. I'll wack some does for meat and hunt for mature bucks for the wall...that is unless an old mature cull buck happens to come my way at the wrong time. When I'm on the road, I'm strictly a trophy hunter.

Style & methods? Hummm...well deer hunting is a passion, especially bowhunting. Being a passion, I spend far more time in the woods than most deer hunters. I'm very meticulous in gathering information and preparing to hunt. I spend a lot of time in the offseason scouting, running trail cams and preparing stand sites to hunt. Most of my stands are set and ready to go before the season opens. I keep a few climbers in reserve though. When I choose a stand position I'll set the stand and clear all my shooting lanes so I make only one trip in disturbing the area. Then I leave it alone until it's time to hunt. I spend time during the season scouting too but I try to be careful to make the least amount of disturbance as possible and closely guard against leaving human scent behind. In essence...I'm sneaky during in season scouting and generally do it during midday hours.

I'm not particular about hunting from a tree or the ground. I do both. I probably spend more time at ground level during firearm seasons than bow season but I've had pretty good success bowhunting at ground level too. Whenever I choose a spot or stand to hunt, I always choose one that has the wind right for the time frame I'll be on the stand.

During the early bow season (pre-rut) most of my hunting in the morning is on trails heading toward bedding areas, preferably where multiple trails come together that also has some natural food source. Early season afternoon hunts are usually spent near or at good food sources. As the rut approaches I spend the vast majority of my hunting time on hubs, funnels, and edges inside timber.

I pick and choose where I'll kill does. Those places are generally places that are easier to drag one out. I don't kill does at all in what I believe to be my prime buck hunting spots. No need to disturb those areas since I've never had a problem killing does in other places.

With all that said, I also enjoy the company of family and good friends. That's become more important in the last 10 years or so. There are times when I'll go kick back and relax with a good friend in a shooting house or ground position. When I do though I don't bother carrying a weapon. He does, I don't. I opt to carry something else instead and just relax and enjoy the company. I don't mind letting good friends hunt my stands. I prefer killing deer off my own stands though. It's a personal satisfaction thing. I also don't mind spending time helping a friend get on deer. I'm just as excited for them to have success as I am for myself.

Why? When something works for me...I stick with it.

Edited June 24, 2010 by Rhino

[Wobbly_Alaska]

i am a meat hunter exclusively, the bull in my avatar was the first legal bull that walked by last year and my largest by far, at 54 inches he is not a monster by any means but netted ~500 lbs of good meat for the freezer. my family of 8 uses on average 2 moose a year, or a moose and 2 caribou when can get to them.

all of our hunting is done with ATV, spot and stalk or boats to access areas of the state. i hunt areas with intense compitition from other hunters and fortunately can simply out hunt the rest of them. 23 days hunting last year put three moose and a bear into our camp

so far this year we have about 200 lbs of bear meat and i just gathered 30 copper river red salmon and a bunch of pacific Yellow eye rock fish ( similar to red snapper) yielding nearly 250 lbs of fresh fish in the deep freeze ( will post pics when i am not so sore LOL )

for us it is all about the meat, the antlers tend to stack up behind the green house and probably would not make it home except that i am required to, for ADFG verification of antler restrictions. as i can only shoot moose with a Spike / fork on one side... or have 4 brow tines on one side or be larger then 50" wide

not to say i don't apply for hunts where i could get a chance at at a trophy worth hanging, but we dont purchase meat from the store so it is my job to bring it home, and the seasons are just not long enough to let one walk...

[Strut10]

Meat hunter for doe.

Trophy hunter for buck.

[clrj3514]

I think my deer hunting career is in its 3rd phase, and about to go into the 4th.

When I first started hunting deer in 1987 anything that walked past me got shot at. Back then it didn't matter who I hunted with or where I hunted. I basically hunted as much as I could forsaking all others and things. I climbed trees and sat on branches until I bought a cheap tree stand. I had 1 set of insulated camo so I roasted in early season and froze in late season. I had no idea there was this thing called a rut. Back then you couldn't even shoot a doe in Ohio. After a couple years you could shoot a doe if you got a special permit. I shot my first doe while sitting on a huge sandstone boulder. I shot it with my PSE and Easton Gamegetter 2117. That combo launched an arrow at an incredibly blazing speed of about 150 fps. I stuffed that doe into my 1988 Geo Metro and hauled it back home. Turns out, nobody in my family liked venison except me.

2nd phase started in 1998 when I shot a decent buck. Back then I had a real treestand, better camo and a better bow. I had moved to a better part of the state and deer were more plentiful and so were the areas you could hunt if you were courteous and knocked on some doors. The limit of deer was up to 3, and possibly a lot more if you found property in the "urban zones." Hunting started to be about looking for bigger deer. Passed on a lot of does back then waiting on a big buck. By then I had 3 kids and they all liked "deer steak." That was motivation enough to try and kill at least 1 deer every year. This would have been around the time I started passing on little bucks and shooting does for the freezer. This was also the time when I introduced a good friend to bowhunting and he got hooked. We hunted together quite a bit.

Phase 3 of my deer hunting career evolved with the help of Realtree forums and off and on bouts with cancer. I guess it's no secret my buddy Tom (Ohiobucks) and I have shared the woods (mostly his woods, lol) since 2003. :tt1: That was the year I battled my worst type of cancer. I was pretty depressed for most of that season, but Tom helped me through most of it. Always encouraging me, always trying to get me in the woods, even when I had no desire to kill while I faced my own mortality. Hunting back then was becoming more of a "who" you hunted with, not "what" you were hunting. Hunting at this point has also become an attempt at managing the deer populations. Ohio's limit on deer now is 6 per year in a large portion of the state. When I hunt with Tom on his buddy's property, it's about killing does because of all the crop damage the deer are doing. Of course, we'll shoot a buck if it's big enough. Most importantly for me though is being able to hang out with Tom and his buddies in Knox county.

The writing is on the wall though. I have 4 kids. My oldest son has shown a little interest in deer hunting. My middle son has too, and the youngest boy has been toting around my Red Ryder this entire summer. :gunsmilie: My daughter has even expressed a desire to go on the youth hunt this year. Tom has 3 kids too. His oldest is becoming quite the accomplished hunter in his own right. Branton will soon take to the woods too. The guys in Knox county have kids who hunt too. It will only be a matter of time before I will be squeezed out of my current hunting situation, and as such, so will my kids. In light of this, I made some payroll changes this past spring that will enable me to buy a piece of land for me, my kids and my friends. Seems like the right thing to do. Sticking money in a retirement fund for a day that might not ever come, versus sticking money in a fund that we can use anytime we want (while appreciating in value, I might add), makes way more sense right now. I want to leave something for my kids to hunt on. I don't want my kids to feel beholden to anyone or grovel for permission year after year like I have for the past 20+ years. I'd like a friend or two to say "hey, do you mind if I hunt your property this year..." to which I can say, "you are welcome anytime bud." I think this is where my hunting career is headed. Hopefully in the next couple of years, God willing, this is what kind of hunter I will become.

Aren't you glad you asked? :eat:

Yes I am. I enjoyed reading how you've evolved as a hunter.

[bfletch7441]

I guess a little of both. It depends on the day. I've let bucks and does both walk only to shoot them later in the season.

Ben

[dm66]

Management hunter shoot lots of doe's and let lots of smaller bucks walk and try to shoot a mature buck hunt from the ground only(disabled). I'm at the point in my hunting career that letting them walk and knowing I could take them is just as much fun now.

[Goinghuntin]

i hunt as often as i can and still remain married.

How do you do it?!?! :jaw:

I shoot almost all that walk by, which holds true with my Dad as well. Although this year, I'm going to try for a real trophy, I think it's time I get a wall-hanger With my bow I hunt exclusively from a deer stand but I would like to try some spot-stalking. My gun has earned quite a few miles on it as I mostly do silent stalking when I have that in my hands. This year is my first for muzzleloader, so I think I'll use a combination of the two.

Nathan

[Prairiepredator]

Like a lot of people here, I am both. I like deer with big racks but I also like the meat. This coming season I want to change the way I hunt, I am going to be more management wise. I have been hunting for while now and am not going to shoot the small bucks...at least not with rifle.

My style of hunting is spot and stalk. There are very little trees around here, so that is the best way to do it in my area.

[smo]

I'm a management hunter. Take does for meat, and wait on big bucks. I hunt from a treestand primarily, but will also hunt out of a hut. I find that the older I get the more work it is to pull the trigger. Not as trigger happy as I was in my younger days.