Originally Posted By: KizmoOriginally Posted By: bigsky_songdogs
Me, I'll continue to shoot what suits me, big or small, as long as it legal and fair chase. At the end of the season if I haven't found a big buck, I'll shoot a little buck shamelessly,
I've never deer hunted a high fence operation, but I did have the privilege of coyote hunting a private, non-commercial high fence operation in Alabama last year, so I got at least a sense of what it's like. If you think shooting a dumb little yearling buck on open land is any more "fair chase" than shooting a particular 6 1/2 year old buck inside 3,000 fenced acres, feel free to keep deluding yourself, because that's exactly what you're doing.
Originally Posted By: bigsky_songdogs ...because having venison to enjoy is more important to me than a big rack to show off.
Evidently, they don't have does where you hunt.
Not many oppertunities to shoot them where I live, no. But I do travel to other parts of the state and shoot them also. And I never said anything about a yearling buck, I said little buck, there are a lot of 2-3yr little bucks running around and with the competition on public land in MT sometimes even they are hard to find. I would say that hiking the rocky mtn west for any public deer is hard work regardless of antler size. You make the mistake in thinking that just because you coyote hunted on a place that you are the only one who knows anything about it. I didn't say they were all easy, I said they were livestock, bulked up for big antlers where they are kept in a price of property with little or no hunting competition to deal with. There are plenty of high fence "hunts" on far less than 3000 acres.
On a side note, being able to coyote hunt on a place like that would be fun.
Also, I will retract part of what I said. Many times it is not greed and laziness, many times it's someone wanting to do an off season hunt or go after an exotic animal to shoot something cool. Or guys who didn't draw a tag etc etc. these are not the hunts I take issue with. Sometimes it's strictly for meat, like the buffalo offered around MT and elsewhere.
The ones I take issue with are the ones seen in some magazine or tv shows, where they hold up enormous racks with a cocky grin like they accomplished something heroic, only interested in shooting a 500" bull or 300" buck to show off and brag while downplaying the fact it was shot high fence. The ones who act like their hard work and knowledge of hunting was the sole reason they killed a huge buck. These are the people who annoy me. Like I said I wouldn't stop them from doing it, but I wouldn't do it.
