I have done it wrong all of these years.

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The thing that amazes me the most on the whitetail hunts is what they can get away with.Big buck right under the tree hunter looks at cameraman says I'm going to take him stands up and draws a bow that about 25 lbs too heavy for him makes all kinds of movement.Deer just stands there.Caught the end of a show once they had hunted for two whole days didn't see the quality of buck they wanted.Imagine that hunted for two whole days.They were really disappointed at the outfitter.
 
I haven't used face paint since I taught my kids to hunt. They believed me to use it, then, but not now. There have been only two times in 50 years of hunting that it paid off. Ever stare down a deer? I tried and lost. They are not just looking at my eyes, but for movement around one's face. That is where the paint comes in handy. Camo is over rated too. Never had the right color stuff on at the right time. On the other hand, deer hunting with the boss's wife.... She had on perfume, smoking a cigarette and walking around in circles at her stand trying to warm her feet. An eight pointer walked up within 10 feet of her before she shot him with a 30/30. My boss said the crazy deer was just horny. The boss had to gut the deer cause she didn't want to get her hands dirty.
 
I can't watch them any more. When all the deer have names and they shoot by a feeder on a fenced in preserve there is nothing to learn or enjoy to me.Of corse it is scripted and how many takes?
 
Way I look at it, all the little goodies aren’t necessary, but can stack the odds in your favor.

Does face camo help? Not always. Sometimes yes, sometimes not.

Do you have to use scent control? Sometimes yes, sometimes not.

Few years back, I had a big gobbler cross at 62 yards. He was angling and wasn’t coming any closer. I got him DRT with my 10 gauge, custom choke, and expensive Hevi-Shot. Your typical lead slinging 12 gauge would most likely not reach that far.

I guess it’s all about stacking your odds. Can you kill a deer with a 12 gauge slug? Sure, millions have been taken. But, I’ll use my 7 mag since it’s legal and I have a range of 300 yards instead of 50 or 100 yards.

Couple turkey seasons ago, I took my best friends boy hunting for the first time. He brought a 16 gauge with a poly choke and lead shot. According to most here, we “cheated” and used a blind. I called in a bird that wouldn’t come closer than about 45-50 yards. I handed him my 10 gauge, and he got his first bird at about 20-30 minutes into the season.

David killed Goliath with a sling, but that doesn’t prove it’s the optimum weapon
 
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I've shot deer at 25 yards in jeans a t shirt wearing moccasin house shoes while sitting in my running 400cc 2 stroke ATV.
Hunting and fishing shows are designed on the Barnum principle, a sucker born every minute.
Don't field dress any more. Hang, skin, peel out back strap and quarter. Leave on ice 3 days then process.
 
That is another thing that I have noticed about the shows. No respect for the game. You have a , so called , hunter sitting over a feeder. A deer comes in and he or she shoulders the rifle that is in a leadsled, or props the gun barrel on the window sill and yanks the trigger. Then when they reach the animal they act like they just won championship ball game, or possibly having a seizure. I'm sorry but that animal deserves more respect than that.

And while I am on a rant I should bring up the subject of hogs. Everyone who shoots a deer tries to pick a spot for a clean kill. Not so with hogs. It doesn't matter where the crosshair is as long as it is on the animal. I have even heard people say that they gut shoot them on purpose. Guys, this doesn't help the image of hunters when the public sees this on TV. Any animal deserves respect whither it is a deer, hog or squirrel.

No it doesn't..........Hogs like rats are pest and VERY destructive . Costing us big $$$$ on timberland and crops. When I had hog problem I would gut shoot them or shoot them with buckshot so thy would die somewhere else. They are so detrimental native wildlife.......If I could I would call in an air strike or nuke them. You apparently don't own land or ever had to deal with hog destruction.
 
Way I look at it, all the little goodies aren’t necessary, but can stack the odds in your favor.

Does face camo help? Not always. Sometimes yes, sometimes not.

Do you have to use scent control? Sometimes yes, sometimes not.

Few years back, I had a big gobbler cross at 62 yards. He was angling and wasn’t coming any closer. I got him DRT with my 10 gauge, custom choke, and expensive Hevi-Shot. Your typical lead slinging 12 gauge would most likely not reach that far.

I guess it’s all about stacking your odds. Can you kill a deer with a 12 gauge slug? Sure, millions have been taken. But, I’ll use my 7 mag since it’s legal and I have a range of 300 yards instead of 50 or 100 yards.

Couple turkey seasons ago, I took my best friends boy hunting for the first time. He brought a 16 gauge with a poly choke and lead shot. According to most here, we “cheated” and used a blind. I called in a bird that wouldn’t come closer than about 45-50 yards. I handed him my 10 gauge, and he got his first bird at about 20-30 minutes into the season.

David killed Goliath with a sling, but that doesn’t prove it’s the optimum weapon

I think your post gets to the gist of it.

Animals "screw up" they make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes are lethal. They wander in the open and get shot by a newby with an unsighted rifle etc. The key I think is when looking at this with consistency in mind.

I consider myself an OK deer hunter. Every year I'm shoot a couple, on the off year I'll shoot a decent buck and a doe or two. When it comes to good bucks, I'm not consistent and I don't put serious effort in.

A good friend of mine is what I consider to be a great deer hunter. He does a lot of the things that guys in this thread mock. He's a fanatic when it comes to camo, scent control, entering the woods quietly, practices (both bow and rifle). He scouts, shed hunts, has multiple cameras out, basically looks like the guys on the hunting shows. He'll find a buck on camera, and then hunt that particular buck by changing stand locations etc.

But, he consistently kills mature bucks. Has a wall full of them and he won't shoot unless the buck meets his criteria. So when I look at how he goes about it, and his track record, maybe there's something to it.
 
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Guys say “I shot a deer”. Which deer? Occasionally a newbie hunter will stumble across a record buck, but as you noted, a dedicated Hunter has better odds. There’s a huge difference between shooting a yearling doe and a mature buck.
It goes like this. Son: the six is heading your way . Me: which one. Son: the one that hinges w the 4. Me ok. Any sign of the 8. Son No but the 10 is way out. Me ok. I’ve got does out the field 2 buck w them to far to tell which ones. that’s our somewhat typical bow hunt.
 
I have been watching a lot of hunting shows lately and have come to the conclusion that I have done everything wrong for 57 years.

Naw....you've just been doing it differently. One thing I have discovered after half a century of hunting is that very few folks hunt exactly the same. Sometimes it's because folks don;t know any better, sometimes better is not needed and sometimes, different is what is needed. I too have to laugh at the guys in the elevated blind with face camo, shooting as semi-domesticated deer 200 yards away, while at the same time wearing a white hat with their sponsors logo on it. But hey, they still shoot big deer. Another thing I have discovered is that the way I hunt is determined what works for me, not only in success, but making for a quality hunt. While working all day in thick cover to shoot one rooster is satisfying, so is going to the local game farm and shooting 20 in a hour with my two boys. Let me assure you, the dog prefers the latter. Unfortunately, too many folks that watch hunting shows believe they are all real life, fair chase and not edited and scripted. They see little or no effort by the hunter to locate stands or pattern the deer, yet a whole herd comes out in the field every night, while the T.V. hunter passes on non-shooters that most of us would pee down our leg if we shot them. For the most part, they are only entertainment, taped on property managed expressly for what you see. A deer shoot and not a deer hunt. They also don't waste time to teach tactics, unless it is to promote a sponsors product and then by gosh, you can't be successful without it. I've sat days in a treestand in a productive area and ate my tag. I've also jumped shooter deer on my way into the woods and never made it to my stand. I've pushed corn fields and set aside all day without so much as a point and then on the way home seen a pheasant pickin' grit off the shoulder of the road. After watchin' him run across the field to the first patch of cover, I've gotten the dog out, walked over and after a quick point( at least I still let the dog still scent trail the bird to the cover), I went home with supper for me and the wife. It's all good as long as it's legal and within your ethics.
 
There is a movement I guess you could call it that called back to plaid. You where red plaid wool pants, my son tells me I'm a hipster what ever that means. I hunt with a map, compass, And my fathers mold 99 300 sav. No gps and I don't have a bike, have thought of a 4x4(quad) just to cove ground but leaning on a mule.
 
Well I'm doing it wrong too. I hunt in my M65 coat and blue jeans. I've taken more deer than you could shake a stick at. I look at the guys at hunting camp with their hats, boots, outfits, gun cases, slings, gunstocks all in matching camo and just shake my head. BTW, I have seen deer feeding on & licking gut piles.
 
Like I said. You know NOTHING of hog destruction on trees/wildlife and native plants/crops. You probably don't own 1 acre of dirt and have never saw the destruction they cause.

You might want to check into that.......

I agree with DNS that your neighbors don’t need your wounded hogs and even though they are destructive pests that’s not an excuse to be cruel. Shoot as many as you want but kill them clean.
 
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JMHO- in the area I hunt, I don't wear anything with brown because I've had
bad experiences with people that don't
make absolutely sure that what they're
pointing a gun at is a game animal, and not a brown patch of color that might be a deer.
Since there aren't any green deer locally,
I usually wear some kind of camo clothing or OD clothes.
Methods vary widely with the regions
hunted, so others may not do exactly what I do, and vice versa.
My motto is to hunt your own hunt and
let me hunt mine.
As long as we all abide by the law, what
another does or doesn't do won't bother me,
and I'll leave them be to do as they please
and expect the same courtesy from them
 
Like I said. You know NOTHING of hog destruction on trees/wildlife and native plants/crops. You probably don't own 1 acre of dirt and have never saw the destruction they cause.

Well, you caught me. I guess my youth and inexperience is showing. I only spend 30 hours a week or more dealing with problem hogs for 20 properties covering ~3500 acres for other landowners. I shot and recovered 386 hogs last year.

As far as owning land, I am only ag exempt on 3 properties of my own.

So I probably don't know anything about hogs, the destruction they cause or any of that, or maybe I do, LOL.

 
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The one thing I have done right! Is make it my responsibility to ethically and humanely kill animals. This doesn't mean that I haven't wounded a couple animals in my 40+ years of hunting. I did everything in my power to recover those animals and learned from my mistakes.
 
I remember when everyone wore flannel and smoked while they were hunting.

I'm "only" 49 but I concur totally. I have never seen eye-to-eye with the modern dudes regarding all the tech and gear that is put into hunting these days. I've walked up on so many clueless deer while wearing street clothes and carrying a 357 or a shotgun, none of that makes any sense to me at all.

And watching "the hunt" on You Tube with a speed-metal soundtrack??
Nuts!!
 
Like I said. You know NOTHING of hog destruction on trees/wildlife and native plants/crops. You probably don't own 1 acre of dirt and have never saw the destruction they cause.

Well, you caught me. I guess my youth and inexperience is showing. I only spend 30 hours a week or more dealing with problem hogs for 20 properties covering ~3500 acres for other landowners. I shot and recovered 386 hogs last year.

As far as owning land, I am only ag exempt on 3 properties of my own.

So I probably don't know anything about hogs, the destruction they cause or any of that, or maybe I do, LOL.



This makes me wonder if you can use egg on your face in place of camo paint!
 
I wear a hat because at my age with white hair, without it I may as well be waving a white sheet in the woods. But my hat does have a face drape that covers me from the shoulders up for when I go turkey hunting.
Most of the stuff they say they need in the hunting videos is nothing more than commercial hype, it's just there to get you to buy something.
If I bought everything they said I needed I couldn't get it back in the woods where I hunt without a 1 ton 4x4 truck.
Most of these hunting videos are taken on private land that they paid an extreme amount of cash to get to hunt it. I would like to see one video that the guy works a regular job & gets out to hunt only on weekends on public land. I wonder if they wound have the same success as they do on the paid private hunt. LOL
 
I have been watching a lot of hunting shows lately and have come to the conclusion that I have done everything wrong for 57 years. It seems as though one must camo their face while in a stand be it a treestand or in a blind. It doesn't matter if your ears and neck flash like a surrender flag as long as you have a couple of streaks on your cheeks. I never even dreamed about riding an electric bike or carrying a tripod shooting stick, but I can see now that I don't know anything about deer hunting. Guess I'll have to sell my little Yamaha Bear Tracker and get me a bike. Looks like the ATV is a better choice for getting a deer out of the woods, but what do I know? And I must be the only person who field dresses my deer on the ground where I shoot them. I always said that I would rather gut 5 on the ground compared to one hanging up. Wrong again. Some say that they don't want to scare the other deer by leaving a gut pile. I guess the deer I shot standing 10 feet from a fresh gut pile didn't know it was wrong either. Maybe I should just hang it up. Fifty seven years down the drain.

If you haven't been shooting a belted magnum you've been doing it wrong too. ;)
 
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