Why Do Hunters Do This?

God bless diversity and a country that allows so much selection.

However, I'm willing to say that more deer were killed with the .22 LR and 30-30 than any other round known to man.

koja48
Senior Member



Join Date: 02-21-05
Location: SE WA State
Posts: 1,674 Every board has a Department of Redundancy Department . . . on the chance that a neophyte hunter will pick-up some sound information/education, I'll continue to play.
This is the reason why I enjoy this site! Thank You

We're in the era of instant gratification. The biggest problem with instant gratification is that it takes too long.

Bigger, badder, and faster is always better. An animal killed with a .300 Whiizbangmagnum is deader than one killed with a 30-06.

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Then there is the opposite end of the spectrum where you have the lightweight/lazy/recoil shy folks who just want to know what the minimums for hunting.

always bring a MG3 to the hunting grounds.
Make sure the weight of the prey has doubled
before you stop shooting.

Statistic shows the prey tends to be extremely dead
after a full belt of uranium-tipped sabots.

Plus one (+1) for Wheelgunslinger (Post 17)

It is confusing for Nemrods, they pick up three or four magazines in May and there are three articles and a special whitetail forecast which say the same thing from three or four points of view with different equipment.....exactly like last May and like next May.

When outdoor writing is nothing more than fill in the blanks with your sponsers products, we have to expect confusion on the part of new people in the hunting/shooting sports.

Why Do Hunters Do This?

Some newbie hunters think they can purchase competence.

Well, pity the poor Newbie. He comes in and finds all those ads from Cabela's et al, saying that if he doesn't buy two tactical wheelbarrow's worth of toys, he'll never kill Bambi.

Then he finds that 5 hunters = 7 opinions about guns'n'gear.

It ain't easy, being a wannabe hunter in today's world...

Especially if Pops or Grandpops didn't hunt. Lack of mentors leaves a lot of newbies with no options save learning thru advertisements, magazines, and web sites.

I probably shouldn't jump in here since my kind have been insulted several times already, but I never had hunters around when I was young. Dad wasn't opposed, far from it. He'd buy or accept elk, venison, etc from hunters that he worked with. He just wasn't much interested in hunting himself. We did camp and fish quite a bit, and he got us involved in scouting and such. Just never hunting. So I've had to piece together my hunting ideas/experience/knowledge/etc myself. I even resorted to hunting shows for a while and believed many of the claims presented in them!
You can't just find hunters and ask them either, these days. Not just because all of us have 3 opinions on the same subject, but picking out the ones who know from the ones who parrot advertisements is hard when you yourself don't know.
I dunno. I don't have a wealth of experience, and few mentors, but I take what I can get and try what sounds worthwhile, and sometimes I even learn stuff on my own. I always figured that was the fun part.

and then

there are those of us who are setting at work, bored, and looking for a distraction.
to be perfectly honest, the last new rifle i bought was solely because i like the way the loaded cartridges looked!
Mat-J2 don't feel bad it takes a special kind of mor... idot... person to work all week long then go out on their day off to set in the woods in the freezing cold, rain or snow, hoping the right game will cross their path.

None taken. Just saying in general, if I ask a question that many of you learned the answer to back when you were knee-high to a baby grasshopper, now you know why.

Can't speak for anyone else of course. I have talked to some people were obviously off the rails a bit, they might even get online and spout their 'wisdom'.

Oh yeah and the .270 beats the pants off any 30-06 ever made.

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Best grin I've had all day. Thanks for the levity.

This thread reminds me of a friend I have. His mentality is Hunt with a damn cannon and fish with sticks of dynamite. The bigger, the better and the more, the merrier... I often tease him that maybe he is trying to compensate for "other areas" in his life, You know what I mean??
We were going rabbit hunting and I had loaded my Marlin 22Mag rifle in bolt action and my Ruger single shot in 22LR in his truck and when we were about to drive off from my house, He looked me straight in the eye, drop dead serious and asked, "Don't you want to take your 338?" He later said he just wanted to shoot it, not hunt with it but still...

5 Hunters = 7 Opinions is pretty spot on, but part of that is because of the different types of hunts, different regional habbits, and different reasons to hunt! I was mostly a meat hunter and so my "tactics", equipment, and methods were different than those who are dedicated trophy hunters. Furthermore the area/region you like in has a big impact. One of the most agvivating arguements that I have even see on here is the discussion about hunting with dogs. To many folks around here can just live and let live. They feel that everyone HAS to think like they do! The fact is that a long as you are being safe and following the law in your hunting aread I don't care how you do it. If you ask for opinions then I will gladly give you mine (which is right) but you are free to do whatever you want, just enjoy!

Senior Member



Join Date: 06-30-08
Location: The South
Posts: 248 Just for future reference, here's a list of things I know from experience are capable of dropping a full grown whitetail deer in it's tracks.

7mm Mag
30-30
30-06
270
280
3" magnum #1 buckshot (dramatically effective)
70# compound bow w/ Thunderhead 125
60# recurve with 250 gr broadhead
44 Magnum super blackhawk
300 win mag
Ford F150
22 magnum
308
8' tall chainlink fence
Estwing hatchet

There's probably more...

Heres my list 22lr ,A stick,my car

Car, F-150 ... I got my first deer with a Yamaha 750, and I've been working on getting even ever since! Thus far I've used:

.30-06 (for my first)
.30-30
.308
.243
.44 Mag (revolver)
12 gauge (slug)
100 gr Thunderhead (arrow)

Point being, lots of things will kill deer. Shot placement is most important. Like others have said, marketing makes it hard to choose when you're just starting out. I started with a .30-06 because my father-in-law handed it to me and said, "Here, this will work." So no point in arguing over what is "best."

I went back to the OP and have been studying on this. I've come to the conclusion that there is a frustration factor that begins at the end of hunting season, and escalates after all the lies--oops, stories are told.

That frustration then leads to the picking of nits on the general subject of guns'n'huntin'. There is a certain amount of one-upsmanship as to who can pick the most nits. The most fly-poop out of the least pepper, as it were.

The unfortunate aspect of all this is the lack of trophies or awards for the apparent El Nitter Maximo.

I'll have to study on that, some...

I think Jack O'Connors book "The Art of Hunting Big Game in North America" should be required reading for ALL new hunters. Now, I have the youngsters asking "who the hell is Jack O'Connor?!?!? ...nevermind..
I do see hunters trying using more equipment to compensate for lack of experience. A buddy of mine handed me his hunting binoculars the other day and I swear they must've been 16X!!! What the hell?!?!? I felt like I was looking through a handheld microscope! Then he told me with great pride that they cost him $2000! (They were Swarovski's) The same chap uses a 12X scope on his 300 Mag. to hunt elk!
I find that the older I get, the less I need. My "go to" deer rifle is a Mauser 308 with an 18 1/2" barrel and a 2.75X Burris Scout Scope. My handloads run a 150 gr. Core-Lokt right at 2700 fps and I have all the confidence in the world in this rifle and have killed plentyof deer with it.
My elk rifle is a home buillt 35 Whelen with a (GASP!!) 4X Burris scope. With it, I discovered that a Barnes 225 gr. X bullet can be driven end to end through a bull elk. My binoculars, (Minolta WP.FP I discovered through Consumer Reports) are a paltry 8X magnification, cost $125 and unless I lose or ruin them, will be the last pair of binoculars I ever buy.
Last year, I shot a doe with an Enfield No.4 using the original military sights and loaded with a 200 gr. hand cast bullet running about 1600 fps. Talk about gratification!
But I have to admit that I went through a period where I had to squeeze the last fps out of every load. Glad those days are gone....my brass sure lasts alot longer!
35W

My dad hunted big game his whole life with an '06 and while I do own other rifle calibers, I've done all my big game hunting for about 40 years with an '06. I can go almost anywhere and by ammo or I can load my own for almost any size game. I've used it for elk, deer, bear and hogs as well as a few other things.

Think of all the money I've saved over the years by not having to buy all these new WSSM's and other offerings.

I'm not a newbie but I have to say my dad always filled the freezer with 12ga slugs and thats the way I do it today. I do it with a rifled slug barrel and a new fangled sabot slug oh yeah a 4X scope but I still do it in 12ga. If more fathers would take up hunting we probably wouldn't be on this thread now.

As the Gentleman was quoted:

"Perfection is the enemy of Progress."

I wonder if some gun people have OCD? Nah, couldn't be.

Order of the Day: Help stamp out redundancy and repetition!!!!!

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YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN!

“We're in the era of instant gratification. The biggest problem with instant gratification is that it takes too long.” --redneck2 (Internet philosophy from TheHighRoad.org)

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With regards, I will be using this GREAT line, often.

What load do you use for the F150 . . . I always thought that a 1/2-ton was too light for deer . . .

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Another great statement. :banghead:

I'm not a newbie but I have to say my dad always filled the freezer with 12ga slugs and thats the way I do it today. I do it with a rifled slug barrel and a new fangled sabot slug oh yeah a 4X scope but I still do it in 12ga. If more fathers would take up hunting we probably wouldn't be on this thread now.

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Don’t those slugs get hard to digest? I guess if my dad was more of a hunter I wouldn’t be eating all that unhealthy meat.

Go figure.

Fred