Let them walk.

[mercerbear]

The five stages of hunter development - link

It should be the goal of every responsible hunter to become a true sportsman.

• As a hunter gains experience and skill, studies have shown that he or she will typically pass through five distinct stages of development. Keep in mind, however, that not everyone passes through all of these stages, nor do they necessarily do it in the same order.
• The five stages of hunter development are:
  • Shooting Stage
  • Limiting-Out Stage
  • Trophy Stage
  • Method Stage
  • Sportsman Stage

 

[WYO300RUM]

Been a while since the OP chimed in. Do you all thing we have been added to his ignore list?
alleluia!

 

[Buffalobwana]

do you want my paypal address to send me money so you can buy my tags and then i'll hunt your way?

Be careful! He might ignore you!

 

[WYO300RUM]

I get the "brown it's down" . Most all whitetal are brown but
What if it's grey ? Must mulies are grey. Coues whitetail also. Somebody please think of one for grey. Thanks

 

[Deleted member 123841]

I get the "brown it's down" . Most all whitetal are brown but
What if it's grey ? Must mulies are grey. Coues whitetail also. Somebody please think of one for grey. Thanks

If it's grey it gay. That's all I got.

 

[WYO300RUM]

If it's grey it gay. That's all I got.

 

[xsn10s]

Stated so elegantly! I wonder, is peer pressure or all the "sports" marketing that drives people to trophy hunting?

That really was a well throughout and wise post imo. I think people, me included, are competitive. After while for me competition with others becomes less important as competiting, or improving, myself. Sports is a big business. Peer pressure is a reality of life. Being involved in whatever is a personal choice. Which is why I don't shoot competitions much anymore. I shoot, hunt, or fish for the experience. It's more of a spiritual thing for me now.

 

[Shane Lindsey]

When I got my ubermag long bomber it's a bad day for gray.

 

[Stonyman88]

There's quite a few of you that will read this post and you'll just get mad and try to tell me how it is. Cool, you do that. I will hit "ignore" on every one of you without hesitation. If you want to disagree, you better do so in a manner befitting a Christian. Fact is, I have almost nothing in common with most "hunters" these days, and I'd rather be disliked by all of them than be "popular" among that crowd.

This post is for the rest of you. The guys that are trying to be good responsible sportsmen that know how to manage our resources.

My request is this: Learn how to score on the hoof. Stop shooting immature animals. If you want food and the joy of the hunt... do it with a doe. They taste better.

That is all.

I'm out scouting for pronghorn, as I usually do this time of year. Some areas of the country you see massive pronghorn regularly. Tags are hard to get in those areas. Permission to hunt, even harder to get. They grow big there, because most hunters are kept out.

That's not true of my area. Here, there isn't much for sizable pronghorn. Fewer and fewer sizable anything, actually.

It's a sad reality when in order to foster trophy animals, hunters must be kept away. Yet, despite how sad, that is very true of many hunters. We're suppose to care... not just look for instant gratification of a kill on our vacation from our life, wife, and job.

Took this guys picture 15 minutes ago... and I know the majority of hunters would blast him if given the opportunity. Sure, he's a "nice" goat. He's got decent cutters, decent length, decent mass, and there's even some ivory there.

Though he sure doesn't have much of a curl does he? I bet he's 3yrs old is all. Next year he'll be nice. Two years, he'll be a STUD! What do you think he scores?

Now compare what you see above, to a real trophy pronghorn. Here's a 90" goat from pronghornguideservice instagram page:

Now what do you think that first goat I posted scored?

I'm talking about pronghorn here, but the same applies to every species. Just let them walk. What is the big deal? Shoot a doe for as many years as you need to foster some proper management of the species. Teach this restraint to the younger generation. If you don't, then $10,000+ per hunt guides will be the only place any of us get to hunt a real trophy. You can very likely still do all the things that are important to you on your hunt without shooting an immature buck.


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All I can say is the same as you, let em walk too, I had one like the second pic in your post, stalked him for over 4 hours, then the guy I was hunting with cam busting over the hill in his dam truck, and said I just saw a great goat on top of that ridge, I just looked and said me too, Never saw him again, but that's hunting, or hunting with idiots .

 

[milo-2]

To me it is all a part of participation. My suggestion is for every hunter is to enjoy every level and try to experience them all. By the way some people fly through the levels, some people skip levels. some stall out in certain levels and some people quit hunting all together with out experiencing multiple levels.

When I hunted big game, I just wanted the experience and the meat. There was no logical reason for me to take a trophy animal, when there were other hunters who paid their dues and were willing to work 5 times harder than myself to bag one. I just scoped trophy animals, the wife made it clear, the head was not hanging in our house.
As for fish or upland bird limits, always wise to know the health of the resource, no reason to take a limit of fish if the stream or lake has low numbers. With upland birds, one has to factor in winter kill, will it affect next yrs population. If starvation or suffocating under snow is a distinct possibility, shoot em.

 

[Chrsm]

I hunt on mostly private property. The surrounding property's ethics seem to be, if it's brown it's down.
The numbers, and family units have diminished over many years. To the point if you see a deer your lucky!
Now it use to drive me crazy, but I am not willing to get off my *** and fiend another place to hunt. so now I try to just injoy being out in the woods. In hopes of the big boy. We are all parasites of this earth. I make no judgment of anyone else.
I guess my point is the hunt starts with a good plan, will before the field……,..

 

[xsn10s]

I don't have anything against hunting for trophies. That was my goal when I first started hunting. Now I hunt for the meat. But the same is true for fishing for me. Some species don't do well if you take the trophies out. If everyone concentrated on taking trophies game then a higher percentage of that gene pool will be removed.

 

[Clem Bronkoski]

Its nice to shoot large "trophy" animals and I've shot a few during my 55+ years of hunting. However, and you can delete if you want, but IMO every animal I shoot is a trophy to me. I respect God's creation and as long as it is a legal game animal it is a trophy.
I don't have the funds nor the fitness anymore to go isolated area where you can be selective of what you shoot and I hunt public land exclusively here in PA. I am thankful that PA instituted a point restriction on buck and it has increased the amount of mature bucks being harvested as well as allowing lesser buck to mature.

 

[MZmoose]

I'm going to have to ignore the OP. All I read in that post was extremism and whining. I believe this...so everyone else should do what suits me. I don't have enough trophy animals to harvest because of everyone else. And if you disagree and I don't like it I will ignore you..... Last I checked this was America, do what makes you happy and leave me alone to do what makes me happy. By the OP's thinking we would have a shortage of animals pretty quick if the meat hunters shot only females. We pay license and tag fees so fish and game departments can manage the wildlife. If it's legal and you want to harvest it, by all means take that animal. And last I checked trophy animals were difficult to find and harvest, that's the point.