I saw a Fred Bear interview a couple days ago. He was 83 at the time and had taken just about all the "big" game species in the world except Rhino and a couple more. When asked which ONE big game animal was his favorite, and the MOST challenging to kill, he replied the whitetail. He said he thought that there was nothing harder to kill than a deer with a bow. He mentioned a few specifics like how incredibly "smart" (probably interpreted survival conscious)deer are. I also interpreted that he meant that killing a mature whitetail deer was, in his opinion "the hardest big game animal to kill with a bow".

I think we all often FORGET just how tough these animals are to kill. The TV makes it look easier at times, but chasing free ranging wild, especially pressured deer, can be RIDICULOUSLY frustrating.

I find it more than a little amusing that in just my short lifetime, I have watched deer hunting evolve from that of being VERY excited over just seeing a track, to talking managing for LARGE antlered bucks and actually PASSING on young or small antlered bucks. All in a span of only about 30 years of hunting.

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Very true! But also think how much the deer population as exploded in those 30 years! I'm 31years old and starting hunting in the early 90s, man even then I can remember only seeing 4 to 5 deer a year and that was something amazing! I think especially in TN that the deer population explosion is the main contributor to changes in the way we hunt JMO

THE FACTS STILL AND PROBABLY ALWAYS WILL REMAIN THAT VERY FEW HUNTERS WILL EVER KILL A 150 INCH PLUS BUCK.

In my opinion, the majority of Southeastern hunters will never even see a legit 150-class buck in their hunting career.

sad,but true ,but the are no gates going NORTH!

. . . . . It's in the soil folks.