Just Thinking....

[DMD]

Something someone posted on here got me to thinking about how difficult it was to pass my first buck. I started hunting in the 80's on the cumberland plateau - deer numbers were pretty low, especially buck numbers, since you could legally kill like 127 a year (I'm exaggerating...slightly). In those days, just starting out, if you saw spikes - KaBoom! You didn't pass a buck. As a matter of fact, our measure of success wasn't so much if you killed a "big" buck, but how many bucks did you kill. I remember when the page started turning, and I wanted to kill bigger bucks, and I didn't feel so much like I had to kill several bucks to prove my deer hunting "chops". It was so foreign, so against everything in me to let a buck walk. At first, I always had this nagging feeling: "you're going to regret that". I remember some of my hunting buddies would just shake their head at me, saying "you're crazy for passing a legal buck".

There's no right way or wrong way necessarily - it all depends on a person's situation, goals, and desires - but, times sure have changed. We all pass small bucks regularly and think nothing about it - but, there was a day when - no way would a legal buck walk. LOL.

 

[Coker]

The old saying, "If it's brown it's down" is no longer. I remember those days well. I don't hate them as much as I used too. It's too much work after you pull the trigger and I ain't getting any younger.

 

[bigtex]

I remember those days well! I was once a "brown and downer" but back then the only thing brown that was legal were Bucks. You had to go West to kill a doe.
I still don't shoot does on my property and try to let the young Bucks go.

 

[backyardtndeer]

I didn't get my start until 92, late start into hunting at 23 years old. No mentor or dad to teach me, I learned as I went along. I think deer numbers were fair by then. I think i started passing bucks in the late 90's. Even with that I shot some then and even had one mounted that I would not shoot now. Some of the boys I worked with shot dinky scrubs and would brag about how many they were killing. A couple times checking deer in, one would catch me and see what I killed. Once back to work others would question me. I would tell them, you have to let some of the little ones go. By now some of those boys might have caught on....

It's too much work after you pull the trigger and I ain't getting any younger.

There is a good bit of time involved after the kill for me. No doubt that that plays a role in how selective I may be.

 

[megalomaniac]

The first year I hunted I saw 2 bucks... killed them both ( a spike and a 3ptr). The 2nd year I hunted, I didn't see a single buck. Third year I hunted I killed the only buck I saw... a 4ptr.

THEN I turned 16 and got my driver's license and the freedom to hunt without parents or grandparents taking me.... I hunted 30 or more days... and didn't see a single buck.

So after 4 seasons, I had seen a grand total of 3 bucks... and killed them all.

I'm sure that lack of success was a combination of being clueless how to hunt, but also because there were so few deer.

Now it's normal for me to see a buck on every hunt, often 2 or 3 on a single hunt, and occasionally 6 or 7 bucks on a single hunt. It's not unusual for me to see 75 to 100 bucks in a season (some are the same bucks seen more than once). No reason to kill the first 2 that come out and be done hunting for the year since it is no longer a challenge just to see a buck.... I enjoy being out there with a tag in hand than tag out. It's very rare for me to use my second tag any more.

 

[SEC]

Your memories sound like modern day unit CWD. Kill em all and let God sort em out.

 

[RockMcL]

I encourage new hunters to do a massive amount of studying the craft, deer anatomy, wound channels etc. and then I encourage them to kill everything legal to build their shooting skill. Once they break the cherry, rinse and repeat a couple times they need to develop a more nuanced sense of what to shoot and when.

 

[DMD]

The first year I hunted I saw 2 bucks... killed them both ( a spike and a 3ptr). The 2nd year I hunted, I didn't see a single buck. Third year I hunted I killed the only buck I saw... a 4ptr.

THEN I turned 16 and got my driver's license and the freedom to hunt without parents or grandparents taking me.... I hunted 30 or more days... and didn't see a single buck.

So after 4 seasons, I had seen a grand total of 3 bucks... and killed them all.

I'm sure that lack of success was a combination of being clueless how to hunt, but also because there were so few deer.

Now it's normal for me to see a buck on every hunt, often 2 or 3 on a single hunt, and occasionally 6 or 7 bucks on a single hunt. It's not unusual for me to see 75 to 100 bucks in a season (some are the same bucks seen more than once). No reason to kill the first 2 that come out and be done hunting for the year since it is no longer a challenge just to see a buck.... I enjoy being out there with a tag in hand than tag out. It's very rare for me to use my second tag any more.

I had two spans in my life where I went three years without killing a deer.... and not for lack of trying. I hunted long and hard. Like you said, I'm confident a big part of that was my lack of skill at the time, but also it wasn't unusual to hunt all season and just see one buck or zero bucks. Those were pretty miserable 6 years

 

[Flintlocksforme]

I started in 79, the only way to pull the trigger for the most part was 3 inches of antler. Just one. Does we're at the end of the season if you drew a permit and on juvenile hunts. I took up archery by 7th grade and any deer was a trophy. I love killing them still but pass up more than I shoot today. I love to process them and enjoy eating deer several times a week. if I did not know how I would learn to process them myself. To me that's where the satisfaction comes. Knowing that you don't have to buy meat at a grocery store all year. I was very slow to change letting bucks walk and resisted the limit drop to 3 and thought 2 buck limit would ruin my experience. as it was so hard ingrained that every shot you heard back in the day was a dead buck, so if he got passed you he was going to get killed over the next hill. Today it's still funny to hear shots and wonder, coyotes?, doe?, small buck? Or the one you have been after?

 

[Smoke]

I started hunting around 91 when I turned 10. For a long time if it was a legal deer it was coming home with me. As I got older and got more deer under my belt I started passing on small deer for better racked deer. Now I'm fooling with deer year round. I've got plots going all through the year, running cell cams year round and glassing from a distance. I've changed my preference from rack size to age. In my area I can get a few known bucks to 4.5 year olds. I'd like to get them older but I lose a lot of 3.5 year olds. I study trail cam pics year to year trying to figure out who is who if I can. Love having history with deer that you've seen grow over the years. I did shoot a 3.5 year old 10 point that I had previously passed. In the heat of the moment that rack will get to you if things happen quick. I get just as much enjoyment watching deer using the plots I put in as shooting them. Shows how your work pays off.

 

[RockMcL]

I still don't like the 2 buck a year in middle TN. If I can kill 3 does a day legally for like 4 months how can only 2 bucks make sense? Something wrong there as far as "science" goes.

I limit myself based on my desire for my son's to harvest nice bucks and what I feel should be harvested on my land anyway but on years my sons don't step up it really hurts when I am bucked out on decent bucks and number 1 shows up and I can't match wits with him...

 

[MUP]

Something someone posted on here got me to thinking about how difficult it was to pass my first buck. I started hunting in the 80's on the cumberland plateau - deer numbers were pretty low, especially buck numbers, since you could legally kill like 127 a year (I'm exaggerating...slightly). In those days, just starting out, if you saw spikes - KaBoom! You didn't pass a buck. As a matter of fact, our measure of success wasn't so much if you killed a "big" buck, but how many bucks did you kill. I remember when the page started turning, and I wanted to kill bigger bucks, and I didn't feel so much like I had to kill several bucks to prove my deer hunting "chops". It was so foreign, so against everything in me to let a buck walk. At first, I always had this nagging feeling: "you're going to regret that". I remember some of my hunting buddies would just shake their head at me, saying "you're crazy for passing a legal buck".

There's no right way or wrong way necessarily - it all depends on a person's situation, goals, and desires - but, times sure have changed. We all pass small bucks regularly and think nothing about it - but, there was a day when - no way would a legal buck walk. LOL.

Heck, I grew up on the southern end of the plateau myself and I remember those days well. I'm 58 now and only within the last 15-20 years have I began to pass the younger bucks(lean years in the beginning to kill ANY deer at all). Now I've let bucks up to 2-1/2 yr old and with a rack size of around 100" go with regularity. But, if I see a buck that gets my blood pumping I'll definitely take it, b/c I'm out there hunting, and not sight seeing. Other factors also determine if and when I"ll shoot, as in having an empty freezer. My main goal is to take 1 big mature buck per season, 2 if the stars align, but does are still relatively scarce in my area, and I will not shoot them. Good thread!

 

[Chickenrig]

The old saying, "If it's brown it's down" is no longer. I remember those days well. I don't hate them as much as I used too. It's too much work after you pull the trigger and I ain't getting any younger.

Oh!!!! How true that statement is!! I do a lot more thinkin nowadays before i pull that trigger, and i hunt in my back yard