The second half of this thread makes me wonder if hunting will hassle, cost and regulate itself out of existense for the Joe-average-Academy Sports and Outdoors - city boy - hunter. May be a good thing depending on one's point of view.

I think anytime we loose hunters it is bad.

As several has said here, trophy hunting has put a damper on hunting as has antler restrictions. A persons first buck is like thier first lover, it's an event that will always be remembered. Other deer or people will come and go but the first is always remembered. Therefore, when someone bags thier first deer and it's young, so what. Shake thier hand, give'em a hug and make a big deal out of it. My first time I got to go on the family hunting trip to Sonora I shot a basket head 4 pt but my granddad, uncles, and cousins thought it was the next state record. When everybody came in I got to tell my story around the fire and drink a beer with them. I was 12 but in thier eyes I was becoming a man and was to be treated as such. So when a kid brings in a deer that's a little small or young, be careful what you say, it will affect them for life, good or bad.

Great post.


Too damn many middle aged men worrying about out doing each other has damn near killed hunting.

Boy, Aggiebrahma nailed a huge issue for me! I got tired of hunting with a bunch of blowhards making up for their other shortcomings by spending tons of money to shoot trophy deer, and then acting like king stud because of their 'prowess'! Naturally they have stories to come with the trophies like having to walk extra far to the blind that day, etc. 'So freakin' what' I kept saying-you can imagine how popular THAT was, lol! So I quit leasing. Admittedly, there were other factors taking the fun out of it too.

-Staying in a box
-Lack of challenging shots from such sterile, bench like conditions
-Seeing the same old scenery all day long
-Putting more and more money into my hunting 'spot' while knowing there's another feeder just over the hill and maybe he's done more than me to attract the deer-it never ends!
-having folks define a trophy for me
-people getting uptight because I wanted to walk the property after deer season

So I got out. I don't lease now and likely never will again. I enjoy walking, stalking, seeing critters that may or may not be trophies in somebody else's eyes but knowing that I snuck up on that hog or deer and had it 'dead to rights' whether I shot it or not. Having a deer walk by so close that you have to let it get some distance away lest the muzzle blast burn off a patch of fur! That ain't gonna happen in a blind.

So much of Texas is private. Private means lease, lease means parcel, parcel means blind with feed to lure the critters to your little corner of the woods. I don't mind being guaranteed to hunt, but it has to be my kind of hunt-and I don't intend to sit in a box.

I have lots of fun nowadays and hunt more than I ever did when leasing! Much more money for gas!

I agree with most of what you said, but not the "lease means blind with feed" part. I have a year around lease that I can do with what I want, only restriction is the location of the other hunters. If I want to drive, I drive. If I want to stalk, I stalk. If I want to sit on a ridge or in a draw, I do. Not all places are like you described. Guess I just have a good lease

Why are so many people worried about what others are doing

I don't mind folks walking around on their place; pushes more deer over me.

On the original question and not to take away from any of the above, losing my father in 99 the day before we were going to deer hunt hit me extremely hard. He taught me hunting and fishing and I taught him predator/furbearing trapping. Losing him took a good part of my spirit of hunting when he passed away and have yet to get that back. Sure, I hunt, have hunted and shot a few deer, but I have not shot a deer on our place EVER and had plenty of opportunities to do so with some really nice bucks going 15-18" inside spread and in an AR county. I've taken the safety off, put the scope on them and then nothing - just couldn't pull the trigger.

Hopefully, I can change that this season since I have done the above for the past 7 seasons. I've come to finally realize that he would not want me to stop hunting and definitely not on our place since he wanted to see the deer density increase were we could take them each season and I have accomplished that for him through management.

Other than that, I agree with the neighbor issue, restrictions and not any one restriction will be liked by all, and most all the above comments.

a man that gets it right here....

Sounds like you do have a good lease! I can only speak for the leases I've been on or my buddies have had. So far I haven't noticed any decline in my 'success' rate but certainly have increased my fun! If I got on a lease, it would have to be a year round lease, big, with not a ton of hunters on it, and I'd want it to have a good pig population. That puts most leases out of my price range. Still, at the other end of the spectrum, there's nothing like getting all set up on a nice draw or canyon and seeing that blob of orange come out from the brush right where you thought that awesome buck would be hiding! That can ruin a morning!

I've been very blessed to have the opportunities that I have, and I know that means sometimes taking the bad with the good. I'd say the only thing that would make me lease right now would by my 6 year old daughter. On a lease you know who everybody is and about where they'll be..

As a hunter I've evolved over the years. Used to be that I didn't care what age a deer was as long as it was an 8 or 10 point. I didn't even care what it scored.

Eventually though, I had all the little Hill Country 8's and 10's on my wall that I could stand. I wanted something more. So I started really looking at age and maturity. Hunting cagey old bucks was my new challenge, and in the Hill Country that was quite a challenge. There's not generally a lot of old bucks running through HC.

Then one day I went on invite trip down south and my whole world changed. No longer was I content to hunt average HC bucks anymore. That's when I got on a lease down south.

I don't know why anyone would begrudge me for wanting to shoot 150+ class bucks. I don't do it for anyone else. I don't enter big buck contests. I don't care about having an article on my buck or it's pic in a magazine. I just want big bucks hanging on my wall. I like knowing that I some how got lucky or out smarted or outlasted an old, smart, cagey, mature buck. If I have to pay big bucks to hunt those big bucks, then so be it. It's my business and I don't really give a d*mn what anyone else thinks or says about it.

Listening to some of these guys moan about trophy hunters makes me wonder what's really going on between their ears. I'm now a trophy hunter and I make no apologies for it.

Only thing that takes away from hunting is people bs opinions on what is moral, sporting,humane...or what ever.

I for one don't care what you do on your property after all you paid for, you pay taxes on it and your up keep

I also think any one whom complains about the height of a fence is what is destroying America in general. May sound harsh but it all comes down to property rights. If you don't support property rights move to a country where the government owns everything.

Moaning about trophy hunting...lol.....let's take journey back in time and see where the lack of game management took us across the nation on several species.

Now the gov can come put wolves in your fence and tell you to shove it

Great post I can relate too. Only difference between us is I've been their done that so to speak and I enjoy taking others to kill their trophy's. Their trophy's may be does, spikes, and an occasional beast of a buck. And the most fun part is I do it for free. For you that say you are burnt out maybe you just need to try a new method.

My point exactly

I don't like em....too hard to get over

I think the only people here that have expressed egos are the ones who protest so much about fat guys who shoot big deer.

What does it matter if someone else shoots a big deer? If THEY are hunting for all the wrong reasons according to YOU... if hunting should be about personal accomplishment and communion with nature... then isn't it a little hypocritical of YOU to be worried about what someone ELSE does when they hunt?

No one complains about the kid that shoots a doe out of the blind that the fat guy shot a monster out of 2 days before.

Glass house living hypocrites...

150? I don't raise my binos for 150. I don't begrudge anyone killing or not killing if it's low fence. I don't consider hunting in a pen hunting. For that I make no apologies.

My house ain't glass and my fence ain't high.

I'd like a sun room and hog fence.

I moved the flat screen, satellite, dvr, and lazy boy out of the den and into my blind. God knows I don't want to be a hypocrite.