I have surely hunted and fished enough sundays in my life. I also sit down to breakfast after many sunday mornings after the hunt with my family pray and sometimes sing a hymn. Always? No. Nor am I judging anyone, but I do think in common practice its bs to simply say "I feel closer to God in the outdoors" News flash if your doing church for you, your in it for the wrong reason.

Hey man you gotta do what you gotta do. Id rather be stuck hugging the toilet than have to watch NFL sunday morning.

His Creation, His power, and just solidified in my mind that He exists. Nature is too intricate to just have happened.

I never said I'm closer to Him in a deer blind than in his Houses. Only that observation of His handiwork gets through to me more than sermons do, sometimes.

Well, I can't argue with that. I feel the exact same way.

at your age, you might connect more with God outdoors than you will in church.


however, when you get older, have a lot more life experiences, trials and tribulations, you will likely feel convictions that you will only get from a church sermon.

however, you can argue the existence of God all day long, in todays modern world I can see where it would be easy to question it....however if you are along on the mountain, hearing elk bugle, mule deer feed and see trout swimming and you want to deny the existence of God, that imo is ludicrous.

Imagining Creation came into being without God is tantamount to imagining a volcano spewing up a brand new Rolex watch. (Actually, even more ludicrous than that - but you get the picture.)

and then the clouds opened up and God spoke to Moses, "My child, he could have used another year"

Let's get back to whining about .223s, HFs, and other stuff now.

Lol!! Or the other way. Last year, I passed a nice one. Pretty sure when the deer walked off He said "My child, you should have shot that one."

another part of scripture that is often overlooked is not working on the Sabbath, so if you are gonna hunt on the Sabbath you don't wanna do any work like blood trailing so you better put that .223 back in the cabinet

I hate the trophy mentality. It isn't the inches of bone the deer carries on its head, it is the feeling from the hunt/harvest.

Argue with my kid over this all the time. He is a straight running antler snob.

its the sign of the times.

I shot a middle aged 3x3 mule deer this year. a bonafide cull. Hunted my arse off and passed up better bucks because I was looking for a true trophy. last evening of the hunt and we spot a deer 2 miles off in the distance, has a decent frame but can't see points. drive a mile, walk the remaining mile thru two huge grass flats, creek bed, mesquite thicket and when I finally got close enough to judge him found out he was a cull. Didn't matter, shot him anyway and I was happy. the whole hunt was a great experience.


too many people nowadays are caught up in the prestige of killing a big deer. Don't get me wrong, I am a trophy hunter. I don't hunt for meat (unless its an axis then I shoot all I can), its about the head, hide and adrenaline rush, but don't let the pursuit of that soil the reason you hunt in the first place

It will change as his outdoor time becomes more limited.

It took my wife a long time to figure me out. She use to say you spend more time taking pictures and passing deer then hunting.... she nows gets if I shoot I'm done hunting...only took her 8 years.

Bravo, sir.. I haven't laughed that hard in a while..

Here is another experience from the late 80's/90's. Hunting with an uncle who said he didn't see anything later to find out he saw 10 does. On the last day of the season shooting some 6p with milk on its lips while he had 10+ does standing out there with a horribly out of whack buck to doe ratio probably 10 does for every buck, but he had to shoot a buck. Was one of the first things I wondered about when I saw that little buck hanging in the tree. For those where trophy's are bs and its not about the horns, how many just cant shoot a doe?

I kill the hell outta does. I would much rather kill a doe than shoot an immature buck.


I get no pleasure hanging up a immature rack in my garage

^^^same here^^^

I have a trophy mentality I guess sorta by default, but I don't impose it for others. I've just shot enough bucks to suit me except for bigguns. Lots of times that means no buck shot, just does for meat.

I'm not into score though. I'm a walking contradiction.

That pretty well describes me.

I've shot a lot of deer in my life, and now I won't shoot a buck unless it is an old one I want to hang on the wall. But all I need to see is that it is an old, fully mature buck that I like. I never care to put a tape on them. But I may go 5 years without shooting a white tail buck.

I'll shoot does for the freezer, and I'll happily put a kid on a buck that is a shooter for the kid based on his/her history, even if it would not be for me.

Maybe he reads the Bible in his blind? I think there are way more hypocrites that go to church than there are hunters that enjoy a Sunday morning hunt!

I read my Bible in the deer blind not only on Sunday mornings but any day that I am in the blind. I don't consider myself to be ether a hypocrite or lazy.

Have done that sometimes

If you could mark and pass along any scriptures read while sighting good deer, it would be much appreciated.

Call me what you will, but when you say you read the Bible in the outdoors I tend to believe you. Ive never met a person who said they felt closer to God in the outdoors and tried to call it worship who professed to actually read the bible or any other way of worship other than they felt closer to God... by pleasing themselves and making an excuse for it. Don't get me wrong ive done my share of missing church and sinning and ive done a bit of praying(other than God bring me a big buck/fish) and praising in the outdoors as well.

On another thread folks talked about the show Meateater -- Steve Rinella from that show also has a podcast. In episode 11 he talks about doe to buck ratios and a bit of the hunting mentality change from the 80's to today. This episode focuses on a farm in Wisconsin, but it's interesting to hear. What's interesting to me -- hunting laws (again, for Wisconsin) went from needing a "party permit" to hunt does, to the earn-a-buck program, to now any animal first. It's possible policy drove your uncle's hunting mentality.