well I've noticed at multiple places the mature bucks aren't using feeders hardly ever so less pics of them but plenty of the young deer. I guess that can be blamed on multiple yrs of good rains.

there is a Multi-part answer to this question:


Whitetail deer, at least in Texas, is not a hard animal to kill. They never have been. Numbers back when are no where near what they are today in most areas but killing a whitetail has never been much of a challenge. all this talk about woodsmanship and "truly hunting" a whitetail sounds good when written out but fact is if you can be quiet and watch a trail or field odds are at some point in time you are going to get a shot. They are not bighorn sheep, mountain goats or grizzly bear and we need to face facts that there plentiful and easy to find by design. I've not hunted Carmen Mountains or Coues deer so i'm not speaking for them although the elk hunters I know in Arizona say they are easy to knock off. Baiting using a Automated feeder while hunting out of a box blind loses its appeal just like hunting them over a planted field or other food source...its not a "if" but "when" majority of the time. I can't fault the guy using a corn feeder no more than I can fault a guy hunting over a soybean or oat field. this is just the nature of whitetail hunting in most areas. I've been privileged to hunt all over the state on places where you may or may not see a deer, on places where you expect to see deer but maybe not a shooter and on places where you were all but guaranteed to see a mature shooter buck. Personally, just like when fishing, I like to spend my time on good properties that offer a higher chance for success.

I say by and large, the biggest success of modern times is the advances we have made in herd management and understanding of deer. Places that held few to no mature bucks I hunted 15 years ago now have good to great deer taken off them every year, in large part to management practices. I am much happier seeing 5-6 different bucks per hunt rather than 5-6 different bucks per season. People have a better understand of the relationship between livestock and wildlife and due to changes in that aspect the wildlife has blossomed in areas it was devoid of a decade or two ago.


What I hate about hunting is the competition it has become. I don't miss the days of "drag any buck to camp" but we have swung to the far end of the pendulum and are not truly happy with anything because of score and what goes on with social media and the like. We have created a almost impossible standard to meet (much like Playboy did with women ) that we compare everything we kill to what we see in print or digital media. I cannot stand the "well I know he's not the biggest deer in the woods, but he's a trophy to me" comments that you see in every photo. Do you justify your wife's looks or your kids intelligence in the same way? I sure hope not, and we shouldn't do it with the game we kill.

Another thing I think we have lost, at lease regionally, is truly wild places to hunt. Because of many factors ( subdivision of property, utilizing previously vacant property, Oil & Gas development, Pay to Play game ranches ) this has really put a damper on places where you can truly feel lost. I am privileged to hunt many fine properties but I don't know if I can say that even one of them is truly "wild".

The South Texas hunting mystique has ended. simply too many people. West texas is going the same route due to energy exploration and Wind Farms. I hunt a large, large ranch in the trans Pecos and although its big country I don't consider it wild. Just too many signs of mans presence on it. Hill Country in a lot of areas is just small parcels where we are picking off animals as they move over what we are allowed to step foot on.

That, to me is the saddest part of all this. Of course, it has a trickle down effect to knowledge and skills. How are we supposed to teach are kids how to hunt in general ( todays hunter, in most instances, knows how to sit over a corn feeder and that's about it ) if they are restricted to small parcels of land or such restrictive harvest methods that they will never get the chance to learn? I only have the skills I possess because I was allowed to run unobstructed on medium to large parcels of land as a kid and young adult.


Good post subject but one that will have subjective answers depending on the responder.....imo its a very multi-faceted topic

We could be just one major CWD outbreak away from a season or more when those skills will come in handy.

It is better and worse. The improved areas are definitely the wealth of knowledge the internet affords. For example, I just bought a bow. Without sites such as this I may not know the poundage needed to have a clean kill with broadheads. Communication is easier among like-minded people. CWD is more widely known about. Gear can be purchased online without cutting out a kidney to pay for it. The cons-smart phones distracting some from their surroundings, impatience, and the insane prices for leases. Even if you get a lease, it usually will be just sitting over a feeder, playing on your phone and waiting for the easy kill. Nothing wrong with that if that's what youre into, but seems like it doesn't afford the hunter the full experience of what nature has to offer

I think this addresses one of the issues that's been brought up. The more time we spend on this and other forums the less likely we are to shoot or share pics of 2-3 yr old deer. As an example, I sat with my daughter in a pop up blind opening weekend and had 7 bucks and 1 doe within 40 yds of us all at the same time. There were 2-3 8 pts and a couple of 6's but nothing over 3 yrs old. I run 2 cameras at this location and knew there were at least 4 mature bucks hitting this feeder over the last couple of months. As a result neither of us was real excited about what we saw and never felt tempted to let the crossbow fly. If we had been back in the 70's and 80's when I grew up hunting, any one of those 8's would've been dead and I would've been thrilled with my hunt.

I had a spike opening morning come in at 45 yards. Being that he is legal and I've never killed a deer with my crossbow, I was definitely thinking of taking the shot when he got closer. However, when he came up the trail he apparently didn't like what he saw. I had the crossbow about halfway up when he stopped on the trail. We both froze, although he never really stared at me. For the next 15-20 minutes, he stood in the exact same spot, chewing his cud, licking his flank, and glancing at me every once in a while. I held the crossbow at half-mast the whole time, heart beating quite fast. I tried not to stare directly at him and used only my peripheral vision to see what else might be going on around me/him. At one point I was able to raise the rangefinder and get a better look at his headgear. He did have a really low browtine on one side but would have been a legal 3pt. Finally, he decided he didn't like it and slipped back into the brush.

After it was over, I thought more about it and decided I likely would not have shot him, but it was a great, fun encounter even though it wasn't a 160" monster. I would have been proud to load him in the truck if I had taken him.

Yes, it is easy to kill deer. We have more deer than we can shake a stick at despite trying to reduce our doe numbers as much as possible. But for me it is still exciting to hunt. Don't let others define what you should or shouldn't enjoy. IF things change, work to find other aspects that bring value to your time in the outdoors. Watch the birds, varmints, other critters, study the plants, look at rock formations, watch the clouds. The outdoors is still just as enjoyable as it ever was.

For those of you that think hunting should be hard work, it still can be. Did you hike 4-6 hours, glassing, finding/stalking your buck? Or did you drive a tractor for 1/2 a day, build fence, install and fill a feeder, build a blind? Plenty of hard work in both.

Respect and enjoy your efforts and their rewards.

I don't know...I read some of these posts and honestly don't get it. Most make it seem like since hunting is better, the herds are better, the deer are bigger, the weapons are better, and hunting is "easier" that it isn't as good.

I can say that I have hunted places that you might see 10 deer if you hunted every weekend from October through January and hunted a single stand that you might see 50-60 deer out of. I have hunted the wide open country of West Texas and the thick cover of East Texas. I have hunted out of state over feeders, without feeders and in places that you could put up a feeder but the deer wouldn't pay any attention to it. I have stalked deer with a bow, with a rifle and sat in a blind.

Hunting is what you make it. I don't blame the internet for making hunting worse or better, I don't blame tv shows for making it all about the B&C score...I blame the people that let those things change their view of it.

I have watched someone I respect greatly shoot a 190" ten pointer with his bow and turn around two weeks later and shoot a 122" eight pointer at another ranch and be dang near as proud of the eight as he was the 10. He is 64 years old and has been hunting since he was 8. He has it figured out...

Hunting can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it. If you want the generation you are raising and mentoring to be excited about a 1.5yo four pointer, have at it. If you want them to shoot a 3yo ten pointer, by all means do it. Be excited about it if they do and make them excited for it.

If you don't like TC's, don't use them. If you like them, use them.

I do believe that we have evolved for the better simply because we have more opportunities, more tools, more weapons, great seasons, better herds, better antlers, and more comforts.

One thing I will agree with that has changed for the worst is all the judgment about methods and means. I don't hunt the same way I used too, I don't hunt out of the same blinds or trees that I used too, but I sure wouldn't want to demean someone else because they do it different.

Easy...people are more selective and the big boys aren't moving much right now.


Most areas of Texas have had an exceptional rainfall, good last few years and should have some good deer running around. With the green stuff on the ground, the deer don't have to move as far and corn isn't important. With a bow, it is harder to move away from the feeders and hunt trails and green stuff, so success rate is going to be down for a bit.

You just proved my point. Its not easier especially in wet yrs when there is plenty to eat.

I like seeing animals, and there are like 10X the number of deer in Texas as there were 50 years ago, so I'm liking the direction it's going.

Plus, even though a lot of places are HF and looking to make money, it's becoming an over-supplied market and prices are coming down. You can shoot some really nice management bucks for pretty low dollar these days.

Plus, Davy Crockett introduced Antler Restrictions, and we all owe him a great debt.

That is all.

In many areas, it is easier now than it was 20, 30 or 40 years ago. This year just might not be as easy as last year or 5 years ago.

The good ol days are today. More deer then ever before and in greater concentrations. Even our National Forrest numbers have expanded x fold.

Social media is a revolving yet evolving circle. This board is a prefect example. People use to freely and without prejudice post animals all the time. Then a few I'm better then you started poking. They mocked animals and hunts. Several have been banned for it, but the subtle shots still continue... if it's not a HF comment it's a how much that cost comment, or that's $$$$ lease etc.

From an evolution standpoint of social media, alot of people who use to post on boards/forums in general now only share pic via instragram, text etc because they can control the audience. Same aspect we as a consumer of content can control more of what we want to target media wise also.

You are comparing a minute time frame. Last year ended what many would refer to as the last of the drought babies. So going forward most 6.5 or younger deer came from high recruitment years.

But even in the height of the last drought deer numbers still exceeded 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's

Or we could not drink the kool-aid and keep planning on hunting like we have been doing

The ease in which you can kill a deer in East Texas on Opening Weekend is far different than what you can expect a month later. By the time December rolls around, a lot of guys have turned their attention to more productive pursuits than watching a feeder.

I remember reading that during any given year, 90% of the deer harvest happens during the first two weeks of the season. They catch on rather quickly that folks be after them.

A lot of it is because the rut is on around the first of season brining deer around that would otherwise be hidden or nocturnal.

It's been about 15 years since I have hunted the piney woods but we would always see the most bucks mid October thru the first two weeks of November, but on good properties we saw bucks all thru season

Couldn’t agree more, and I’ve been vocal about that here in the past. I hunt by the idea that, If I like him, I’ll shoot him. Score doesn’t matter to me, neither does age. If a deer makes my heart race, then that’s all I ask. That being said, young small deer don’t make my heart race in the same way that a older buck does.

I may be the anti-hero but I don't care to go back to the days when a basket racked 8 point was a big deal and you only saw a handful of racked bucks a season.

I grew up hunting in Mississippi, where baiting has never been allowed (but hunting with dogs is so go figure). I miss those days of stalking...of knowing game trails and buck scrapes. Scouting for bedding areas or looking for mulberry/honeysuckle 'cause its what the ole timers told you.

It's strange hunting in Texas now...tactics I used growing up seem N/A at least where I hunt. A few years back I went back to Miss to hunt on a Federal refuge. I later told the game warden that I didn't take a shot at a super nice buck because he was in a full sprint, literally breaking limbs through the woods after a doe. I yelled at the buck... but he never broke stride.

The warden laughed and said "you've been in Texas too long, where y'alls sole focus seems to be shot placement and all from 100 yards away!!! Growing up here, did you ever shoot a buck standing still?!? I don't think so..."

That conversation did make me reflect how things have changed and the previous replies are spot on, its way too analytical these days. I guess that's why it feels so good hunting on public land....no corn, no camera, no blind, no problem. That should be on a T-shirt! :-)

Hunting is what you make of it. Several years ago I hunted public land in Oklahoma. Spent days scouting , visited with local landowners, and especially picked the brains of local coonhunters who see every buck in the area. Over several days I located two nice bucks, determined the core area for each, found the bedding areas, trails to oak ridges, where bow hunters were traveling and hunting in those core areas, found both buck's rub/scrape lines, and located escape trail funnels out of the bedding areas. It was just like in the old books I have read. I learned those bucks every move for both weekday and weekend pressure days. Opening morning of primitive season I knew like clockwork a bowhunter would push my buck off it's bedding area as he did every Saturday morning. On an escape trail I confidently put a round ball in the neck of my best Deer to date. Be it public or private, it just takes time in the woods. Something most hunters today either don't have or don't have the patience for in today's rat race world. But the old style experience is still out there if you want it. Deer hunting has not evolved. People have.

I agree 100%. Also the ability to go hunting at a reasonable cost is also pushing people away.

When landowners want thousands of dollars to lease the land, it reduces the pool of hunters. People ask why is hunting declining, its due to costs and other hunters.

Ive seen a "B&C" only hunter scold a father who took his 10 year out to kill his first buck. What was wrong with his first deer? It didnt score 150 or up.

Fellow hunters can be our own worst enemy. People want to degrade anyone. Ive even overheard people at bass pro make fun of a young man for looking at crossbows.

Worse