His last sentence, Amen. Often times I feel we've all been caught up in the "mystical stag" mantra of QDM that we forget the real reason we go in the field in the first place.

Ted can be a little over the top sometimes, but I tend to agree with most of what he says

Absolutely. So long as a person buys a license, obeys bag limits, and consumes the resource, more power to them harvesting whatever they like.

We should shoot all the young deer we see, then ask everybody “why don’t we have any big deer?”

Psst! It's not about big deer but keeping a balanced sex ratio.

He didn’t say anything about HF/LF or .223 so we still good....

Awesome. Let’s shoot young, under age, & 1st year bucks AND does. Brilliant! Muh freezer!

I am standing by for the belt fed meme-gun that Maximus has.

There is a disdain for us common folk among a few of the elitists in the sport. For instance only a "citiot" would prefer to hunt and eat small game over an occasional and normally unsuccessful deer hunt. Them citiots just shooting and blasting at everything...

Cottontails and crappies are where it's at. If I am lucky enough to stumble across a tender yearling buck when I am shooting cottontails with my humble russian single shot, i keep a slug between the fingers.

. As pappy once said: i pay for my Gov. issued food stamps...

Wanna know why your deer hunts are “normally unsuccessful”?

I appreciate your service.

I must agree with uncle Ted. I try to shoot mature animals, but way too many times a barely legal, 2 yr old, 8 point will jump from my place to the neighbors and BOOM, down he goes. I sometimes feel frustrated, but it is legal, and I assume he has a license and every right to shoot it, so there is no need to get angry.

But if he’s not quite legal (besides being entirely too young to shoot), how many people will shoot him? I maintain that thousands of illegal bucks are shot & the shooter
1). doesnt even know about ARs
2). never gets a ticket

See here’s where our philosophies diverge.

You consider yourself lucky if you can come across a yearling buck that’s barely legal. I consider myself lucky if I come across a big mature buck.

That’s why I’ll be looking at all kinds of deer tomorrow, literally dozens, that you would consider yourself lucky to see (just 1). I see that you still have no concept of herd management or desire to improve the herd.

What if bucks didn't have antlers? Would we still then be wanting to shoot old mature bucks? Me personally I pass on any buck that looks immature, but my very first deer when I was 9 was a button buck we thought was a young doe. Second buck at age 10 was a 9 point 3-1/2 year old. I thought it was huge and it ingrained the "bigger is better" when it comes to antlers in me.
Now as I'm reaching my 40's and have witnessed the explosion of hunting from the early 90's until now, and have a 3 year old who I'm getting ready to begin grooming into the hunting world, I've come to realize I can't eat antlers, but there's no reason to shoot the fork horn when there are plenty of doe around. Now when that forkhorn steps out in front of my kiddo you bet I'm gonna let her take it. If I have a friend who's never hunted or shot a deer go with me, you bet that fork horn's fair game!

To be completely honest, I probably stumble across a group of does every time I squirrel hunt. I just wanted to see those memes.

But I dont have anything against anybody that has taken a game animal legally, ever.

Edit- The level of savagery in these memes was marginal at best. You are going soft.

As a newbie I too was unimpressed. I have seem more savagery from my grandmas facebook memes.

Can you send me some of your grandmas memes?

Awesome, brah. Take them both hunting, shoot all the young bucks, then in a couple of years when your kid asks you where are all the big deer, you can tell her that she shot them a couple of years ago.

I've heard this type of attitude called "eating from your own plate." Far too many people can never stay focused on what's sitting on their own plate but instead, stay worried about what everyone else is eating.

Laid Back, Laid Over, whatever your name is this week, what you mis-name as “elite-ism”, is really just hard work, constant feeding, selective hunting, patience, & management. But you wouldn’t know anything about any of that. It’s easier to just call hunters like that “elitist”.

But I hope you get a good rabbit this deer season.

Tred Barta said ever animal he shot was a trophy in his eyes, no matter the number of points or size.