Swiped this out of the latest issue of “ Bowhunter”.

Really good article and it spoke to me….I’m very guilty of FOMO and the jealousy that comes with social media.

As such, I’ve taken a hiatus on posting anyting other than work related items to social media for the indefinite future.

Social media is ruining a whole lotta things. It has effected relationships in my family in a very negative way and I'm afraid is driving one daughter-in-law to absolute madness. "Long Covid" my azz. 90% of the time my son is effectively a single parent. But I digress.

We've discussed a guy on a hunt with me that spent hours looking at his so-called friends' hunt pictures on Facebook. The minute he got his animal down, he started planning to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. And he's not the only "hunter" like that that I've been on a hunt with.

This is a lot of the reason I have never had an animal scored.

Good read. One must look inside for direction and what is right. Sometimes simple is better.

Ditto - guided people like that.

Good read. I can relate to a lot of that. I have to temper my thoughts about this with how much I, and others, enjoy seeing pictures of big bucks. I would hate it if everyone just quit posting pics because of modesty.

All I need do to loose interest when looking at photos of deer taken in Texas is remember the deer was very likely fed, raised, and killed as if it were livestock. Little if any hunting ever played a role.

Having refused to shoot a black bear that had been tied to a tree, I'm sure old Teddy would have agreed.

Deer just are not hard to kill. Never have been….and they are one of the wariest of the big game species.


Gene and Barry Wensel have been killing record book deer for decades using recurve bows



But comparing shooting a deer in Texas to a bear literally tied to a tree isn’t a very good comparison.

That is the flip side of the coin….I thoroughly enjoy seeing pics of kills on the forum. But I admit I tire of the pic after pic of blowhards on Facebook who feel the need to document every mundane activity like they are doing something extraordinary when it’s actually extremely routine

"loose" interest. Does that mean it's unbounded?

what if you gain interest? is that "tightning" ?

The original intent of the Boone & Crockett scoring system was to recognize unique specimens that at the time were in danger of going extinct. It was to recognize the animal not the hunter.



Of course, over time that intent was perverted into a form of self-promotion, competition and score keeping.


I am of the mindset that the fastest way to become disappointed with an animal you kill is to have it scored.... sometimes it works out the other way but not often. I'm not anti-scoring by any means, I've scored many of my kills and even put one in the record book, but unless you really think its record book quality its better to not know alot of the time.



Not counting ground shrinkage when you walk up to it......you should be happy with the kill and a number assigned to it shouldn't change that feeling either way.

It’s the deer taken by hunters who have unique story to tell about how they put themselves in a situation to harvest the animal that interest me and I’m sure many others most. I mean, how often do you see good articles written that include any reference to a feeder. In a good hunting story, the size of the kill often becomes a backdrop for how the hunter was able to pursue and harvest it. When there is no story to tell, all one can focus on is the size of the animal and how it came to be. Little wonder that so many Texas hunters these days care little about true hunting stories but only the size of the antlers.

No, how many photos you have of a massive buck that’s been coming to your feeder for three years now does not make for a good and interesting read about hunting wild game.

Maybe I’m different. I own my small 133 acre place. I don’t live there. By any stretch of the imagination, it’s junk land. All trees, rocks, stock tanks and hills. I have, on multiple occasions, passed up shots at trophy deer. At 79 yoa, it’s more about hunting than killing. We enjoy watching deer at the feeder 150 yards from the kitchen window.

I doubt that I will ever hunt anywhere else. I’ve hunted most Southwest states, Colorado, Montana and Africa.

Most of the old goats that I’ve known for a long time now take an expensive camera along with a rifle. We text a lot of pics back and forth. I don’t own a real camera but my Wife does.

BTW, I seldom pass up a chance to murder a big pig.

Hmmmph . . . ., watched this guy for years. Saw him bunches. Had many photos. Had many videos. Before his final season, we decided he was a good one to get. We must have changed the karma that day because he disappeared. One day well into the season (December & after the first rut if I recall correctly) and after the morning hunt, I was noseying along. Got on the tower of the stand where I did not hunt that morning and spotted this guy three hundred yards or so away. Got down and went after him. Had to keep getting closer to get a clear shot. Being in my favorite camo, I was quite confident on the ground. Took him at about 125 yards and man was I happy. Couldn't care less if others don't see much positive about it.

How about one of those TPWD "special " hunts. I believe that shooting a nice buck out on the Chaparral WMA would be considered a "great" hunt whether you had to put in a lot of scouting and set up just in the "right" spot OR you simply just got "lucky." For someone to come out into a new compartment, having to scout trails, then put up a stand, put corn out and kill a big buck within 5 days, to me, is an "ultimate hunting experience." Those deer out there are down right "spooked" after all the other shooting taking place before the big buck hunt takes place.

Never shot a deer that I was not proud of. Most were not wall hangers.

Had you been wearing your lederhosen, it would have been a much faster trail/hunt....no really, thats a cool story. Things like that make memories and that is part of the "why we do it".

Ill use Huds story and pic to address the OP and the article. I really enjoy seeing pics like this and reading a story like this. Is Hud "bragging" and should others be jealous? I know he posted it to make a point but I wouldnt care if he was bragging or not cause I just want to see the pic and hear the story. Could I or others get jealous and apply pressure to try to top him? Sure. But thats on us, not Hud. Could that added pressure ruin the enjoyability of our hunts? Sure. But thats on us as well. I am very competitive and goal driven. In hunting Im usually competing against myself or the animal and I try not to let what someone else has done factor in. At the end of the day, if I have enjoyed the entire process then all is good.

I think you missed the point of the article, but you are making deer hunting out to be some profound adventure when it’s not.

In most cases, you are not seeing a whitetail deer from a mile off and making a stalk down towards it, take the feeder away and 95% of the time you are waiting and watching a trail or food plot anyway. It’s not like hunting moose in the Yukon or stalking a Cale Buffalo in Zambia.

People don’t write exciting stories about whitetail hunting because in large part whitetails don’t make for exciting stories to begin with….in just about all instances they are comprised of “ I waited, he appeared, I shot”.

The cat and mouse game is what gets most people hooked on whitetail but it will never make for very good reading or viewing to a third party

If you are hunting for any reason other than your own internal motivations, then you are diminishing the endeavor. Social media plays a big role, but there was peer pressure long before social media came along.

I am becoming downright curmudgeonly about this topic as I get older. Anything that turns hunting and fishing into a competition or media production, etc. diminishes the experience. As just one example, I can’t stand fishing tournaments any more - none of them ever even look up at their surroundings and the fish are just a prop. Or ultra long range hunting, or hunting shows where it’s all about the kill, or …… or ……..

One might think so, but Realtree Monster Bucks ignited a media firestorm that continues to this day. It is evolving, but there are still a ton of shows featuring deer coming to corn/bait, getting shot from a blind/treestand, and being recovered to high-fives and over-the-top celebrations. Lather, rinse, repeat…..

Every deer i've take is a trophy in its own respect. I've never scored one (just rough estimate a few) but each has its own memory and story to me. I do enjoy seeing pics and hunter's WT and other hunting adventure stories but I do not search social media or FB. I do know someone that is social media obsessed and it is to the point I will not ride with him driving. This THF is my extent of social medial and it does have some usefulness but like anything else these days you have to step or wade through the BS. I say just slow down and enjoy and Be In The Moment. Nothing wrong with OP refocus and thanks for sharing the article.

NASCAR and Deer hunting shows will always be popular, they are catering to their target audience.


Myself, I don’t get any pleasure from watching deer hunting shows or cars driving around in circles for hours on end so I don’t watch them.

I do enjoy a good hunting story or a adventure hunt video like a ibex or Marco Polo hunt in Mongolia.


Nonetheless….the article wasn’t about deer hunting. The only hunts he references were elk hunting IIRC, which Dan should find approval in as they don’t involve feeders or tree stands

Exactly. 'Was fishing with one son-in-law and it was his turn to pick up the screaming reel and reel in a 100+# Lemon Shark. His first thought, and words to me were "Can you take a picture?" Of course we were going to take a picture, but it seems a whole lot of his generation are all about grabbing that @#$%^&* cell phone, snapping a picture, and posting it as soon as humanly possible. They don't ever seem to be "there", living in the moment, and soaking up the experience. (They can't focus on anything worth a tinker's dam either.)