As I was driving home from work I got behind a pick-up with a 20" x 40" (roughly) sticker on his rear window that said "128 1/8" in white. Thats it, no other words, no other stickers. I am SO thankful Ron LaClairs shop captivated me and kept me on the right road way back when. Traditional archery changed me forever. My respect and gratitude towards my game of choice has grown 10x. I hunt as much as I ever did, but with a much better attitude. That sticker could have easily been on my truck had I not made a left rather than a right that day in December in Potterville, Michigan........
Very nice write up! Isn't that the truth :thumbsup:
Maybe he was refering to the size of his... tires.
-Jeremy :coffee:
Well, I really like horns. I have heard all of the "you can't eat them" stuff. I hunt with a high reguard to the deer and i am an ethical hunter, but i likes me some horns.
Don't get me wrong, I don't have any stickers on my truck and would not have one like that on my truck, assuming that is what was meant, but I will turn down small bucks in search of big bucks. I killed a small one earlier this year with Ms. Hope, but it was a trophy none the less because of Ms. Hope and what she stands for.
God Bless,
Nathan
I like the biggun's myself. I dont need to put antler inches on my truck to prove it though......it was sad to see.
Stopping off in Potterville has been good for a lot of us! :thumbsup:
i seen the same truck at a gas station in Midland and i had to ask what it meant....has to be same guy that is just to wierd
I cant see it meaning anything other than the "size" of what he considers his best. Its a blue chevy truck I believe. I was busy looking at the sticker.
I think you reach a point in your life and bow hunting career where your maturity level goes up emensly. My attitude toward killing a deer changed when I was about 30ish. I went from anything with horns, and as many deer as I was allowed........to letting the younger bucks walk, seeking the larger bucks, and only taking what I thought I could use for the year. If that meant no deer at all so be it, and if that meant I only needed 1 deer to give me the amount of meat I could use conservatively....so be that. Sometimes I will take a doe, sometimes a buck.....it all depends on my needs and how the animal strikes me at the time I see it. Most of the time I don't even pick up my bow, I just let it hang on the hook and watch.
The number of tags I'm allowed has nothing to do with what I'm searching for anymore, nor does it drive me to hunt.
Each of us has a goal in mind what we are looking for and you don't ever realize those goals until you mature as a hunter.
I know some guys who are in their late 50's early 60's who never have matured as hunters and feel the need to fill every available tag including their spouse, children, nephews, mother in law, and so on. These guys are nothing more than children with adult sized weapons.
With all that said, the guy with the sticker has not matured and feels the need to meet other's approval of him. He finds comfort in boasting his acheivements to others to find that acceptance he desires.......he may never mature as a hunter or feel the satisfaction and peace from all it has to offer.
I now let my own personal drive, ambition, and mood dictate what pleases me and no one else, through life as well as in the woods. It's a liberating calm like no other when you release the pressures of seeking acceptance of others and letting that be your drive to achievement and a big ego is baggage that I no longer chose to carry with me.
There's nothing wrong with nice horns. If you want to wait for them, nothing wrong with that either.
Could have been that he put a ton of effort into that deer and was very proud of it. I wouldn't see anything wrong with that either.
There is nothing wrong with being a trophy hunter, just don't like the way some approach or flaunt it! What is important in my humble opinion is the manner and method it which it was taken.
so if you want to fill all your tags you have not "matured as a hunter?", please.
I agree... I've also been selective for a few years now, but for my own purposes, not in order to be able to tell others what I've done.
And if it is all about telling others how big his buck is... well, 128 isn't exactly monstrous. Again, for my own purposes, I'd be thrilled, but when it comes to bragging, well, I'll leave it at that.
I don't think Pearl Drums ment to start an argument, big antlers are nice but some people measure thier manlyness by it. I won't pass one up but I aint gonna dedicate my deer hunting life to it!! JMHO! Jason
Must have been a half-rack?
Or he could have been brighter than the average fellow with a decent I.Q.?
He might be a high-tech traditionalist that has tuned his arrows with a very specific weighted broadhead?
That would also be a near record in the Marathon.
I agree Pearl Drums I would't post such a thing. Frankly, the folks who would recognize what the numbers probably mean wouldn't be all that impressed anyway.
However, there are sure a lot of things on some vehicles I'd much rather not see.
128 1/8'' Thats it,, Heck mine scored more than that, but I don't go around postin it ,, NO STICKERS ON MY TRUCK !!!
Apologize if I started a bicker match, not my intent. It wasnt about shooting a specific sized buck, rather how it was portrayed. All I could think was all those crap filled "hunting" shows made him think that way!
Not to stir the pot here, but I think the maturity comment was meant as we reach a point in our lives where we have learned that we are the only ones who need to be impressed by what we choose to shoot or not shoot. He may be very proud of his 128 1/8". I can't speak for the area that guy hunts, but in some places 128 is a huge buck.
I still don't get why he would feel the need to broadcast it to the world though.
Right on Buckeye! (sounds wierd from a MICHIGAN guy?) We are the only ones who need to be impressed by what we do, well said.
If I were going to have a hard core hunting sticker on my truck it would say something along the lines of;
"Fading spots make excellent targets and even better eating!"..lol
God bless,Mudd
I always wanted to get the one that says "If Its Brown, Its Down!" JUST to irritate my out of state yuppie neighbor :D .....Phil
i agree since i started hunting with a trad bow i will kill pretty much any deer that comes by me i have so much more gratitude when i kill a deer now thank god for trad bows
Maybe it's his IQ. Maybe it's his speed in the quarter mile. Maybe it's his weight. Maybe it's his waist size :scared:
I'd sure be happy with a deer that scored that, but I don't think it's one I'd brag about. I'd be just as happy with a big old doe. They are harder to tag than bucks, especially during the rut.
I don't judge my success with a tape measure. I do like to tag one that provides a decent amount of meat. If it has nice antlers, cool! If it fills the freezer, that's cool too.
i know i was told along time ago buy some one a lot wiser than me that sucsess is not mesured by inches in the deer woods and i took that as words to live buy its not the size but how the hunts embraced
That's a decent HS pole vaulting height!
It just bugged the heck out of me for some reason. Maybe Im just to personal about my own hunting that it carries over to others? Its the whole score keeping thing that drives me batty. Not the actual score of a deer's antlers, but the keeping of scores to compare to other peoples animals. Its not a football game last I checked. Traditional archery washed all that crud right out of my system years ago and Im more than thankful for that.
Guys:
We all have personal approaches to this thing we do. I agree with Pearl about advertising the 128" whatever on the truck window.
To me, my hunting thing is rather like
religion... Its personal. If I decide to share my hunting experiences it will be here, likely as not, not on my truck window. Just me.....
In white? I don't see the connection to antlers.
The color wasnt the part that got me, it was advertising an antler score on your back window that got me. Where I live 128 1/8" only means one thing.
Whatever...to each his own. It's not for me, and it's not something I would focus on. I've seen a lot more offensive stuff on vehicles that leaves me scratching my head.
If tooting our own horn wasn't important to us once and a while then Pow Wow and the Highlights forums wouldn't exist. After all, who's broadcasting to a larger audience some guy in Michigan driving the same road back and forth to work and around his little part of the world with "128 1/8" stuck to his window or a bunch of people posting stories and pictures of their kills on the World Wide Web? I've seen a bunch of pictures of extremely happy hunters who would be lucky if their buck scored 12" and on one seems to loose sleep over these posts.
I guess I would say give him a break, and if it's eating at you then try and make an opportunity to strike up a conversation with him to get his story. He may be a really cool guy that is extremely proud of his accomplishment.
One thing is for sure, acting like a bunch of piranhas and eating our own isn't going to solve anything.
I would post 12" in my window but nonhunters might misinterpret it.
QuoteOriginally posted by Robert Marvin:
I would post 12" in my window but nonhunters might misinterpret it.
:laughing: Well there you go! :laughing: You probably don't feel the need to drive around in an raised truck with oversized tires do you?