I feel a bit like a hypocrite to be posting this, but the following poem got my attention. It calls into question our motives in some decisions we make. I personally have advocated QDM as a legitimate tool in managing our ballooning deer herds. But I have often wondered about the cost of following the principles with the wrong motives in mind. Although it was written with gun hunting in mind, it applies equally as well to any form of deer hunting. It certainly is food for thought, and I thought I would pass it along.
From the deer stand
by Robert Crikelair, Jr.
When I was young, the gun hunt
Was the highlight of my year.
At the end of the day the standard greeting was
"hey, did you get your deer?"
We'd gather together up in the barn
Where we hung each of our kills.
And we'd swap our stories of the hunts
And share each other's thrills.
Though we all admired the biggest ones
The small ones didn't count less.
And every successful hunter
Considered himself blessed.
To the older generation
The horns didn't mean so much.
It was about getting some meat, and having some fun
And shooting straight and such.
Through the years the old guys left
For that woods up in the sky.
But they took with them the essence
Of how we hunt, and why.
Something changed in deer camp
It was sneaky as a thief.
Till gradually it became about antlers
And not about the meat.
We cut back sharing stories
Out of a stupid jealous fear
That those who were listening might end up
Going out and killing OUR deer.
Our group was once friends and family
But then we figured it out
The friends had to go 'cause they shot some big bucks
It really was their fault.
My heart used to race when I'd see a deer
And I'd hope that it was a buck
But now I just sit and study it
To see if he's big enough.
More than once when showing my kill
My excitement would quickly dim
When a brother or neighbor looked with disgust and said
"Yea, I passed on him!"
Letting them go makes for bigger deer
But I wonder if it's worth the cost
I sit in my stand now and wonder
Just what it is that we've lost.
And I think to myself as I lower my gun
On another buck . . . too small!
We've gone from building friendships
To hanging dead stuff on the wall.
amen !
Hey Whip...do you all of a sudden have hordes of mosquitos by you ? I can't even go out in my backyard...imagine what the swamps and marshes are gonna be like in two weeks .
ChuckC
Good read,thanks!A lot of truth in it.With the recurve this year anything with 4 feet and fur might be in trouble.I ain't above shooting a 3 legged deer either. :bigsmyl:
That is so true....Thanks for sharing...those old-timers are leaving here much too fast,Don
That is the plain old truth right there buddy,Great read,,J
Dang this one hits where it hurts! I'm just as guilty about this as the poet implies. I know my love of hunting big whitetails has not always been a positive reflection and in a way has helped to contribute to some of the things I despise the most. Like hunting leases,outrages non-resident hunting fees and so on....
But on the other hand to hear the crunch of frost covered leaves and hear the deep grunt of an OLD buck,,and the sway of his heavy antlers as he works his way towards the stand....
You are right Whip,this is certainly food for thought,,deep thought,,maybe enough to keep a guy sitting all day on stand to try and figure it out :) .
Good stuff Whip, it's still the vision I try passing down to my family and Lord willing my son and grandson will continue to pass it on down the line!
hits right in the chest right there
Nice work Whip!
Like Mr. Lamb and Fred Bear before him said. Stop and take time to put a colorful flower or sprig of grass in you hatband. "A bit of curiosity" I believe Mr. Lamb has referred to it. Makes a person see the small stuff.
I will freely admit that late in the season I find myself cursing my luck that I haven't seen any big deer...."after all this time I have spent in a stand." "I deserved to kill a big buck". Instead I should have been enjoying the small stuff and looking for bits of "curiosity"
Thanks for giving some well deserved prospective.
Now your head out to New Mexico and soak up a great hunting experience. Take lots of pictures so I can travel along with you vicariously.
Chris
Yes siree, it is great to have the chance of harvesting a 3 plus year old buck. Some places you may get several a year, chances (siteings) that is. Others once a year if you are very fortunate. And the others, just see one period.
The greatest joy is just partaking, everything that you get to see. The partaking part is the harvest, weather its the geese over head. Or the squirrel's chasing each other around and around a tree!
Granted I've meet a lot more 3 year old and plus does than bucks in range. Those old does, are the real trophys in my book. They know and live by only one thing RED ALERT! I've had them hunting me, when they SHOULD NOT have known I was even there. But did.
I agree to a point of QDM, but it has no score.
Good luck to one and all this season.
Most of all be safe.
Brent
Thanks Chris, I'm anxiously awaiting a chance at redemption on those elk! I promise not to pass up a raghorn! :bigsmyl:
One way or another, we will have a great trip, and hope to bring back stories and pictures, with or without the bones to go with them.....
:clapper: :clapper: :clapper: :clapper: :clapper:
That was right on the money Whip! Thanks for posting it here.
One of my backyard trophy's 50 yards out the back door!
(http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l101/GUNSMITHAMMO/SUNP0007.jpg)
I'm sure she will give me a run for my time invested!
Good Luck in NM Joe :pray: Can'nt wait for the stories.
Brent
AOL headline news yesterday was related to the significant drop in hunter numbers in the nation. The vast majority of people responding to the attached poll did not see the drop as a problem though the professional opinions in the article explained the damage in revenue loss and management. It is my humble opinion that QDM as marketed by the video and seed companies is as much to blame for this drop as any other factor with the exception of urbanization.
The single-minded insanity that pushes people to "grow" better deer at any cost is not a good thing for the future of deer hunting. Yes, I join a lease. Yes, I plant food plots. Yes, I dream about monster deer. But, I pray that I never get over the thrill of the memory of that first spike buck that I killed with a shotgun.
When did we start expecting kids and newcomers to pass on animals that we would have loved to kill as a novice? I have seen some deplorable behavior exhibited at check stations by people who belittled deer that other people were proud to have killed. When a grown man belittles a youngster or newcomer (or anyone else for that matter) for taking a fork horn he has a priority problem.
Sorry to get on a tangent! You got me fired up, Whip! At least on tradgang you can post a harvest photo of an animal you are proud to have taken and most people will congratulate you whether it met their personal harvest criteria or not.
Whip you are right on with that poem my friend. i can think back to when i first started hunting. we wouldn't even get in the woods until after 9am a lot of mornings. we were to busy standing around the wood stove talking about hunting.
as a young boy i can remember the anticipation and wanting to get in the woods but having to wait for my dad, uncle and grandfather. then once in the woods being scared to death sitting all alone in a big forest.
the morning would pass and soon it would be time to get with the gang again for lunch. i will always remember the lunches that my mom would make. left over ham & turkey sandwiches from
the huge thanksgiving dinner and desert was a big hunk of my grandmothers fruitcake. i would sit and listen to all the old men talking about past hunts. life was good and hunting was special.
since switching to traditional gear i think i am finding that peace again. it feels good to just hunt and not worry about the size of headgear.
thanks for bringing back the memories! :archer:
Right on whip!!! :clapper: :clapper:
:clapper: :clapper: :clapper:
Great read!
I think I am like many on here in that I think QDM is a good practice but it has been taken to the extreme by those on television. It has become a competition amongst celebrity hunter types that need to sell something.
I don't generally shoot spikes and forkhorns(although I do not think it is wrong to do so), but the idea of having to "score" a buck before being able to shoot it defeats the purpose of hunting for me. If I have to measure the size of the bucks rack before I have "permission" to shoot, that kinda kills the excitement of the hunt in my opinion.
Mark
Hey guys im new here and i just finished reading this post now take in mind i have never been deer hunting but im going for a coure to get my lisence this yr.
This is my thoughts on what Whip wrote in his poem it did hit home for me my outlook on hunting isnt for the trophy everyone dreams about its about meat on my table i just turned 29 back in july some would say im still young and other say im old lol.
But the truth in the matter is that its not the trophy or the hunt or the thrill of the kill that has me pumped up its the thought of making new friends and the memories that i can pass to my kids and to new friends we make as time gose by.
Some of use will be fortunate enough to me old timers no offence and others wont but if your one who dose respect and learn from them in the time you have knowing them wich could be very short. And if they take u under theyer wing to teach u what they know listen and pay attenion closie and charish theyer memories and FRIENDSHIP.
I hope im that lucky to make such a friend.
PS we all start somewheres then we become a hunter and the best part we turn into hunting buddies then into Bestfriends if were lucky enough
twisted
Great poem I need to print that one out and keep it around to show some folks. Hey fxe what if that 3 legged deer has a limp and one eye missing!!! I personally might sneek up on his blind side, but thats just me.
Master JOE............Thanks I needed That :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:
:thumbsup:
Dead on!!!
How True..
I've fell into the horns part also..
That poem reminds me of a day that a bowhunter brought a small 6 pt into a local bow shop.. You could see on his face how proud he was of his first bow kill.. One guy smarts off that he wouldn't have wasted his tag on it.
I shook his hand and gave congratulations.. I talked with him a few days later he was still grinning from ear to ear.. Thats what its all about..
Needless to say he never came back to the shop..
I really enjoyed this Whip. It expressed what I have been feeling for a long time. There is a lot of food for thought in those few but very well chosen words. Makes me wonder and think about what part I might play in changing things for the better. I will try to "sweep in front of my own door". Thanks for the great read. Bill
I was in one QDM club for about 15 years, land owner rules, not mine. I helped run the club and have never seen so much jealousy, envy, and backstabbing among hunters. I am in a "brown it's down" club now and haven't seen anything but great camaraderie among members in the 10 years I have been in the club.
Joe,
If you get a raghorn or a spike...or even better yet a calf you just scored the best trophy you freezer could ever acquire. Young elk is the best I've meat I've personally ever eaten bar none.
Chris
TRUE, sad but true!!!
Eric, I had a friend in GA who was a member of a QDM club. They had a 14" inside spread rule for bucks. He shot a buck that was 14.25" and they gave him grief about it. Told him it would have been bigger if he let it go. He hunts in a different club now.
I'm pretty sure that I will piss somebody off but here goes.I HAVE NEVER had any use for food plots and GROWING big deer.I'm sure that there are arguments for it but most of the people that will say it is a good thing are most likly in one way or another drawing an income from the "farming"of wild deer.
If you are not trying to find me and string me up by now just give me a minute.
I do not condemn hunting with hounds,I do not condemn hunting bears over baits,I do not condemn field hunting ducks or geese,hell I don't condemn night hunting coons over hounds cause I would love to try that.
Everything that I just listed are age old family traditions,thats the way that they have been done for years, because it worked.It my have been the only way that worked for the region that you were raised in.
Bearbaiting is a good example.I read E Donnall Thomas thinks that spot and stalk bear hunting is the WAY to do it and that is fine if that is what you like but that does not work in the thick spruce forest of northern Ontario.
Food plots are being promoted by people with a product to sell.Lets make it easier .lets not go through the trouble to hunt a deer ,lets just kill a deer ,and a BIG one.
Are you mad yet!
Can one person on this forum tell me that your grandfathers idea of preseason scouting had anything to do with food plot?
We need to be careful because societies need for instant success is carring over to our sport.
We're different because we choose a harder path and if I have to grow a deer to kill a deer I think I will give up.
Keep e'm sharp, pick y'er spot
Gary
sad but true, this is my first year beck to traditional and things are looking a lot different for me. my goal is to make a good shot on a deer.
Doug77
Great thread, great poem.
That's a great goal to have Doug - I wish you luck :thumbsup:
I wish you luck Doug .That is what it should be about.Set a goal and work for it .Do it for yourself.
I have just got into tradational last winter when I got the urge to make my own bow so I started trying to find out how to make one. Low and behold I found this wonderful place. Season opens for me in 16 days and I have been stuggling with taking my wheelie or my stick that poem has just made up my mind up for me. thanks guys.
Joe grest poem. A lot of it rings true. Not sure where I fall in there. I am all about each hunter taking a deer and considering it a trophy, horn or not. A hunter that drops the string on an animal must first consider the consequences of the act. If he or she is doing it to only to impress others or gain some kind of recognition, maybe they are in the wrong sport. A hunter must establish their own goals and limitations and stick to them.
Here in MO we can kill as many does as we want for under $10 each. We are also able to kill three bucks(managed hunt) with our bows and another one with our bow in rifle season if we choose. My goal is to harvest meat for the freezer early in the season. Towards the rut my goal is to get a shot at the largest buck possible. I have no regrets about my choice of goals. I choose to pursure them with traditional tackle by fair chase. I love the whole experience and would never fault a person for choice of bow or hunting method. About a week to the season. Let's enjoy the hunt.
You're sure right John. Each of us make our own choices, but I hope we keep sight of the ethics they can bring with them. I would love to shoot a hog whitetail someday. Heck, who wouldn't! And I do pass up small bucks every year.
For me personally, it's more about prolonging the season, and hopefully getting some meat to boot. In WI we also are now allowed multiple doe tags each year - to the point in parts of the State they are pretty much unlimited. But only one buck per year in most parts of the State. So I'll shoot does until I have enough meat for the year, but like to hold out on the buck tag. Some years I've filled the buck tag earlier, and had chances at other bucks later. Sometimes bigger bucks. Even if I can't shoot I love to see them, however the adreneline rush that comes only with a tag in your pocket is missing. If offered a choice of killing a decent buck on the first day of season, or having multiple opportunities all fall but not filling the tag I think I would choose option #2.
I think the biggest message in the poem is to make your own choices based on whatever it is that drives you personally. But be careful about imposing your own beliefs and wishes on everyone else. A small buck, doe, whatever, might be a far better trophy for some people than a real nice buck might be to someone else.
My wife shot a small 6 pt. buck with a rifle last year. She doesn't bowhunt, but she was thrilled with her success. Although I probably would not have killed that deer, who am I to say that she didn't deserve to enjoy and relish her acheivement?
Joe, I was just reading up on the MO deer hunting rules. Under the section about ethics and safety: " Remember hunting is not a competetive sport" Glad to see the state understands. Man I wish my wife I could get my wife out in the woods for a little hunting, she's better looking than Irish and doesn't care about my snoring.
Great poem Joe. I've printed it off and it will hang on the wall at the gun club for awhile.
We each have our own goals and desires in our sport. For me first of all I love to hunt,the longer I can make any season last the better. Second of all its a tie between the challenge of trad equipment and the guys and gals behind the trad equipment. Nowhere before in all my hunting years have I seen or met so many fine folks that enjoy the hunt so much. Trad hunting is the only sport where size dosn't matter! People with trophy shots of chipmunks and frogs! It's great, heck youv'e got me taking trophy shots of groundhogs! Before trad hunting I'd killed thousands of those things and never took a picture except for the first one my son shot! We also have the option to take multiple deer each year so I will always take a doe or two. But my true love is finding and taking the big one. I spend all year scouting watching and photographing deer. To me there is no greater acomplishment than to find a deer like this and eat sleep and hunt him till you get him. Now with trad gear this is one of the greatest challenges in the woods. There is a smile on my face every time I see that deer and if I never get him thats just fine with me because I'm having alot of fun trying.
John, be careful of what you wish for! If your wife gets to liking hunting your hunting budget will have to double or be divided in two. That Mel guy aint all that bad a huntin buddy!! I'm taking off north for moose next week, 15 days in the bush. Hope I'll have some good pics on return. Have a great season.
John, I'm not sure saying your wife is better looking than Irish is paying her much of a compliment! :p But if she puts up with your snoring she must be a good one! My wife used to bowhunt, but never developed a love for it. She does enjoy gun hunting, and that is about the only reason I even go gun hunting anymore.
Good luck on the mooses Dave!
Great thread Joe. Contemplating the why's of what I do often takes up a great portion of my time on the stand. I've been re-reading "A Hunter's Heart" before season starts Saturday, great book full of reflective essays.