I know this question has been asked countless times but although its legal to shoot is it really truely if you think about it ethical? Although there is a poll speak your mind on this topic.
Problem is that the Trophy hunters are out there trying to make everyone see things their way. I shot a 2 point this year under time restraints and other things and even though it sucked hauling it so far by myself I was still glad to have gotten an animal. I ran into a hunter a few days later helping my friend on his hunt and tell him what I shot. He says congrats and all that jazz about "it will taste good", then proceeds to tell us that if people would leave the smaller bucks everyone would all get "big ones". That could be right but I shot it, tagged it, dragged it and took it to get processed. I wasn't feeling guilty about it, why should anyone else??? Shoot whatever makes you feel good as long as it is legal.
If being a trophy hunter means that I love the outdoors, would like to shoot big animals and spend time with friends and family then I guess I fall into that mode. On the other hand my idea of the self-proclaimed trophy hunter is that he is rude, ruthless to kill and intimidate other hunters, and doesn't enjoy hunting unless he gets a "big one". That is what we are referencing, most of us just like to hunt and getting a deer whether big or small is just a bonus. You should really ask your boss to give you more work since you are obviously bored and start some great :roll: posts. By the way, are you the same 1 eye that started the original thread on the DWR site?? Could explain a lot if so.
Of course its ethical. Not shooting big bucks= more big bucks. You have to have a pretty contained area to keep all the big bucks on your property. If you are trying to maintain a trophy area, that's fine... but it's not your ethical duty to do so. Now, if everyone who hunts an area agrees to a size limit (QDM) that's different.
I haven't voted yet... but I will. Shoot that thing in the head, that way you don't mess up that tender meat. You're not putting that rack on the wall anyway, so if you pull the "ripe pumpkin" trick with that skull, its not going to matter. Yeah its ethical... take it out. Doesn't matter what you shoot as long as its legal... to me that makes it ethical as well. Ethics, in my mind, has nothing to do with what size of deer you bring down the hill at the end of the day.
Did anyone else notice there were two yes answers and one no?? Kinda funny.... like the poll is predispositioned toward one side of this discussion. :lol:
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