Will you honestly answer this question?

[becker]

The last deer you shot, be it this year or any year.


Your last deer... would you say you got it deer hunting, or deer shooting?

Here is what I mean.

I've been deer hunting since I was 11.. ( now 36 )

I've taken a deer just about every year since my 1st.

I use to modern hunt the wheat county. ( blm or state land or private restricted to walk in only )
But the land bordering was also private. He would let in a bunch of guys every year. Same guys.
These guys did not hunt. They drove the CRP grasses in their 4x4s or 4wheelers.

I've hunting the mountains like a mad man.. Hauling deer out miles...
Every year I'd round a corner and see a proud "hunter" gutting out a deer next the the road.
I'd stop, take a look and BS.
Then listen the the story...

Yeah I came around the corner in my truck and there it was.
Man I'd been driving all day, and this is the 1st deer I saw.

Last year I was out bird hunting.
Came up on a rig. They were gutting a deer.
Looking in the back of the truck.. Bed of truck was covered in blood.
They clearly shot it elsewhere, more than likely somewhere they were not to be. Loaded it quickly and got to an area to gut it.


So...
Who will admit to being a deer shooter?

 

[BENCHLEG]

im sure we all have been deer shooters at one time or another. but my last deer was deer hunting. there i answered your question

[Huntbear]

I consider myself a deer hunter, and my last few deer have been while deer hunting.  That said, I will not turn down a buck that is standing next to the logging road in a clearcut.  So  I guess at times I am a deer shooter as well, as long as it was legal.

[shoot-em-dead]

I love to hunt but if I am on the way in the truck- so be it. I can't remember the last one I got from a road But I know it wasn't any of the last 7

[PolarBear]

Have never been a shooter always a hunter.  The day that I lose the love of the chase and hunt is the day I quit.  As I have said so many times on here, if I want to go out and shoot an animal I will kill one of my steers.  I see no difference in that and those who drive the roads hoping something will jump out and stand there long enough for them to put down their beer and squeeze off a round out the window.  Thats harvesting, not hunting.

[rasbo]

Im a deer hunter and have killed them both ways mostly hunting.If Im going to where I bike or hike in and a deer offers it self to me its freezer first....

[Ray]

Shot em high, shot em low, shot em dead, shot and missed, shot em next to the road.  Dragged em feet, carried them miles, in the mountains and out of ditches and holes. Always legal. The most important things to me are legality, ethics, clean kills. Too many people worry about what the other guy is doing. As long as it is safe, legal and sensible then most of the time I would not argue or even have anything bad to say about it. I don't think I am better because I shoot a deer or other critter miles in the backcountry as opposed to someone next to the road. I do it both ways. Meat on the table. Of course the experience of taking one in the backcountry is better every time but it's not a bragging point for me.

[markts]

Shot em high, shot em low, shot em dead, shot and missed, shot em next to the road.  Dragged em feet, carried them miles, in the mountains and out of ditches and holes. Always legal. The most important things to me are legality, ethics, clean kills. Too many people worry about what the other guy is doing. As long as it is safe, legal and sensible then most of the time I would not argue or even have anything bad to say about it. I don't think I am better because I shoot a deer or other critter miles in the backcountry as opposed to someone next to the road. I do it both ways. Meat on the table. Of course the experience of taking one in the backcountry is better every time but it's not a bragging point for me.

Ray you put it well, couldnt have said it better myself. Mark

[carpsniperg2]

right on ray way to spell it out

[shoot-em-dead]

perfect Ray

[huntnphool]

Well put Ray

[nwhunter]

This year I had my ten year old son hunting with me so I wanted to take him out and do some real hunting not just drive around and glass clearcuts since we are in blacktail country. We drove up to the higher country where I figured there wouldn't be any people and so we hiked around in the driving rain opening day for a while and got soaked and saw no deer. Driving out we see a bunch of does and he spots a spike above the road that is bedded. He gets out loads his lever action 30-30 and hits it perfect and it rolls down to the road, steep hillside. So my take is sometimes regardless of how we plan or intend to hunt the hunting gods throw us a curveball 90% of the time and I will guarantee you there wasn't a happier  kid in the state at that time. However getting a lucky one on a logging road is not in the same category as running deer down on the stubble, in my book that ain't hunting. nwhunter

[wilsongideon]

i always have been a hunter not a shooter... spent the first five seasons dumping wheat powder out of my hikers and watching deer run around 2000 orange vest every day tongues out. I did take my first doe and three other bucks out there. . . as soon as i could drive myself i started hunting everywhere but wheat country and i dont regret a minute of it. i cannot stand hunting where i can see so many people at least in the timber or hills you cant see them all the time.   i dont make a practice of road hunting but sometimes a area doesnt pan out early on in the day and i drive looking for somewhere else or take a look and see where other guys are camping.  never shot a deer on land that wasnt public or feel free to hunt and plan on keeping it that way. love hking way in the mountains and having miles of country to yourself.

[cle elum bowhunter]

Hunter always, my "easiest" recovery in the last 10 years was still a very steep uphill pull to the nearest road.  100 yards and a lot of brush cutting and I had him back on the road about 2 hours after the kill shot.  After a 45 minutes stalk, I got in on a bedded buck at 15 yards, waited almost 30 minutes for him to stand.  Running out of daylight and he hadn't stood so I calculated the angle of his body, the slope and my entry point shooting him from uphill.  Arrow disappeared and then he bolted downhill through the blood red huckleberries and out of sight.  Talk about a tough tracking job, everything was wet from a melting dusting of snow so could not differentiate blood from water.  Found his track later where he crossed the road (thank god) and eventually hung my tag on him.  Will admit, retrieved my motorbike from down the road where I had left it earlier in the day, and threw him over the back and took him out whole.  That was my easiest hunt.  

[alecvg]

I consider myself a deer hunter.  That said, I will not turn down a buck that is standing next to the logging road in a clearcut.  So  I guess at times I am a deer shooter as well, as long as it was legal.