Archer
Posts: 3207
Joined: 3/11/2005
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Most folks who call hunting easy or one sided have never been in a wild area where the animals are not conditioned to lots of human activity. (come right up for hand feeding) Deer eyesight 9 times out of 10 will see a person comming long before our no longer as naturally conditioned for hunting eyesight and brains. Sense of smell that detects man's scent for great distances, Hearing with ears that naturally pivot and can detect sounds of a breaking twig at several hundred yards under the right conditions.
Trophy, what's a trophy? the doe I took in 1998 with a bow after sneaking up on her to within 15 yards, That was a trophy.
The reason most folks see big bucks with many points as a trophy is simple they are the best genetic of the species and in order to get to the score that puts them in the books they almost invariably have to have 5-6 years behind them avoiding all the other hunters and or other predators for all that time. Personally I have no intent to seek out a buck that makes the record books, but if they happen to cross my sight inside my range of ethical shooting I'll take a shot, if not I won't be heartbroken. BTW the Boone and rocket and Pope and Young record books have standards of "fair chase".hey also donate money for research that helps the species as a whole The West Virginia Black Bear Monitoring and Research Project graciously accepted 3 donations from private groups during this fiscal year. The Camp Fire Conservation Fund, Inc., the West Virginia Bowhunters Association, and the West Virginia Trophy Hunters Association have all donated money to help us buy additional radio transmitters. Their support of our natural resources and projects help to demonstrate the cooperation between the WVDNR and multiple groups. We thank them for their continued support.
Outwitting an actually wild deer in his environment is far from a guaranteed effort, (as born out by the success rates for hunters that the various Depts of Wildlife keep for their Wildlife Management Areas) The best rates being under 50% for the entire season even in states where the season lasts for months, and that's for gun hunting, rates for bowhunters tend to hang around the 10% range for the season. For my lifetime hunting I have had within my bow range I'd say I have drawn my bow 10 times and had only 3 times where the arrow has been let fly out of 100 or so deer. But I have considered well over half my seasons as successful by my standards. (If I get within range 25 yards or less with my bow on one deer during the season).
BTW the reason whitetail are considered introduced in the original post is simple they were hunted to extinction back in the 1800's and then subsequently re-introduced from heards in other states paid for by hunters who learned their lesson, and started to self regulate with licenses and seasons. They have few natural predators in WV because the predators have been largely hunted to extreamly low levels. Black Bears, Coyotees, Cougars, Bobcats for the fawns, and Wolves are their natural predators.
So the statement that they have no natural predators is incorrect. WV has Black Bears and Coyotees, There is small evidence to indicate a couple Cougars still alive there as well but unlikely that there are many. http://easterncougarnet.org/middleatlantic.html
Coyotee in WV link http://www.wvdnr.gov/hunting/CoyoteResearch.shtm
Black Bear not WV but showing they are a predator for deer http://www.aginfo.psu.edu/news/december01/fawn.html
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RE: Hunting in the modern age - 
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