Do you ever try to gently educate forky hunter friends or just let it be?

[rogerthat]

Have you considered talking to his family about it? Maybe getting together a little forky-intervention? With any luck, maybe he will agree to go to forky rehab. It’s worth a try and likely going to be a process. Good luck

 

[Mudranger1]

Benefits of an older age class are generally a socially-driven concept. When it comes to population dynamics bucks don’t have much impact until the buck:doe ratio drops below a certain threshold. A yearling has the same genetics at 1 year he does at 3 years or 5 years. I’m personally picky, particularly if I have meat in the freezer, but I think it’s wrong to criticize and judge others for their ethical/legal harvests. If they’re stoked, let them be stoked and be happy for them.

I love people who can improve the gene pool by not killing the young bucks. But I have always been curious how that is possible

 

[ismith]

Probably better to tease him about liking fat chicks, to tell you the truth…….

 

[Dsnow9]

I would make the argument that you get a lot more meat out of a mature deer/elk than a young one. It’s something I have been learning over time. Antler size really doesn’t mean anything to me.

Signed- A guy that has killed a lot of young animals

I’ve got a friend who’s “in it for the meat only”, and that’s fine to me. If you depend on wild game for your family every year go for it.

I personally don’t, I ate my deer tag this year and I had seen probably 10 or so forkys. Could’ve backed my truck up and loaded one whole he was so stupid.

It’s just my personal thing that I want my hunt area to get to a mature age class, it trickles down through genetics and is better for everyone. This year wasn’t the first time I’ve eaten my tag over only seeing young Mule Deer. My standard is a mature buck.

I’ve contemplated talking to my buddy about the benefits of an older age class, but I’m not ever gonna dictate what he wants to take nor will I ever judge him. He’s taken forkys 3 years in a row, and when I mention holding out for a mature buck he says I’m just in it for the meat. Again, that’s fine. Just not me. I want the landscape to be blessed with old deer, if any of yall reading this shoot young bucks I assure you I’m not judging. You do you, it’s fine with me.

But for those of yall with standards like mine, again it’s not about the antlers just about age, have yall ever sat down with your forky friend and tried to talk about it or just let them be forever?

I live in Colorado btw, but it’s not a unit known to produce huge bucks. Maybe cause everyone blasts forkys every year.

If you want a visual argument for the advantages of shooting a mature deer here is a photo for you.

The following are MT whitetail.

From left to right.

Fawn Buck
Doe
2.5 year old buck

An older buck will provide an even larger back strap than the 2.5 year old

 

[Bambistew]

I had a friend that shot a lot of "really nice forkies." It made him happy, I didn't care. Just thought it was always funny how they were always really nice ones.

 

[Big Bore]

If he needs the meat to feed his family, possibly educate him on the average weight of different age classes to help him get more meat by shooting older game. What the game wears on its head should never enter the conversation.

 

[Wolfshead]

Everyone hunts for their own personal reasons and their own satisfaction.
You like the challenge of hunting mature deer. That is great!
For you.
Does your friend try and talk you into just filling the freezer?

 

[cgasner1]

I agree the shaming of forkies fanatics is a bit much. I’d rather see someone happy about their critter than getting a picture and someone being all pouty because it had serious ground shrinkage. The hunt for the meat just doesn’t hold water anymore either go fill your truck up and add the cost of that tag in and compare it to buying burger. You’re not saving any money and that’s if you cuts it himself.

 

[Doublecluck]

Montana mule deer reading this thread

Don’t you dare!


The hunttalk community

 

[rjthehunter]

I shot a 1.5 year old forky this year and was happy with it. We were glassing for elk, and watched this doe, fawn, and forky for an hour and a half. I told my buddy if the buck gives me an easy shot I'll take him. First morning hunt of our trip and we were focused on elk. When he bedded down broadside at 405 yards from us, and only 300 yards from the road, it was an easy decision.

His body was significantly larger than the doe. Like a minimum of 33% bigger. Saw his body first and thought he'd be a decent buck. Nope, just a well fed forky lol. So far, he's been delecious!

We went on to see a couple of much better bucks. Like 160s-170s. And had time to shoot an elk in the same area shortly after.

If the timing is right, I'll hold out for a big buck, but if not, I'll find one to eat!

 

[duckhunt]

I agree the shaming of forkies fanatics is a bit much. I’d rather see someone happy about their critter than getting a picture and someone being all pouty because it had serious ground shrinkage. The hunt for the meat just doesn’t hold water anymore either go fill your truck up and add the cost of that tag in and compare it to buying burger. You’re not saving any money and that’s if you cuts it himself.

It's not about putting any meat in the freezer, it's about putting wild game in the freezer.

 

[MTGomer]

I like meat so much I intentionally kill animals with the least amount of it

that said, if somebody’s happy with their deer and it’s legal, then good for them.

 

[cgasner1]

It's not about putting any meat in the freezer, it's about putting wild game in the freezer.

We live on wild game at my house. My wife isn’t to impressed right now that other adventures kept me from putting an elk in the freezer this year. She eats game meat out of the freezer if I’m home or not. Rutted mule deer at any age doesn’t interest her not all wild game is the same. If I “needed” to fill my freezer I’d probably be working a second job instead of wasting time chasing 40# of meat on a hill

 

[Forkyfinder]

We live on wild game at my house. My wife isn’t to impressed right now that other adventures kept me from putting an elk in the freezer this year. She eats game meat out of the freezer if I’m home or not. Rutted mule deer at any age doesn’t interest her not all wild game is the same. If I “needed” to fill my freezer I’d probably be working a second job instead of wasting time chasing 40# of meat on a hill

Think you could identify deer/elk/moose if cooked and doing blind taste test? I could swear that I would have been flawless at identifying - but I'm less certain after watching this.

 

[jryoung]

Think you could identify deer/elk/moose if cooked and doing blind taste test? I could swear that I would have been flawless at identifying - but I'm less certain after watching this.

I can tell the differences of individual animals once I have them in the freezer, too much variability not only between species, but also individuals depending on where taken.

 

[peterk1234]

I can tell the differences of individual animals once I have them in the freezer, too much variability not only between species, but also individuals depending on where taken.

This could become an interesting thread drift.

If aged for a few days at least (at proper temps) and processed carefully, it is very hard to tell, if not impossible. And that video is a great one. I think it is fair to say that those folks eat plenty of game meat.

I will say this much. You are what you eat. A young whitetail doe spending its days on an ag field in October will taste better than a high mountain rutting elk in late August, or a muley feeding on sage. But a muley feeding on ag land in October is as good as that whitetail.

 

[Pucky Freak]

 

[Nick87]

I had a friend that shot a lot of "really nice forkies." It made him happy, I didn't care. Just thought it was always funny how they were always really nice ones.

I always get a kick out of the "nice body". Like wtf that thing got nice curves or what?

 

[Forkyfinder]

I shot a 1.5 year old forky this year and was happy with it. We were glassing for elk, and watched this doe, fawn, and forky for an hour and a half. I told my buddy if the buck gives me an easy shot I'll take him. First morning hunt of our trip and we were focused on elk. When he bedded down broadside at 405 yards from us, and only 300 yards from the road, it was an easy decision.

His body was significantly larger than the doe. Like a minimum of 33% bigger. Saw his body first and thought he'd be a decent buck. Nope, just a well fed forky lol. So far, he's been delecious!

We went on to see a couple of much better bucks. Like 160s-170s. And had time to shoot an elk in the same area shortly after.

If the timing is right, I'll hold out for a big buck, but if not, I'll find one to eat!

Do you regret shooting the forky? Lol looks like those mt mule deer threads baited you into a trophy

 

[Pucky Freak]

5 Stages of a Hunter - Which One Are You? | Bass Pro Shops

Back in the late 1970s, Dr. Robert Jackson and Dr. Robert Norton of the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse conducted a study of over 1,000 hunters. Among other things, their study found that hunters pass through five distinct stages over their hunting lives in terms of their view of...

1source.basspro.com

The five “stages” are not exactly linear. It’s more like five hunting mindsets. That being said, younger and newer hunters tend to camp out on the shooting and limited out stages for years and years.

Any attempts to push fellow hunters into the trophy stage are misguided.

The quickest way for a hunter to move to the trophy stage is to whack a pile of forkies - eventually it gets kind of old, and you learn to appreciate watching animals, learning about animals, being patient, slowing down, sharpening your skills, and the challenge of hunting older age-class game.

Also, every forky shot means more mature animals for the trophy hunters to select from. A forky hunter is not graduating to eating their tag every year. They graduate to whacking a bunch of 2 and 3-year-old bucks, until that also loses its allure.