Maybe or maybe NOT, passing on shoot able deer

[D4570]

Dang it's hard to pass up an easy deer.
Most our deer come out of some god forsaken hole or WELL off the trail/road.

So Far this year I have "passed" on 3 shooters, in hopes for a "Better" shooter. AND! There where easy deer to retrieve. Two on grass prairie not over a 1/2 mile from the road and one was in an alfalfa field where we had permission to " drive" any wear we wanted with the 4wheelers. The prairie deer where under 350 yards and 4 point " western count" typical mule deer. Quite wide and tall but wimpy on the mass, probably 2 / 3 years old but ,fat pigs. The one on the field was a white tail and was little farther. Honestly I had the cross hairs on him for a LONG time. He was only like a 3 point but had HUGE mass, a very mature deer and probably will never have more points. I think if he would have given me a shot I would have taken him, he was walking almost straight away from me, not even a Texas heart shot. His rack was dark chocolate brown kinda cool looking.

DANG!

Only time will tell I guess.

 

[elkantlers]

Don't pass up on the first day what you would gladly take on the last day.

 

[Sytes]

Find myself passing up on a 4x buck tearing away at our hay... Thinking, "oh how cute" so I can go into the hills, drag my wanker around a few miles each day and gripe about tag soup...

Ditto Elkantler's quoted Mountain Man proverb.

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

I don’t know what that’s like , in western Oregon it can take a long time , sometimes weeks to find one buck , I’ve never passed on the 1st opportunity provided, because that might be your only chance at a Blacktail, sometimes I wish I lived where you could window shop for a bigger buck but I just don’t , good luck on your continued persuit of a big buck

 

[mplane72]

The thought that goes through my mind every time I see a buck that's on the edge of what I'm looking for is "what will I do for the rest of the season?"

 

[WildRHK]

I've struggled with this as well in the past...and I have come to this conclusion:

It all depends what on what I want out of my hunting season. If I am purely hunting for the mature animal; then I have to be OK with tag soup. However, I have come to the realization that while I enjoy a nice buck or bull as much as the next guy...my reality is that me and my family count on that meat in the freezer. That being said, when I think back to past seasons that are fond memories in my mind...they were the seasons where I accomplished my objective.

For example; the season about three years ago that was really pleasant, and I enjoyed several suscessful hunts with a full freezer and not having to ride the season out to the bitter end hunting when it was below zero ... that's a good memory. Do I spend time or energy now worrying about the fact that my antelope buck could have been an inch longer? Or that the 4x5 whitetail, if given another good year, may have turned into the biggest WT buck I've ever killed? Or that it was cow vs. a bull...

At this point it is all water under the bridge.

I think that a hunter needs to define what his or her expectations are and then stick to them and be committed. I used to keep coming back to rethinking my choices, constantly second guessing them, and then some seasons ending with being very frustrated and angry with myself at times. In my case, the fact that I kept struggling with the whole issue, finally cued me in that may be I was not in aligment with my true feelings on the issue. Since I have adjusted my thinking on it and accepted that my primary objective is meat...I really enjoy my hunting a lot more and spend less energy on what if...

Good hunting to you this season, hope you find what you are looking for.

 

[D4570]

When I was a kid...
There was 10 of us kids and my parents.
Back then there was little $$$ for food , but gas was cheep.
We all had licenses and we hunted and fished all year.
That's all we eat, wild something.
Everyday every meal, now I prefer Angus and pig.
I donate most my game to food programs in my area, or to people I know will appreciate it.
Hunting season get in the way of my coyote calling, so if I get it over I can get back to calling.

 

[kenton]

Can't pass on a shooter. If you do, he wasn't a shooter.

 

[efw]

Back in 2016 I hunted a unit with great potential for mule deer and I had an “any deer” tag so my goal was a nice respectable mulie... my first. On opening day I passed up a total of 16 bucks 6 of which were small mulies and 2 of which were whitetails bigger than anything I’d ever shot.

On the second day a huge-bodied Whitetail jumped up from a river bed and ran quartering away from us and I went Michigander on him and rolled him over, barely thinking. He was my biggest ever buck, not as big as the two I’d passed the previous day in favor of a mulie, and I was a little irritated with myself. My son quickly reminded me he was a gorgeous buck and huge with a lot of protein for the family and I owed it to the beautiful old monarch to see him for what he was.

I love it when you hear your teaching come back around full circle. He was so right.

I’ll pass up shooters to keep the hunt going. Depends upon how I feel about the experience and my odds for doing well later.

 

[2rocky]

So many times my trophy bulls and bucks are trophies because of the circumstances rather than their antler configuration or size.

Like the little forky i jumped out of the last patch of brush and shot with my daughters after they had each found shed antlers.

Or the Broken antlered tule bull I snuck in on in his bed

Or that buck I shot right below his ear with my great grandfather's Winchester model 64 25-35

or my buddies cow elk he dropped on a bank above the two track road and packed the pickup right below it and rolled it in. (He had a broken leg) it was a trophy killsite.

I could go on and on.

But to answer the original question, passing on deer shot opportunities comes from feeling Abundance. If you feel abundant in your opportunities, you can never go wrong if the desire to pull the trigger comes over you. All of our scouting and unit selection is about finding that feeling of abundant opportunities and that is where the satisfaction really comes from...

 

[mountain monster]

I like what Kenton said!!!

 

[mevertsen]

I remember from when I was little that we relied on deer and antelope. My dad was on the fire department in the little town in Wyoming and he would get a gas allowance for runs. He would bank that for hunting season. He shot anything that was legal.

Then we moved to Nevada. We didn't hunt for about 8 years until I was old enough to hunt and started showing interest. For the first few years of hunting, that survival mentality was still engrained in my dad, even though he made very good money. My mom would actually get mad if we didn't kill anything because it was just a waste of money otherwise, even though hamburger could be bought at the grocery store for probably 1/3 of what it cost for one deer all in.

I enjoy hunting. I also enjoy deer meat. I get a tag with the intention of filling that tag, not because I am going to go hungry, but because I want to eat some deer sammiches. I have eaten a few tags over the years, and though I am not mad about it, because I enjoy the entire experience, tags don't make good sammiches.

I am also not a great deer Hunter and I often hunt alone. I also hunt in easier to hunt areas, simply because I enjoy the outing and the reward at the end. I also hunt predators all winter long, so I keep that drive going. I have got to thinking, and I may not even apply for elk anymore, simply because a deer for each of my daughter and I should plenty of deer for this family. If we happen into an antelope, or maybe one of these years, a sheep tag, then we will surely have the potential for a full freezer.


I killled my best buck ever in 21 years of hunting in September. I didn't even consider his size at the time I shot him. I killed him because he was a buck, and I wanted a deer.

I also know that in Nevada, the deer hunts are managed as such, that even if every tag got filled by the hunters, there would still be plenty of deer to go around. I also know that 100% success is not the case, and I can take whatever deer I please.

 

[Sytes]

Can't pass on a shooter. If you do, he wasn't a shooter.

This is one heck of a quote.

 

[POk3s]

I regularly break the "don't pass on the first day..." law. It's more rewarding for me to hunt all season for what I want, and then to settle on a smaller animal than it is for me to shoot one that's a "thinker" and have the "what ifs looming over my head. I like HUNTING!

 

[EdP]

To me the "Don't pass on the first day..." is a great line for an outfitter to tell clients. It sure makes the outfitter's job a whole lot easier when a client tags out early. Holding out to the last day and maybe not filling a tag may not be the best strategy, but shooting the first decent animal on day one doesn't really give you an opportunity to see what an area has to offer.

 

[SFC B]

This season I had a "good" pass. The only animal I saw on the mountain 2nd season that I had a tag for was a forky. Just so happens that I had taken my buddy's (CPO) boy out that day to give his pops a chance to wander. The boy has a range of about 200m and I knew from the get go he was up first for anything in his wheel house. After a couple of hours sitting tucked inside the woodline on a valley I caught movement. The forky bounded out of the trees and stopped on a little knoll. I ranged him and told the boy "142" .....after a couple of seconds I repeated myself. He then whispered "tree". Dang it, there was a small aspen right in his line of sight. A second later and off went the forky before I could even reach my rifle. I am totally ok with that.

 

[Reeltime]

To me the "Don't pass on the first day..." is a great line for an outfitter to tell clients. It sure makes the outfitter's job a whole lot easier when a client tags out early. Holding out to the last day and maybe not filling a tag may not be the best strategy, but shooting the first decent animal on day one doesn't really give you an opportunity to see what an area has to offer.

I agree, it's a terrible quote. I'll happily fill an A tag with a whitetail doe on the last day but there isn't a day between the first and the last I'd consider it.

The other one that gets me is the "the worst day hunting is better than the best day at work". No it's not. I'd much rather close a deal to better my career, future and family security than sit in the rain staring at motionless decoys. So no, I''ll take the best day at work over the worst day hunting anytime!!

 

[D4570]

There you go...
The season is still on but I'm finished. I knew this would be my last trip out for deer.
I took an easy mule deer with less then a 100 yard drag back to the truck.
I'm happy and so is the people I'm giving it too.

 

[Yellowstoner]

Congrats!

 

[Sytes]

Very nice! Grats!