What means more?

[Buckmaster7600]

I’ve said for a long time that I couldn’t care less if I ever kill another deer unless I kill it my way. Am I in the minority with this? 
 

What means more to you, the deer or how you killed it. 

Edited June 16 by Buckmaster7600

[Rusty]

That's a great question, and it changes as a person's experiences change. 

Initially all I cared about was killing a deer, and it didn't matter how.  After killing a few deer I became more interested in HOW I killed a deer, and that was followed by only wanting to kill mature bucks.

Now, almost 50 years later, it's all about enjoying the experience and sharing those experiences with others.  

[Rusty]

The 70s and 80s,  kill deer any way that you can:  

[dbHunterNY]

i'm i guess the opposite. I've tracked deer and shot them in their beds. I've shot them in food plots. Shot them over a legal corn piles. I've taken them in flatlands of NW Oklahoma, to switchback mountains of KY, to NY dacks, and NY farm land (even out of a wagon). I've shot them behind backyards and corporate bldgs here in Albany NY not far from the office. I've shot them with anything and everything except a handgun or a crossbow.

If you told me I had to hunt them in one location and one way the rest of my life, it'd glady except until my time here is up but to me it'd be a little boring and less fulfilling.

[Rusty]

The 90s, only kill deer with traditional archery equipment.    

[Rusty]

2000s, kill mature bucks.   

Edited June 17 by Rusty

[Rusty]

The past 10 years, enjoy sharing the experience with others.  

[Robhuntandfish]

Both.  I always want a doe to restock the freezer and not super picky how I get it within reason. 

But I also am the guy that just isn't interested in any guided hunts as I wouldn't feel like I earned it.   I want to mostly get a buck off the land I hunt as I work all year on it and like the chess game to figure it out.   I also try to do a Dacks still hunt once a year and would be good with most any buck there, although I passed a spike 2 years ago. A 12 point buck at one of these guided places over a feed pile would never interest me, but a 5 point or better off our hunting land I am always happy with.  And I am also fine with eating my buck tag if I don't get a shot at something that I really like or one I am trying for.  Last year I was only going to settle for one of the three I was chasing and filled the freezer with a couple of does so I had meat.  Put those same three deer on an outfitters place and all I did was pull the trigger ... Im not interested.  

Edited June 16 by Robhuntandfish

[mowin]

If I'm out hunting, then I'm hunting "my way", and if I take a deer, I'm happy. 

[blackbeltbill]

3 hours ago, Rusty said:

The past 10 years, enjoy sharing the experience with others.  

   This is what,I have done also for the last 10 years of so. 3 or 4 years with my Brother  in law,3 years with Jeannine, and the last 4 years with Cynthia .  Just a different  species.  

   I guess,I am not about the high numbers anymore. 

[Bolt Action]

Not sure I understand the original post.  Each fall when we all take to the woods,  we do it "my way". We choose to hunt on our terms.  My goal each year is to harvest 3 or 4 deer for the freezer.  My way is to hit that goal any legal way that I can. Your way might mean tracking mature bucks in the 'daks. @Wolc123's way might be any legal fawn with testicles..

[Doebuck1234]

Had the moto"if its brown it's down" when I first started but sence have held off on bigger bucks(by choice).come end of bow season I'm willing to put one in the freezer regardless of size because gun season is usually a bust where I hunt.have become very selective in the last couple years

[crappyice]

Make meat!

[Wolc123]

I can only eat so much store-bought chicken, so I’m happy if I can kill 2-4 deer a year.  That gives us plenty of red meat.  The actual kills are much more important to me than than the method.  I hunt deer for meat and not for sport.  I have killed them with weapons from a 1-1/4” long bladed keychain knife, all the way up to a scoped 30/06.  
 

They all taste same.  I do appreciate the less meat damage of the archery tackle (just crossbow for me since 2014).  
 

As far as the method goes, my main concern is that it be as comfortable and relaxing for me as possible.     I put in plenty of physical and mental effort during the week at work, so that’s not what I want to do while I am hunting, mostly on the weekends.  
 

Next, I want to kill those deer as cleanly as possible, using the most lethal, legal weapon that I can.  Ideally, those kills happen close to where I can get a tractor, field car or atv, or at least uphill from the manual drag-to site.  

I can’t think of any, that I have killed the last 4-5 years, that didn’t meet all of those criteria.  I tracked down and killed a few, and did some ball-busting drags, when I was young.  The best thing about those days, is that they are’s  over. 
 

 

Edited June 17 by Wolc123

[G-man]

I am all in on helping other especially youth get into hunting.. killed enough myself .. now the focus is  on  habitat creation and youth hunting.