2506

I thought I'd just be done using the name 2506 but I'm really begging to question why I wrote in the first place and why I would do so in the future. For the last time. I never said the kid was a bad kid or that he had the wrong equipment or did anything that wrong. I was questioning what all of this discussion is doing to our hunting heritage. I did appologize to younghunter in an email for using him as an example. As for the idividual that suggested I polish my skills. Anyone and I do mean anyone that decides to shoot at an animal the size of a coues deer at 600 yrds. is truely irresponsible. You might hit it, you might even kill it, but you pull that kind of shot often and YOU WILL LOOSE animals and that is unacceptable. The difference between you and I is that I know better than to suggest that as a good or even reasonable idea to anyone. Again, it was not my intent to insult younghunter. It seems that I have, so for that I am sorry!

I will find my words more carefully in the future. As I mentioned he is a great kid I wasn't so much questioning him but what I'd been reading in many trips to this site over the years.

Also I wrote more in reponse to my original post. I was asking a bigger picture question I think some of you may have missed.

I have carefully re-read what I had wrote the other day and I would like to clarifiy a bit of what I was saying. First, younghunter. If it is you that I was talking about, I meant no disrepect to you or your father. I had a good time talking to you and your dad. I ended up leaving a note for you guy's Sunday wishing luck and letting you know I would be down in the same area the next week if you wanted to join me and my buddy since your dad was going to be bird hunting. Second, I never said that the youngster I described shot at rediculous distance. He did not. I only said he had alluded to the fact that he had a lot of gun for hitting deer as he described and having it get along. IT WAS ANOTHER HUNTER, like many I've heard described in other posts, that are so self involved that they can't stand the idea of not being the guy to get the buck. Third, younghunter your ethics were unquestionable. You stayed looking for blood for over an hour. That's more than most and what was aboslutly right. Fouth, I was mearly using my experience with you to illustrate a point. I have been hunting these deer since I was 10, 24 years chasing and taking them, and I have seen attitudes in the recent past that made me question what discussion forms and comments like many I have read are doing to OUR hunting heritage. I wasn't pointing fingers at you nor anyone else on this site but mearly making an observation. I have a December tag in that same unit and won't be shooting unless I know the buck will make the book. I've killed 14 of them filled, every tag I've been liucky enough to get, and it's my turn for a wall hanger. But what I will keep with me are the times I will be sharing with my friends and family. Lastly, I chose the name because I couldn't think of a better tribute to my most fathful hunting companion, MY RIFLE, which has killed all but one of my big game animals to date. I will change my name. It's no big deal. P.S. The only time I would take back a shot I've taken was with my bow not my rifle! I rarely miss and have never lost a big game animal with my gun. younghunter, how did you end up doing? Email me I have got some info to share with you depending on your plans to hunt next year.

Amen

No, I was saying the kid had all that equipment and supposedly knew everything about hunting but had no clue that he couldn't have hit a deer with a gun that delivers that kind of energy twice in the vitals and not have lay where he hit it.

I have been reading posts to this site since my experience with a young and impressionable hunter during the November hunt this year. As with many of the people that are regular visitors to this site, I am literally obsessed with hunting this venerable and formatable advisary. It has become clear that many of the people that hunt, or think they hunt, have a very distorted sense of what it means to be afield. My friend and I spent the better part of opening morning watching and stalking a very nice 3 point when another hunter, who couldn't stand the idea that we would likely harvest this deer, decided to shoot from a rediculous distance, something in the neighborhood of 600yrds., with the end result of sending the buck over the ridge. Making a quick decision we decided to give chase. After crossing a saddle and then a small ridge we heard shooting and I knew we were to late. After picking up the shooter in the glass. We decidedd to see if he would like help finding the buck. This started a very interresting conversation. The youngster described what had transpired. After hitting the buck twince in the chest, once right behind the shoulder, with a .300wm it became very appearant that he would need some serious help but not with findind a downed animal. He and his father told me about how dedicated the youngster was to hunting. He could shoot 3" group at 300yrds., had been given $1,700 pair of 15x56 Swaravski's for his birthday, and had been reading from this site for over a year. All this preparation so that he kid could kill a trophy. This was his first deer hunt and all the youth could talk about was how many inches he hoped his first buck would be. I know that hunting means many things to many people but his expectations were lofty at best. He has obviously been watching to many hunting, using the term hunting very loosly, shows! When did it become everthing to shoot a monster 120"+. My family has harvested 9 bucks over 100" on public land hunts in 5 different units in Southern AZ. but it is much more about sharing time with each other than killing a trophy. I have been reading about everyones bad experiences or how many inches the deer is or how they walk and shoot farther than anyone else but have read few posts about the good times they shared with freinds and family. To close, we never recovered the downed buck but I did see that crafty son-of-a-gun again on the last day but he won't make it through my December hunt. I guess my whole point is that much of what I have been reading, seeing, and experiencing is sending the wrong message to impressionable first timers.