Why is deer hunting so popular?

In my younger years I had big buck fever, put 3 160"+ whitetail on the wall. All came from the home place. The older I get the less the big ones matter to me. I've put a buck and two does in the freezer every year for groceries for at least 30 years, those old bucks get kind of tough. I do all the butchering myself since I got a couple bad "custom" jobs done a long time ago.
The older I get the less I really care about deer hunting, just want to fill the freezer. That said, pheasants still get my blood worked up. Wish I lived in pheasant country or that we still had quail like when I was young.
 
In the state of Iowa, I think the popularity of deer hunting (leased ground, recreation properties, etc.) has actually benefited pheasants as a whole while subsequently making it harder to get hunting permission.

There seem to be a lot more recreational properties purchased and managed strictly for deer hunting where tillable acres are being enrolled in CRP instead of farmed. This means there are going to be birds there, but good luck getting permission to hunt them..
 
Golden Hour said:
Trail cams, especially cellular cameras, should be illegal. Seriously, if some of these guys pursued a woman like they do a deer, they'd get slapped with a restraining order so fast it would make your head spin.
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Would you go so far as to say people who use them are rubes or hicks? 🤔🤣🤣
 
Being a westerner for my entire life, I can only provide that perspective. Big game hunting has changed from what it was when I was 12 (my first year hunting big game) to now 40 plus years later. Back then, hunting big game was strictly for the meat. We hunted a lot of doe deer and cow elk (whenever we drew a tag). Those years that we didn't draw a cow or doe tag we hunted bucks and bulls. We killed elk and deer every year. There were a lot of deer and elk and a lot of hunters. I don't remember anyone concerned about big bucks or bulls or bragging about the size of their animal. We killed a lot of animals. , but the hunter success rate was about 20% for buck deer and 12% for bull elk.

Today, across the west, fewer tags are issued, more "exclusive" hunts, higher success rates, far fewer cow elk hunts and virtually zero doe hunts. Along with that there is more technology, faster bows, further shooting rifles, further shooting muzzleloaders, trail cameras and more guided hunts, and as a result worse hunter ethics and worse decisions made. There are far fewer hunters in the field, due to the limited tags. As an example, when I was 12 you could hunt a buck deer every year in the west. Today in many states it takes 10 years in some and up to 30 years in other units just to draw a buck tag and the same is true for elk.

Bird hunting is also far different from when I was a kid. There were far more pheasants when I was a kid and far more folks chasing them. My Dad, being the meat hunter that he was wouldn't let me shoot quail because the meat gathered per shell wasn't worth it. I was trained to pass quail and kill pheasants. Opening day pheasant season was a virtual "holiday" in my home town. It was a boom for businesses every year. As a matter of fact there were a couple of years that there were so many pheasants that they legalized a hen a day regulation.

Today, the pheasant population is down, largely due to the changes in farming practices. When I was a kid the fields were smaller and hand line sprinklers were the technology, so there was lots of edge. Today, circle pivots are the technology, larger fields and far less edge. So, I hunt the unfarmable areas, swamps, deep draws and river edge. I kill many more quail now then before, mostly because they seem to be better adapted to the current conditions. Pheasants are a bonus. There are also far fewer bird hunters now than when I was a kid. Nobody hunts the areas that I hunt.......never......never!! This saddens me!

So, I guess this brings me to my long winded point. Hunting has changed, "Period"!!!! As I look at the state of Colorado and Utah, I see a future where opportunities for any/all hunting is being threatened by rich hunters who pay a lot of money for the opportunities that cost $30 when I was a kid. Today those same opportunities in Utah are being auctioned off for hundreds of thousands of dollars for a tag. Additionally, state governments are more involved in hunting regulations than ever before, they are wrestling for control of hunting with state fish and wildlife agencies.

So perhaps this isn't the time to separate or fracture ourselves, "bird" vs. "deer" or "elk" but rather protect what we've got, because, it is being threatened by urbanization, water declines, government overreach, farming practices, pay to play hunting experiences etc. We need to stick together in my opinion
 
cyclonenation10 said:
In the state of Iowa, I think the popularity of deer hunting (leased ground, recreation properties, etc.) has actually benefited pheasants as a whole while subsequently making it harder to get hunting permission.

There seem to be a lot more recreational properties purchased and managed strictly for deer hunting where tillable acres are being enrolled in CRP instead of farmed. This means there are going to be birds there, but good luck getting permission to hunt them..
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I hunt public land close to what I call "managed for conservation" properties. I used to get unnerved by guys creating havens for game and then not hunting it, until I realized that during winters like the one we just had, those havens saved thousands upon thousands of pheasants, deer and other wildlife species. After the snow melts, the pheasants space back out and here in four days, I'm going to go shoot some of the roosters that wouldn't be here without the rich man's habitat-rich land.
 
I am totally against this pay to play thing.These game cameras, these fancy lodges, all of this draconian recreation. Give me an old pick up, an old shotgun, a 1/2 tank of gas, and I'll get birds every single time. These guys who spend 5 grand for 3 days of bird hunting, are part of the problem. They are not making things better imo.
 
Goosemaster said:
These game cameras
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Just because you get a deer, wolf, mountain lion, moose, bear, or sasquatch on game camera doesn't mean you can go out there where the camera is posted and shoot that specific animal. Most of these critters are captured on camera at night time. A camera is a really only proof that the animal is "in the area" and during the rut, any specific deer may be there and gone in no time because they roam a lot more.

Some people have this thought that a camera guarantees a trophy. Far from it.

The paying to play thing is something we agree on though. I don't pay for anything other than my hunting licenses.
 
gimruis said:
Just because you get a deer, wolf, mountain lion, moose, bear, or sasquatch on game camera doesn't mean you can go out there where the camera is posted and shoot that specific animal. Most of these critters are captured on camera at night time. A camera is a really only proof that the animal is "in the area" and during the rut, any specific deer may be there and gone in no time because they roam a lot more.

Some people have this thought that a camera guarantees a trophy. Far from it.

The paying to play thing is something we agree on though. I don't pay for anything other than my hunting licenses.
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Awesome. Don't pay anybody anything. Good call.
 
Goosemaster said:
Give me an old pick up, an old shotgun, a 1/2 tank of gas, and I'll get birds every single time.
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I'm not all the way there, but I've been dreaming of it. An old timer has an early 70s gmc pickup I've thought about buying and fixing up for a hunting truck. My great grandpa had an early model citori from the 30s which was sadly sold off many moons ago so I'll have to keep my eyes open for a vintage wingmaster or 1100. I'm a lefty and like those old remington stocks. For me I need a little more than 1/2 tank of gas because I live in the MN suburbs so it can take some traveling to get to the country. I'm not a city boy, and would much rather be in the middle of nowhere. I try to act a little bit more like a hick when out hunting. Not all out, just enough to blend in. No loud pipes or nobby tires on my truck. I always drive slow on field roads and try and leave things better than I found them.
 
I grew up in the 50s and 60s in Wisconsin. Deer camp was mostly for drinking and playing cards. Deer were shot, generally any deer and usually a result of a drive. These people grew up in the depression and horns meant nothing. Times change and lifestyles change. Guess people need to hang something on the wall to prove something, even if it comes from inside a fence. I big game hunt every year because it is what we eat, beef is called town meat and kind of tastes funny. One good thing about big game hunting is that it gets me in shape for pheasant hunting.
 
Bob Peters said:
I'm not all the way there, but I've been dreaming of it. An old timer has an early 70s gmc pickup I've thought about buying and fixing up for a hunting truck. My great grandpa had an early model citori from the 30s which was sadly sold off many moons ago so I'll have to keep my eyes open for a vintage wingmaster or 1100. I'm a lefty and like those old remington stocks. For me I need a little more than 1/2 tank of gas because I live in the MN suburbs so it can take some traveling to get to the country. I'm not a city boy, and would much rather be in the middle of nowhere. I try to act a little bit more like a hick when out hunting. Not all out, just enough to blend in. No loud pipes or nobby tires on my truck. I always drive slow on field roads and try and leave things better than I found them.
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These hicks in these big trucks need to be stopped. Montana has more than its share. I drive slow, and I'm in no hurry. I shoot several different guns.Some better than others.Deer hunting is cheap,and you don't need a dog. That's why it's popular.
 
I started deer hunting when I was a senior in high school. Except when I lived out of state for grad school, I've deer hunted at least once every year since. There are a few nice bucks on my wall. Between about 2005-2010 I was between dogs and I thought I might get into deer and other big game in a major way. One year even included a DIY elk hunt in Colorado that turned out to be 4 days of armed hiking. After getting my first bird dog in 2008 I started losing interest in big game. I still go, but only if one of my kids wants to go. And they are living their own lives right now. Last year I sat on the same stand as my then-21 year old son and saw him shoot a decent buck. There were opportunities to add a doe to the day's take, but I decided not to. Maybe if my wife liked deer meat, but she only tolerates it in chili, spaghetti, and stuff like that. I've read that axis deer, elk, nilgai, maybe even moose are much better than whitetail. Maybe it would be different if I could hunt those locally. Maybe it would be different if these deer meat donation programs would separate the backstraps and tenderloins for me. But that seems a little bit like the Seinfeld episode where they couldn't find anyone to take the muffin "stumps".

People are passionate about deer hunting and devote a lot of resources to it. I respect that. They can have their thing and I'll take mine.
 
The only “sporting” way to hunt deer is with hounds. There are too many deer in most states, that would solve part of that problem. I do not understand why only the southern states allow dogging. In most of those states it is hard to keep a deer from spoiling that has been shot, let alone one that has been dogged. Dogs solve the problem of wasted meat from cripples too.
 
captainshotgun said:
In most of those states it is hard to keep a deer from spoiling that has been shot
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In almost 30 years of deer hunting, I've only ever had one deer that was partially spoiled after I shot it. And that was because it never dropped below 50 degrees during the night. I had shot it the evening before and could not find it until the next morning.

Field dressing it and cooling it down will keep the meat from spoiling. If its warm out, you need to cool it down yourself somehow. 9 out of 10 times the weather during deer season in November is cold enough to allow that naturally. Occasionally its not though.
 
I hunted opening day of rifle season in KY when it was 92*. I have deer hunted Fl, MS, & AL, all when the high for day was in the upper 80’s. Early muzzleloading in KY or OH both come in a month before the regular gun seasons. It can be very hot. BTW, Fl, MS, AL, SC, & AR , all allow dogging.
 
Deer populations are more dispersed. You can find areas with deer and few birds, but rarely the opposite. If there is a bird population, you can bet deer are there too.

Farmers and their families seem to like to hunt deer, but I do not see many farmers and ranchers taking time to chase birds.

Captain - WI allows bear hunters to use dogs. Hounds that run in wolf country are often killed especially if they end up traversing through areas where the wolf pups are.

Texas had to ban remote hunting. Set up feeder, set up live (cellular) trail cam, deer walks in, remote fire rifle ... I guess call the hired hand to go get your deer.
 
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