I must be bored today to start this, but it's a gloomy day outside and I don't have an indoor project going, so I will ask about something I've been thinking about.

Back when I was really interested in deer hunting, I did a lot of scouting in the weeks between the first week of the season and the rut. I would obviously look for scrapes and rubs, but also just looked for a big track. Some of the most enjoyable hunts I've ever had involved finding sign from a big buck, figuring out the best place to hunt him, and then setting up on him and actually killing him. Usually, I had no idea what his rack was like until I killed him, and it really didn't make a whole lot of difference. The challenge was to find a deer to hunt and then killing him; whether he turned out to be a 6 point or a 10 point had nothing to do with the enjoyment of the hunt. And most of the time the deer won and I never even saw him.

I have friends now who belong to big clubs and they don't hunt this way. They run a line of cameras until they find a deer that has the type of antlers that they want and then hunt that deer. I have one friend that has killed several really nice bucks by hunting this way.

I will probably make some folks mad just by bringing up the subject, but I really don't wanna criticize anyone at all. It's legal to hunt this way and I would do it too if I really wanted to kill a deer. Still, I can't help but feel like this method of hunting is taking something away from the sport. If this is the way people grow up hunting, they will likely never develop the ability to read sign. It also seems somewhat unfair to the deer to use technology to this level to hunt him. I'm not saying it should be illegal, just wondering if I'm the only person on here who has ever thought about this? I've never seen it mentioned anywhere.

I also think hunting with cameras causes hunters to put too much emphasis on antlers. If you hunt the old way, it becomes more about the hunt and the size of his antlers doesn't make as much difference to the hunter. When all the emphasis is on finding the perfect rack, and you feel bad about shooting a mature buck that has less than perfect antlers, I think that is bad for the sport. I think it could lead to some giving up deer hunting because they can't kill a buck like they see on television.

There is no putting this toothpaste back into the tube, but I think game cameras have done more bad than good for deer hunting. Am I the only believes this?