[quote=CNC]When I was teenager I used to sit around and read every deer hunting magazine that was on the shelf…..It actually got to the point that by the time I was in my mid twenties I pretty much just stopped because every article I read seemed like some repeat or regurgitation of something I read 5 years earlier……(I guess my hypocrisy here knows no bounds)

Back then I took it all as the gospel and there was indeed a lot of quality information in all of it that I gained a lot of knowledge from……As I’ve gotten older though I’ve learned to take it all with a grain of salt. It’s funny looking back because I can remember when a lot of my perceptions of things began to change years ago. I had just gotten to know some of my Macon Co “neighbors” and they asked me if I wanted to take some pics for a magazine article ….be the hunter in the pic……I said “Heck yeah!!!”…..Getting to be in the deer hunting mags that I had read for so many years was really cool. However, during the process as we laid the buck down in the best looking row of corn stalks turned just right to the setting sun I realized……”Hey, wait a minute…….All of these pictures are just staged!!!!!”… ……It actually felt like a real “well duh” moment when I thought more about it……

But the bigger idea that I came to realize through all my experiences with the people I’ve met and things I've learned is that much of everything is just personal opinion even amongst the pros and how this person or that person "presents the picture". Doing things this way or that way or what we think we currently know is an ever evolving idea and many of the opinions we pass around are just regurgitating what someone heard repeated at deer camp or read in a magazine, etc. Sometimes though I think you need to allow yourself to forget everything you’ve been “taught” and just open your eyes and mind to what you see before you. Use the common sense God gave you to form your own opinions that are free of so much bias from outside opinions.

Case in point……I cant tell you how many times I’ve read it and heard it repeated that beautyberry is a great deer browse species…..……Now I’ve seen the deer browse a chitload of different plants and yet I cant ever recall seeing beautyberry being browsed at any stage. I’m sure someone has seen it but to me its just about running neck in neck with dog fennel for the least browsed. Are people actually seeing it being browsed or just repeating the tag line??? On the flip side of that though……how many times have you ever read or heard someone talking about Florida pusley being a highly preferred or top 5 browse specie??? Yet from what I see with my eyes it gets hammered this time of year……You cant find a patch that hasn’t been heavily browsed…..Sometimes you gotta open up your mind to what you see instead of what folks tell you to see…… …….Think fer yourself and have some perspective….. Hell, I might not be worth a damn at hunting and that might not even be my deer in the pic……