Originally Posted by Driveby
Originally Posted by cartervj
This brings up memory of my wife’s nephew wanting to come hunting with me. I’d guess 20 years ago and he was maybe 12-13. I asked him what he wanted to hunt. Duck hunting was tops. He’d been watching lots of hunting shows and that looked the most fun. Bear in mind this kid lived in south Florida and hadn’t even been around a gun. I asked about deer hunting and him saying well there’s nothing to that. You sit in a house wand watch a field, you shoot a deer. I took him duck hunting in the morning and deer hunting that next evening.

The next day we slept in and went squirrel hunting with dogs. That was his favorite type of hunting.

I think deer hunting is the most difficult IF one doesn’t sit a field while in a house. I’m not dissing that at all, it’s just not experiencing the world around you and listening for all the subtle clues. Figuring out the puzzle and so forth.


These days using all the technology kinda changes the expectations. I think that’s a bad thing. Used to look at the sign and try and figure out the bucks and how big etc… from the sign they’re making. Now put cell cam on it and get instant pics etc…. Then they get named and put on the save or the hit list. Now it lessons the wonderment of what is out there. I think that’s kinda where we’re at.
I think taking the mystery out kinda kills the zest or maybe that’s my older cynical self hating change. 🤷‍♂️

I guess where I’m going with this. I think there fewer hunters in the woods year after year
I think duck hunting now is the hardest on account of finding a place that has ducks that you can hunt. grin Man I miss the 90's, early 2000's.
Seriously though, I agree with everything you said.
I went back deer hunting old school this season in Alabama. No corn, no cameras and no plots. I killed my 2 does the first trip of the season. One in a clear cut(my favorite way to hunt) and one in a hardwood creek bottom full of acorns. I continued to hunt this way and saw way more deer than I ever did over a corn pile or plot. Saw many different decent bucks but never pulled the trigger. With the does and the 10pt I killed at home I didn’t NEED to kill another deer. However if what I was looking for walked out I would have shot at it. I stayed strong and never lowered my standards and for the 2nd year in a row I didn’t kill a buck in Alabama. Do I consider that a failure, HECK NO!!! I set out on a mission and I completed it. I could have easily limited on racked bucks but I’m not going to shoot a buck just to say I shot a buck. Some of the other guys thought I was plum crazy but I’m perfectly content with my season.
Now as far as duck hunting!! It has become a game here for the rich man that has no common sense at all. I sit back and watch this circus they now call duck hunting and just scratch my head. It’s unbelievable what it has become.


It's hard to kiss the lips at night that chews your a$$ all day long.