To piggyback on the last thread "What motivates you?"
What killed it for you?
For me it was my dad getting sick about 3 years ago. He passed just almost 2 years ago.
Toss in a dislocated knee and other med problems. I haven't seen the woods in over 3 years.
Never missed a year since I was 10 (I am 37) until then. I just lost it.
I'd rather be fishing.
Like a few others have said. I gun hunt for the simple fact it is tradition to go. One of these years I will give it up. I hunt private property and don't deal with all the public land crap but it has really changed. I love (not) hearing the first shots when it is so black out I need a flash light to see in the stand. Gun hunting just seems like a rat race. probably personal stress that I place on myself but sure is not relaxing like bow hunting. The brown is down philosophy killed it for me and that is more of a gun hunt thing in my area. I will go sit all day of gun opener and bring some good food and watch the deer. Got a doe and buck with bow don't need to kill anymore. My daughter will hunting so maybe I can just gut and drag her deer.
Skunky
That dont just happen on public. Last year I sit 75 yards in my woods off property line. 5 minutes after legal shooting time see a light in neighboring woods making all kinds of noise. Here comes a herd of deer my way. Those clowns moved all day, but at least the deer were coming my way.
I don't waste my time gun hunting in Wisconsin.
People in general have become so much less respectful of others. I try to bow hunt a bit but have to sneak to my stand so the ahole neighbor with many acres of deadend road landlocked land doesn't spend his time driving up and down the line to make sure I don't shoot one of"his" deer.
I travel to Ontario as I'm able to hunt deer and love every minute of it. No bait piles. No hunting pressure. Just you,the weather and the wolves. I can shoot the wolves legally if I choose.
Jared/Badger
Both great points!
Badger, Keep it up, memories are more special when you only tell a few. Those few recognize that. Being someone others can trust is worth more than being known as a bragger.
Jared, sorry to hear about your buck, regardless of what it was, it was special to you. Lot's of scumbags in this world.
I love the "public" land mindset. "I see a stand i'm stealing it, it doesn't belong there." I love the public land police. When I see a stand, I go somewhere else, like a normal person should do.
Long Barrels very good points. I've found social media and the internet in general has created a culture of competition for everything, hunting included but not just hunting. Look at any outdoors facebook group and you see nothing but people putting "brag" pictures up, even in response to posts completely unrelated to posting pictures. People need social approval. At one point, i felt that way too. I'd shoot a deer and want it on facebook asap. A few years ago, I felt myself getting stressed about hunting. Getting stressed about why I did it. I made a conscious effort that any kill I made that year was not getting posted on Facebook or message boards. It was tough initially, but once I did it I found how much better I enjoyed hunting without the need for outside approval. A few years since then, I have no feelings of competitiveness anymore. I still have issues that bother me about hunting, mainly related to land access and other hunters like I mentioned earlier in this post, but the "need" to shoot something isn't the same anymore. I share this story every so often because I think a lot of people could try this as it did make hunting a lot more enjoyable for me and I think many almost need to try this to see how much better they enjoy hunting.
.Long,
I used to hunt county land. Not very pressured (used to be). But then of course you get groups of 20 guys driving Saturday/Sunday. Most of them are nice, but the gun handling and what not turned me off. 50lb bags of corn, sitting same general area and they come back 45 minutes after we get back, etc, etc.
I was alone one day, bow hunting, camped in the woods. Shot a buck. It was an adult deer with polished horns, but not much. I went out to eat, came back, deer was cut off the cart and dragged to the road (there was snow), gone.
Also have had camo and other stuff stolen.
Really makes it difficult to get into it when you constantly have to be watching and lock everything up. It's just not fun at that point.
what kills it for me is the Wisconsin mentality, catch it all, kill it all and beat that dead horse.
The resources in this state are amazing and could be even better if people didn't just kill anything and everything and thought more about conservation rather than bragging about another limit of fish or deer they don't need.
I wish more people would stop with the chest bumping and put down the rifles. Shooting a deer with a gun is not a big feat, lets stop acting like it is and go back to what hunting is supposed to be. Shoot what you need, feed your family. I hate how people go out and drive huge plots of land pushing deer around to simply pull a trigger. That's what killed it for me. I don't gun hunt, I no longer want to be associated with that crap. it's been 15 years and counting.
Since everyone seems to get their feelings hurt...I need to put the disclaimer " NOT EVERYONE has this mentality".
All the dudes at my work do. They all can't wait to just " Rip chit up" . wow, that's sounds awesome, is that what you call the Wi Gun Season now???
While my frustrations have continued to grow year after year, I still challenge myself to go out and enjoy nature. As far as harvesting a deer, my expectations have changed quite dramatically. While I am blessed to have a small parcel to hunt that I live on, it is to the point that the private around it gets hit harder than the public. Most are smaller parcels and every one of them gets hunted. This has really taken a toll on the deer herd. The rut is a bit better of course, but since most of the bucks get hammered by the time they are 1.5 years old, very little age structure exists in the herd. I've made it a point to go out and explore more public which has also helped keep my interest going.
Gun hunting is a joke and not tolerable beyond opening morning for me. Several of the neighbors homes have been shot and I've had bullets fly by me as well. My only hope, selfishly...I guess, is that more people around show less interest in the area due to lack of deer and things go back to being better before starting the cycle all over again.
I was a public land hunter up until 20 years ago. I somehow convinced the wife we needed to have our own land after being almost shot twice. We couldn’t afford it but ended up buying 40 acres is Price cty. For a reasonable price. And another 40 acres 5 years later that was adjacent to it. It was select cut 5 years prior to our purchase. It was great. Seen deer every sit. Shot 2 p&y off of it in the 1st 3 years. My son shot his first buck with a bow at 12 years old. After the first 10 years it started going downhill. We started seeing very few deer for multiple years in a row. Maybe from all the doe tags given out at the time, who knows. But it was frustrating so we put the land up for sale. That’s when the big stock market crash was so there was very little interest. It didn’t sell so we decide to make changes to the land 5 years ago. After a lot of reading and research we started to strategically cut down trees to open up the forest canopy to promote undergrowth, we rented a bulldozer for a week and made 6 different food plots. The first couple years were still pretty slow and we thought all the hard work and time was for nothing, almost killing it for me again. Now the last 2 years its been fantastic again. Its like the deer needed a few years to get used to the changes or they needed to grow up on the land so its all they ever knew. So it went from great to bad and killing it for me to great again. Just needed to put in a lot of time & effort to make it happen
Being cold, being uncomfortable, inconsiderate people, every time I find a good spot it’s over run the next year with people. Prime example, I found a nice island of trees out in a swamp last year. 2 1/2 mile walk. Saw couple nice bucks but couldn’t get a shot. This year some butthole had a marked trail going to the island.
I want to try hunting out west next year but am planning on a job switch and move so not sure how that’ll work. Stand hunting is just too boring and other forms of hunting don’t interest me much. I’d rather be chasing musky or even just out for a hike. I’m hoping I can convince my buddy to head to MN or somewhere Black Friday to ice fish instead of gun hunting.
Nothing has killed it for me yet. When it come to gun hunting I am almost dead though. I hunt 100% public land in Dodge, Fon Du Lac , Washington co public land. Very very hard hunting on public but it is all I have . This year I was so down on bow hunting I only went 4 times so far. I mostly bow hunt these counties cause gun is insane form what I am told cause I am in Price and Sawyer co. gun hunting and am just about done with northern Wisconsin. I promised myself last year that this is the last year. My son however seems more upbeat this year. We are heading up tomorrow and am not expecting anything but a bunch of work that needs to be done. A grouse would be nice and we might try for a musky, but deer hunting? Not sure I should even bring my bow. The neighbors like always will be baiting the ccrappp out of the area and running ATV's all over the public land so that turns the experience sour. I see so few deer but I like the solitude but there is little solitude when guns are going off, their dog barks all day , and they run the ATV's up n down the road for some reason I dont know. I have come to hate my place in Price co. I dont even want it anymore but my son really does not want me to sell it. There , he had some of his first recollections in life, looking out the window at deer and a few fox and squirrels. Caught fish there too but I have only been there 4 times so far this year and once it was just to cut the grass. My son was there once this year and we caught some small smallmouth but have not kept a fish from that river in 2 years. There is so little up there I call it the ecological desert. We will likely walk a few miles again this year and check the cams just to find a few rubs and 1 or maybe 2 bucks on the cam, along with a bunch of coyotes and a few bear. This is why I am about to call it quits. I see a few more deer on public down here but still not real good. I see a deer sighting about 1in 4 sits. Terrible but at least I am only 3 to 12 miles from my home.
