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Better hunter?... Yes. More accurate? Possibly ... for two reasons:
#1. Could actually be more precision equipment.
#2. Self confidence and your shooting psyche. Might make the shooter better simply because he THINKS he's better. Unlocks his subconsciously imposed limitation.
When you take a rifle and put it in a sled and take 5 shots at a target at 800 yards and all shots are almost touching a shooter will most likely improve his discipline on the shooting technique that he knows so it might help a little on accuracy. If on really wants to improve accuracy learn and practice. Better hunter is very doubtfull. It might actually make some people a worse hunter. I can only wonder how many will think they can hunt out past their skill range and wound animals
 
I'd be willing to bet those nimrod's grew up shooting and hunting from a very young age.
I was hunting by myself when i was 10 years old. Walking in before daylight and walking out after dark squirrel hunting with a 20 ga single shot. I know 10 year old boys i wouldn't trust to go to the mailbox after dark. Heck i think it's against the law now might have been then. But everyone did it at least my buddys did. We went hunting in the morning played sandlot tackle foot after that, then went back hunting that evening. Then Church or visited the grandparents Sunday then back to school.
Reminded me ... of when I was growing up we used to haul our shotguns or 22's out into the Hackensack Meadowlands by slipping it down our hip boots or pants leg, under our armpits and covered with our coat. Like 2 or 3 Captain Ahabs stiff legging it down the street until we could reach the safety of the phragmites...lol Don't remember ever having the cops pull alongside questioning our intentions. If they did pass they must have been okay Joe's turning a blind eye because we must have looked pretty ridiculous. Cops back then weren't tied into loops by fearing lawyers and regulations.
190035


Which brings up another thought. The cops used to come down my hill 20, 30 times a day. Years later after I was married I was over the old homestead and suddenly I realized I only saw the cops twice. It dawned on me "WE" were triggering the 30 visits! They were trying to keep an eye on our shenanigans'. Either that or we were a lot more entertaining than the town kids in the rest of the town. The town kids called our hangout (which was my backyard since it was last property before the swamps) "The Funny Farm." Eventually just got shortened to "The Farm." You'd be in school and you'd hear "You going down the Farm?" Everyone knew, the portal to a different lifestyle than the townies lived...lol We were "The Farm Boys." In retrospect I think there was a degree of mystery and respect from everyone else; the tough guys, greasers, and jocks. Never thought about it back then.

Anyway ... a couple of the "big kids" in the neighborhood would cross the 200 yard wide, brackish water creek when it froze and buy a shotgun or .22 of some sort now and then at an "Army-Navy" store at the town on the other side. Afterward, when they tired of it they'd sell it to one of us. It would wind up getting passed around the neighborhood. Seems everything was 12ga by us. One particularly onerous shoulder canon was a 12ga single shot that everyone just called "The Stovepipe." "Who owns the Stovepipe now?" "Jimmy bought it from Ronnie." "Oh, does he want to sell it?" The design of the stock must have been terrible because even a kid with young eyes risked a detached retina when you dropped the hammer on that SOB. Eventually the thing rattled itself near to death. You'd fire it and it would disassemble itself ...lol The forend would pop off, barrel break open and you'd be standing there with parts in your hands.

We knew no "hunting season." We had some foggy code of ethics not to kill certain things like an owl or hawk, or believe it or not a goose. All my years growing up we saw ONE Canada Goose. It nested on a small island surrounded by narrow finger creeks, We used to periodically check it out like it was a tourist attraction or something. Everything else was a target of opportunity.

Then there was "rat hunting" at night by the end of the landfill. We called it "The Dumps." Or pigeon hunting under the bridges from a boat. But that's another story. ;)
 
Reminded me ... of when I was growing up we used to haul our shotguns or 22's out into the Hackensack Meadowlands by slipping it down our hip boots or pants leg, under our armpits and covered with our coat. Like 2 or 3 Captain Ahabs stiff legging it down the street until we could reach the safety of the phragmites...lol Don't remember ever having the cops pull alongside questioning our intentions. If they did pass they must have been okay Joe's turning a blind eye because we must have looked pretty ridiculous. Cops back then weren't tied into loops by fearing lawyers and regulations.
View attachment 190035

Which brings up another thought. The cops used to come down my hill 20, 30 times a day. Years later after I was married I was over the old homestead and suddenly I realized I only saw the cops twice. It dawned on me "WE" were triggering the 30 visits! They were trying to keep an eye on our shenanigans'. Either that or we were a lot more entertaining than the town kids in the rest of the town. The town kids called our hangout (which was my backyard since it was last property before the swamps) "The Funny Farm." Eventually just got shortened to "The Farm." You'd be in school and you'd hear "You going down the Farm?" Everyone knew, the portal to a different lifestyle than the townies lived...lol

Anyway ... a couple of the "big kids" in the neighborhood would cross the 200 yard wide, brackish water creek when it froze and buy a shotgun or .22 of some sort now and then at an "Army-Navy" store at the town on the other side. Afterward, when they tired of it they'd sell it to one of us. It would wind up getting passed around the neighborhood. Seems everything was 12ga by us. One particularly onerous shoulder canon was a 12ga single shot that everyone just called "The Stovepipe." "Who owns the Stovepipe now?" "Jimmy bought it from Ronnie." "Oh, does he want to sell it?" The design of the stock must have been terrible because even a kid with young eyes risked a detached retina when you dropped the hammer on that SOB. Eventually the thing rattled itself near to death. You'd fire it and it would disassemble itself ...lol The forend would pop off, barrel break open and you'd be standing their with parts in your hands.

We knew no "hunting season." We had some foggy code of ethics not to kill certain things like an owl or hawk, or believe it or not a goose. All my years growing up we saw ONE Canada Goose. It nested on a small island surrounded by narrow finger creeks, We used to periodically check it out like it was a tourist attraction or something. Everything else was a target of opportunity.

Then there was "rat hunting" at night by the end of the landfill. We called it "The Dumps." Or pigeon hunting under the bridges from a boat. But that's another story. ;)
Man I'd read this in book form. It reminds me of some books that we'd have read to us in gradeschool (that was basically just an autobiography of someone's childhood) that us kids (at the beginning of the touch-phone industry) found oddly interesting and relaxing somehow.
 
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As ... a better Hunter ... no it's not subjective. (See SEW's post #8)
Is the same soldier shooting a flintlock a better soldier than the one shooting an M1, or M16? Of course not. The bells and whistles are making him a better soldier. Same skills and "fieldmanship," just better equipment.

As for more accurate, yes & no ...lol. No, if we're assuming his new super-bow with quadruple duelies on it is in reality bringing no more precision to the table than his existing Excalibur recurve then it's objective reasoning.

Yes, if both old & new produce the same precision, but he thinks he's better and indeed does shoot better for subconscious reasons. That's subjective from shooter to shooter. (See Lanny Bassham philosophies)
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here in n. wi. in areas where baiting is legal all the money in the world spent on gear can't touch $6.50 for a bag of corn. sad, not very classy in my opinion.
 
here in n. wi. in areas where baiting is legal all the money in the world spent on gear can't touch $6.50 for a bag of corn. sad, not very classy in my opinion.
And here in GA I have never hunted over any form of bait unless you consider a food plot as bait and I only killed a few does off a food plot when it was raining over the years. By the time I was in my late teens I could identify just about every tree and food source in the woods that deer liked. We hunted back then and some of us still do it the old way but it is fast becoming a dead art form since they legalized baiting a few years back.
 
here in n. wi. in areas where baiting is legal all the money in the world spent on gear can't touch $6.50 for a bag of corn. sad, not very classy in my opinion.
Yeah ... but that's subjective too. In some places like Florida swamps and Texas mesquite you're not killing a thing if you can't pull them out. In deer management you HAVE to draw them away from places where the sensitive general public would be "traumatized" and if your objective is to reduce a herd it's infinitely more efficient than you going trying to find the targets. Then too, going through all the hard work and expense of planting food plots is in reality baiting. Is thinning out the woods at the hunting club to allow browse growth where there used to be a canopy in effect baiting? And is hunting out of a white oak waiting for deer to come in for their sweet white acorn heroin fix in reality baiting? Or hunting a corn field or bean field or stand of red oaks over a crop? Or hanging a scent rag?

Is a spread of decoys baiting? Or are robo-ducks flapping away drawing the line? It all gets a little grey if you look at it. I think you have to input exactly what the full circumstances are and be flexible when applying ethics. Spotting scopes and 10x binoculars on the sides of mountains for sheep, mule deer and elk is clear cut hunting. Spot & stalk is clear cut hunting. Bushwhacking deer on trails between food sources and beds is hunting.

So yeah, a corn pile and a fat guy in a tree is pretty clear...lol
190040
 
And here in GA I have never hunted over any form of bait unless you consider a food plot as bait and I only killed a few does off a food plot when it was raining over the years. By the time I was in my late teens I could identify just about every tree and food source in the woods that deer liked. We hunted back then and some of us still do it the old way but it is fast becoming a dead art form since they legalized baiting a few years back.
Still no baiting here in Tn.......

Makes bow hunting a challenge for some of us! I filled the freezer,but after rifle started. Deer were within bow range though, just had different weapon! Meat is meat......

I'm getting closer to them, finally!
 
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My bow is faster, straighter trajectory, quieter, more accurate than I can use, but it offers advantages my old bow couldn't. It can reliably shoot between limbs if need be, can make the margin of error less of a problem, but in my opinion will not be sufficient to increase effective range, simply because we are fallible, and unexpected breezes can throw arrow flight off just enough for a bad hit, or a complete miss.

Being a more effective killer with improved equipment doesn't make a better hunter, but a decent hunter with better equipement and the ethical ideals to not go crazy makes him/her a more responsible hunter, and reguardless of whether you can predict the path, time of day, direction of travel and sex of the net deer you kill, if you don't have the repect for the quarry, and react responsibly at the moment of truth, you are not a hunter. A hunter has the necesary skillset and state of mind to harvest as cleanly as he is capable of. A piece of equipement with lots of advantages will help a good hunter harvest deer, but you still need the whole package aside from the equipement to be considered a good hunter.

IMO the good hunter who exits the woods without a harvest because he did find the deer, but didn't get an ethical shot has graduated to great hunter.
 
Could you judge a hunter by what he kills how often he kills and how primitive of a weapon he uses.

Two hunters killed 150" bucks every year for 5 years. One used a 450fps latest greatest with a smart scope. The other used a bare bow with wooden arrows. Zero misses zero wonded deer. Who is the best hunter?

What if hunter one killed his on a average of two weeks per year. Hunter number two took two month's each year. To kill his. Does this change who was the better hunter?
I live in very rural, agricultural Arkansas. My son has a friend who grew up in a very wealthy family. FWIW, he‘s in his middle 30’s. He has a lodge on 1,500 acres of extremely well managed woods with interspersed food plots. They also own thousands of acres nearby. He vertical compound hunts and has a reputation of being highly ethical (strickly obeys game rules) . He usually has his limit of bucks (2) by the end of the first week of season (last week of September). Usually, they score in the high 160s” or larger.
IS HE A GOOD HUNTER? I think so.
How does he do it? He finds , then patterns, then kills them very early in the season. But how? Cellular cameras - many. Then he plots the sightings and times on his plot maps. This occurs all summer. In late September, they are still in their summer pattern.
So, does technology “make him a better hunter”? I don’t know, but he certainly is an effective and successful trophy hunter.
 
I live in very rural, agricultural Arkansas. My son has a friend who grew up in a very wealthy family. FWIW, he‘s in his middle 30’s. He has a lodge on 1,500 acres of extremely well managed woods with interspersed food plots. They also own thousands of acres nearby. He vertical compound hunts and has a reputation of being highly ethical (strickly obeys game rules) . He usually has his limit of bucks (2) by the end of the first week of season (last week of September). Usually, they score in the high 160s” or larger.
IS HE A GOOD HUNTER? I think so.
How does he do it? He finds , then patterns, then kills them very early in the season. But how? Cellular cameras - many. Then he plots the sightings and times on his plot maps. This occurs all summer. In late September, they are still in their summer pattern.
So, does technology “make him a better hunter”? I don’t know, but he certainly is an effective and successful trophy hunter.
There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of the tools and methods which are legally available to hunters. OThey are not all for me but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it.
It’s time that ALL hunters stand together or divided we will fall.
 
I live in very rural, agricultural Arkansas. My son has a friend who grew up in a very wealthy family. FWIW, he‘s in his middle 30’s. He has a lodge on 1,500 acres of extremely well managed woods with interspersed food plots. They also own thousands of acres nearby. He vertical compound hunts and has a reputation of being highly ethical (strickly obeys game rules) . He usually has his limit of bucks (2) by the end of the first week of season (last week of September). Usually, they score in the high 160s” or larger.
IS HE A GOOD HUNTER? I think so.
How does he do it? He finds , then patterns, then kills them very early in the season. But how? Cellular cameras - many. Then he plots the sightings and times on his plot maps. This occurs all summer. In late September, they are still in their summer pattern.
So, does technology “make him a better hunter”? I don’t know, but he certainly is an effective and successful trophy hunter.
One of my ... mantras in deer management programs is a speech I give all the participants every year: "gettem when they're young & dumb at the beginning of the season." It doesn't take long before the deer get smart. And it's not necessarily catching on to guys with the skills of Saxton Pope & Arthur Young. It's the less skillful hunters that will wise them up ... and it happens fast! Happens with fawns and happens with 160's. :)
 
My thoughts on game cameras. It does little maybe no good to just put a camera up somewhere. In order to be truly useful you need to put them where through scouting, deer say put one here. Back before cameras i had to go set there and watch now the same type of areas i can put up a camera, all they did was make it easier. Having these cameras done nothing to improve my scouting skills.

Just like the smart scopes, now i range the deer then turn the optimizer dial. They do the same thing its just they do it for me its easier. I still gotta pick the spot.

Even pouring out a bag of corn. I used to never ever hunt over any thing like that including plots. But as people around me more and more started feeding i had little choice but to join in. But i learned where and how to put out corn that older bucks will use. Location and even the trees you put it under matters. And theres times where you must put it where that old buck feels safe.Putting out corn didn't change the outcome it just made it easier.

I'll say till the end of time. Technology and baiting just makes it easier. It don't turn a pigs ear into a purse.
 
I live in very rural, agricultural Arkansas. My son has a friend who grew up in a very wealthy family. FWIW, he‘s in his middle 30’s. He has a lodge on 1,500 acres of extremely well managed woods with interspersed food plots. They also own thousands of acres nearby. He vertical compound hunts and has a reputation of being highly ethical (strickly obeys game rules) . He usually has his limit of bucks (2) by the end of the first week of season (last week of September). Usually, they score in the high 160s” or larger.
IS HE A GOOD HUNTER? I think so.
How does he do it? He finds , then patterns, then kills them very early in the season. But how? Cellular cameras - many. Then he plots the sightings and times on his plot maps. This occurs all summer. In late September, they are still in their summer pattern.
So, does technology “make him a better hunter”? I don’t know, but he certainly is an effective and successful trophy hunter.
Technology might not make him more successful but BAITING certainly can and as I understand, it's LEGAL in Arkansas. IMO, that's called shooting and not hunting.
The other thing that pisses me off about this is Walmart is headquartered in Arkansas. So guess what - visit any Walmart around the country and you'll see a large number of bags of corn for sale in their sporting goods departments before hunting season. In my state, baiting is illegal starting 30 days before archery season begins and remains illegal until all hunting seasons are over. Yet hunters haul that stuff out when they go in to get their hunting license. It's nothin but pure GREED.
 
A very small percentage of hunters take a large percentage of game. That being said, of that small group very few spend as much time with the tools of the trade as they do learning the areas that they hunt, the best times, wind direction and so on. Its much like training films the team watches before the sunday game. You focus more on how to get the game into position, rather then what you are going to kill it with. Bells, whistles and gadgets are fine but, only work to a certain degree if you can close the gap between you and the animal.
 
Baiting. With corn, other grain.
Things I’ve learned -
Ideally, drive an ATV/UTV in about noon. Spread it on the ground, not pile it, where they have to get each piece at a time.
Every or every other day. Not too much. Where it will be gone well before next feeding.
Do this on a schedule.
Start at least a week or two before hunting.
Have it near as dense of cover as possible.
Enter and exit on the vehicle the same way each time. I’ve actually had deer leave the corn pile when I drive up, run 10-20 yards into the woods and stand there an watch while I dump out the corn. As I drive away, I can see them back at the corn before I even get 50 yards away.
Use cameras so you’ll know what’s coming in and when.
Ideally have your blind, stand directly downwind from the feeding spot and well away from their likely entry path.
Enter your stand/blind at least 1 hour before the first time deer come to the corn (from camera pictures).
Ideally, have someone drop you off of the vehicle , just after feeding or approach the stand/blind from straight downwind from the stand and hopefully corn area.
Feed less than more so they’ll be more agressive.
Do not over hunt.
Best time for this - last week of the season. The big ones tend to come in very late. They may test your scope.
Granted, IMO, not very sporting but is how I kill about half of my highest scoring bucks. At least, I’m honest.
 
Yeah ... but that's subjective too. In some places like Florida swamps and Texas mesquite you're not killing a thing if you can't pull them out. In deer management you HAVE to draw them away from places where the sensitive general public would be "traumatized" and if your objective is to reduce a herd it's infinitely more efficient than you going trying to find the targets. Then too, going through all the hard work and expense of planting food plots is in reality baiting. Is thinning out the woods at the hunting club to allow browse growth where there used to be a canopy in effect baiting? And is hunting out of a white oak waiting for deer to come in for their sweet white acorn heroin fix in reality baiting? Or hunting a corn field or bean field or stand of red oaks over a crop? Or hanging a scent rag?

Is a spread of decoys baiting? Or are robo-ducks flapping away drawing the line? It all gets a little grey if you look at it. I think you have to input exactly what the full circumstances are and be flexible when applying ethics. Spotting scopes and 10x binoculars on the sides of mountains for sheep, mule deer and elk is clear cut hunting. Spot & stalk is clear cut hunting. Bushwhacking deer on trails between food sources and beds is hunting.

So yeah, a corn pile and a fat guy in a tree is pretty clear...lol
In Ontario Canada we're allowed to bait. I never baited because I simply thought it was illegal. But after more research I found that reading deer sign is much more effective than baiting anyways. Especially because baiting will on many occassions scare big bucks or make them nocturnal. Deer aren't bear, you can't bait them all in. Deer aren't turkey either, calls and decoys will rarely draw them in even during rut times. Nothing works better on deer than sitting in their feeding areas or main trails.
 
Baiting is just another way to hunt, nothing new here. For how many years do people climb into a apple tree? Hunt a patch of grape vines? Set up near a stand of oaks dropping acorns? Putting corn out can be expensive and a lot of work for what little return you get. Bigger animals go nocturnal after the first few days usually leaving dinks to come in to feed. If you study the camera action, deer start to pattern the hunters after a few feedings. Hunting travel routes leading to the feed site often times provide better shot opportunities in the late afternoons as the more mature animals will drag their feet till dark.
 
I see several posts saying new technology would make hunters worse, I have to disagree, a good hunter will be good no matter what tool they use. A good hunter will use better tools wisely. They will help him in a positive way because he wil use them to his advantage. But only tools that actually help, not marketing gimmicks.
 
I see several posts saying new technology would make hunters worse, I have to disagree, a good hunter will be good no matter what tool they use. A good hunter will use better tools wisely. They will help him in a positive way because he wil use them to his advantage. But only tools that actually help, not marketing gimmicks.
I was one to make that point. Rather I said it might make hunters worse.

With that distinction made, an analogy:

For the first 8 years that I was a road user I didn't own a car. I went everywhere by motorcycle.

During that time, the trick of casting a final glance over my shoulder before making a manoeuvre became ingrained reflex. It saved my bones, and my life on many occasions. I've since been driving a car too, and I continue to use that technique.

Hopefully this means that I have remained a safe road user despite the safety advantages of a car. I remain pretty aware of what's going on around me: front, back and sides, near and far.

What I don't have, though, is a car with parking sensors, proximity sensors, sleeping driver sensors, driver override features. The kinds of features that might let me think "I'll just quickly call X on the phone. No problem as the car will tell me if there's a hazard"

My point is that having all those sensors would make it far easier for me to lose my hard-earned defensive road-use skills as I become more and more dependent on the car to warn me of my mistakes or oversights, if not even correct them.

Likewise with better performing bows: if mistakes are more easily forgiven by a hunter's gear, it will be easier to let those mistakes creep in to a hunter's behaviour without realising it.
 
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