Is the hunting industry selling us garbage?

[Bowsnbucks]

It will only ruin hunting if you let it. I hunt on my land and don’t worry about it. Nothing changes unless you let it get to you.

What direct impact does it have on you?

It doesn't ruin hunting for me directly - our camp owns several hundred acres - but the statement by the Wensel brothers was about hunting in general, in many locations around the whitetail's range. When companies or wealthy individuals buy up larger acreages, then fence it to provide "pay-to-hunt" for profit - I think that's where the HONOR of fair chase, free-range whitetail hunting is lost. Respect for the deer is lost to some degree because they become a means to money - a pawn on the game-board of profit-making. If making a profit isn't the driving force .... why the fence?? JMO.

 

[bwoods11]

I respect the Wensel Brothers. They hunt in Iowa near my old farm . They chose to hunt in an area with amazing habitat and big bucks… after moving from Montana .

They make a good point. My point is do what you can do for your own situation, your own family.

Do it now, if you can. Make sure your kids and grand kids have a place to hunt!

 

[bjseiler]

If we are talking about the hunting industry and garbage.....especially if they are listening.....can we just go ahead and ban Velcro as a material? Like, never use it in any hunting application. Ever. Coats, gloves, bags, popup blinds.... I mean seriously, who thinks it is smart to have velcro as part of a ground blind?

 

[willy]

Steve B's google earth consultation was a great product for me. I got the deal from him when he offered it for 250 or 500 on this site. What he ultimately did for me was to confirm the plans I wanted to do. My wife wouldn't agree to the projects for fear of me ruining our property for deer and for wasting money on some larger projects that wouldn't pay off. I didn't tell him what I had planned until he had laid out his. It was very similar in design. His plan had my ideas in them and with an "expert" saying they'd be good projects to do, she signed off on them. All the ideas I had came from this site, the old forum, and another similar to this one. Perhaps you don't have a spouse that occasionally acts that way but it was money well spent. :)

It was mentioned by someone that Steve B espoused doe factories were bad. That was Jeff Sturgis, he and Steve B have some opposing viewpoints. Steve B recommends having good doe populations for buck attractions but not to the amount that impact habitat.

Another product I use it regular doe pee on my boot pads when I walk in to a stand if it's one I have to cross where deer will be crossing as well. I haven't seen a negative to its use. I don't use it for an attractant like I think many do.

The can was a product that sucked me in. Never saw a reaction or attraction by any deer the times I used it, wife had the same results. They are in a landfill now.

Like was said early in this thread, some products are a good fit for some and the others not so much.

 

[PatinPA]

If we are talking about the hunting industry and garbage.....especially if they are listening.....can we just go ahead and ban Velcro as a material? Like, never use it in any hunting application. Ever. Coats, gloves, bags, popup blinds.... I mean seriously, who thinks it is smart to have velcro as part of a ground blind?

Or loud zippers on the doorways of ground blinds.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

The can was a product that sucked me in. Never saw a reaction or attraction by any deer the times I used it, wife had the same results.

The can - I had a couple good results with deer running in like I was handing out molasses-covered corn. But most times - it did nothing. I've mouth-bleated and had better results in total numbers of successes. I still carry one, if for no other reason than to stop a moving deer. But I don't depend on the can for an attractant.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I've been debating on getting a new bow. I currently have an old Hoyt Maxxis 35. It's probably about 9 or 10 years old now. I was looking at new bows the other day. I doubt I would buy a top of the line model, but is a mid range bow ($600-$1000) that much better than what I currently have? I'm basically a casual archer at this point. I used to shoot competitively as an amateur. My daughter and son are getting interested in shooting though so we might collectively get back into it a bit more.

Pretty easy to buy a 2 or 3 year old flagship bow on archery talk for $600-700. Resale on bows is garbage so unless you just have to have the newest/hottest in some custom configuration, the used market is the place to be! I'd rather do that then buy a new mid price bow. They'll all kill what you point em at though!

Edit to add- try shooting a pse bow with evolve cams at a bow shop. Crazy smooth/easy drawing.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I'm so glad you didn't attack my Cornholer - this is the key to all of my success....

I have found the holy grail......

bill

 

[Native Hunter]

I have found the holy grail......

billView attachment 41383

I’m jealous.

 

[spaniel]

I agree with you mostly, except you clearly don't have much experience with Cuddelink. Sometimes I'm disappointed in being able to judge a buck off a pic, but it's the exception. Owning a hunting property 80 miles from home it's pure gold, and provides security surveillance around my cabin to boot.

 

[MadMadHoosier]

I agree with you mostly, except you clearly don't have much experience with Cuddelink. Sometimes I'm disappointed in being able to judge a buck off a pic, but it's the exception. Owning a hunting property 80 miles from home it's pure gold, and provides security surveillance around my cabin to boot.

Owning hunting property 800 miles from your home makes CuddeLink platinum?

 

[yoderjac]

Owning hunting property 800 miles from your home makes CuddeLink platinum?

At the best, you get what you pay for, often less than that, and with many products in this thread, much less than you pay for. With game cams, as with many products, matching the product to the application is key. I don't have a cuddelink yet, but I may in the future. I don't have one because it doesn't match my application. I ended up with a much more reliable and functional system but paid a lot more for it. It is now very old technology but filling the need after many years. I'm using my system to collect data for QDM management decisions. I don't want data gaps that you get from less reliable systems when cams go down and have short life spans. I don't want to be wondering if trending is due to the deer or camera failures. I need full resolution pictures sent back from the camera, not thumbnails like cuddelink does.

Having said that, I'm probably in the smaller group of how folks use game cameras. For many, it is simply to see what is other there and perhaps pattern deer. The cheap cuddelink may be a good fit for the price. For them, reliability is not a big issue. Lifespan is a cost question and, as I don't have a cuddelink yet, I can't speak to that (others can). It is not a big deal if a camera goes down for a while, and they can get too it when they do. Of course, the further you live from your property, the bigger issue reliability might be.

Cuddelink is far from a platinum class system, but it is cheap. I purchased a small retirement property (only about 16 acres unlike our 400 acre tree farm where I hunt). I don't need mile long transmission distances or 24/7/365 operation or full resolution pictures transmitted. It is more of a "see what's there" type application, and I'm considering cuddelink for it.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Spike_Horn_Shooter]

I’ve got to come clean. I’ve probably bought every hunting gadget known to man. Scents, calls, ozone, gum, sprays, camo, decoys, ghost blinds, saddles - don’t even get me started on saddles.

I hunted in the mountains for 7 years after I got out of the USMC, before I shot my first deer. Since then I realized it’s just more productive and fun to hunt where there are more deer. You have to have interactions with deer to become a better hunter - end of story.

Walking around in the big north woods, you might get to be a better walker - I don’t know if you get to be a better deer hunter. Edit: If you’re like Larry, Lanny, Slammer, Shane Benoit and you take all over Nov off to chase deer - you are going to learn something.

I’ve came to the conclusion that you can’t beat a deers nose and if you just sit still what your wearing doesn’t matter.

Best investments so far:

$100 a OnX or similar mapping software.
(I spent an entire season just finding spots on the map that looked good the night before based on the next days wind direction - I’d walk into those spots in the dark having never been there before and find a spot to sit on the ground. I got onto so many good deer that way. Actually most of the deer I shot - I have never even touched foot in that exact location. There is something special about the first sit. Now I am mentoring a couple friends on how to do this - not really scary just intimidating the first 25 times in the swamp.

$200: Kayak - I’ve killed a couple does and got onto a fair number of bucks using a Kayak. They are worth the money. One thing it taught me - ACCESS IS EVERYTHING. I will say it again because it is so important. ACCESS IS EVERYTHING. Find a spot where you can get in undetected. If a deer has to walk all over where you walked, for you to see/kill it - or you’re blowing your scent everywhere he is your chances go way down. Most of the badass YouTube hunters preach something similar. It’s why Winke slept in the woods for a month to kill a buck. Why Sturgis says don’t blow your scent into a food plot. It’s why I will park at a public hunting across and walk down the road to the property line and walk in from there.

I do share a lot of disgust about the big name hunters too. I tell my son - I could kill a tiger too, if I was hunting in the zoo. A lot of them that preach big time public - are on private leases with a big time corn pile under their stand.