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Hunting Etiquette

I carry an M&P 10mm when bowhunting because I get bears once in a while.
I get that, and although carrying a pistol while archery hunting is permitted in Texas, game wardens aren’t known for their appreciation of nuance with regard to the law.

I asked TPWD about the legality of using a weapon-light equipped rifle for deer hunting during legal shooting hours. I was advised that it was permissible, though not advised because it would effectively be on me to prove that a harvested deer was not spot-lit.

I’ve also heard of game wardens measuring entrance wounds in an attempt to prove that an impermissible weapon was used- even though the hunter was stopped in possession of only “legal means of taking.”
 
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I get that, and although carrying a pistol while archery hunting is permitted in Texas, game wardens aren’t known for their appreciation of nuance with regard to the law.

I asked TPWD about the legality of using a weapon-light equipped rifle for deer hunting during legal shooting hours. I was advised that it was permissible, though not advised because it would effectively be on me to prove that a harvested deer was not spot-lit.

I’ve also heard of game wardens measuring entrance wounds in an attempt to prove that an impermissible weapon was used- even though the hunter was stopped in possession of only “legal means of taking.”
Yeah, fish/deer cops can be a real PIA, but carrying a pistol while bowhunting is specifically spelled out in the hunting regs here.
 
I carry an M&P 10mm when bowhunting because I get bears once in a while.
I carry an M&P 9 mm at all times. At work, in the store, and all points in between, as well as when hunting.

In fact, I wear a backpack when hunting and because of the waist belt, I put on a drop holster for my 9 mm. Good for snakes with no legs, or 2 legs, as well.
 
The only reason I'd need a pain reliever is to help with the intense headache I get when trying to think down to some of your intellectual levels.
You deserve this, in your own special way. In advance, you are welcome. Full disclosure, I have Billy Madison'd my own damn self a few times.

 
I carry an M&P 9 mm at all times. At work, in the store, and all points in between, as well as when hunting.

In fact, I wear a backpack when hunting and because of the waist belt, I put on a drop holster for my 9 mm. Good for snakes with no legs, or 2 legs, as well.
Snakes aren't a problem, but I'd hate to run into one of these guys in the dark!

PTTFxfv.png
 
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I used to think similarly. That all changed when I actually headed to the southeast to hunt whitetails, which is predominantly stand hunting. Its true thats its not as much of a physical hunt as I have done out west my whole life. Throwing a stand up willy nilly in the woods may be waiting. Putting boots on the ground and doing all the walking to find the sign and pick the spot within the spot to make a stand for a great encounter is a big part of the hunt. Getting into the spot clean and then having your mind right to stick it out is a real challenge, especially for a guy who spent his life pounding miles to find the critters. Am I in the right spot, should I move, did I bump em coming in??? Its a mind fuck and a whole different world from western hunting and if you dont know you dont know. I have enjoyed trying to figure it out and in some ways its been a lot tougher to find success in the tight piney woods of the deep south for high pressure mature skittish ass whitetail bucks than pounding miles to find a big bull or mulie. I haven't done much midwest whitetail hunting but those bucks in the deep south are smarter and WAY more alert and in tune than anything Ive ever hunted out west.

Okay well...that's one man's opinion. I'm a ground-pounder. Spot & stalk is real hunting...tree-squatting is not the pursuit of game, it's archers trying to stay awake long enough to ambush a critter while playing video games and watching porn on a cell phone. I've spent time in a stand watching critters (including WT) come and go and found it is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE STALKING CLOSE TO A HERD OF ANIMALS. Your blood gets pumping as you are hyper-alert in an effort to beat dozens of eyes, ears and noses. At ground level everything is against you and even if and when you do everything exactly right, a momentary swirl of wind can blow your day. Moreover, hunting is the pursuit of game which means you are moving and the harder your push yourself, the better the experience. Sitting on your butt...

IMG_2273.JPG IMG_2274.JPG IMG_2286.JPG

...can't begin to compare to burning boot leather. The challenge is a million times greater.

MOOSEMANcrop.jpg screen.jpg snapshot sling.png BOWBISONVICTORY.jpg MOOSE2.jpg elkgrin.jpg 700lb boar.jpg P1020135.jpg

Sure...you can spend a day selecting, grooming and hanging a stand but after that you just sit, often bored to death. When you hike over ten miles a day in varying conditions and terrain, you are earning the memory. Then if you do connect, there's the packing out of quarters after a gutless field dressing sometimes into the night with predators around. No comparison. Sorry...we gotta agree to disagree.
 
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Bow season can be spooky as fuck, walking to a blind, pitch dark, coyote howls coming from all sides, and all you have in your hands is a pointy stick and a string…
I shoulder shot a squirrel at 65 yards(lucky as fuck😆), and I shoot minnows instinctively for fun(practice). I think I’d be okay.

If you can shoot a swimming minnow, you can shoot any other fish….or yote
 
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Okay well...that's one man's opinion. I'm a ground-pounder. Spot & stalk is real hunting...tree-squatting is not the pursuit of game, it's archers trying to stay awake long enough to ambush a critter while playing video games and watching porn on a cell phone. I've spent time in a stand watching critters (including WT) come and go and found it is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE STALKING CLOSE TO A HERD OF ANIMALS. Your blood gets pumping as you are hyper-alert in an effort to beat dozens of eyes, ears and noses. At ground level everything is against you and even if and when you do everything exactly right, a momentary swirl of wind can blow your day. Moreover, hunting is the pursuit of game which means you are moving and the harder your push yourself, the better the experience. Sitting on your butt...

View attachment 8561078 View attachment 8561079 View attachment 8561100

...can't begin to compare to burning boot leather. The challenge is a million times greater.

View attachment 8561088 View attachment 8561089 View attachment 8561090 View attachment 8561092 View attachment 8561093 View attachment 8561095 View attachment 8561096 View attachment 8561097

Sure...you can spend a day selecting, grooming and hanging a stand but after that you just sit, often bored to death. When you hike over ten miles a day in varying conditions and terrain, you are earning the memory. Then if you do connect, there's the packing out of quarters after a gutless field dressing sometimes into the night with predators around. No comparison. Sorry...we gotta agree to disagree.
Too funny. Hiking 10 miles a day around a 40 acre plot of land stalking a herd of whitetails in hardwood with a bow.
 
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Too funny. Hiking 10 miles a day around a 40 acre plot of land stalking a herd of whitetails in hardwood with a bow.
I trmeber walking with my wife when step bets were all the rage. She was doing 20k per day which was 8-10 miles. She only wanted to walk around town and it didn't take here long to realise this town isn't very big and you walk 8 miles per day you're crossing your own tracks a lot. 🤣🤣

I would call walking 10 miles per day hunting here an indictment of Colorado parks and wildlife and how much they have negatively effected land access. Granted everybody also used to pretty let anyone hunt their land. And who can blame them, when you have a bunch of 1k dollar cows and some 20k or 30k bucks and bulls running around. It used to be about putting some cheap meat in the freezer. Not a lot of that anymore.
 
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Okay well...that's one man's opinion. I'm a ground-pounder. Spot & stalk is real hunting...tree-squatting is not the pursuit of game, it's archers trying to stay awake long enough to ambush a critter while playing video games and watching porn on a cell phone. I've spent time in a stand watching critters (including WT) come and go and found it is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE STALKING CLOSE TO A HERD OF ANIMALS. Your blood gets pumping as you are hyper-alert in an effort to beat dozens of eyes, ears and noses. At ground level everything is against you and even if and when you do everything exactly right, a momentary swirl of wind can blow your day. Moreover, hunting is the pursuit of game which means you are moving and the harder your push yourself, the better the experience. Sitting on your butt...

View attachment 8561078 View attachment 8561079 View attachment 8561100

...can't begin to compare to burning boot leather. The challenge is a million times greater.

View attachment 8561088 View attachment 8561089 View attachment 8561090 View attachment 8561092 View attachment 8561093 View attachment 8561095 View attachment 8561096 View attachment 8561097

Sure...you can spend a day selecting, grooming and hanging a stand but after that you just sit, often bored to death. When you hike over ten miles a day in varying conditions and terrain, you are earning the memory. Then if you do connect, there's the packing out of quarters after a gutless field dressing sometimes into the night with predators around. No comparison. Sorry...we gotta agree to disagree.
LOL. Like I said, if you dont know, then you dont know. And you....dont know.
 
Denial is not just a river and you can fool yourselves into thinking tree-squatting is just like spot & stalk all you like but those who have done both know better...or should. Heck, there are even guys doing spot & stalk in dry, leaf covered areas where locals claim you cannot hunt successfully except in a treestand. But some guys mastered the art of mimicking the cadence of deer, still hunt and use the sound of short movements to attract bucks to them ON THE GROUND. So feel free to pull up a chair and wait to ambush a critter but don't think you're doing anything particularly difficult or challenging. You're drinking coffee and trying to stay awake. Real hunting requires your phone to be turned off.

MOOSECOUNTRY.jpg
 
Okay well...that's one man's opinion. I'm a ground-pounder. Spot & stalk is real hunting...tree-squatting is not the pursuit of game, it's archers trying to stay awake long enough to ambush a critter while playing video games and watching porn on a cell phone. I've spent time in a stand watching critters (including WT) come and go and found it is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE STALKING CLOSE TO A HERD OF ANIMALS. Your blood gets pumping as you are hyper-alert in an effort to beat dozens of eyes, ears and noses. At ground level everything is against you and even if and when you do everything exactly right, a momentary swirl of wind can blow your day. Moreover, hunting is the pursuit of game which means you are moving and the harder your push yourself, the better the experience. Sitting on your butt...

View attachment 8561078 View attachment 8561079 View attachment 8561100

...can't begin to compare to burning boot leather. The challenge is a million times greater.

View attachment 8561088 View attachment 8561089 View attachment 8561090 View attachment 8561092 View attachment 8561093 View attachment 8561095 View attachment 8561096 View attachment 8561097

Sure...you can spend a day selecting, grooming and hanging a stand but after that you just sit, often bored to death. When you hike over ten miles a day in varying conditions and terrain, you are earning the memory. Then if you do connect, there's the packing out of quarters after a gutless field dressing sometimes into the night with predators around. No comparison. Sorry...we gotta agree to disagree.


Tell us more about how great you are.

I’m spellbound.





P
 
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I grew up out west and love that type of hunting.

I live in Georgia now. There is nobody walking around spot and stalk, hoping to shoot a white tail. It would first of all be unsuccessful, and second of all would get you shot.

I spent seven days in Oregon in the National Forest and saw only one other hunter.

It is not like that here. In Georgia, even the National Forest and other public land are jammed full of hunters, many of whom will shoot at a noise or a glimpse of something white, sometimes hikers or others who are not even hunting but had the misfortune of being on a trail that came too close to where a hunter was.
 
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A lot is terrain driven. Hardwoods here or terrain out west and I'm on the ground pounding. Bean fields and farms here in the SE you will see nothing stalking around but beans and briars. You have to get elevated to see and shoot in and over crops. You see a nice buck for many times just seconds and have to decide if it's a shooter, yardage and dope and make the shot. There is no sleeping, phone or daydreaming hunting bean fields 3-500 yards across that are belly height in crops with stuff so thick around the fields you can't walk through or see through. You come here and stalk our big bean fields and you will be in a blind shortly or just be enjoying a walk around field edges with visibility of 15 yards. It's all hunting and seeing one man's hunting through only your experiences somewhere else is short sighted. Techniques are driven by prior success and technique is dictated by your locale. I'll bet I offshore fish completely different than you fish mountain streams or ponds....it's still all fishing.
 
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Denial is not just a river and you can fool yourselves into thinking tree-squatting is just like spot & stalk all you like but those who have done both know better...or should. Heck, there are even guys doing spot & stalk in dry, leaf covered areas where locals claim you cannot hunt successfully except in a treestand. But some guys mastered the art of mimicking the cadence of deer, still hunt and use the sound of short movements to attract bucks to them ON THE GROUND. So feel free to pull up a chair and wait to ambush a critter but don't think you're doing anything particularly difficult or challenging. You're drinking coffee and trying to stay awake. Real hunting requires your phone to be turned off.

View attachment 8561253
LOL, LOL. So you read my original post or not?
 
That area is otc......hence the lack of description. I've posted enough info over the years that it wouldn't be hard to figure out. And.......if a person gets there....we'd probably be friends.
IME OTC zones in kali are overrun by honda civics with 14 hmong dudes wearing soccer cleats, rifles and one tag. Good for you, maybe I'll make it out someday.
 
One thing I have learned. When it comes to talking about where you have seen deer, STFU.

People will listen or read and then, the next thing you know, there's two RV's parked. And then another vehicle shows up with 5 hmong guys who hunt by pressuring toward one. All that does is scare off all the deer. Fortunately, deer are smart enough to stay away and then the excess hunters go away.
 
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One thing I have learned. When it comes to talking about where you have seen deer, STFU.

People will listen or read and then, the next thing you know, there's two RV's parked. And then another vehicle shows up with 5 hmong guys who hunt by pressuring toward one. All that does is scare off all the deer. Fortunately, deer are smart enough to stay away and then the excess hunters go away.
Oh that's Fresno...California's armpit. LOL

fresno sucks.jpg
 
I grew up in Oregon and have been to several places in Northern California, and I still would not have guessed. It's beautiful up there.
Politically, this place is the anal wart of the republic. The so called people that inhabit the big shities ruin it for the rest of us.
That being said.....geographically it's absolutely amazing. I can dive and fish the ocean one weekend, hunt the highcountry the next and roam the desert after that.
Maybe if those blue shitholes keep vaxing and boosting we can right this ship. I won't hold my breath though.
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One thing I have learned. When it comes to talking about where you have seen deer, STFU.

People will listen or read and then, the next thing you know, there's two RV's parked. And then another vehicle shows up with 5 hmong guys who hunt by pressuring toward one. All that does is scare off all the deer. Fortunately, deer are smart enough to stay away and then the excess hunters go away.
I prefer the grand torino pronunciation.......Humong. We have a very large population of them because of the dope. They hunt like a colony of ants....25 Tacomas with cb radios rolling through the woods. Does, fawns, squirrels....it don't matter. It's infuriating. Another reason I hunt where there's no roads.
 
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Politically, this place is the anal wart of the republic. The so called people that inhabit the big shities ruin it for the rest of us.
That being said.....geographically it's absolutely amazing. I can dive and fish the ocean one weekend, hunt the highcountry the next and roam the desert after that.
Maybe if those blue shitholes keep vaxing and boosting we can right this ship. I won't hold my breath though.
View attachment 8561841View attachment 8561842View attachment 8561845


My wife is an Oregon native and I would have been if Dad hadn’t been deployed to West Germany. We’re planning our exit strategy in the next few years.





P
 
Denial is not just a river and you can fool yourselves into thinking tree-squatting is just like spot & stalk all you like but those who have done both know better...or should. Heck, there are even guys doing spot & stalk in dry, leaf covered areas where locals claim you cannot hunt successfully except in a treestand. But some guys mastered the art of mimicking the cadence of deer, still hunt and use the sound of short movements to attract bucks to them ON THE GROUND. So feel free to pull up a chair and wait to ambush a critter but don't think you're doing anything particularly difficult or challenging. You're drinking coffee and trying to stay awake. Real hunting requires your phone to be turned off.

View attachment 8561253
I agree with some of that, but I would say that real hunting requires the phone to be off is not true. I use my phone even in the backcountry with no cell service I have onX. A lot of us actually use technology to help us hunt (and that doesn't include watching porn or playing video games as you mentioned earlier). I don’t tree stand hunt, but that’s cause it doesn’t work well out here in the big mountains of Idaho. I can see why the guys in the Midwest and out into the east use a stand though.
 
I prefer the grand torino pronunciation.......Humong. We have a very large population of them because of the dope. They hunt like a colony of ants....25 Tacomas with cb radios rolling through the woods. Does, fawns, squirrels....it don't matter. It's infuriating. Another reason I hunt where there's no roads.
Nope, not dope. Our government resettled many Hmong refugees from Vietnam to very select locations in three states, California, Minnesota & Wisconsin late in the 70s. Serious culture clash between those refugees and their kids born & raised here. Lotsa gang crap...there are cases where a half dozen of em with ARs actually stole wild game in the field while it was being dressed. I don't hunt there.
 
Nope, not dope. Our government resettled many Hmong refugees from Vietnam to very select locations in three states, California, Minnesota & Wisconsin late in the 70s. Serious culture clash between those refugees and their kids born & raised here. Lotsa gang crap...there are cases where a half dozen of em with ARs actually stole wild game in the field while it was being dressed. I don't hunt there.
Actually yes dope. There wasn't more than a family or two in this area before the pot boom. Every single one in my AO is involved in weed. Many of them are still rolling with Minnesota plates. Many of them are pretty friendly but many are not.
Same with Russians, Bulgarians and the rest of the track suit mafia.

Eta: yes......I understand how they came to be in the U.S.
 
I'd love to be a guided client on a western mountain hunt. I just cannot afford it.
Meh, Id rather sit in a tree stand than have somebody hold my hand that already did everything but the walking and check stroking.

Why dont you just put in for points and DIY. "what the fuck-do I carry" makes it seem like some extreme thing but its not that hard to come to CO and kill and elk or a deer. Come march, put in for points. Save some dough In a few years you can draw a decent tag and come kill one.
 
Being a guided client to get the cool pic on the left doesnt really count.

The guy on the right is making a choice to pass that big 10 point. Takes a lot to be that discerning, LOL
That's Jason Hairston (founder of Kuiu) and there is a valuable message in this video of his final hunt with Don Trump Jr. and it counts 100 more than most.



Jason's opening comments will ring true to those who choose to stretch themselves, which is applicable in all aspects of life, not just hunting.
 
So we have devolved into an argument over who is the superior hunter now I see...

...Doesn't put a lot of weight into your argument for being on the vastly superior physical side of the debate - when your photos are obvious that you aren't in good physical shape. IJS...
 
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So we have devolved into an argument over who is the superior hunter now I see...

...Doesn't put a lot of weight into your argument for being on the vastly superior physical side of the debate - when your photos are obvious that you aren't in good physical shape. IJS...
How hard could it be if an overweight 70 yo can do it?