What a bull...with the obligatory NC truck bed photo Huge Davidson County buck is likely biggest ever taken in North Carolina with archery equipment - North Carolina Sportsman
He shot it over a bait pile with a crossbow.... Not the least bit impressed. I don't care if someone shoots a deer with the crossbow but you can't call that archery equipment. As for baiting, I disagree with that. Can't give much credit to this guy. Awesome deer either way though.
Was the deer killed in a legal manor? Was the deer wild and was the hunt fair chase? If the answer is yes, then congrats to the hunter. Maybe you should be doing the same if you want to kill deer of that quality.
As I've gotten older I seem to care less about the equipment used as there is most principles still apply (e.g. location, scent ctrl, scouting, patterning, etc). When I first started shooting archery (later Bowhunting), I used to think the same thing about those (then) new fangled compounds arriving on the scene (I.e. "...can't call that archery equipment). I don't subscribe to that any longer. Maybe because I've been so laid up that I couldn't draw my bows, maybe maturity, it doesn't really matter. A crossbow may be more mechanized and different than a compound (or recurve), but so what, I don't use a flintlock either when I use a gun. If the law allows hunting over bait (except game lands), fair chase, with a crossbow, and he was able to bag that deer legally and ethically he gets my congratulations. My only concern is why I haven't been hunting Davidson country instead of an adjacent one, but that is just envy... ~Bill
Probably. And that's fine. To each his own. I'm just not impressed by anyone killing a deer over a corn and apple pile they put in front of their stand. Haha no thanks. Im not into that type of hunting. I would rather kill a 140" deer over a natural food source with my regular archery equipment. I do not agree with baiting. Not my thing. I do not consider that "fair chase". It's cheating. It's taking to easy way out. If killing a deer like that means baiting it, then I'd rather not kill it. But like I said, to each his own.
agreed WL704... I honestly don't care much about the crossbow at all. I have friends that hunt with them and it doesn't bother me. I only mentioned it cause they said it was an "archery" kill. Its not, its a crossbow kill. Just like a gun kill should be called a gun kill. I just don't agree with baiting and never will. Its taking the easy way out. And for sure, congratulations to the hunter. I'd love to shoot a deer like that. I just said I cant be too impressed if it was baited.
Read the article? He didn't just bait, he had a little history with this deer and hunted him for a few days.
"God uses bait......don't believe me....you should see my wife"....Ted Nugent Is hunting over a picked corn field bait? Is hunting in an apple orchard bait? Is hunting over a field of clover and turnips planted specifically to attract deer bait? What constitutes "bait"....? Corn is a natural food source for deer..so are apples, and clover etc, etc.
history for a few days is not much of a history. I have a history with a 10 pointer that lasted an entire season last year and I still haven't shot him. I have been patterning him over his natural food sources tho. I probably would have killed him by now if I saw him once and decided to just dump a pile of unnatural bait in front of my stand. It was a cool story though. I enjoyed reading it. And it does make it cooler that he was after him for a few days. I will give him a little credit. Booner... No, no, and no. All those things GROW there. Baiting is DUMPING a pile of corn and apples in front of your tree stand when it is not already there. Big difference.
Awesome buck and congratulations to him....no problems at all with him using a compound and other legal methods to kill the deer.
you cant really argue with the fact that him putting a pile of corn and apples in front of his stand was taking the easier way out. If he had not put that bait there, it would have been more of a challenge to kill that deer and he probably would have ended up with even more of a rich history with that deer. Personally, I choose not to take the easy way out. Never have, never will. But to each his own.
Maybe he is a working class guy, one without access to farms with soybeans planted just for deer and such.
So if i grow a field of corn....and then combine it. Then put some of the corn that grew in my field in a bucket and take it back to the same field and dump it out.....is that baiting?
There was mention of crossbows as early as the 5th century BC. Compound the mid 20th century AD. I don't see how you can shoot a compound and talk about the crossbow as a gun or untraditional archery equipment.
What I don't understand here is why do you care how someone else hunts? You obviously don't agree with his methods and I get that, but why does it bother you so much that you can't just say "congratulations" and leave it at that?
Hope that wasn't directed at me...I just see it as a different tool or legal option, now. But there are some that feel otherwise, some that are it OK for somebody old/lame/hurt. Those that look down on crossbows...I just don't understand any longer. I do get the 'fair chase' argument around baiting, but that's a state law decision and like others have alluded, it's a slippery slope. I hunt around oaks, are acorns fair chase? Animals eat, catching them to or from food is one of the key patterns folks use to find em. Just like water, cover or scents (scrapes, estrus does, etc). ~Bill
