Thought. Idea. Question. This has probably been suggested and some will hate even the suggestion. If ya don't like it then you probably don't like trail cameras, laser range finders, lighted nocks, ozone machines etc. etc. By no means are the best "bow hunters" in the world on this website or participating in the annual friendly team competition that gets a lot of great participation! I thought of this while filling out my fantasy fishing roster over at bassmaster.com For those that enjoy professional bass fishing that have never participated I suggest you give it a try! http://bassmasterfantasy.com/ But it would be really cool if you took the scores bucks + doe of the individual contest participants over the last X number of years and assigned a ranking to the hunter based on that score. You could even factor in a weighted number by adding "points" to a hunter hunting in a "lesser buck" state if you will... In other words - I will pick on Indiana since I live here and won't offend anyone - you could have a highly successful deer hunter that simply scores less because he hunts in Indiana as apposed to hunting in Kansas or right across state lines in IL. You take that formula and you put hunters in buckets... Bucket A Top 5 Hunter Smith Illionis Bowtech Bow 4 bucks killed Best scoring buck 180" Average scoring buck 152" 5 doe killed 6 years participating Smith Hunter Wisconsin Mathews Bow best scoring buck 159" Average scoring buck 148" 7 bucks killed 9 doe killed 9 years participating Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Bucket B Next 5 Bucket C Next 5 Bucket D Next 5 It could be a monthly contest October - December. So you pick 3 lineups in a given season. Or you could just do it once annually... Unless you're a frequenter of the site you'd really have to put some statistical context behind each hunter in the bucket for people to have any basis for making a selection as most people don't know one poster from the next. Make it fairly exclusive - having only 5 per bracket... Meaning a Bucket D hutner is likely a very accomplished bow hunter. They've been collecting all this data for the last several years it just feels like to me you could really do some neat things with it and "fantasy" has elevated a lot of sports culture and popularity across the country. If they idea is to promote bow hunting and get more people interested in hunting - I don't see how something like this could hurt. Both for the top 20 hunters in a bucket - but the people selecting them. It's worth mentioning that this isn't self-serving because I wouldn't qualify for my own contest based on the parameters I'm suggesting. Bad idea? Really bad idea? I'm an idiot for even wasting time to type this?
Back when i was super involved with this website I would have loved the idea, I would even have done the research for you. But now? Eh. If someone spent the weeks compiling “fantasy scores” of every bowhunter here over the last 12 years and wanted to find the average score for each hunter...I’d participate. I think you should forget everything besides username and average yearly score though. Also, you would probably have to contact whoever the current admin is to get the list of every hunter who entered deer from 2008 to now in each contest. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I’m also interested in who the highest grossing scorer in this contest has been over the years. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I’m quite certain it isn’t me as well. Lol Quick math shows I’m good for about 50 points/year on average, lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thank ya all for the feedback... It would be quite a bit of work but the data that they’ve compiled is certainly put into spreadsheet format - if not then why ask for it all?? If not, it’s still on the server. Someone with a good IT background could pull something together rather quickly if they wanted to - they’ve got the resources I’d guess. To answer your question - brand doesn’t really matter other than the fact that “brands” have become a big part of the outdoor industry especially professional bass finishing. A lot of parallels between the sports so I’m using that fantasy bass fishing concept and applying it to bow hunting... If you were to be looking for differentiators from one bow hunter to the next when filling out a fantasy roster brand might matter... Example? I use Rage broadheads - I’m not going to be in the top 5 of any block because I use Rage. I’m fully aware of this fact. But suppose for a minute that I was - certain people would probably pick other hunters in the block to be on their roster because of the broad heads I’m using. It just seems like a pretty logical idea that someone should steal from me and not thank me for. It’s fine... I’m sure someone somewhere thought the concept of “fantasy sports” was stupid in the first place - they weren’t right to think that!
For the record - there was a Fantasty Hunting League set up years ago. Like most bad ideas, it failed. https://www.bowhunting.com/news/2011/09/19/fantasy-hunting-league-would-you-play/
Poor explanation. Sorry. - I’m sure some dude came up with the idea to do fantasy sports back when the internet was invented. People laughed at him - years later fantasy sports becomes big business and millions participate in it. - My point was - it might not be popular today but my luck is someone else uses a similar concept and it becomes this awesome new thing. I was just being kind of sarcastic but it was a poor attempt.
