Not disagreeing but why wouldn't you just use a gun? It would provide many more opportunities with less chance to lose the deer.
Ok so heres the thing. I still live with my parents and sometimes money is tight. So it would be nice to get a few deer a year but that does not mean i am going to take an iffy shot. The only shot i am going to take is one that i am very comfortable and feel good about. I gun hunt to and kill several deer each year. I take long rage shots but i can hit a gallon milk jug at 500 yards no problem.
Growing up and raising a family in a small ag community has been a real blessing in my opinion. I write a lot of ag insurance and it is just a small way that I can help give back to the ag community. I really enjoy the fair for the grass roots family atmosphere. Nothing better than watching grandparents/parents beem with pride when a grandchild/child shows their livestock or other 4H projects. A lot of good values and old fashioned hard work on display there. We may not have the "fine" dining and symphonies that can be found on the coasts, (been there, done that) but what we do have is a quality of life that I think would be pretty hard to improve on. Thanks for your kind words and blessings to you for raising a family in the 4H ideology. Great family experience that your kids will never forget. My wife still glows when she talks to her folks about showing horses and raising 4H calves. Enjoy the experience!
4H is a great program. At our local fair my family's grocery stores buy multiple animals every year. For some reason, I never get any of it. LOL As far as "needing" meat. Nope. I'll also go so far to say that I would rather have beef any day over venison. We'll eat about 1 deer a year in our house, if that. Any extra goes to other people that "need" it.
I agree 100% I don't have to have deer meat to survive and would'nt take an unethical shot just because I diddnt have any deer meat in the freezer. You cant beat fried backstrap and deer chilli with a stick, but its not worth taking a bad shot just for that reason.
LOL The other day my wife said she had been thinking about steaks on the grill for a couple of days and would I like to grill some for dinner that evening. I said it sounded great so she went to the butcher and got some nice 1" delmonico's. I put some cherry wood in the pan in the grill, got it good and smoking and threw the steaks on. Mashed potatos from the garden and some green beans. It was fantastic. I only told her that venison was better because deer hunting season is closing in and I want her to urge me to get out there LOL.
I know that this is a bowhunting forum Bruce, but I never said anything about bow only in this situation. :D I still gun hunt and I probably would take a gun if feeding my family depended on my success. (I sure hope Vito doesn't think less of me because of this.)
I grew up on beef bought from our grocery stores. My dad started cutting meat when he was 13 for a local butcher. Yeah, that wouldn't fly these days. I find a lot more flavor in the chemical laced fat of good beef ribeye than in the lean meat of a whitetail.
I don't need it but we sure eat it. Although my wife doesn't eat venison, myself and my three children ate about 3 deer this year.
I hunt deer because I need the meat and I bought a new, expensive hybrid so I could get better gas mileage...
I don't need the meat at all. I eat a lot of it though because I am a pretty strict observer of "if you kill it, you eat it". Giving it away is OK as well just as long as it's consumed. I just love to hunt and like I said. If I kill it I'm gonna eat it. Or at least somebody is. I'll agree with Dan though that beef is just better. That's why a large portion of my deer are made into jerky and sticks. Now for those I do prefer deer over beef.
Yes I do need the meat. Without venison there is no deer jerky !! Beef, chicken or any other meat just won't do !!! No deer jerky and I have one very sad daughter. Britty informed me that we best get a deer this year because she isn't going without deer jerky again like last year. She will kill it herself with rifle. I need to kill a deer with bow cause it makes me happy where rifle not so much. Life is suppose to evolve around one's happiness and the happiness of the family. If I am happy they are happy and visa-versa. If Britney isn't happy... it makes me sad. That leads us back to... I need the meat. Gotta keep Britney happy !! Tim
I definitely don't "need" the meat, but believe me, it doesn't go to waste. I much prefer the taste of venison over the taste of beef. Like many have already stated, if I actually "needed" the meat i would be hunting much differently. I hunt because it is something I enjoy, not to survive.
Between my father in law and grandfather there's 600 head of black angus roaming around our ranch and we always have a whole beef in the deep freeze. So "need" of the meat is not why I take venison. I enjoy the hunt, I enjoy sharing with those families around us that do "need the meat", and most everything but the backstrap on my deer is turned into summer sausage or jerky which I just flat out enjoy!
Bruce we could take this a step farther. Do you really need to raise you own animals for slaughter?? You can go buy it at a store like most people. Hell do we even need to eat meat period to survive ?? Oh and I can't use a rifle to kill a deer this year. They cut tags and I got turned down in the main lottery. No extra doe tags. I will only have an archery tag to fill this year. I've got to kill it with bow. Thank God for bow or I wouldn't be hunting at all this year unless I would travel out of state which isn't going to happen. While some are blessed with multiple tags and DON'T NEED to kill one with bow... I can honestly say I do need the bow. I need to kill a deer because I need the meat. It will be a very big bodied buck only so I can get alot of meat for the freezer since I only have one tag !!! I don't really need the big antlers that go with it... but darn... big bodied bucks tend to have big antlers. This guy is all about the meat this year though. :p Tim
Tim, you misunderstand why I started the thread. I see people justifying questionable to outright horrible shots because they "need the meat". Does your family "need the meat" so badly that you would take a full frontal shot at 40 yards on a small buck?
