Growing Your Own Trophies

[Elkinde]

Should Pope and Young and Boone and Crocket continue to exist with manipulated deer raising environments?i.e. ( huge tracts of land with super saturated mineral and vitamine additives on food plots, which amounts to "Growing Your Own Trophies!"

[gunther89]

My view on it is that if there aren't high fences and they are free ranging deer then they should be allowed in.  Yes some hunters do plant food plots and put out mineral sites but everyone who owns land can do that as long as the state allows it.  Not all bucks will stay on the land because maybe the land is over hunted and they will simply move off the property and go to another area.

[JPH]

Big deer become big because they are allowed to love long enough to get big. The whole food plot/mineral business is hype. Hunters are taking more big deer b/c more hunters are letting young deer walk. 

[spottedskunk]

ORIGINAL: JPH

Big deer become big because they are allowed to love long enough to get big. The whole food plot/mineral business is hype. Hunters are taking more big deer b/c more hunters are letting young deer walk. 

I don't plant food plots, my uncles own 4,000 acres and plants only corn and beans. I'm the only one that hunts the land so some big bucks that are there won't be seen by me, cause im the only one there. No hunting pressure. I pass all young deer to get big ones.

[ranwin33]

It's a little more difficult to grow big deer than just laying out minerals and vitamins on a food plot.  You can do that all day long and still not have big deer. 
 
So yes, Pope and Young and Boone and Crockett should still exist.  They serve as a standard for some, a goal for others, and a testament to what we as sportsmen can achieve through proper conservation practices.
 
Additionally these clubs go beyond just maintaining a system to objectively measure big game animals - they also serve as organizations involved in conservation practices relating to game animals.

[ranwin33]

ORIGINAL: JPH
...they are allowed to love long enough to get big...

 
Where is your mind this morning?  [:)]

[JPH]

ORIGINAL: ranwin33

ORIGINAL: JPH
...they are allowed to love long enough to get big...

Where is your mind this morning?  [:)]

 
Well to be honest my youngest is off at camp and my oldest is in football two-a-days this week. The house is empty most of the day except me and my wife. I guess my mind was on something other than typing...

[spottedskunk]

ORIGINAL: JPH

Big deer become big because they are allowed to love long enough to get big. The whole food plot/mineral business is hype. Hunters are taking more big deer b/c more hunters are letting young deer walk. 

I agree and disagree.

There are some bucks that doesn't have the gentics to make them big, some do though. I believe some food plots help out with the racks, but I don't use them. There are bucks out there that will get big by 2 1/2 years old and will suprise some hunters. I think every deer is different.

[ranwin33]

I think we can all agree that genetics, time, and nutrition will get you a big deer. It can be a hard thing to get all three working perfectly in the same deer, which is why it's important to educate those people who think large deer with trophy racks are just a matter of growing some food plots, or spreading some minerals is all it takes. If it were that easy we would all have walls full of deer heads.

[Goose]

All I have to say is AGE!!