Cool vs Common Sense

[Beefcake]

Copy that. Oregon only requires youth to wear orange.

 

[No_Regerts]

Here its pumkin time!

 

[The Heretic]

Orange v. green or brown

Deer and elk are color blind.

Most humans are not.

 

[Greenbug]

I guess nobody else has really caught on yet. During hunting season the deer are in town and all the hunters are in the woods. All that fancy stuff is just to impress each other, the deer could care less...

 

[Just Jim]

Never did care what the other guys carried when I hunted with a group. My main concern was if they were safe with their weapon.

 

[DieselScout]

Never did care what the other guys carried when I hunted with a group. My main concern was if they were safe with their weapon.

Yeah I never understood knocking the other guy's gear.

 

[No_Regerts]

I get it unmercifully at camp! On the other hand, flip it back quite a bit. For most of my friends that hunt, hunting is something that they started to do later in life because they saw it on TV and thought it was cool. They buy into all of the commercials and everything like that because that's what hunting shows really are, just one big commercial.

I grew up in a rural area where everyone started hunting young. Not a ton of money so you made due with a sporterized (crudely) mauser or an old 30-30.

 

[Joe13]

I get it unmercifully at camp! On the other hand, flip it back quite a bit. For most of my friends that hunt, hunting is something that they started to do later in life because they saw it on TV and thought it was cool. They buy into all of the commercials and everything like that because that's what hunting shows really are, just one big commercial.

I grew up in a rural area where everyone started hunting young. Not a ton of money so you made due with a sporterized (crudely) mauser or an old 30-30.

As a new hunter I can attest to the sense of "I have buy all this expensive stuff to fill my tag" stuff that gets advertised. Fortunately, I grew up out in the boondocks and woodscraft was practiced for fun so I can still talk myself out of most of what they are selling.



Two opposite thoughts though, I love out performing other people in sports when I am "hadicapped" by my lack of funding into my gear.

But, also if last year was any indication of how my next 40 will go, IF I had the funds for a $4000 rig and it had ANY chance of helping me fill a tag then I would do it.

 

[No_Regerts]

It's all about reaching the point of diminishing returns. At some point you're going to spend so much money that you can't fully realize the benefits of spending the money because the benefits gained are so incremental.

Of all of the things that have caused one of my hunts to go bad, not a single one of them had to do with anything that I could have thrown more money at besides boots and optics. To me, boots and optics (binoculars and spotters, rifle scopes not so much) are the two places where you can spend money and see the largest gain in your ability to hunt effectively.

 

[Joe13]

Makes sense to me.

Got the boots, need better binocs. Bout fell over one day when a monocular I was eye balling had a price tag that was more then my rifle, scope and then some cost.

No matter how often I was told about good binocs, I didn't quite understand how high on your gear list they should be.

I'll be rich one day and have all the toys I want - until then I'll just be happy with what I have now.

 

[No_Regerts]

I think a good set can be had for less than the price of a car. There comes a point where it makes no sense to me to throw more money into it. I have a set of Vortex 10x42s that cost 1/5th the cost of a set of Swarovskies.

I still kill as many, if not more, deer than my gear-head buddies.

I mean all of this strictly applying to the average joe hunter. If you are a dedicated long range guy who actually practices and can make use of the equipment, more power to you. Spending money, however, for the average guy doesnt make you a better hunter. Its about being out there and learning to find deer.

 

[salmonriverjohn]

Sounds to me like you need some real "hunting" buddies, some of the old boys I consider my best of hunting partners would have a good time around the campfire with dudes like that.

 

[No_Regerts]

Unfortunately I hunted with family growing up and as they get older, i had fewer hunting partners. I swear that finding good hunting partners is harder than finding a wife!

 

[salmonriverjohn]

I'd agree, I found my best friend, wife and hunting partner back in the 70,s.
Figured I ought to marry her before someone else did!
I've just found that most of the fellas that have to have the biggest, baddest latest greatest ain't worth their salt. No offense to you though, Love your choice in rifles too!

 

[No_Regerts]

Whenever a buddy brings over his new gee wiz rifle, I ask, "how's it shoot?" Most stare at me like I have a third eyeball.

 

[coyotecaller]

My first deer fell to a iron sighted russian SKS at a whole 25 yards distance. Thats when they were $165 and it was at my budget. Not too far off from a 30-30 ballistics wise and with practice, good shot placement, anything inside 150 yards should give up the ghost. Got me through a few seasons and dropped me two deer. Later I was finally able to afford a Rem 700 BDL 243Win.

 

[Oathkeeper1775]

There was a time when having a pump shotgun meant the owner was rich...

Worrying about looks when hunting is a digression from focusing on the animals...

Oh but the dirty looks I got from my family in 1985 when I broke-ranks and bought a used .308; Rem 788...... I've taken 13 bucks with that so-called "piece of crap"

Their reaction was almost as bad as when I veered-away from the family sausage recipe.....

I started hunting in 1968; with hand me downs....over-sized boots, waders, gloves....Stevens .410 S/S, while my brother and cousin had all new stuff that fit....and they teased me about it.

So, now I have all my own stuff (and recipes) that I paid-for with my own money (outside of a few gifts); I cherish every second I spend in the woods with it.

 

[The Heretic]

This is me a little over 35 years ago, in the hills up the Alsea river.



That's an old model 94 in .30-30 with a 24" octagon barrel that my grandfather bought for $5 and a bottle of whiskey from a Trask indian. That pickup was a 10+ year old 2WD Datsun with mud tires on it.

That rifle has taken deer and elk and bear for three generations of my family - mostly in the hands of my grandfather who hunted to provide meat for his family during the depression, not just the sport. That t-shirt, that pack on the pickup and that hat are what I was wearing when I shot that deer on opening day. I was sitting on a stump at the bottom of a gully when a doe came out of the brush, then that buck followed her out. I shot him at ten yards.

Hunting is equal parts being at the right place at the right time, luck and skill - less about what you wear or shoot. I have taken deer with both fancy scoped magnums and "old iron" non-magnums, the latter actually did a better job as it destroyed less meat and was much more satisfying.

My father hunted all his life with a scoped .30-06 03-A3 Springfield he bought for about $15 from the NRA and had "sporterized". I think that including the Leupold scope, he probably spent maybe $100 total on that rifle. I inherited the rifle when he died, my brother got the .30-30

My father took more elk than most people ever will - almost every year he came home with an elk, including the last time he went hunting in his seventies.

YMMV

 

[Joe13]

This is me a little over 35 years ago, in the hills up the Alsea river.

View attachment 256164

That's an old model 94 in .30-30 with a 24" octagon barrel that my grandfather bought for $5 and a bottle of whiskey from a Trask indian. That pickup was a 10+ year old 2WD Datsun with mud tires on it.

That rifle has taken deer and elk and bear for three generations of my family - mostly in the hands of my grandfather who hunted to provide meat for his family during the depression, not just the sport. That t-shirt, that pack on the pickup and that hat are what I was wearing when I shot that deer on opening day. I was sitting on a stump at the bottom of a gully when a doe came out of the brush, then that buck followed her out. I shot him at ten yards.

Hunting is equal parts being at the right place at the right time, luck and skill - less about what you wear or shoot. I have taken deer with both fancy scoped magnums and "old iron" non-magnums, the latter actually did a better job as it destroyed less meat and was much more satisfying.

My father hunted all his life with a scoped .30-06 03-A3 Springfield he bought for about $15 from the NRA and had "sporterized". I think that including the Leupold scope, he probably spent maybe $100 total on that rifle. I inherited the rifle when he died, my brother got the .30-30

My father took more elk than most people ever will - almost every year he came home with an elk, including the last time he went hunting in his seventies.

YMMV

Kinda got the young wolverine look going for ya didn't ya

 

[No_Regerts]

Kinda got the young wolverine look going for ya didn't ya

Or unabomber! Hehe