Heh I forgot to mention the turkeys, they are considered a pest here, all over the dang place! No antelope but we will be going to Eastern Oregon at the earliest opportunity as I *Love* antelope meat.

We unfortunately have everything but Moose. Bears, Cougars, Coyotes, Wolves (unofficially..) there is a bobcat that lays in the backyard of this place. Fishercats/Martins, some old timers still claim we have wolverine further up into the Cascades.

It's nice.... Book a hunt, Howard! There are some monsters taken in Eastern Oregon (cats, bulls, and bucks)

For sure it'd be a road trip for you Horward. If you made the trip, I'd suggest something farther north where the deer get a little heavier and you wouldn't be so close to the hum drum of a routine you live with day in and day out.
Here in the southern portion, the state in all their wisdom decided a few years ago that they didn't have enough deer, so they instituted a bucks only (I think I have that right. I'll explain later) rule. Well we've got plenty of deer now, and I hope they're happy, because most everybody else is not. So now the state is offering doe permits for sale, I think. I hope.

This is hard for me to say to a law enforcement officer, but I guess it's okay now because I'm not hunting any longer; the only real hunting and fishing I did was when I lived up north in the middle of the woods. The small town(if you want to call it that) closest to me was a community of people that had been born and bred there for generations. I built two cabins to live in there, both on someone elses land by permission. And lived off what I could fish and hunt, and not much else. They taught me that seasons don't mean anything, if your family is hungry, one goes and finds something to eat, be it fish, fowl, or mammal. It didn't matter as long as it could be eaten. Keeping fed and health was more important then the silly state laws reguiring it only can be done at a set time. Any ways, I learned hunting and fishing when you knew that if nothing is found and taken all you'll have to eat is some squash, sometimes a turnip and just maybe you'll open up that last bit of pickled beets. It puts a different edge on the hunting experience. It was nothing to hear the crack of a rifle or the boom of a shotgun after dusk at almost any time of the year. So and so finally has some meat for the table. Nobody took more then needed and we helped each other as we could.........
Sometimes I wish I could go back (I'll admit I'm getting a teary thinking on it now)

From a by gone era in Maine,
Randy

Maines' a bit north even for me. Always wanted to go there though.

It is so nice up there...
I lived up there from 1998 - 2005.
The area I lived in seemed like a different time era. When I was in school, hunting season was marked by all the rifles in the office - students who hunted usually had their rifle with them all the time, and the school had a check in for rifles. No lock or anything, just piled up in the corner of the front office.

Ahhh, the good ol days.

 Quote: Cameron Feathers

It is so nice up there...
I lived up there from 1998 - 2005.
The area I lived in seemed like a different time era. When I was in school, hunting season was marked by all the rifles in the office - students who hunted usually had their rifle with them all the time, and the school had a check in for rifles. No lock or anything, just piled up in the corner of the front office.

Wow!
And exactly where were you living?! I grew up in Maine and graduated from HS in '79, but the only rifles I saw were on my Dad's gun rack. (but I grew up in southern Maine, close to a 'big' city...)

 Quote: michael_wise

Janice, what about you? Whats your story?

I figure with where you are located, that our opportunities are similar.

You let your dogs in on the bounty?:laugh:

Yes,Michael, hunting is pretty much the same. Except we don't have any wild hogs around my part of MO. Not anymore, anyway. My hubby said there were some when he was a kid, but they all got killed out. Thank goodness. Absolutely share with the dogs. We just a couple of weeks ago finished off the turkey my hubby got this spring.
I don't quail or dove-hunt anymore, my reflexes are quick enough now.
I deer hunt every year, I have a lot of what we count as "kills" as in, Could have shot it if I wanted to, but let it walk. I like watching them. I get a few squirrels every year, all of us except hubby loves them. I don't rabbit hunt anymore, as I am not that fond of bunny. I can't get it to come out like my grandma and my mom used to fix it. The dogs try for the bunnies, but they're getting older,too, so don't have much luck.
I eat a lot of fish from our pond. We have a farm that's been in my husband's family for 100+ years, there's only 78 1/2 acres left, but it's all ours. (except for the blankety-blank pipeline easements)
None of us care for duck or goose, so we leave them alone, too.
My pups LOVE venison, I really like it, too, but hubby isn't a big fan. If I do go ahead and shoot one for meat, I try for a little 'un as they are the best eating. I butcher my own. Year before last I got a big old 7 point buck and that was more meat than we could use so I donated to the food pantry.
This is pretty interesting hearing what everyone else does.

 Quote: Howard Knauf

Dammit man! I'm so jealous of you Westerners. I'd be happy just wearing out a prairie dog town and some coyotes. Elk, pronghorn, cats, turkeys, deer oh my!

Howard

Howard, if you're willing to clear out prairie dogs, my guestroom is yours! Heck, you wouldn't have to leave the couch to hit a blacktail...just aim through the open window.

Sure,,go ahead and rub it in.

I am just in the learning phase as far as hunting is concerned. That is not to say I am a novice in the bush, I make my living there. I just have not found the time to get into hunting properly at present but am working on it. I have joined my father on a moose hunt for the past couple of years in Ontario, but alas no moose. (they got lots of deer last year, but I was not there) I keep telling my dad he should come out west to hunt, but he is a member of a hunt club that is steeped in family tradition so wont leave it. I love to share that time with my dad that I see infrequently these days, I am keen on the passing down of hunting knowledge and tradition.

I am lucky enough to live in a very intact ecosystem in Southeastern British Columbia. Moose, elk, white tail, mule deer, plenty of black and grizzly bears, cougar and so on...I very rarely go a day walking the dog not seeing some kind of game that weighs more than I do, often whole heards of elk (hey I live in a place called the Elk Valley )

I think if you wanna eat meat, you should have to be able to kill it. People are too removed from nature with their supermarket conviniences. I help friends butcher their deer and elk each fall for a few steaks and then the scraps for the dog.

I must say that I am NOT interested at all in killing things for the sake of killing them. Putting food on your table is one thing, but just to bag a bear or a cougar, or hang some trophy on your wall is not my personal cup of tea. After you bag a grizzly you may as well move onto africa to go shoot something more thrilling...

I am super into tracking game, I walk in the woods for a living, just would rather take a picture rather than pull a trigger if it is not something I would eat.

I like the old school hunters of my area that do not hunt from their trucks, are not afraid to go out without an ATV, that watch and track all summer/fall long for game, know every inch of the bush, don't pull the trigger at the first animal they see, and can sit in the bush and be quiet A LONG time. I think sitting still in the woods is a lost art. I am not particularily good at it, but am working on it

Probably I am a bit of a luddite/romantic (okay..treehugger if Bob Scott is reading ), I look forward to learning more from some hunting mentors this fall.