Competitive Hunts ?

[Woody Williams]

Competitive Hunts ?

What about some of these hunting competitions...especially deer hunts, which have popped up? Not sure this is good folks? Maybe just more ammunition for the "antis"?

What do you say?

www.oklahomawtc.com/

Now the grand prize is based on 50 entries at 20% payback.

So $30,000 is 20% of $150,000 divided by 50 hunters is $3,000 a piece they are paying to hunt 3 days.

Their hunts normally cost $1800, so they are charging $1,200 to get in this contest. $1,200 times 50 hunters is $60,000. Looks like a split pot at that point.

Competition or just a way to book hunts? You decide…

[JohnSmiles]

admin said:

Competitive Hunts ?

What about some of these hunting competitions...especially deer hunts, which have popped up? Not sure this is good folks? Maybe just more ammunition for the "antis"?

What do you say?

www.oklahomawtc.com/

Now the grand prize is based on 50 entries at 20% payback.

So $30,000 is 20% of $150,000 divided by 50 hunters is $3,000 a piece they are paying to hunt 3 days.

Their hunts normally cost $1800, so they are charging $1,200 to get in this contest. $1,200 times 50 hunters is $60,000. Looks like a split pot at that point.

Competition or just a way to book hunts? You decide…

Just another way to clip 120 thousand dollars from people who won't miss it in the first place.
How does this differ from a Bassmasters?

[huxbux]

Why wouldn't the anti's jump on something like this? Holding a contest with cash prizes for shooting animals? I'm an avid hunter and it makes ME sad. I certainly won't defend the practice.

[Deleted]

I remember this site running a competition of sorts as well.....didn't pay money, but it was a contest and a competition in the same rite as the one posted about.

[JohnSmiles]

timex said:

I remember this site running a competition of sorts as well.....didn't pay money, but it was a contest and a competition in the same rite as the one posted about.

Ya know, now that you mention it, seems like we had one with prizes and everything, even a 2 day hunt, for Turkeys this year too.
. .What is the difference?

[Old Ironsights]

FWIW

I don't hunt to compete. Period. Not even in fun. Not even against myself.

I hunt for the connection to nature and the meat it provides.

I agree that any competitions promote the idea that hunting is just a "fantasy sport" with the ultimate goal not being herd management & nature awareness.

I will not criticize those who have fun competeing, but I, personally, can not stomache it any more than I can stomache Antler Wagging.

I'm too much of a Predator to care what social value comes from the "mine is bigger than yours" debate.

[swilk]

I hunt to compete .....

I even drafted my very own big buck contest in 2006 and plan to continue it every year from now on.

25% of field dressed weight (as weighed on the same scales for every deer)
Gross antler score (measured by the P&Y system)
Total number of points 1" or longer
Inside spread

Add it all up ...... you get a 5% bonus if you take your deer with archery gear (I even allowed crossbows in that one .....)

Everybody puts in $20 and winner takes 75%, 2nd gets 15% and 3rd gets 10%.

We enjoyed it.

[dbd870]

I'm sure sales is a big part of it. I don't know, it doesn't bother me nor does it make me want to run out there and sign up either.

[cambygsp]

I've never entered any sort of a hunting competition, not even the ones that are just for fun, like the one we have here at this site.

Hunting in my opinion, is a competition between me and the game I pursue.....nothing else.

This is just my personal belief, I won't slam or degrade the folks who do enter hunting contests, different folks hunt for different reasons.

[DEERTRACKS]

Just me & the critters going extra innings is all of the competition I need.

[RoadKill]

Just more evidence that deer hunting getting to be more about the buck$ and less about the hunting.

[indianahick]

Personally I am against it. Deer hunting is a wonderful time to sit, reflect and relax. I am afraid that turning it into something similar to bassmasters is going to do the same thing to it as bassmasters has done to fishing. Try going out to a lake on the weekend for relaxing fishing, and have some clown come roaring by in his bass boat with its 250 horse motor as he runs and guns and it wake trys to swamp you. I also feel that those that do not join into this will end up with less places to be able to hunt due to the leasing up of area so that the competitors have a place to compete.

[racktracker]

I consider fun contests among friends quite differently from these money making schemes.

Prizes on here were random drawn, were'nt they?

[dbd870]

I consider fun contests among friends quite differently from these money making schemes.

I agree the fun contests are well......fun. The other - not interested.

[duff]

I agree with Camby 100%. This isn't new, bait shop/check in stations have been running these for years. Big buck, big doe with payout for the biggest. Difference is the amount of the bet. $5-$20 most people can afford and you don't here boo about it, $1000+ begins to limit the competitors significantly.

Each and every one of us participate in hunting for different reasons so good or bad who knows. I just know these compititions against other hunters are not why I hunt.

[Decatur]

I hunt because I love the thrill of the chase. I also eneter contests occasionally. Nothing big, just the ones on here, and at The Sportsman's Lodge in Decatur. Entering contests in no way affects the way I hunt or the game I harvest. I was in the deer contest on here, and a big buck contest at the Lodge. Do you know what I shot last year? A yearling doe. And was dang happy with it. So entering contests does not make one any less pure a hunter. It's just a way to enjoy the comraderie of the sport a little more. For the most part, hunting isn't a team sport, so the contests are just another way to share your hunt with frineds. IMHO

[duff]

To clear it up I wasn't implying that a hunter is anything less for participating, I simply said we all have different reasons why we hunt and just cause you do or you don't participate doesn't make you anything other then another hunter.

I say let the games begin, I just won't sign up for them. I have been called a "stick in the mud" several times for simular stuff.

[bsutravis]

Good question Woody.

Ummm, man...... this is a tough one. My mind is torn on this one. I guess if I am hunting/harvesting an animal anyway....and I can make a little something at the same time it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. Now, when you are entering big money entry fees and stuff for the sole purpose to make money, that tilts my opinion into the negative category. HOWEVER, I've often thought that it would be pretty cool to do that Predator Challenge contest they run on 'yotes that is publicized on here.

AHHH, I don't know what to think because really it's not that much different than a bass tourney...since there is definately some mortality involved in the catching and keeping of the bass till weigh-in. It just seems "different" when you are dealing with a large creature like a deer...versus a bass, or 'yote. I know it shouldn't....

I'm on the fence....and rarely do I sit on the fence! Somebody knock me to one side or the other, I'm listening!!!!

[Decatur]

Sorry if I offended you Duff. That wasn't my intention.

Travis, just make up another screen name, enter contests under the new name, and let BSUTravis be the champion of no hunting contests! You get the best of both worlds that way! ;d

[duff]

None taken, just didn't want my first response taken out of the intended message.