I have some mixed feeling about the state of deer hunting. Mostly is the best it's ever been in most of the US at least white tail deer. In my life time I've seen my state go from deer were mythical to one of the best white tail states in the country. That's good!!!! I too remember the days when a fellow would go deer hunting in the family station wagon toting a trusty 94 Winchester and have himself a nice cheap hunt and if he came in and said "I got an 8pt" the first thing out of some jerks mouth wasn't what did he score quickly followed by he'd have been a good one in another year or two. Like the fellow had stolen something from the speaker. Everybody of course wants to kill a big one but the trophy thing has gotten out of hand imho. I know several people that have multiple big deer hanging off their wall and one can't help but be a bit envious but inevitability you find all of them have made liberal use of corn feeders and or guided hunting where $$ buys you about any buck you desire. You also quickly realize that many have ,( to be blunt )neglected their family's to some degree spending every minute in the woods instead of at the ball field or you find their kids have never been on a vacation or traveled outside their county or state., and their wife has to attend a rocky man elk fund raiser to get a night out to dinner. Sure that's a value judgement on my part but that's ok ymmv but that's no different than judging a guy for shooting a 110 class buck . So yes iI like to get out in the woods and chase deer and when finally I got a big one I was really excited but I can't quite shake the memory of when I was a bout 8 and my dad and I accompanied a co worker of his on a deer scouting trip. We found a salt pile on a stump and the fellow we were with had a fit that a low life scoundrel would reduce himself to salting a deer. To this day I cringe a bit at the sight of corn feeders.
Shooting a promising young buck is counter productive for the future of the herd. If you just want to kill one, there are almost always trash bucks around... so you 've shot the 8 just to say you shot an 8 in my view. I don't care personally, but I'll not do it. Anymore. And I've neither an issue with folsk that have never shot an 8 before or a 10 etc... you should start at the bottom and move up. Its a natural progression of hunting.
the ONLY way our local deer improved both in quality and big time in quantity, was to make it illegal to shoot that yearling 8 point by antler restrictions. The first year the bitching was beyond nuts... but 10 plus years into this, IIRC, I'd be hard pressed to find someone here to complain that they legally can't shoot that 2-3 year old 8 point...
But at some point as stewards of the land and all thats there, we should have some responsibility, to the management of it for the best, for future generations.
I get as much joy now, if not more, from seeing all the deer at home, vs from the 90s on back, being lucky to see a single deer all year long. Now its rare not to see a deer or more every day...
And I can be very happy for the 110 inch buck for someone, and at the same time make the very true comment that he had some good genetics. OR Iv'e been taken to task for commenting the truth, congrats on a nice deer AND he was one that NEEDED to get out of the gene pool...>OMG you'd think I'd screwed someones sister....
YMMV
