SW IA
I understand what you are saying about him not being around forever. It just pisses me off that he didn't even wait till the end of season. It was the first hunt of the year. In the past even if he was going to shoot a small one he would wait until later in the season to see if there was anything bigger around.

I think a lot of the small antlered bucks in the past were due to bad genetics. We use to usually see 1 large 120" buck a year and then all of the rest were the small racks I was speaking of. My father and I only used to hunt on weekend until last year. Our hunting land is 1 hour away from where we live and I played football throughout highschool and college so getting to the woods was difficult. The last 2 years I have been seeing bigger deer than ever before. I'm sure it's due to the fact that I'm in the woods more.

I know the land size is an issue. The 80 acres to the south is hunted by 2 guys that will only shoot bucks with antlers as wide as their ears. The 100 acres to the east we aren't sure about. The guys sold part of their land so they may not be able to hunt anymore. Between our property and the neighbors there is about 40 acres of thick swamp that is dang near un-huntable and another 20 acres to the north of me that is posted no hunting. This 60 acres is a great sanctuary that most of the deer bed in.

Robert. My neighbors may have shot that buck but that means there would be another that would be able to walk. Now that my dad shot this one the neighbors will have to take a different one. That means 2 dead as opposed to 1.