I don't know where I personally land in this discussion but I consider myself a fair hunter. I can most generally figure out and read deer sign to some extent and be successful at it. Being successful at it doesn't mean that I get to take a Booner or even a P&Y buck. Being successful at it means that I have deciphered the sign and the result has been sighting of deer and if lucky harvested one. The harvesting of a deer might mean a doe but the end result was a success. I love to harvest big bucks but it just doesn't happen all the time. I have been lucky enough to harvest several very nice bucks but I don't expect it all the time as I'm sure most of you don't. But for me to say that I would have to consistently take a Trophy animal every year to consider myself a good hunter is insane. I pass up alot of small bucks every year ,but I don't neccessarily think it makes me a better hunter over another. A hunter that does his homework on his hunting land and figures the patterns and travels of his deer resulting in his/hertaking one is tome a successful and good hunter. A GOOD HUNTER to me is not only measured by his or her ability to take a mature buck or pass a small one but the ethics and sportsmanship he or she possess. I know some local hunters that take a HUGE buck every year and lack the ethics or sportsmanship for me to consider them good hunters. They will and do anything and everything to live up to their Big Buck Hunter mentality even if it is illegal or immoral.

I'll leaveyou with this....I have a friend who holds himself very high on the WHITETAIL HUNTER totem pole. Hepreaches every year how he will not kill anything less than a 150'' deer. He has been fortunate enough tokill two very nice bucks in his 15 year hunting career one being a 130'' and the other a 150'' class buck. Since then hehas become a proat this whitetail hunting stuff. Hehas only killed6 bucks in his hunting. This year he been out hunting alot but has yet to connect on a big buck or even see one which is often times the case. He uses the excuse that he didn't get one this year because he didn't see oneBIG ENOUGH. Well that isjust what that is IMO"anexcuse". It is a crutch that he uses for hisinability to hunt and live up to his selfmade whitetail expertise. He will putdown my deer at times when I know if he were just presented the opportunity he would gladly take them.