I don't know what other people's reason behind it is but where I hunt (NC), out of the 100-110 deer that I saw this season I only saw a total of 8 bucks. Only 1 buck was 3 1/2 yrs old or older the other 7 were 2 1/2 and younger. I hunted 28 times from the bow opener to the close of gun season(about 1/3 of what I wanted[:@]) so you can figure I averaged about 4 sightings per hunt. 7 of the 8 bucks were seen in Nov. What I want is to let these 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 yr olds walk to get bigger ( yes, I mean antler size because with age generally comes antler size)and take out more does to try and have a better rut. On the conservative side I would say some areas are 5 does to 1 buck, other areas it is worse. So yes, for me it is about shooting big does and bigger better bucks but the rest of the herd alsoprofits from this by the food plots, minerals, and so forth that are needed to help produce bigger bucks. My goal IS to have bigger bucks so I let most of them walk because simply put we don't have that many bucks[&:]