Depends on the season for me. With archery gear anything is a trophy, I still try to fill my doe tag first and then try to get a buck. Archery season is long here so I can wait a while for a buck. Muzzleloader season I always take a full week to hunt, I hold out until the last day of that week and then shoot a doe if I have to...... basket bucks aren't an option for me anymore...... I've taken several from the public land I hunt and would just like to see one of them when they are older. Now that I pass on them I have missed oportunities on some bigger bucks...... wait too long to get a good look at head-gear and they take off. Its thick bush and things happen fast.
My hunting mentor (everybody should have one) is 25yrs older than me...... he would never think to ridicule me for taking a small buck. I met him at a butcher shop where he worked and I got a job..... he has tought me everything I know about cutting meat and almost everything I know about hunting too. "Fill the freezer first and then go for the wall hanger" or "shoot them in the neck..... so you waste as little meat as possible". I used to follow guidelines and shoot for heart/lungs even at the closest shots, that was for a few yrs when I told him I just need to do it this way until I get confidence......... last yr 4/6 of my deer taken were shot in the neck.
If you don't like the way your hunting buddies talk then tell them, they sound like my brother-in-law. Now I just ask him how many deer he has taken and how many arehanging from the wall...... big fat goose egg on both... and he knows to shut his yapper or he doesn't get any steaks from my fine eating specimens.