Bow--great post! Just a little before the time you started holding out for trophies, I began holding out for mature 8 pointers. It was about the same time that my former "trophy area" received more pressure, got significantly smaller and had paintball battlefields and 4-wheeler trails built all over it by neighborhood kids. The trophies disappeared, but I continued to try. After years of no bucks big enough to shoot, I satisfy myself with does too (3 so far this year). I've passed up a suicidal 6 point under 10 yards on at least 3 occasions as well as many other small bucks, but I'm still refraining from shooting a youngster--even though other hunters are taking them. I don't condemn you for shooting them though--if I didn't have any meat, I'd shoot one too. And . . . you're not shooting at my deer anyway!

Today's small bucks are tomorrow's trophies.